[NU Sports] LA Times column worth reading

Thu Nov 17 09:17:41 CST 2011

I basicly agree with Jeff. It should be PSU's call how they want to show their "sorrow" for their errors and help the cause.

 Donate a percentage of the gate. Set up a chair for a program on child sex abuse.  Let them decide  now that they have let go the key people.  Hopefully they will take strong action. But why penalize the innocent if they don't have too. They would do more for reducing child sex abuse with those actions than cancelling a bowl game

Harry
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Beamsley, Jeff" <Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:09:01 
To: Jim Leonard<jleonard518 at yahoo.com>; Northwestern Wildcats<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] LA Times column worth reading

I don't agree that this was a "football comes first" attitude.

I think it was a "PSU come first" attitude.

You can still make the argument that the institution should take a stand to say that this attitude was the result of errors made at the highest levels.  Now that those leaders are gone, the institution must demonstrate that it DOES have the interests of the victims a heart.  The question is what it should do to indicate that they have turned over a new leaf and eradicated all vestiges of the "protect PSU at all costs" ethic?

I would suggest that they conduct a thorough policy review to make sure that policy is consistent with the institutions responsibility to respond in a timely manner to all reports of child abuse.  Then I would conduct a thorough review of internal practices to make sure that they all conform with updated (if necessary) policy.  It is possible that some additional firings could occur as a result of this review.  

Finally I would create an educational program to make sure that every PSU employee is equipped to recognize the tell-tale signs of child abuse. In general, this would come under the banner of making PSU the safest place on earth for children.

The whole issue of restitution and services for the victims is difficult because of liability concerns.  But if PSU could make investments without repercussion, I would also commit to becoming the world leader in services for children and adults who have been the victim of child abuse and seek funding to offer those services for free to all comers.

In my mind, these are the things that PSU should be working on and these are the things that the "outraged" public should be pressuring PSU to implement.  

All the talk about football is really missing the point and does little or nothing to address the real issues - how to prevent this from happening again AND what should be done to help the victims.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jim Leonard
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 9:49 AM
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] LA Times column worth reading

Harry,

I think your NU analogy misses the main point. Butz can publish whatever he wants and NU can stand behind that as a first amendment issue (which it is). In your scenario there is no cover up by university to protect football revenue.

From where I sit, Penn State officials did not take appropriate action to protect children because football came first. PSU has lost credibility as a university because they put football above human decency and the greater university ideals. I think declining a bowl game would be a gesture to say "we need to get our house in order, football can wait". They won't do it because money and SjT say they won't do it, but I think it's an option.

Declining a bowl game would unfairly punish the players (I still say ALL of the coaches knew). That happens in life. I am forever punished at the airport by having to remove my shoes because one a-hole failed in a bomb plot. Completely unfair to me, but it makes sense to everyone but me. 

Jim

________________________________
From: "hakirsch at aol.com" <hakirsch at aol.com>
To: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>; nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com; Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] LA Times column worth reading

I disagree with the LA Times article suggesting PSU just pull out of any bowl game they may have earned on the field due to sideshow it would create

While not completely analagous, suppose Arthur Butz' (an Electrical Engineering Professor at NU) book denying the Holocaust had come out this week with all of the subsequent protests on campus.  We would likely expect   protests and pickets in and around our bowl game site.  We would probably expect questions at press conferences about it. It would be a distraction.  Yes this example wasnt started by a former coach nor involve Pat Fitzgerald,but none of the people who apparently are morally guilty are part of the PSU team right now. They have been let go.(The Grad Assistant is on leave) Yet the article implies  it is the sideshow created by others that should derail PSU's participation not PSU's actions per se  

Harry
------Original Message------
From: Alan Abrahamson
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: [NU Sports] LA Times column worth reading
Sent: Nov 17, 2011 12:21 AM

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1117-dufresne-penn-state-20111117,0,1933841.column

CHRIS DUFRESNE / ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL
For everyone's sake, Penn State needs to say no to a bowl game The school
needs to concentrate on recovering from the child sex abuse scandal and not
burden bowl officials with an unwanted sideshow.
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