How will the BOT respond to the Freeh Report recommendations?

[JaimeSommers]

Myers now complaining about the NCAA sanctions:

http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/01/3521291/penn-state-trustee-joel-myers.html

Nice comment under the article, J. J. What a maroon.

 

[Rlaub44]

This sounds to me like much ado about nothing, but there was a piece on the local news involving investigation into e-mails shared between the Sandusky prosecutors (Frank Fina was named) and members of the Freeh team.

Not sure why this is newsworthy, unless the belief is that Freeh was leaking his findings to the prosecution team, which I guess would be in contrast with the stated purpose of the Freeh Committee and why they were commissioned by Penn State?

http://www.wjactv.com/news/news/emails-raise-questions-about-freehs-team-sandusky-/nWn4h/

 

[J. J. in Phila]

This sounds to me like much ado about nothing, but there was a piece on the local news involving investigation into e-mails shared between the Sandusky prosecutors (Frank Fina was named) and members of the Freeh team.

Not sure why this is newsworthy, unless the belief is that Freeh was leaking his findings to the prosecution team, which I guess would be in contrast with the stated purpose of the Freeh Committee and why they were commissioned by Penn State?

http://www.wjactv.com/news/news/emails-raise-questions-about-freehs-team-sandusky-/nWn4h/

Freeh stated at the time that any information would be turned over to the AG's Office. I'm not seeing this as being wrong.

 

[Rlaub44]

Freeh stated at the time that any information would be turned over to the AG's Office. I'm not seeing this as being wrong.

I thought the same thing - in fact, I found this:

Freeh’s team found emails that the AG’s investigators couldn’t get. Freeh called those emails the “most important pieces of evidence in the case.”
Those emails and other correspondence, according to Freeh, helped the attorney general’s office correct the date of the infamous Mike McQueary incident from 2002 to 2001.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/analysis_fbi_director_louis_fr.html

So it was never suggested, that I can tell, that information gathered by Freeh wouldn't be shared. I'll keep an eye on where this story goes.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

The contract specifically gave Freeh the authority to report any evidence to law enforcement (p. 2).

http://onwardstate.com/2013/03/11/penn-state-releases-letter-of-engagement-with-freeh/

 

[HMSHood]

I could not help notice the similarities between Penn State and South Hadley. Jerry Sandusky and Kayla Narey, Flannery Mullins, Ashley Longe, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, Sean Mulveyhill, and Austin Renaud could of been stopped. A culture of complicity runs deep in both Penn State and South Hadley.

Phoebe Prince's death choronicled in new book that takes hard look at South Hadley
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/new_phoebe_prince_book_takes_h.html

 

[J. J. in Phila]

And Trustee Frazier has blasted the Paterno Report: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/14/3538896/penn-state-trustee-frazier-dismisses.html

 

[Reader]

Football lettermen confront Penn State trustees, challenge Freeh report

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/...tate-trustees.html#wgt=rcntnews#storylink=cpy



Lubrano suggests he is target of Penn State board of trustees reforms

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/...-he-is-target.html#wgt=rcntnews#storylink=cpy

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Editorial: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/16/3542255/our-view-penn-state-trustee-frazier.html#disqus_thread

Basically, they said he was right on the substance but wrong on the OJ Simpson comment.

 

[Reader]

And here is Frazier's apology to the BOT and Mr. Cluck:

Letter to the editor | Penn State trustee Frazier issues apology for comment

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/...nn-state.html#storylink=botprev#storylink=cpy

 

[Reader]

Penn State trustees testify to Senate committee on board composition

HARRISBURG — Penn State trustee James Broadhurst thinks the size of the university’s governing body is OK for now, and he supports a new provision that will provide a way to remove a rebel trustee.

But fellow trustee Anthony Lubrano thinks the opposite. A smaller board means a more engaged board, and the state should take action to reduce the size. Plus, he thinks the remove-the-trustee provision is aimed at him.

The opposing stances were voiced Monday, when Broadhurst and Lubrano testified before the Senate State Government Committee about the governance reforms the trustees are taking up in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Their testimonies underscored the divide that exists on the board over some of the recommendations from former Auditor General Jack Wagner and the ideologies for best practices in a post-Sandusky atmosphere.............

In taking the testimony, the senators said they wanted to discern whether the failures from the Sandusky scandal were because of the people involved or the way the governance was laid out............

Wagner’s successor, Eugene DePasquale, testified, too, and took a hard line on the status quo of the university. He said it would be a “big mistake” if Penn State officials were left to reform themselves.

He said trustees need to know their service is “not just some club anymore.” He also called the president’s powers a “recipe for disaster.”............

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/03/...#storylink=omni_popular#wgt=pop#storylink=cpy

 

[J. J. in Phila]

A list of the candidates that are running for the Board, with bios and statements:

http://www.psu.edu/trustees/vote/2013 Alumni Candidates/index.html

There are notably fewer with the "avenge Joe" platform, though still a number.

I have made a personal decision in favor of two.

 

[BigCat]

A list of the candidates that are running for the Board, with bios and statements:

http://www.psu.edu/trustees/vote/2013 Alumni Candidates/index.html

There are notably fewer with the "avenge Joe" platform, though still a number.

I have made a personal decision in favor of two.

I'm guessing most of those running on the "avenge Joe" platform are either independently wealthy or retired. No working professional would risk looking like a flake.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I'm guessing most of those running on the "avenge Joe" platform are either independently wealthy or retired. No working professional would risk looking like a flake.

Some of them were recent graduates. I just had an active professional, insist that Paterno didn't really mean it when he testified that McQueary told him that what he said was sexual. It is a variety, much like a can of assorted nuts.

This is not increasing the value of my degree!

 

[BigCat]

Some of them were recent graduates. I just had an active professional, insist that Paterno didn't really mean it when he testified that McQueary told him that what he said was sexual. It is a variety, much like a can of assorted nuts.

This is not increasing the value of my degree!

:floorlaugh: I've read several variations of that theory on PSU football boards. I usually ask the poster why he is so angry at the way Paterno was treated, if he believes Paterno committed perjury. That is certainly a justification for dismissal. It's also a criminal offense, which means Paterno got off easy since he was never charged with a crime.

 

[Twindad]

I'm guessing most of those running on the "avenge Joe" platform are either independently wealthy or retired. No working professional would risk looking like a flake.

Unless your already on the board! :what:

 

[Reader]

Two years later, Penn State can't shake the Jerry Sandusky fight

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/03/two_years_later_penn_state_sti.html

Two years after the first public report of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse investigation, it appears that Penn State has been divided into two distinct camps.

Essentially, one group says a very bad thing happened on our campus, and whoever you hold responsible for it, collectively we didn’t see it or stop it, and we need to own that and make sure it never happens again.

The other camp sees it differently.

What Jerry Sandusky did was terrible, they agree. But what university leaders did in reaction to the scandal - tearing down much of what Penn Staters held dear because of our shared shame – may have been worse.

From the NCAA penalties against the football team to the criminal charges against former President Graham Spanier, it has created unconscionable collateral damage that must be repaired.

For many, the sore point remains the firing of Joe Paterno, the head football coach for 46 years and the man who truly was the face of Penn State.

On Web sites, in court filings and in person, the combatants mostly talk right past each other these days. And from an outsider’s vantage point, it is looking very much like a war for Penn State’s soul.

The Penn State Board of Trustees' meetings, lately, have been like battlegrounds............

But several other speakers, who did not get nearly the same degree of attention at the time, actually commended the board for its leadership, and called on them to stay the course.

“I don’t think it serves a purpose to drag university leadership through the mud, and I think that’s what is taking place,” countered Robert Leiby, a retired agricultural extension agent from Kutztown.

“Yes, this tragedy of the past two years was very painful. But the university community needs to move forward and not relive it forever.”............

The campus perspective
In the middle are Penn State students and staff, many of whom insist that even as the lords of the university fight on, life on campus is pretty much the same as ever............

“When I do see it, I just kind of roll my eyes because it’s kind of like: ‘We need to move forward.’… I didn’t come to this college for football, though it is one of those fun things to do. I came to better myself.”

English professor Michael Berube echoed Rodriguez’s sense.

“Most of us have gotten back to the work of teaching and research -- students and faculty alike. That's why most of us are here, after all,” said Berube, who wrote an eloquent essay on the scandal last fall.

“The wrangling about the Board of trustees and the post-Sandusky fallout feels like it is happening on another plane of existence altogether.”.........

So when and how Penn State strikes a truce is important.

Some think that it really won’t happen until there is a new president............

As for the presidential search, Nassirian said the university will still attract top-flight candidates.

But if the Sandusky fallout is still raging when it comes time to close the deal, Nassirian said, it could very well cost Penn State its top choice.

“Anybody qualified to run Penn State would have significant other options as well,” he noted. “You have to wonder who is going to be willing to walk into a setting where, no matter what they do, a major constituency is going to be mad at them.”............

In the kind of negative messaging once unheard of in trustees elections, PS4RS is running ads and sponsoring billboards with messages like: “Suhey and Deviney voted to fire JoePa. Now they want OUR vote. Really?”

Current Board Chairman Keith Masser, in response to questions for this story, issued a statement showing that he is comfortable with the board’s course, and that he believes a silent majority of Penn Staters are too............

Those who are still loyal to the “Old State” they knew and cherished, meanwhile, have only begun to fight. Lubrano’s bloc numbers about five or six strong on the board of trustees now. He hopes to increase its strength in this year’s alumni elections.............

Nassirian said the university would be best served to get over it as soon as possible. "If you really care about Penn State, you ought to care about Penn State being able to go about its business,” he concluded.


More at link.....

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Paterno's have endorsed that PS4RS candidates: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/04/06/3569592/paternos-endorse-brown-oldsey.html

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Linked in has an alumni site; one person posted a poll on what is the most important issue.

Sanctions are running around 15%. "Reform Board" is running 60% and 66%.

That is good sign.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

As of today, alumni votes were down about 10%. The BoT is attempting bigger reforms, which, ironically, include a stronger "support the board and give money" rule.