The Effect of the Abuse Scandals at Penn State and Syracuse

There were many people involved with the improper payment of players at Southern Methodist University, but the biggest name was Bill Clements. Clements was the governor of Texas at the time of the scandal; he was also on the SMU board of trustees. He single handedly directed the pay-for-play scheme. Six SMU officials knew of the improper paying-Robert Stewart III, Edwin Cox Sr., Paul Corley, former Dallas Mayor Robert Folsom, Clements and Donald Shields, who resigned that year as SMU`s president. Sherwood Blount was the biggest name of all boosters of the program. Blount paid thirteen players over 61 thousand dollars from 1985 to 1986 in the form of a “slush” fund. The “slush” fund, as it was called, paid players

The members of the Duke Lacrosse team did not have much support from the faculty as the accusations were the headliners for many major media outlets.

Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach for the Nittany Lions, was indicted on 40 counts of child molestation. As the investigation continued, it was determined that Sandusky had used his charity organization, the Second Mile, to track down and sexually abuse young boys interested in playing football. This horrendous abuse is thought to of started as early as the 1970’s, the time period Sandusky was only held responsible for acts that took place during 1994-2009. It is obvious that a very dangerous cultural element existed at Penn State. This culture of devotion, minimal blame and self-preservation. This is what seemed to drive the behavior at Penn State University, leaders, staff and the surrounding community. Good, healthy, productive behaviors cannot exist in a culture that doesn’t support them. Therefore, if you accept bad decisions, such as the ones made by the leaders at Penn State your promoting bad

Chappell, B. (2012). Penn State Abuse Scandal: A Guide And Timeline. NPR.org. Retrieved 5 February 2017, from http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142111804/penn-state-abuse-scandal-a-guide-and-timeline

Taking risks because of a higher amount of optimism, not taking warnings seriously, and being accustomed to not arguing against views within the college all contributed to the Penn State Cover up. When officials had doubts or differing ideals from those of others at Penn State, they simply kept them to themselves by self-censorship. In fact, head coach Joe Paterno knew as far back as 1972 about his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky being involved in molestation allegations and never brought allegations to light ("Penn State Scandal Fast Facts - CNN.com," 2016). The Clergy act requires college universities to report crimes on campus and the Department of Education fined Penn State several million dollars for not reporting misconduct on campus citing that they disregarded multiple reports of sexual abuse of a child and therefore helped a long time sexual predator. Unfortunately, the culture in the college football world puts the highest priority on the game. This lead to major collective rationalization,

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.

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

Cheating scandals in collegiate athletics have been happening since the beginning of the NCAA, ranging from paying players to play, recruiting violations and other cases of academic cheating. One of the greatest scandals of all time was when the Southern Methodist University football team was sentenced to the athletic program’s “death penalty” (termination of the program) for paying athletes to play football for their school (Ribock, 2012). Louisville’s case of recruiting violations has been the most recent. The Cardinals (Louisville) were found to have had athlete-held parties with drugs, alcohol and strippers that were paid over $10,000 in the time period of 2010 to 2014 by former Assistant Coach Andre McGee, who left after the case opened in 2014. These outrageous parties were held to persuade the new basketball recruits to attend their school. This case came to a close in

After retirement, Sandusky was still active in “The Second Mile” and used the school's facilities for meetings and activities. There, he was seen allegedly sexually assaulting two different boys in two separate incidents in 2000 and 2002. An investigation was initiated by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office into sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky in 2008. The investigation reached a new level of urgency when it became apparent that the allegations were not an isolated set of incidents, but that Sandusky had a strategy to abuse vulnerable boys. In 2011, Sandusky became infamous for allegedly committing numerous sexual offenses involving young boys. In October 2012, he was found guilty of 40 counts of sex crimes and sentenced to serve 30 to 60 years in prison, at his age, effectively a life

underhanded activities that occur pervasively throughout the three collegiate divisions. Some such scandals have included the child sex charges brought against the Pennsylvania State University and overall academic misconduct amongst member colleges and universities. This is exactly where the current NCAA president, Mark Emmert is directing his focus: a return to a conservative adherence to the original mission statement, a strict disciplinary strategy against institutional scandals, and an overall modernization of the association. Emmett plans to emphasize leadership of the NCAA in order shift the association away from its capitalistic tendencies (bookshelf.vitalsource.com).

The NCAA makes it clear that the main purpose of the student-athletes is to get an education. This is true especially in the NCAA Division two philosophy where it states, “Promoting the academic success of its student-athletes, measured in part by an institution’s student-athletes graduating at least at the same rate as the institution’s student body” (Division II Philosophy Statement). It also states that coaches will be responsible for the actions of their student-athletes. I think this is something that the coaches and athletic staff at Binghamton forgot, because they were too wrapped up in becoming a Division 1 school that they their ethics and values in the

Graham Spanier at the time was the president of Penn State University. He was forced to resign following the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. Tim Curley was the athletic director for Penn State and Gary Schultz was the Vice President. After it was revealed that they failed to report the incident to authorities, both of these men were fired by the board.

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 were additional charges and consequences for others involved in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse cover-up (Scolforo, 2017). The former president, Graham Spanier, was found guilty on the charge of child endangerment for his role in the cover-up. A jury decided in March 2017, due to Graham Spanier’s knowledge and position within the university he should have reported the allegation to the authorities and failed to do so. The email correspondences presented in court as evidence of his knowledge were incriminating, one email acknowledged their responsibility to report the incident (Thompson, 2017). A short time following the conviction an appeal was filed to reverse the decision or request a new trial, the appeal was denied in September 2017. The two other staff members involved, former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley, both plead guilty to the same charge earlier in 2017.

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