At many colleges and universities report to their own chain of command.
Our daughter worked at a women's dorm at night. Her instructions were "to report to campus security, do not call the police". This included any and all assaults. She severed ties to her alma mater, no mail forwarded plus she does want them to have her current address or phone numbers.
Academia has their own chain of command. Not making excuses for Joe, but if it happens on campus it stays on campus.
If he had reported it to campus police, that would have been totally fine. (they are real police at PSU, BTW). Reporting to the Athletic Director not fine.
The law in PA says otherwise. There is a duty to report these types of incidents to the police or child protective services.
The school can tell people all they want “don’t call the police,” but that doesn’t make their policy legal and it doesn’t insulate the person from charges that they broke the law.