Jerry Sandusky: The Penn State Case

The Sandusky scandal had a huge impact on Penn State, main reason Penn state officials covered it up for so long. Penn State officials didn’t want the disturbing news to damage Penn State impeccable reputation. Although they tried very hard to cover up this issue it was exposed.

“One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college” (Not Alone, 2014). In our class of twenty women that means that possibly five women have been sexually assaulted. Out of the five women that I stated could have been sexually assaulted they may have known the perpetrator and often will not report what has happened. According to the spring count of students completed by West Chester University, 9,211 of those students were females (“Headcount Enrollment”, 2014). If I go by the statistic mentioned earlier that one in five women is assaulted that would mean that 1,842 women have been sexually assaulted while enrolled at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Out of 1,842 possible assaults only four were reported last year. Two of which the victims knew prior to the assault. Rankin and Associates consulting conducted a Climate Assessment on West Chester University in September of 2010, a section of the results focused on sexual assault on students. According to the report seven people who reported a sexual assault to the university described their reactions to the universities response. Two students shared the way they felt the response was inappropriate or poor. One described that they felt the suspension for one semester was not an appropriate response to an admitted rape, that public safety lost the victims statement, judicial affairs painted the victim offender as innocent, and that the registrar protected the offender putting the victim in harm’s way and everyone

Everything was looking good for Joe Paterno and Penn State football as his football managing career rose with an overall record of 298-136-3 but in 2011, all that changed. Back in 2000 a janitor of Penn State witnessed Sandusky receiving oral sex from a young boy, the janitor reported what he saw to co-workers and his supervisor but none of these men reported these actions to authorities. It wasn’t until November 5, 2011 that Sandusky was arrested on a $100,000 bail and up to 40 criminal counts. ESPN were quickly in the scene to investigate and report the allegations on Sandusky. They quickly reported saying Sandusky was charged with more than 50 counts of child sex-abuse involving 10 boys he met through The Second

Since collegiate athletics have begun, there have been all kinds of cheating scandals involving the big-time college sports. College sports today are filled with preventable, scandalous acts made by college coaches and administrators. An example of this would be the case of fake “paper classes” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill. I personally believe that the NCAA should not have imposed any sanctions or allegations amongst the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for academic integrity violations, threatening to take away titles, and making athletes ineligible to compete.

The school officials that contributed to covering up the Sandusky scandal were: Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, senior vice president for finance and business including overseeing the university police Gary Schultz, Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno and university president, Graham Spanier. All four of the elite university officials became informed of Sandusky’s sexual misconduct by a graduate assistant Mike McQueary who later became assistant coach to Paterno (Chappell, 2012). After Sandusky’s sexual misconduct was officially brought to the attention of these key officials the solution was to basically punish Sandusky by telling him he is no longer allowed to shower with the boys on campus facilities. The core group

“The Freeh Report” alleged that Penn State officials, including that Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier (Spanier), covered up Sandusky’s crimes (Ganim, 2013). Furthermore, that evidence resulting evidence revealed Spanier, Gary Schultz (Schultz), Joe Paterno (Paterno), and Tim Curley (Curley), repetitively concealed critical facts related to Sandusky’s child abuse from multiple authoritative, community, and general public figures (Ganim, 2013). In addition, it was reported that Cynthia Baldwin, the in-house counsel for Penn State, minimized the seriousness of the Sandusky investigation when she briefed the trustees (Ganim, 2013).

Another boy was interrogated by Shreffler who reported similar treatment reported by the 6th Victim. But the investigation ends after District Attorney Ray Gricar decided the case warranted no criminal charges. Shreffler reported to the grand jury that Thomas Harmon, who headed the campus police, told him to close the inquiry. Subsequent investigative reported that Sandusky retired from Penn State's football program in the year 1999, but with an "emeritus" label that allowed him continued access to campus facilities, including the locker room and an office in the latch football

The FBI had stated that after conducting an investigation that these senior officials had known about Sandusky’s actions as early as 1998 and had failed to disclose this information to authorities. On October 9, 2012, Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. Spanier, Curley, and Schultz have been charged with grand jury perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and child endangerment in association with the scandal. Paterno and McQueary never had any charges pressed on them because they did what they were obligated to do. McQueary had reported the incident to his superior which is Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno also reported the incident to his superior who is Curley and Schultz. This whole situation caused a huge reaction nationwide.

However, I would have to agree with the first half and say that Joe Paterno’s actions were inadequate. Although Joe Paterno reported what he saw to the Penn State president his responsibility shouldn’t have ended there. Yes, he fulfilled his obligation to report any illegal actions on campus but when the Penn State President chose not to take legal action Paterno should have made the moral decision and had gone to the authorities. Legally, he fulfilled his obligation and therefore no longer holds any responsibility in the eyes of the legal system. In the eyes of morality though, his responsibility in the matter was not over just because he reported it to who he was supposed to. This major problem should have been dealt with a long time ago. It’s just a moral obligation that Joe Paterno should have acted upon. So yes I feel he deserved to be fired. Everyone who knew about it should have reported it to legal authorities. His great athletic achievements and mutual respect should have pushed towards the issue being resolved and not swept under the rug for it to come out years after and now resulting in him being fired. Every action has a reaction and in this case the reaction is due to Paternos lack of action.

There are many issues with today’s college football system. The NCAA is a multi-billion dollar industry, and that is part of the reason why the system is so corrupt. The NCAA makes many of their decisions based off of personal gain and are partly to blame for the predictability of College Football in the last few years. Recently in the media, these issues have been dissected and addressed from many different views. Issues including, star players sitting out of bowl games, coaches leaving early and serious injuries such as concussions.

First, as Penn State’s crisis management consultant, my first order of business would be to have the university make a public apology. I would make sure there was a separation between the university and Sandusky. I would make sure that the public knew that it was Sandusky’s crime and not Penn State’s crime. However, I would have terminated Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno and made it public that I intended to make sure they were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In addition, I would have reached out to the victims to establish communication with them, apologize and make sure that the university had no idea what was going on and that the people responsible were terminated. Additionally, there would be no delayed responses, as

As I sit back and consider the Penn State Sandusky scandal, I discovered that pretty much every function for the organization changed. When it comes to management, they have to be held accountable for their actions. They also have to communicate more and better to ensure another incident such as the Sandusky sex scandal happens again. As for human resources, they have to ensure they are holding internal stakeholders accountable for their actions or non actions. For Penn State, things can no longer be swept under the rug which is where the media comes in. Penn State’s public relations will have to increase and keep their community, internal and external ahead of the negative press that could arise. As for the marketing, recruiters would have

In Case 7 “Perceptions of Leaders Following Public Failures: A Tale of Two Coaches”, two leaders both college football coaches of their respective teams were encountered with scrutiny, as they lacked a certain level sensitivity regarding serious incidents within their program. The case study talks about both Mike Leach and Gary Barnett’s background as coaches and progress to the events with their program that lead to them being involved in the public failure. This eventually led to people having various perceptions of both coaches based off of how they dealt with the incidents. As a result of both programs image being tarnished, Mike Leach was fired, however; Gary Barnett’s job was retained.

The criticism will have to be based on a school by school basis. I specifically know of a situation where my favorite football team, Notre Dame, had suspended their quarter back for violation of the honor code by cheating on a test, when it was most critical to keep him playing when Notre Dame was ranked #1 and going to the National Championships in 2012 who eventually were beaten for the title by Alabama. Notre Dame has a very strong honor code and strictly adheres to the code of ethics. Is it because the university is a Catholic school?? The university itself contacted the NCAA about the academic dishonesty of four of their players which resulted in the suspension of Everett Golson (QB). “The University is committed to thorough resolution of this matter, consistent with its commitment to academic integrity and adherence to NCAA rules," Father Jenkins said. In this case, it looks as though Notre Dame is based more on ethical values than that of the NCAA. Although they NCAA does have rules, regulations and punishments in place, they do not seem to attack ethical values head on than being more in

A few years ago, there was much discussion relating to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and those units responsible for instituting student-athlete and athletic department policy. This purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical misconduct that occurred at Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Arkansas, and how the NCAA played a role in the wrongdoing. Coaches, players, and administrators face mounting pressures brought on by the need to sell seats and win games. In response, this type of pressure creates opportunities for offenses to take place. The first component of the paper will be to determine the fundamental ways in which the ethics programs of the NCAA failed to prevent the scandals at Penn State, Ohio State, and the University of Arkansas. Once those measures are identified and discussed, the ways the NCAA leadership contributed to the ethical violations of these schools will be discussed. The next element of the paper will predict the key differences in the scandals that occurred at each school if an effective ethics program was implemented. Next, the paper will suggest actions that the NCAA leadership should take to regain the trust and confidence of the students and stakeholders. The last section will identify measures that HR departments of