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</p>
<p>I think that this is the philosophy of many foot ball programs. And I don’t necessarily disagree, as long as the football program imposed punishment of the offending player is as strong, or stronger than the punishment that the school would normally impose.</p>
<p>Vlines, no the Paterno treatment of football players was not as strong as the general PSU policies.</p>
<p>[Ex-PSU</a> official saw Paterno’s ‘dark side’ ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2011-11-22/11-22-11-Paterno-Discipline/51346682/1]Ex-PSU”>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2011-11-22/11-22-11-Paterno-Discipline/51346682/1)</p>
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</p>
<p>No, this is just part of the JoePa mythology. Penn State football’s graduation success rate (GSR) is certainly better than average among FBS schools, but a fair number of schools do better. Here’s one recent ranking based on 2010 NCAA GSR data, I believe for the period beginning in 2004:</p>
<ol>
<li>Notre Dame 97%</li>
<li>Northwestern 95%</li>
<li>Duke 95%</li>
<li>Navy 92%</li>
<li>Rice 93%</li>
<li>Boston College 91%</li>
<li>Vanderbilt 89%</li>
<li>Rutgers 88%</li>
<li>Stanford 86% </li>
<li>Air Force 86%</li>
<li>Penn State 84%</li>
</ol>
<p>Source: Scout.com</p>
<p>So out of 120 FBS schools, Penn State is in the top decile, but at the bottom of the top decile, a full 13 percentage points behind the leader, and a distant second in its own conference, 11 points behind Big Ten leader Northwestern, just 13.6 points above the average for the Big Ten (70.4)–about as close to average as to the top. In other words, pretty good, but nowhere near as extraordinary as Penn State boosters like to think. </p>
<p>Nor was Penn State the only squeaky-clean program around. Annasdad’s slanders notwithstanding, there are actually quite a few FBS program that still have reputations as pristine as Penn State’s ever was. And after all we’ve seen in the Sandusky scandal, one has to wonder how much Penn State football’s squeaky-clean image was just a reflection of JoePa’s power to control information.</p>
<p>Penn State football was never as special or unique as the people in Happy Valley convinced themselves it was. They were always living in a bit of a la-la-land cult.</p>
<p>(Mailed to the parents of all incoming freshmen and returning upperclassmen, as well as those students themselves)</p>
<p>A MESSAGE FROM PENN STATE PRESIDENT RODNEY ERICKSON</p>
<p>Dear Penn State parents,</p>
<p>It is almost without question that the last eight months have been the most difficult time in Penn States history. The recent investigation conducted by Judge Louis Freeh―commissioned by the Board of Trustees and released last week―will help the current administration fully understand the leadership failures that took place at our University. The report is a sobering reminder that we must constantly align our policies, and actions, with the values of honesty and integrity. Though this report provides a level of clarity for our University, it does not undo the pain caused to the victims of Jerry Sandusky, and our hearts go out to them and their families.</p>
<p>The report lists 119 recommendations to ensure that we provide a safe community for living, learning and working. Penn State has already begun implementing many of the recommendations and will continue to do so. We will keep you updated on these actions at [Home</a> | Progress](<a href=“http://www.progress.psu.edu%5DHome”>http://www.progress.psu.edu).</p>
<p>As the media and public continue to focus on Jerry Sanduskys acts and the circumstances that allowed them to continue, many Penn State parents are understandably concerned about the Universitys identity and how this past years proceedings will affect their children. I would like to assure you that every faculty and staff member on campus is committed to ensuring that Penn State remains an exceptional institution of learning and an incredible place to spend ones formative college years.</p>
<p>This crisis has not and will not detract from the quality of education and research for which Penn State is known. There has been no faculty attrition as a result of the scandal. Applications are at an all-time high, and admissions numbers remain remarkably strong. The current fundraising campaign is running ahead of schedule, and this past years contributions were the second-highest theyve ever been. In meetings with top recruiters in the months after the scandal broke, company executives universally reiterated their strong support for Penn State grads and their understanding that certain disgraceful acts were not reflective of the quality of students. By bringing together outstanding professors and the best and brightest students, Penn State will continue to be a world-class academic institution.</p>
<p>I also want you to know that the University is doing all it can to help the Penn State students who have been strongly impacted on a personal level by these events. There are a number of resources available should your student need additional support at this time. Prior to, and since this tragedy unfolded, Student Affairs has offered support options through contacts in residence halls, professional counseling, and by facilitating individual conversations. In addition, the Counseling and Psychological Center on campus is open and available, including a 24-hour crisis hotline (1-800-643-5432). You can visit [Student</a> Affairs @ Penn State | Counseling & Psychological Services](<a href=“http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/]Student”>Counseling & Psychological Services | Penn State Student Affairs) to learn more about the resources available for our students.</p>
<p>I sincerely thank you for your support and for the support of your students as we continue to navigate this challenging time. You have my full commitmentas well as that of our faculty, staff, and boardthat Penn State will do everything in its power to continue to be one of the nations great universities. I hope that you will remain supportive, encouraging, and confident, as I am.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>President Rodney Erickson</p>
<p>You need to compare the graduation rates with powerhouse programs- not with Rice and Duke. Take a look at Ohio State, Tennessee (well, years past), Nebraska (past), Alabama etc.</p>
<p>Erickson needs to “counsel” those students camping out at paterno’s statue…</p>
<p>"“Squeaky clean” in terms of recruiting."</p>
<p>He used a pedophile, complete with child in tow, trafficking across state lines, to do his recruiting. I know of NO college or university - anywhere, ever - that had such a dirty record of recruiting.</p>
<p>Sportswriter Frank Deford for NPR:</p>
<p>Everyone knows that the key to winning as a big-time coach is keeping your players eligible. Some of that effort is legal, some not. Give the players tutors and gut courses, or even have someone write term papers for them. Get the campus police and the local cops to cooperate. Hey, boys will be boys. Overlook. Blind eye. Forgive them their trespasses as game day approaches. Keep them eligible.</p>
<p>Joe Paterno was a football coach all of his long, adult life. Like all coaches, after a while, keeping your players eligible is second nature.</p>
<p>When his old assistant was in trouble, that must’ve kicked in. Joe Paterno kept Jerry Sandusky eligible. If he has a legacy, that’s it.</p>
<p>
Actually, this is pretty easy to answer in context. Paterno told Sandusky that he wasn’t going to be head coach. His choice was to keep on working as a subordinate coach, or to take a retirement deal offered to 30-year Pennsylvania employees. Sandusky decided to take the buyout, but he had a series of requests to sweeten the deal, including more money, access to campus, and some kind of title. It’s not clear whose idea it was to make him an assistant professor emeritus, but Spanier apparently promised it to him. The rules allow the President to give it to somebody who doesn’t fit the normal criteria. Erickson obviously didn’t like the precedent, but since football is king, he complied.</p>
<p>The Freeh report suggests that the molestation allegations didn’t have anything to do with this deal. One has to wonder. But remember, the 1998 investigation ended up with no prosecution, so there was really no grounds to discipline or fire Sandusky based on that (if anybody had wanted to). So it could be true that the retirement deal was nothing more than a sweetheart deal to Sandusky to make it up to him for the fact that Paterno wouldn’t make him his successor. Without more, there’s no reason to assume that Erickson knew anything about Sandusky’s “problem”–what he did could easily be explained by the fact that the football program got whatever it wanted.</p>
<p>" I agree that he was wrong in protecting players from the university disciplinary process."</p>
<p>Remember that he didn’t choose to protect his Black players either, some of whom walked to their 2001 graduation wearing bulletproof vests.</p>
<p>"As I said earlier, communications from the university on the Sandusky affair are being very tightly controlled. You are not going to hear any opinions on this from anyone but the spokesmen for the BoT and President. "</p>
<p>“But it says nothing about revoking or terminating Emeritus status. That seems to be something they just didn’t contemplate.”</p>
<p>Oh, I’m sure they didn’t contemplate it. Hey, they didn’t contemplate giving it to him to begin with.</p>
<p>Nothing, and I mean NOTHING stops a tenured professor in the so-called College of Health and Human Development from standing up in her office and saying that she doesn’t think it proper that she should be sharing an academic title with that Professor Emeritus who may be sentenced to 442 years. Nothing stops the award-winning fencing coach from doing the same, or the professor of French. Or even the association of Penn State graduate students. There is nothing - ZERO - that the Board of Trustees or anyone else could do about it. There is nothing that stops a member of the Board of Trustees from doing so. And that was true months ago. </p>
<p>Forget academic integrity. There is none. How about some human dignity?</p>
<p>Regarding paterno discipline internally…how did that work and how would it be tougher then regular school disciplon</p>
<p>Why should football players be treated differently? Why should theror punishment be scheduled around games and practices? </p>
<p>Guess paterno needed to feel comfortable he knew all the facts and then he wouls handle discioling his players for a drunken brawl off campus. And he got someone; fired by threatening to withhold fundraising…again all about money</p>
<p>And yes he did use email to communicate</p>
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<p>No, I really don’t. There are only 120 FBS schools. Those I listed are tops in terms of grad rates. </p>
<p>And some of those with better grad rates have better football teams than Penn State. Stanford, for example, finished #7 in both major polls; Penn State finished unranked. It’s part of the Happy Valley delusion that Penn State is still considered a football “powerhouse.” It’s not. That 45-7 thrashing by Wisconsin, followed by a loss to Houston in a second-tier bowl game, tells me Penn State doesn’t belong in the same conversation with the likes of Alabama. </p>
<p>FWIW, though, Alabama (67%), Nebraska (68%), and Ohio State (63%) are all right around the average for all BCS schools, which is 67%. In Alabama’s and Nebraska’s cases, the football program actually had as high or higher grad rate than the university as a whole. Could it be higher? Sure. Did Penn State do better in this regard? Sure. But Penn State is not some extraordinary overachiever in this regard. It’s above average in graduating its football players. Just as its football teams are above average in an above-average football conference. B+ all around.</p>
<p>I don’t know what to make of the graduation rate of football players at PSU. I used to respect it. Now, I don’t know. I don’t know if the diplomas were earned. Of coure, I don’t know that they weren’t either, but it seems that Paterno had everyone at the school under his thumb. And the President’s statement doesn’t make me feel good that there is a new world at PSU that football won’t rule.</p>
<p>If paterno can force the school to allow only him to discipline his players when a drunken brawl leads to people ending up unconscious, and everyone is supposed to know youndont mess with paterno, how many profs can you see failing a football players, or givng a bad grade, accusing a player of cheat in or plagiarism? If a janitor feared getting fired for seeing a sexual assualt of a minor boy, and people have seen others fired, moved around 3et c if they question the football ethos, then I can see a prof going what the heck, so it’s a d paper, I’ll just give him a c…</p>
<p>That’s the world of paterno</p>
<p>I may be wrong but I always had the impression that there were many schools that “eased” the way for some of their athletes in getting a diploma. I think it’s wrong and devalues the diplomas of the athletes that truly earn a degree. Do you have proof that Penn State has done this or is this just an assumption?</p>
<p>" Penn State football’s graduation success rate (GSR) is certainly better than average among FBS schools, but a fair number of schools do better."</p>
<p>The metric is wrong. A much better metric is the comparison of graduation rates by race/ethnicity and socio-economic class with others of the same characteristics who are not football players at the same school.</p>
<p>And graduation isn’t everything either. There is much greater gain, economically speaking, from one year of college versus none, than from some college versus graduation.</p>
<p>(Never mind what some of those degrees represent. The NFL has found that there are many players they have - graduates - who enter the league with a 9th grade reading level or below. But hey, it’s a degree either way, and if it helps players get ahead in life after their sports careers are over, I’m all for it. )</p>
<p>Kvilleman, I do not have proof that PSU had different rules for diplomas for football players than the general student body. But if they had “different,” i.e., non-existent discliplenary rules for football players, why should one assume the academic rules were the same?</p>
<p>I realize graduatin is not everything, but when we say, well Paterno did all these great things, I am sceptical. He was the coach on a team that over the years won a lot of games.</p>
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<p>Right. And that’s exactly what he doesn’t want to say.</p>
<p>The people with tenure. The people who should have no fear. At UVa there were people willing to stand up and say this is not right. Do the right thing. I am waiting and praying that the Penn State faculty stars will say, we have a great school. We have a golden opportunity to change course. Football must no longer be king. We will do more than the law requires and less than the law allows. Starting today.</p>