Penn State Goings-On

[Rasputin]

this thing is like a modern greek tragedy (no pun intended) unfolding before us.

What a difference a year makes.

I took the following pics last year in happy valley on the night of joe pas 400th win; everyone was on top of the world....what a hard fast fall.


mr and mrs pa are on the left; spanner is speaking and curley is on the right:

[Rasputin]

joe pa and spanner

[Rasputin]

curley and spanner

[Rasputin]

curley and joe pa (the university presented joe pa with a freakishly expensive trophy to commemorate the event which trophy--to curley's discomfort--looked suspiciously like the national championship trophy)

[Rasputin]

The school probably needs a total do-over, including a new board.  Last night's riots make it clear that nobody gives a shit about anything but the football program, which IMO is not acceptable.  The mission of a university, ESPECIALLY a public university, is to educate people,  not win football games.  We have professional sports teams for that, for crying out loud!

Yep.  The Governor needs to replace the entire board who then need to clean out the entire upper administration, the University Police, and the athletic department.

what evidence is there that the board of trusteees knew anything before you and i did?

a board of trustees is a policy board and theoretically can only hire and fire the president and approve tuition rates; they have limited authority in terms of day to day operations

in theory the firing of joe pa may have been an ultra vires act

as best i can tell they did their job and may have even overstepped their legal authority once this matter came to their attention

[jimmy olsen]

The school probably needs a total do-over, including a new board.  Last night's riots make it clear that nobody gives a shit about anything but the football program, which IMO is not acceptable.  The mission of a university, ESPECIALLY a public university, is to educate people,  not win football games.  We have professional sports teams for that, for crying out loud!

That's not going to happen.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-sp-plaschke-paterno-fired-20111110,0,7383813,full.column

Several decades ago, former Oklahoma University president George Lynn Cross once told the Oklahoma senate, "I want a university the football team can be proud of."

[Valmy]

what evidence is there that the board of trusteees knew anything before you and i did?

The fact there were published articles about it months ago?

[Valmy]

Several decades ago, former Oklahoma University president George Lynn Cross once told the Oklahoma senate, "I want a university the football team can be proud of."

Um he was saying that to lobby for more money to develop the University.  Back in those days OU was a joke of a school who had a football team and little else.  They have done much better since then.  I do not see how that means OU thought the purpose of their school was to win football games, it seems to me to mean the opposite.

[Barrister]

Honestly guys - could you not imagine this very same thing happen at any of a number of "big time" football schools?  The culture of winning>>>>>everything else is pretty widespread.

[Rasputin]

what evidence is there that the board of trusteees knew anything before you and i did?

The fact there were published articles about it months ago?

that indicated an investigation was ongoing?

it's a fair point, but i can tell you having been a the legal advisor to a college board and to a university board of trustees that these guys are inundated with potentially scandalous bs and typically only meet once a month to go over big picture matters at a mile high level; internal investigations are squrely within management's ambit; these guys oversee the president; that's their role--he does a good job...give him a raise; he does a bad job fire him

if they had actual knowledge and ignored it i'd condemn them with you

if all we have to hang our hats on is that they ignored a scandalous column speculating on a scandal that's almost beyond belief, then i respectfully suggest that you're hysteria over the severity of the crime and likely cover up by management is clouding your judgment; had you read the article before hindsight proved its accuracy? i hadn't. I dont know whether they did either; these guys all have day jobs and are typically very succesful alumni who get these appointments as a form of political patronage

we ought not throw out our laws and our reason because of the severity of the crime

what happened was evil and i wish the death penalty was available for sandusky

someone i liked and respected may have been involved in helping cover up the crime for the sake ofpthinking he was protecting his alma mater from scandal; the law is properly seeking justice for this

i am not however prepared to convict everyone associated with the university before there is evidence of their individual wrong doing

[Barrister]

what evidence is there that the board of trusteees knew anything before you and i did?

The fact there were published articles about it months ago?

that indicated an investigation was ongoing?

it's a fair point, but i can tell you having been a the legal advisor to a college board and to a university board of trustees that these guys are inundated with bs and typically only meet once a month to go over big picture matters at a mile high level; internal investigations are squrely within management's ambit; these guys overse the president

if they had actual knowledge and ignored it i'd condemn them with you

if all we have to hang our hats on is that they ignored a scandalous column sppeculating on a scandal that's almost beyond belief, then i respectfully suggest that you're hysteria over the severity of the crime and likely cover up by management is clouding your judgment

we ought not throw out our laws and our reason because of the severity of the crime

what happened was evil and i wish the death penalty was available for sandusky

someone i liked and respected may have been involved in helping cover up the crime for the sake ofpthinking he was protecting his alma mater from scandal; the law is properly seeking justice for this

i am not however prepared to convict everyone associated with the university before there is evidence of their individual wrong doing

Since all the major players testified before the grand jury they sure as hell knew an investigation was ongoing and what it was about.  And, as Valmy said, there were articles published months ago outlining the basics of the allegations against Sandusky.

[jimmy olsen]

Honestly guys - could you not imagine this very same thing happen at any of a number of "big time" football schools?  The culture of winning>>>>>everything else is pretty widespread.

Paterno was not only one of the most powerful head coaches of all time, he was certainly the most respected. This made Penn state especially vulnerable to this kind of thing.

[Valmy]

Honestly guys - could you not imagine this very same thing happen at any of a number of "big time" football schools?  The culture of winning>>>>>everything else is pretty widespread.

Well we had our own scandal where one of Mack Brown's long term assistants (Cleve Bryant) was accused of sexual harrasment with an adult woman in the Athletic Department and he was suspended immediately and an investigation was launched and he was fired.  And the press was notified.  I would hope that would be standard OP at any major University and that was just for inappropriate behavior not for rape or anything approaching the severity of what happened at PSU.

However I get what you are saying.  And man everytime Texas starts losing there are always fans calling for unethical tactics to be used to get the team winning again.  It is really nuts as if the integrity of the University these people are often alums of is a distant second to winning football games.

[Rasputin]

what evidence is there that the board of trusteees knew anything before you and i did?

The fact there were published articles about it months ago?

that indicated an investigation was ongoing?

it's a fair point, but i can tell you having been a the legal advisor to a college board and to a university board of trustees that these guys are inundated with bs and typically only meet once a month to go over big picture matters at a mile high level; internal investigations are squrely within management's ambit; these guys overse the president

if they had actual knowledge and ignored it i'd condemn them with you

if all we have to hang our hats on is that they ignored a scandalous column sppeculating on a scandal that's almost beyond belief, then i respectfully suggest that you're hysteria over the severity of the crime and likely cover up by management is clouding your judgment

we ought not throw out our laws and our reason because of the severity of the crime

what happened was evil and i wish the death penalty was available for sandusky

someone i liked and respected may have been involved in helping cover up the crime for the sake ofpthinking he was protecting his alma mater from scandal; the law is properly seeking justice for this

i am not however prepared to convict everyone associated with the university before there is evidence of their individual wrong doing

Since all the major players testified before the grand jury they sure as hell knew an investigation was ongoing and what it was about.  And, as Valmy said, there were articles published months ago outlining the basics of the allegations against Sandusky.

i wont speak for pennsylvania but down here grand jury investigations are secret and its a crime to tell anyone of the nature of your testimony

[Razgovory]

I wonder how much he was paid.  The Coach at MU Gary Pinkel is paid something like two million a year, which makes him by far the highest paid state employee in Missouri.