Penn State Scandal Research Paper

In 1995, several years after he stepped down as the NCAA’s executive director of 36 years, Walter Byers published Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes. The title didn’t belie the book’s content. Among Byers’ confessions was the deception he sought in coining the well-worn phrase “student-athlete” to describe college athletes.

Their fellow sports personnel gets to indulge in this gargantuan amount of money made off them, while they do not even get a minuscule percent of it. According to Stanley Eitzen, in his article “College Athletes Should be Paid,” in the year 2000, some football coaches were paid a minimum of 1,000,000 dollars in compensation. Considering this staggering figure, it is almost impossible to fathom why athletes are not being compensated something, out of all the money they generate. As a result of this deprivation of financial support, some athletes end up violating school policies. There were reports of athletes who have accepted improper benefits from coaches, fans and “boosters.” According to Dan Wetzel, in his article “Chris Webber deserves apology from Michigan, NCAA for disassociation treatment,” Former Michigan State basketball player Chris Webber, accepted money from “team booster” Ed Martin which resulted in a “humiliating 10 year disassociation penalty.” There have even been instances when athletes sold their jerseys and championship rings. These incidents resulted in suspension and expulsion of student athletes and the firing of coaches. Most, if not all of these cases, could have been prevented if universities have stepped in, and provided the financial help their athletes needed.

Penn State spent millions maybe billions in lawsuits, not only defending the college but paid out to victims as well. They lost contributions from Alumni’s; the university lost advertising deals, the support of major companies such as General Motors. The football program was sanctioned and could not participate in some of their games.

If we were to slip up while on the job, that can reflect badly on the coaching staff and the athletes involved, so I take my job seriously. When I read the book, however, I was shocked at how Ridpath was treated for just doing his job. It seemed to me that the athletic department at Marshall had the same interests when it came to exploiting their athletes for money. According to Leopkey, people and groups within the organization can have different goals and as such will engage in conflict (2016b). They understand that sport is a multi-billion dollar industry, and they want to gain the most from it. Meanwhile, there was an ethical dilemma going on at Marshall because there were differences in morality based on the people involved. For example, Ridpath had to go think about his morals at Marshall. I feel like he used moral reasoning because he had to decide “whether a particular action is right or wrong, or whether we have a moral obligation to act in a particular manner towards others” (Leopkey, 2016a). In this case, the particular action was reporting the violations. It’s clear that Marshall did not have an established compliance system, especially since Ridpath stated that “I found out more stuff that was going on in my department out in the street than I did as an employee” (Ridpath, 2012). So

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.

While there is no documented first case of sexual assault at Boston University, it is clear that it was becoming a national problem by the 1970’s. As early as 1957 Eugene Kanin produced a study prompted by male aggression on university campus’s. In the study Kanin analyzed cases of one hundred and sixty two girls that felt they had been sexually abused on campus. Scholarly literature presented sexual assault on college campus’s by 1957 (Kamentz). In the 1960’s the violent crime rate skyrocketed across America. Women were the main recipients of the misconduct. It is likely that out of the thousands of students and women that attended BU at this time there were incidences of sexual assault. This became apparent nationally in 1972 when the government was called upon to change the law enforcement community (Sacco).

In 2011 the initial shock of the media and reports of the Sandusky scandal uncovering years of victims and allegations, left spectators in disbelief. The idea that this type of abuse went undetected from 1994 to 2009 seemed preposterous. The fact of the matter is that Sandusky was enabled to continue his abuse through high ranking school officials sweeping Sandusky’s behavior under the rug (Chappell, 2012).

Aside from the allegations of child sexual abuse, the revelation of a cover-up and who actually knew of Sandusky’s behavior appears to be just as shocking. Through independent and Grand Jury investigations, a small circle of the most powerful people at PSU knew, for almost a decade, of Sandusky’s behavior and chose not to take appropriate actions to protect children from a sexual predator and concealed Sandusky’s behavior from the University’s Board of Trustees, the community and

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 media had criticized the University for being so irresponsible. Many radio stations and newspapers harshly criticized the school for this scandal. Many people had criticized McQueary for not protecting the child that was being raped by Sandusky. The media criticized him for not protecting the child and reporting it to

The child sex abuse scandal overall is a public relations disaster that the university is likely to be dealing with for years to come. I definitely don’t believe this case was

Here the author provides a compelling and powerful argument for the ways in which leaders can intentionally bias their opinions and positions by willfully ignoring concrete data that would argue that they consider an alternate position to the one they have taken. Bazerman’s anecdotes here are taken from examining how Penn State and its venerated football program approached the sexual abuse perpetrated by Jerry Sandusky. The author argues that, at its core, the key leaders and decision makers were not willing to “see” or “consider” the blatant acts of abuse that were unfolding before their eyes because of a greater concern for the preservation of the university and the continued veneration of its football program and the reputation of the coach. Even though the data was visible for all to see, no one was willing to actually see it and report it. As Bazerman notes, “when we have a vested self‐interest in a situation, we have difficulty approaching the situation without bias, no matter how well‐calibrated we believe our moral compass to be” (p.

Collegiate football is not only a very lucrative and rapidly growing “business” but it also has a “tremendous impact on our culture, influencing the values of millions of participants and spectators”. Because of this, it is vey important to ensure that the NCAA ensure that all teams not only follow the rules and interpretations of the game, but also hold themselves to a higher standard with an established code of ethics. These days, there are concerns about moral

John Jay College Research Team. (2004). The nature and scope of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, DC: United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops.