Posted on 07/19/2012 8:13:08 PM PDT by abb
It's hard to believe that in all the months since the Sandusky scandal broke, and amid all the calls for accountability among Penn State's leadership, that not one member of the university's Board of Trustees had resigned. Now, there comes word from Happy Valley that Steve Garban, who was board president in 2010 and 2011, when everything surrounding this scandal finally came to light, has stepped down after 14 years as a university trustee.
In a letter sent today to chairman Karen Peetz, Garban laid out his reasons for stepping down at this time:
These past months have been some of the most painful of my life. The horrific allegations that came to light in November have haunted us all, but nothing we have experienced compares to that of Jerry Sandusky's victims. My thoughts and prayers will remain with them always.
After absorbing the findings of the Freeh Report last week, the Board of Trustees accepted responsibility for the failures of governance that took place on our watch. Following the release of the report, you also asked each member of the Board to evaluate our individual paths forward.
It is clear to me that my presence on the Board has become a distraction and an impediment to your efforts to move forward and continue the Board's most important work: ensuring that Penn State remains a top choice for students, faculty and employers; strengthening the University's position as a globally‐recognized leader in teaching, research and service; and a serving as a national example of public higher education at its finest.
I had not planned to run again when my term expires next year, but I now feel it is best for the Board and the University that I submit my resignation from the Penn State Board of Trustees, effective immediately. This is not a decision I have come to lightly. It is a decision that is my own.
Why now? Chances are it has something to do with an ESPN.com report published two days ago, which outlined how certain board members, led by former Penn State president Graham Spanier, did not go ahead with a full vote that would've given greater oversight and Spanier, Joe Paterno, and other high-ranking university officials. And one particular passage from the investigation, conducted by former New York Times reporter Don Van Natta Jr., is now especially telling, in light of Garban's exit:
At last week's board of trustees meeting, trustee Ken Frazier said his colleagues on the board were "deeply ashamed" by the findings in the Freeh report. The trustees and current university president, Rodney Erickson, have pledged to adapt some, if not all, of the recommendations made by the Freeh Group. Alumni groups have called for the resignations of some or all of the trustees, and several trustees confronted Garban, the ex-chairman, at last week's meeting and urged him to quit.
No trustee has resigned.
Now, one has. More to come, we're sure.
Fantastic! Now every other one needs to go.
They ALL need to go. And the top administration - WITHOUT pensions. And that damn statue needs to come down, and go into the crusher.
I’ll agree that the Paterno statue needs to go, but then, so does every statue of Pope John Paul II. He was in the loop about the Catholic Church crimes as much as Paterno about the PSU stuff. If you think he wasn’t, you’re smoking Pixie Dust.
Not only that close all althetics on campus, intermural to keep the students in shape, make it a nerd school, nerds rock period.
I am so sick of College Athletics. I know a dad of a potential full boater who's daughter was training on campus and wore a shirt from another school and got berated by some coach for wearing that shirt "In his house". That coach was a major D**kwad, and needs to get over himself, the arrogance, it is not "your house" it is all a gift from the Almighty. The bigger the institution the bigger the arrogance, our colleges are all headed for a fall financially and maybe from grace, sad state of affairs IMHO...
“I’ll agree that the Paterno statue needs to go, but then, so does every statue of Pope John Paul II. He was in the loop about the Catholic Church crimes as much as Paterno about the PSU stuff. If you think he wasn’t, you’re smoking Pixie Dust.”
Your equating the Penis State thing to the Cathoic Church is total Bull Shit. Penis State stands on its own without this crap. John Paul II was an honorable man. I say that, and I am not Catholic...but I have know some who knew him personally.
Paterno is shit. Stop defending him with your ‘red herrings’.
I hope the new board and PSU President have the courage to make the greedy Paterno family members feel they aren't welcome anywhere around campus.
COMMENTS Even left-leaning college administrators are starting to have second thoughts about the excesses of "gay-friendly" atmospheres on campus........these pedophile-havens have held numerous "homo-sensitivity training" sessions on campus......(read indoctrination).
Penn State prez Graham Spanier---is a "human sexuality scholar." How this guy got to be a college prez with that degree is amazing. SPANIER actually held what he called a "C***fest" on campus and installed a special tent just to indoctrinate WRT homo sex practices.
Spanier is out as PS prez---but he and his wife are still on the PS payroll as tenured profs. Spanier also advocated wife-swapping----could be the reason why M/M Spanier are still getting paychecks---they must have some hair-raising stories to tell WRT group sex play on the PS campus.
SPANIER CONTROLLED MILLIONS IN STATE AND FEDERAL EDUCATION GRANTS L/E needs to determine the extent of PS's federal, state and local govt grants which emanate from an assortment of govt entities.....that might have covertly subsidized pedophile activities.
Besides the DOE, grants could have been issued by the EPA and DOJ for various campus projects----including monies private Foundations from a variety of private charitable organizations AND funding from more traditional sources, such as corporate and private foundations. Checkout PS donors available from the Capital Research Center, a non-profit which studies advocacy groups.
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SOURCE: deadspin.COM
The majority of attention given to today's Freeh Report has centered on figuring out Joe Paterno's role in allowing Jerry Sandusky to go unstopped. But the most actively nefarious character—other than Sandusky himself—in the commission's story is former university president Graham Spanier. Even before today's news, experts had suggested that Spanier's actions could be brought before a grand jury. Here are ten of the more reprehensible plot points from the Freeh Report, many of which support the notion that he could face criminal charges:
<><> Testifying to the 2001 grand jury he was unaware of the 1998 investigation against Sandusky, even though emails from 1998 show him discussing the investigation with athletic director Tim Curley and university vice president Gary Schultz.
<><> Repeating this claim to the Special Investigative Counsel, and stating he "never heard a report from anyone" that Sandusky was abusing children.
<><> Failing to notify the Board of Trustees that an investigation of a prominent assistant football coach was underway, withholding this information from them even while the board was considering (and approving) a favorable land deal between the university and Sandusky's Second Mile charity.
<><>Approving and pushing for Sandusky's emeritus rank—and the facility access privileges that came along with it— despite Sandusky not qualifying for it by the established academic rules.
<><>Declaring Curley's plan to suggest Sandusky stop hanging around children, without actual sanctions, to be "a humane approach" rather than contacting outside authorities to investigate suspected abuse.
<><>Telling the Special Investigative Counsel his first knowledge of the 1998 incident came at the April 2011 grand jury appearance, when notes from his Attorney General interview a month prior reveal he was questioned about it then.
<><> Approving an unprecedented $168,000 lump-sum retirement payment to Sandusky in 1999.
<><> Showing no interest in identifying the child involved in the 2001 incident or ascertaining whether or not a crime had occurred.
<><> Opposing any and all independent investigations into Sandusky's behavior.
<><> Modifying the November 2011 Board of Trustees statement without their knowledge or approval, asserting that Curley and Schultz requested administrative leave rather than that the board had actually decided to place them on leave.
Spanier needs to do the perp walk for sure.
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