Penn State students: How do you feel now about Paterno and the rest? (State College: lawyers, law school)

[TootsieWootsie]

Now that the guilty verdict is in about Sandusky, I am wondering how the general population of Penn State feels about Paterno and the rest of the faculty not doing anything--other than note keeping--about Sandusky NOW? Have the students finally realized that none of the faculty that was aware of Sandusky's mal intended deeds were cowardly and totally selfish by not reporting him?

[TootsieWootsie]

What? All the students on this board are afraid to answer this? Amazing considering all the damage the students did over this entire event....

[pcity]

Why would you expect Penn State students to be on this forum? I've never seen anyone identifying as a PSU student posting here.

Plenty of alums I'm sure, but not students.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

Now that the guilty verdict is in about Sandusky, I am wondering how the general population of Penn State feels about Paterno and the rest of the faculty not doing anything--other than note keeping--about Sandusky NOW? Have the students finally realized that none of the faculty that was aware of Sandusky's mal intended deeds were cowardly and totally selfish by not reporting him?

What do the faculty have to do with anything in athletics? This seems like a sad attempt at inciting an argument.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

What? All the students on this board are afraid to answer this? Amazing considering all the damage the students did over this entire event....

Penn Staters are (understandably) sick and tired of being put on the spot. I'm not a Penn State alum, but a lot of my friends are, and their eyes and ears have long since glazed over in response to being bombarded with questions about the scandal. Most of them are rightully angry at both Sandusky and JoePa--not just because what they did was unequivocally wrong, but also because the entire Penn State name has been tarnished as a result.

Some people have taken to attacking unaware/involved Penn State students and faculty, as if they should share in the collective guilt that squarely belongs to a relatively small number of University administrators and faculty. There are a lot of Penn Staters at my law school, and my torts professor took to grilling the alums in my class--this was well past a friendly and appropriate discussion relating to civil assault/battery.

[Dreamshot]

I am a young professional who has recently relocated to State College for work. I have no 'before' to compare to the 'after' because I have only lived here since Sandusky's actions were revealed. The town is rather quiet now as it is summertime, but I have gathered some opinions from the locals. A lot are tired of hearing about it at this point and wish for Penn State to rebound on the whole, but are aware that this is unlikely. It will take many (many) years for the bad vibes that were left behind to be lifted from the area. Admissions will suffer as a result. The region will continue to be plagued by the same issue as Sandusky is set to appeal...Not the best time to move to Centre County, needless to say.

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Penn Staters are (understandably) sick and tired of being put on the spot. I'm not a Penn State alum, but a lot of my friends are, and their eyes and ears have long since glazed over in response to being bombarded with questions about the scandal. Most of them are rightully angry at both Sandusky and JoePa--not just because what they did was unequivocally wrong, but also because the entire Penn State name has been tarnished as a result.

Some people have taken to attacking unaware/involved Penn State students and faculty, as if they should share in the collective guilt that squarely belongs to a relatively small number of University administrators and faculty. There are a lot of Penn Staters at my law school, and my torts professor took to grilling the alums in my class--this was well past a friendly and appropriate discussion relating to civil assault/battery.

Generally, my PSU facebook friends have defended Joe and hated Sandusky. I assume that is representative.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by blazerj

Generally, my PSU facebook friends have defended Joe and hated Sandusky. I assume that is representative.

The smarter ones hold JoePa accountable for his share of the blame as well.

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

The smarter ones hold JoePa accountable for his share of the blame as well.

The smartest ones also realize Joe Paterno was way down the list of people deserving blame in this mess. They also realize it would have been difficult to take action against Jerry Sandusky solely based on the 2001/2002 shower incident that Mike McQueary witnessed and told Paterno about, mainly because McQueary did not know who the victim was (and in fact, we still don't know who that person was to this day), so any accusations against Sandusky based on that incident in and of itself would have resulted in a "he said, he said" situation between Sandusky and McQueary that wouldn't have resolved anything. (This isn't to say Paterno - and for that matter McQueary and others at Penn State - shouldn't have tried to do more; rather it is to say that even if they followed up, they probably wouldn't have been able to do much about it because the victim's identity was unknown. Even if you take action to ban Sandusky from the PSU campus after the incident, you probably have a hard time justifying the ban if say Sandusky sues the university to allow him access after access was taken away due to an unprovable reason.)

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

What? All the students on this board are afraid to answer this? Amazing considering all the damage the students did over this entire event....

What damage? (other than one TV news van attcked by a small minority of hot-heads?) The so-called "riot" (small potatoes when compared with the OWS outrage) was, like everything else, blown out of proportion by media more interested in perceptions than in the facts themselves. At the vigils, and at Coach Paterno's funeral, virtually everyone behaved with dignity and respect.

And last week, a Centre County jury showed the world that the most of the PSU community, unlike some of the cowards on the PSU Board of Trustees, are quite capable of airing out our own dirty linen.

The damage to the football program (and to the vast majority of participants who, over the years have acquitted themselves honorably) aside for the moment, Penn State will recover -- no thanks to the sensationalist media and similar vultures.