Penn State Follow Up!

I found a couple of recent stories about the Penn State cover up of Child rape very interesting and wanted to share:

1. The Penn State Board of Trustees are working desperately behind the scenes to control the message still. Also despite the child rape and cover up scandal, they are setting records in fundraising:

Four memos sent Nov. 14-18 and released to the AP this week describe the school’s scrambling response less than two weeks after former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child molestation charges. Two Penn State administrators also were charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to properly report suspected child abuse.

In the first memo, issued nine days after the charges were filed, new school President Rodney Erickson told the 47-member Board of Trustees that the public-relations teams of the university and the athletic department had met to “align our messages” and that he had received positive feedback after two network television interviews.

“This is another indication that we are taking control of the narrative of our story,” Erickson wrote.

The scandal led to the ouster of Graham Spanier, Erickson’s predecessor, and the firing of venerable football coach Joe Paterno, a decision by the trustees that triggered rioting in downtown State College and produced dozens of criminal charges.

A Nov. 18 note from Erickson also included an attachment with “talking points” for donors, including that the school had not changed its policy that gifts are not returned.

“The overwhelming majority of our leading donors have made public statements affirming their faith in the university and its future,” according to the university’s talking points. The document named a couple who gave $88 million to launch an NCAA ice hockey program, and another who endowed the position of head football coach.

Both the number of donors and number of gifts to Penn State increased in November, compared with the same month a year earlier. Total donations to Penn State were $3.1 million in November, compared to $1.1 million in November 2010, according to the university.

2. Penn Stat's football recruits are saying – "thanks but no thanks"!

“There aren’t any Penn State commits here, but there are some de-commits here from Penn State,” said Noor Davis, USA TODAY All-USA First-Team linebacker. “I didn’t want to go to a school that was amid NCAA allegations or controversy. I want to go and try and win a bowl game, a ring, all four years. So I don’t want to be punished for the mistakes of somebody before me. I wanted to go someplace where they wouldn’t do something like that and never have, so I wouldn’t have to deal with it.”

Donations up from alumni and recruits leaving – looks to me like the “jocks” are not the dumb ones in this story!

The one thing I do not understand about this story is why does Jim Boeheim get a pass?