[NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

Tue Nov 8 11:10:38 CST 2011

Jim,

There is additional information coming out regarding the PSU President
Spanier.

He holds degrees (including one from NU) and is a professor of human
development and family studies, sociology, demography, and family and
community medicine.  According to his bio, he is a distinguished
researcher and scholar, has more than 100 scholarly publications,
including 10 books, and was the founding editor of the Journal of Family
Issues. He is also a family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and
family therapist.  So if anyone was familiar with the behavior of
pedophiles, the damage suffered by their victims, and the vigilance
communities must demonstrate to protect children from potential attack -
IT'S THIS GUY.    

He received a report on the 2002 incident.  Even if it said that this
was just some innocent grab ass rough housing in the shower, it was
between an adult man and a young boy.  Even a sanitized report should
have been all a trained professional like Spanier needed to pick up the
phone and call somebody, if nothing else than to make sure that there
wasn't more going on.  If he had conducted his own internal
investigation, it would probably have turned up the unreported 2000
incident that the janitors witnessed and the grand jury reported on.

I sincerely hope that there is more here to paint the whole institution
in a better light.  Otherwise this is very sad.

Jeff

From: Jim Leonard [mailto:jleonard518 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 11:44 AM
To: Bill Bender; Beamsley, Jeff; Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

I am not familiar with the NCAA regulations but I'm not sure this is a
death penalty/ sports issue. The NCAA should be focused on the players
going to class, not receiving money, etc. I could stand corrected, but I
don't see the NCAA getting deeply involved. 

There are two separate issues at hand. One is legal and as Jeff pointed
out the two fall guys have probably been identified. The other issue is
who shall be allowed to represent the school. When the alumni proudly
chant, "WE ARE....PENN STATE" what ARE they really all about? I think
the line has been blurred greatly in recent years but you don't need to
be in legal trouble to be fired. Penn State can send a message to Joe
Paterno that says "You may not go to jail, but you did not live up to
our standards and you no longer represent us."

I personally would like to see about 50,000 empty seats in Beaver
Stadium on Saturday. I'd like to see a message from PSU fans that "WE
ARE.....BETTER THAN THIS"

Jim

From: Bill Bender <bbds5951 at yahoo.com>
To: "Beamsley, Jeff" <Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>; Jim Leonard
<jleonard518 at yahoo.com>; Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

Another question is what the NCAA will do about this. It's by far the
worst scandal in the history of college football. 

Hard to argue that you have institutional control of your program when
your AD is facing criminal charges for covering up serial child rape.

I think they should get the death penalty.

BB

From: "Beamsley, Jeff" <Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>
To: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>; Northwestern Wildcats
<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

Clearly a complex situation because there is the legal question and
there is the moral question.

PSU appears to have covered themselves on the legal front.

There is the "he said/she said" discussion around what the Grad
Assistant saw and then said to JoePa, the AD, and the VP.  JoePa appears
to have followed PSU policy which was to immediately notify the AD.  The
AD followed policy to notify the VP.  The AD and VP are now positioned
to take the fall for the rest of the institution and the Grand Jury
appeared willing to accept that trade.

So if it was my job to protect the institution of Penn State, I would do
exactly what they are doing.  Limit the damage, cooperate with the
authorities, blame the fall guys for bad judgment, pay for their
defense, and hope that some dedicated alum will take care of them once
they've served their time.  

I would also have Joe's retirement agreement in my back pocket in case
this starts to reach beyond the existing indictments.  If it goes not
further than these two, I would allow Joe to gracefully announce his
retirement at a time in the not too distant future when it won't
resurrect the whole scandal.  

Finally, I would have to ask myself if this job is worth the moral
compromises that it has required me to make and might start to plan my
own retirement.  But that's just me.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Jim Leonard
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 10:44 AM
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: [NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

If you were the top person at Penn State (I assume it's a chancellor or
provost), what would you do today? 

Would you let Coach Paterno's staff finish the season?
Would you selectively let Joe Paterno and Mike McQueary go?
Would you clean house between now and Saturday?   

This is not an easy situation. I would imagine that the top brass are
hoping beyond hope that Tom Bradley can honestly say he knew nothing and
can take over the reigns for at least the rest of this season. Joe
Paterno may have a a thin veil of protection left, depending on what he
was told. However, if it were up to me Mike McQueary would never
represent the university again, starting today. 

Jim

PS - I have come to accept the fact that Ron Vanderlinden would never
leave Happy Valley for Evanston but I wonder if that may change during
the off season. 
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