Harman: When will universities learn?
Penn State University President Graham Spanier.
Now here comes Penn State’s Graham Spanier and finds himself in an infinitely worse situation. Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the architect of the PSU defenses that produced all-pro linebackers and who for many years was thought to be the obvious successor to Joe Paterno, was indicted on multiple counts of sexually assaulting boys over a 15-year period. In addition Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business, were indicted for perjury and failing in their duty to notify law enforcement officials of allegations of child abuse within their knowledge.
Following the indictments Spanier predicted the two administrators would be exonerated and said, “I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee.”
Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s standard operating procedure at universities with big-time athletic programs. Remember when Iowa men’s basketball coach Steve Alford pronounced Pierre Pierce “innocent,” of one of his transgressions? Alford is not a lawyer, so perhaps he can be excused for using a loaded word in connection with an alleged sexual assault committed by his best player, but he cannot be excused for injecting himself into a serious criminal matter that involved two university students. Proof that the university hadn’t learned from the Pierce debacle came about just a few years later when two football players were accused of assaulting a female student athlete in a dorm. The treatment she received by the university and the judicial system only served to victimize her all over again.
Spanier, as the president of a public, land-grant institution, has no business casting aspersions on the grand jury process and the testimony of many witnesses by almost dismissively asserting his administrators’ innocence. Spanier was apparently willing to let Curley continue in his position, but after an emergency meeting Sunday night of the PSU Board of Trustees the athletic director was put on administrative leave.
This is a sad, tragic situation that could have been avoided, apparently, if those who knew of Sandusky’s proclivities had taken some responsibility for what they knew in the 1990s before he retired from the coaching staff.
One of the alleged assaults took place in the Penn State football complex (Sandusky still had the run of the place after his retirement) and was witnessed by a grad assistant who reported it to Paterno, who in turn reported it to Curley. The indictment indicates that not only was nothing done but that Curley lied to the grand jury about what the grad assistant told him.
There is the tragedy of the young victims, if indeed the indictments are true. There is the human tragedy of Sandusky, 67, a man revered by PSU alums and fans and whose legacy is now of the kind of shame that could tarnish even the way Paterno is remembered.
But there is a continuing tragedy of the powerful turning a blind eye and a deaf ear whenever anything happens that might besmirch the reputation of “the program” or the university. Universities are not so different from banks and Wall Street financial institutions or established churches in the way they wield power and influence. All too often, they are more than willing to use it to prop themselves up at the expense of common decency. What kind of people are we that we continually protect the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable, particularly at a university where young people come to develop values, pursue knowledge and search for truth.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
Well written and speaks straight to the point. Living here in Columbus, Ohio I can attest to a university selling itself out to money and doing whatever they can to guard the sacred cash cow of football. Ethics and in this sordid case the protection of innocent children was thrown under the bus.
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Sounds a little bit like that institution known as the Catholic church, doesn’t it?
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Scotthawki: Always some evangelical wanting to slam another religion. Every religion has had its scandals…the Mormons with pedophile polygamists, others with preachers cheating on their wives with other men…and so on. It’s best to leave it out of these posts.
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This is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard. How anyone can defend Paterno or the current wide receivers coach, McQreary (Not sure of this spelling). These men should be fired today. This guy see’s with his own eyes a 10 year old boy being raped in the shower of the Penn State Locker room by Sandusky and he does nothing? Nothing? He does not help the boy, but instead runs out and tells his own daddy what he just saw. They go to Jo Pa and he again, just passes the buck? These men are cowards and should be ashamed of themselves. How can any human being witness this and just walk away? Unbelievable.
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Joe Pa may not have acted against the law by simply reporting what he had heard to his higher-ups, but if he had any inkling that the incident was true, he was morally wrong not going to the cops. If anybody had the clout to stop all this, with his revered name in the world of sports, it was Joe Pa.
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Great last paragraph!
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A beautifully written editorial.
I would have only added a bit more about the victims. It’s all about them.
When an employee rapes children on the worksite, and the employer discovers it, the worst possible response is to let the criminal go on his way and cover it all up. The crimes will continue, and there will be more victims.
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We don’t know the extent of their guilt, only what we’ve been reading. But if there was a cover up of sexual offenses against minors, and if that story was true about what somebody reported to them about the incident in the locker room shower, these guys should go to jail with the offender and have the cell right next to him.
IF Sandusky is convicted, and if these officials kept quiet and let him keep raping young kids, then they should get the same sentence that he gets.
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Susan Harman has done an excellent bit of reporting, analysis, and writing with this piece. The implications, of course, as she acknowledges, go far beyond the institution of college football. For my own extended analysis see,
“College Football Scandals Larger Lessons,”
http://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2011/11/college-football-scandals-larger.html
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Susan Harmon wrote the best and most telling indictment of the insular and corrupt nature of corporate culture on major university campuses the P-C has ever published. I wish it were as simple as a problem limited to one department, here athletics. but she makes the point, as well.Is there nothing that won’t be swept under the rug? Not even hurting our own students (Hillcrest) and children (Penn State)?
Is there no justice?
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Without defending the guys in the Iowa dorm incident, it was found in court that the girl might have also been the aggressor, so I’ll leave it at that and tell Susan Harmon to use analogies that measure up to what Sandusky has alleged to have done. She says the University treated the girl like dirt, but I don’t see evidence that they did, after what came out in the trial and testimony given.
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The writer makes a lot of good points. I think that where there is this much smoke, there has to be fire. Sandusky still deserves his day in court, although I tend to suspect he did these things if the evidence is as overwhelming as it seems. Still, I question Susan Harmon bringing up how, for example, Alford wasn’t a lawyer but declared Pierce “not guilty” (courts do not find defendants “innocent,” they find them guilty or not guilty. Innocence is presumed until guilt is proven). If she is also not an attorney, is she qualified to declare Sandusky guilty as charged?
She’s likely right, but my point is that her comment about Alford is the pot calling the kettle black.
Yes, from what I heard, this guy probably did all this stuff, and that’s sickening. If he did, he needs to be locked up and the key should be thrown away, but I’ll let the courts and a jury of his peers decide all that–unless he pleads guilty and avoids a trial.
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Conspicuous by his absense is that PSU fan, the Hawk-hating, low-rent creep who comes down on Hawk players and calls them “thugs” when they get arrested for underage drinking, etc. Joe somebody, Foggoluchi or who cares what his name is. He even made lousy, inappropriate comments about Podolak when Ed had been hit by a car in Arizona last year.
So Joe, Mr. Clean, why aren’t you in here defending your beloved program. You can dish it out but you can’t take it, you little insignifican worm. So Sandusky was celebrated for his defensive skills but longed to be the “tight end” coach? I can’t wait till you post again, because I know you’re reading these posts.
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Was that a question or a statement with the last line?
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If anyone cares to read the full indictment, here is the link:
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/11/07/sandusky_grand_jury_presentment.pdf
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Wow. Readers be warned — that indictment of Sandusky is not family-time reading. It has explicit descriptions of rapes of boys.
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