Penn State Faculty Senate to ponder whether to ask for sanctions reassessment

Penn State Faculty Senate to ponder whether to ask for sanctions reassessment

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The Penn State Faculty Senate will discuss next week whether to ask the NCAA and the Big Ten to reassess sanctions levied against the university for its role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

At its 1:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, the Senate will address seven questions in light of the punishments given for the university’s alleged lapse in institutional oversight as outlined by the Freeh report.

That report concluded that top university officials, including former President Graham Spanier, concealed child abuse committed on campus by Sandusky, a former football assistant coach. Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sexual abuse and awaits sentencing.

NCAA sanctions against Penn State included a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on bowl games for the football team, a loss of football scholarships and the vacating of all football victories between 1998 and 2011.

On behalf of the Senate, member Keith Nelson, a psychology professor, wrote that the Senate endorses university President Rodney Erickson’s acceptance of the Freeh report as “difficult to digest” but a “necessary step in finding the truth and continuing our healing process as a community.”

But, Nelson noted, neither Erickson nor the board of trustees has made a statement “that accepts as ‘factual’ or ’accurate’ all details of the complex Freeh report,” contrary to what the NCAA and Big Ten have implied to the public.

The Senate’s first question concerns a proposed letter to the NCAA. According to the document, the Senate, on the basis of its past communication with Erickson, “fully expected that it would be consulted as a full body in a timely and significant way” about discussions with the NCAA about sanctions, but was ignored.

Furthermore, the Senate takes issue with the speed of the sanctions, saying the NCAA bypassed its own sanctioning committee, reached conclusions without its own investigation and applied “inappropriate” pressure upon Erickson and Penn State by threatening the football program with the death penalty.

“So, forget about the Sunshine of Sunshine Laws, forget about open process, and full steam ahead for secretly negotiated deals!” Nelson wrote.

The letter concludes by saying the Senate thinks the NCAA sanctions against Penn State do not “fit fairly within the precedents of NCAA sanctions in the past for other football programs and other sports programs” and “do injustices to the large number of student-athletes who were recruited fairly to the PSU football program, who achieved distinction on the playing fields and in classrooms, and who behaved with honor and responsibility.”