PSU BOT releases statement

[orangehomer]

I am with you on this. I have served on several boards. If the "outside" members of the BOT at PSU (not the state officials) are anything like the BOT members at SU, I would bet more than a beer that none of them knew anything about this. A board has the ultimate responsibility for an organization -- both in a fiduciary sense and in a behavioral sense. I am certain that the PSU BOT outside (or "independent") members are all successful people who love PSU. Being a member of such a board is not an honorific thing. It involves asking probing questions, setting policy and making serious decisions. In other words, it is WORK, and you are not paid for it, or even reimbursed for travel and hotel expenses. Quite the opposite, you PAY for the privilege of serving on such a board, both in terms of time and financial commitments to the university. To me, it is totally inconceivable that any member of the SU BOT could know of something like the mess at PSU and remain silent about it, or attempt to cover it up. That is why I suspect the "independent" trustees at PSU were totally in the dark about this. It is also why I would not be surprised if they replace the university president on grounds that he did not inform them of this horrific situation.

cto, when you look at the roster, obviously there are "board"members and a bunch of people that are "on the board". for instance, they list an undergrad as being on the board. of course no one thinks that that kid knows anything about this, or any of the business owner types that are honorary members. i don't think that is who we are talking about here. we are talking about a board member that has direct knowledge of the situation, the governor and former attorney general. do you not find that interesting in any way?

 

[cto]

cto, when you look at the roster, obviously there are "board"members and a bunch of people that are "on the board". for instance, they list an undergrad as being on the board. of course no one thinks that that kid knows anything about this, or any of the business owner types that are honorary members. i don't think that is who we are talking about here. we are talking about a board member that has direct knowledge of the situation, the governor and former attorney general. do you not find that interesting in any way?

The SU Board also has student members and a faculty member; it is fairly common practice at universities. It is done in the interest of transparency, and at SU, at least, it has worked out well. It gives outside trustees additional insights into the university from two of its most important constituencies. Being a state university, the PSU board is obviously different in that it has a number of state officials and members who are appointed by the governor. It does, however, seem to have a number of very prominent business leaders and civic leaders among the ranks of those who I would call "independent" trustees. They include the CEOs of Merck, US Steel, and the Bank of New York Mellon's financial markets group. It is these people to whom I was referring when I said I felt very strongly that they knew nothing about this horror. If they did know about it, I am sure they would have forced the school to confront it in an appropriate manner. I cannot speak for the "political" members. I don't know enough about the dynamics there. The chairman appears to be a retired executive at PSU; that to me, is not a good governance practice. I think the chairman should be an "independent" trustee.

 

[SmilinBob]

With Ridge coming in this will be the biggest CYA as you'll ever see in sports.

 

[SU2NASA]

just wait until all the emails start leaking out. i am sure some people kept records of the convo's and emails in a well hidden place.

the blame is going to get very interesting there,and in the madia

I can't imagine how many FOIA requests there are in work.

 

[SU2NASA]

"We hear those of you who feel betrayed and we want to assure all of you that the Board will take swift, decisive action."

So why is Paterno still coaching?

 

[SmilinBob]

"We hear those of you who feel betrayed and we want to assure all of you that the Board will take swift, decisive action."

So why is Paterno still coaching?

Because the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

 

[Faegan]

-------------------
More to the point, appointing a "Special Committee to undertake a full and complete investigation" is how grown-ups responsible at large organizations document the facts and decide on actions to correct problems.

It's great as long as the purpose of the "committee" isn't to drag this out until the public outrage dissipates.

 

[Toga]

I am with you on this. I have served on several boards. If the "outside" members of the BOT at PSU (not the state officials) are anything like the BOT members at SU, I would bet more than a beer that none of them knew anything about this. A board has the ultimate responsibility for an organization -- both in a fiduciary sense and in a behavioral sense. I am certain that the PSU BOT outside (or "independent") members are all successful people who love PSU. Being a member of such a board is not an honorific thing. It involves asking probing questions, setting policy and making serious decisions. In other words, it is WORK, and you are not paid for it, or even reimbursed for travel and hotel expenses. Quite the opposite, you PAY for the privilege of serving on such a board, both in terms of time and financial commitments to the university. To me, it is totally inconceivable that any member of the SU BOT could know of something like the mess at PSU and remain silent about it, or attempt to cover it up. That is why I suspect the "independent" trustees at PSU were in the dark about this. It is also why I would not be surprised if they replace the university president on grounds that he did not inform them of this horrific situation.

Well you kind of nailed it.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/jerry_sandusky_penn_state_trus.html

 

[mountaincuse]

-------------------
More to the point, appointing a "Special Committee to undertake a full and complete investigation" is how grown-ups responsible at large organizations document the facts and decide on actions to correct problems.

Or it is how organizations who have been covering up a terrible situation continues to do so by appointting who they like to said "special committee".

While we don't know a ton at this point it seems that PSU has been anything but an at-large organization with grown-ups acting responsibly.

 

[rrlbees]

I am with you on this. I have served on several boards. If the "outside" members of the BOT at PSU (not the state officials) are anything like the BOT members at SU, I would bet more than a beer that none of them knew anything about this. A board has the ultimate responsibility for an organization -- both in a fiduciary sense and in a behavioral sense. I am certain that the PSU BOT outside (or "independent") members are all successful people who love PSU. Being a member of such a board is not an honorific thing. It involves asking probing questions, setting policy and making serious decisions. In other words, it is WORK, and you are not paid for it, or even reimbursed for travel and hotel expenses. Quite the opposite, you PAY for the privilege of serving on such a board, both in terms of time and financial commitments to the university. To me, it is totally inconceivable that any member of the SU BOT could know of something like the mess at PSU and remain silent about it, or attempt to cover it up. That is why I suspect the "independent" trustees at PSU were in the dark about this. It is also why I would not be surprised if they replace the university president on grounds that he did not inform them of this horrific situation.

According to some well regarded Penn St insiders, some BOT members both past and present did in fact know about some of the sordid details and cover-ups and claim in time that may come out also.

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

According to some well regarded Penn St insiders, some BOT members both past and present did in fact know about some of the sordid details and cover-ups and claim in time that may come out also.

If that is the case, wow..just wow.

 

[Orangemen]

This is the only way PSU can play this.

They intend to take down Paterno. They know they better have all of their facts crystal clear before they do that.

If they fire him, and somehow the facts come out to minimize his role (I know, unlikely/impossible), they could be looking at a major lawsuit as well as alumni who would undoubtedly side with JoePa., this on top of all the other lawsuits they will be facing.

It won't be fast, but in the end they will probably do what everyone wants them to do.

 

[SmilinBob]

What a gutsy move by psu to fire a guy that they should have "retired" 5 or more years ago.

 

[sufan]

The SU Board also has student members and a faculty member; it is fairly common practice at universities. It is done in the interest of transparency, and at SU, at least, it has worked out well. It gives outside trustees additional insights into the university from two of its most important constituencies. Being a state university, the PSU board is obviously different in that it has a number of state officials and members who are appointed by the governor. It does, however, seem to have a number of very prominent business leaders and civic leaders among the ranks of those who I would call "independent" trustees. They include the CEOs of Merck, US Steel, and the Bank of New York Mellon's financial markets group. It is these people to whom I was referring when I said I felt very strongly that they knew nothing about this horror. If they did know about it, I am sure they would have forced the school to confront it in an appropriate manner. I cannot speak for the "political" members. I don't know enough about the dynamics there. The chairman appears to be a retired executive at PSU; that to me, is not a good governance practice. I think the chairman should be an "independent" trustee.

---------------------

Penn State Board of Trustees

 

[rrlbees]

If that is the case, wow..just wow.

Read this article and think about it. Key quotes are;

"a faction of the board of trustees is standing up to take control of the sex-abuse controversy engulfing the university."

"Trustees lack confidence in Garban’s ability to lead the university out of this mess given his close relationships with Curley, Schultz and university President Graham Spanier, sources said."

"The trustees dislike how a few board members appeared to have been notified that charges against Curley and Schultz were imminent while the vast majority of trustees were left in the dark until Saturday."

BOT

 

[MikeSU02]

According to some well regarded Penn St insiders, some BOT members both past and present did in fact know about some of the sordid details and cover-ups and claim in time that may come out also.

The only way they can start to move away from this is to clean house and talk to everyone who was involved with the program, that they can, during Sandusky's time there.

No other way to do it. If they keep dragging their feet, it is going to continuously get worse and worse.

 

[Cusefan95]

Read this article and think about it. Key quotes are;

"a faction of the board of trustees is standing up to take control of the sex-abuse controversy engulfing the university."

"Trustees lack confidence in Garban’s ability to lead the university out of this mess given his close relationships with Curley, Schultz and university President Graham Spanier, sources said."

"The trustees dislike how a few board members appeared to have been notified that charges against Curley and Schultz were imminent while the vast majority of trustees were left in the dark until Saturday."

BOT

If I was one of the independent business leaders on the BOT and found out that there were people on the board that knew but didn't inform the entire board, I'd be furious. They have major structural changes that need to be implemented. I suspect that the BOT is giving Joe PA until the end of the the day to retire (as CTO recommended); if he chooses to "fight the power" he'll be suspended pending the outcome of the committee investigation. For a variety of reasons they'd prefer Joe PA to be the one to take the action...but from what we've seen so far he seems to have mentally retreated into a fantasy world so I doubt he'll go with any grace and will force the University to take the action of suspending him.

Once they get that out of the way, the BOT can go about the process of imploding on itself, which is what will happen if there were members that had knowledge they didn't share.

 

[HtownOrange]

The AG may have avoided informing the full BOT as a separation of his duties. While AG and investigating a crime, he most likely is not allowed to divulge information unless it is necessary to further the investigation. He may have used this duty to preserve evidence and keep secret the investigation to avoid informing the full BOT. That is not to say that he was right, only a possible reasoning for his inaction of informing the BOT.

I think he could have gotten word to the proper personnel at PSU to allow them to take actions necessary to stop any further damage, i.e. stopping the perv from appearing on campus, working camps, etc. This would still have been within his scope of duties to prevent potential further crimes.

Regardless, those involved in the cover up should be removed from all duties, whether with PSU or outside PSU. This, if the former AG covered up this crime to protect PSU, then he should be removed from office and lose his law license, etc.