There are so many aspects to the the Penn State University Crisis, where a former football coach has been found guilty of egregious acts of childhood sexual abuse, that one hardly knows where to begin. These aspects include the whole issue of child abuse, the idolatry of sport and the devastation of the victims and the others caught up in the maelstrom of this saga. These issues will be dealt with later. This blog deals with the corrupt inner workings of the University.
A decade and a half after the matter first surfaced at Penn State, The University Board of Trustees initiated an investigation into the whole affair. This was conducted by Louis Freeh, a former FBI Director and gives us insight into the inner workings at Penn State.
THE POWER OF INSTITUTIONS
The area that JAY H. ELL would like to look at is the incredible power that institutions and corporations wield in the USA. In fact they are the most powerful political entities in the USA - even more powerful than the States themselves that make up the Federation. Of the institutions the Universities stand out as the most powerful and influential. They are even more powerful than the Medieval Churches of the Middle Ages.
Major Universities' total resources and budgets, run into billions - multiples more than the budgets of US towns of populations of over 200,000. The allegation against these powerful entities is that they are run like banana republics with not even token acknowledgement to the rule of law, due process and the world around them.
Looking at the comprehensive Freeh report it is patently obvious that Penn State behaved as if they are above the law. This blog will show that Penn State have a history of this autocratic behavior and a previous well publicized incident did nothing to set into motion checks and balances that might have avoided this catastrophe.
FREEH REPORT FINDINGS
1. The highest administrative officials of the University, including the President, ignored the State and Federal Laws regarding the reporting of Child Sexual Abuse. Also they totally ignored the provisions of the Federal Clery Act which lays out the provisions as to what a University has to do in relation to criminal activities on the Campus
2. These selfsame administrative officials ignored their own University Policies for the protection of minors on University Property.
3. While these administrative officials did not report the allegations to the Board of Trustees the Freeh report faults the Board. They are the Body ultimately responsible for the University and did not introduce compulsory policies for the reporting of such incidents to them. The Freeh report further criticizes them for not effecting reasonable oversight.
4. The officials, knowing of the allegations against Sandusky, allowed a situation whereby Sandusky, after retirement, was given open access to the University facilities including locker and shower rooms where he continued to abuse minors.
5. Not only did these administrative officials not report Sandusky's behavior to authorities, no-one is on record of confronting him with these allegations.
6. Sandusky was inexplicably paid a $168,000 on his retirement. While the investigations into Sandusky were in progress, one of the most famous of the officials at fault, the legendary Chief Football coach, was negotiating a several million dollar retirement package with the other administrative officials.
7. The report details incidents were the University officials were swift to act against those who had been involved in minor incidents that they perceived to be not in the University's "best interests". The purpose of this inclusion was to illustrate the unashamed hypocrisy of the officials.
8. The report also reflects the culture at Penn State where Janitors, aware of Sandusky's behavior, were too frightened to report it as they believed it would lead to their being terminated.
UPSHOT.
The upshot of this outrageous behavior is now public knowledge. At least a dozen minors were serially sexually abused and raped over at least a decade and a half by Sandusky. This was allowed to happen and even facilitated because these officials were presumably acting in the University's "best interests". It stands to reason that with all the e mails flying around - Freeh's group examined 3.5 million e - mails - that 100's of University officials must of known about it. Yet not a whisper to the authorities as these officials must have believed, like the janitors, that reporting this would be "treason" and not be considered in the Universities "best interests". They obviously perceived they would be fired.
Hardly a culture conducive to the pursuit of truth.
However, for what it is worth the National Collegiate of Athletic Associates and Department of Education are now in the process of investigating Penn State. Two of the administrative officials have been charged criminally for their failure to report the incidents and other charges may follow. Like all things too late this is far too little.
WATER BUFFALO INCIDENT.
A much publicized incident occured in 1993 at Penn State that should have alerted the Board of Trustees that their top level administrators were out of control. A group of predominantly African American sorority sisters were kicking up a ruckus outside the window of a dormitory were students were studying and sleeping. Several students remonstrated with them some shouting racial epithets. Two of the male remonstrators were charged by the University authorities. One of these was a former yeshiva student, Mr. Eden Jacobowicz. He was charged with racial harassment in that he called the rowdy students Water Buffalo.
Several expert witnesses testified that the hebrew term Behema was a slang word meaning water buffalo, which was used to describe a rowdy person, but to no avail. This issue dragged on for months garnering national and international attention. The University still arbitrarily found Mr. Jacobowicz guilty of racial harassment in a kangaroo court hearing. His original University appointed advisor told him to except a sentence that included probation and entering the offense into his University record.
During the process the administrators issued press gag orders and exhibited other autocratic behaviors and after months of one embarrassing exposure after another they finally agreed to withdraw the charges if Jacobowicz apologized to the women. This he did willingly since from the word go he had offered to do so if the term had offended them.
The second student charged was Mr. Jacobowicz's dormitory partner. He was just present when the "offense" took place. He accepted the punishment meted out by the University as he maintained that he could not afford lawyers. After the resolution of Mr. Jacobowicz's case the University was approached to nullify the roommate's conviction. The University flat out refused.
In their book written in 1999, "The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses", Alan Kors and Harvey Silverglate detail this and several other instances of this nature in other Universities in the United States.
AFTERMATH OF THE WATER BUFFALO INCIDENT.
The Board of Trustee's silence was loud and clear.
There was no adverse consequences within the University to any of the officials involved from the President down. At least one of those involved in the Jacobowicz affair was central to yet another University cause celebre. Larry Moneta, a former Vice Provost of Penn State, was slap bang in the middle of the infamous 2006 Duke University Lacrosse case. There several students were arbitrarily suspended on what turned out to be a patently bogus claim of gang rape. Moneta's actions there resulted in litigation against him and the University.
AND ON AND ON IT GOES.....
On Friday 13th July 2012 the Chicago Tribune ran two stories on their front page. They lead with the Freeh report on Penn State. Their second lead was yet another scandal at the University of Illinois where a University Official's husband had been handed a no compete contract of $4.6 million. The mandatory state oversight had been ignored. A member of a watch dog panel maintained that the University of Illinois was acting "above the law".
In 2009 the University was involved in a widely publicized scandal where it was shown that those with political and university connections were unfairly admitted to the prestigious Urbana - Champagne campus. Disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevitch, The Illinois Senate President, The Illinois House Speaker, the Illinois State Treasurer and several elected Illinois representatives were among those to receive favors. Nearly the whole Board of Trustees resigned as a result.
There appears no end to it all. A recent book by Benjamin Ginsberg,"The Fall of Faculty : The Rise of The All Administrative University and Why It Matters", goes into endless detail as to how Universities have run amuck.
Some of the powerful autonomous independent Universities are going the way of all banana republics and have become failed states.
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