People in the US who follow the news have certainly heard about the ongoing scandal involving Pennsylvania State University (called "Penn State" for short). For those who for whatever reason have not, briefly it involves allegations of child abuse by Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, and allegations of a cover-up of those actions by university officials including the well-loved (and very successful) Head Football Coach, Joe Paterno (who has died since this scandal first broke). It's a bit like the priest child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church where, similarly, it's alleged that bishops knew about the actions of priests and ignored the problem or merely transferred the priests. The similarity lies both in the abuse and in the charges of inaction or improper action on the part of higher-ups.
I happen to be an alumnus of Penn State. Even though I may feel a limited connection with Penn State—for one thing, I have degrees from two other schools so my alma mater loyalties are sort of divided up—still, I have to feel affected by this whole mess. Who would want the name of their alma mater to be synonymous with scandal, shame, and disgrace?
I think that, if I were still in the job market, I might even consider lying on my resume about what college I had attended. Meanwhile I find myself sort of wishing that the whole thing would blow over but it will not; the news involving Penn State just goes on and on, with the latest being sanctions--monetary and otherwise--against the school and its football program by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). I am sure that many football fans as well as those sympathetic to Penn State consider the sanctions excessive or undeserved.
One result of all this I might not mind: At Penn State, as at many American colleges, there is too much emphasis on football, and having winning sports teams sometimes seems like a higher priority than education of the students. Maybe in the new environment, as forced on Penn State by the NCAA, emphases and priorities will return to what they ought to be and football will revert to being a secondary purpose of the school.
Copyright © 2012 by Richard Stein
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When people ask me why I'm not a football fan, I reply that I went to Northwestern -- which takes perverse pride in its long tradition of losing football teams. NU has always been handicapped by its requirement that athletes actually study and earn degrees.
ReplyDeleteIf the Penn State scandal prompts other schools to restore balance to their sports programs, perhaps Northwestern can make it to the Rose Bowl more than once per century.