What to say about the scandal at my alma matter. For one thing, I am a news junkie in general, and since the scandal broke almost a month ago I have been voraciously consuming new and opinion pieces. But before we get to my thoughts on the matter, let me say uncharacteristically that it is a real tragedy. The victims first and foremost need to be the center of things going forward (and any thoughts of the football team should come absolutely last), and I am hopeful that justice will slowly be meted out to those involved in the horrible acts and those that covered for them. As an alumni, it hurts and I am still after a month shocked that it happened.
Here is my opinion of the whole tragedy from my very personal perspective. First off, I was probably one of a few persons in the history of Penn State to attend the school knowing nothing of the football program or the head coach Joe Paterno. My first week at Penn State was just before the start of spring semester in 1996. Not many students were there, just my fellow transferees with whom I went to buy books from the student book store. I remember being very puzzled about all the life-size cutouts of some strange looking guy with thick glasses at the end of every aisle. I asked my roommates who the weird looking guy was. It seemed like everyone and everything in the store just stopped - you could have heard a pin drop. People stared. How could I not know who Joe Paterno was?
Well I didn't, but over the course of my 8 years at Penn State I did learn quite a bit about this guy. He ran a huge football program which appeared to eschewed most of what had come to be associated with college football. You know, the entitled athletes run amok, student athletes who had no intention of studying, etc. He valued study and hard work, and he nurtured academics in his program and as of the last ranking had an 87% graduation rate, number 30 out of the 266 in college football counting all D1, Ivy's, and military academies. (Shockingly, a significant proportion have only 40-60% graduation rate!) Joe Pa lives in a modest home in a modest neighborhood close to the university where all students know where he lives. He donated most of his exorbitant salary back to the university that had made him. This and his fundraising clout he endowing a beautiful $13 million expansion to the main library among countless other good works. Overall, hard not to like the guy, even if you pooh poohed the football program (which I did).
And it was this football program always came with a dark side to me. Prior to the scandal, if you asked almost anyone in the US about Penn State and they would say football. Not the excellent academic programs like my own Material Science program, consistently ranked in the top 5 in the world. Not the engineering programs, not the meteorology programs. Not the even the largest student run philanthropic event in the country (Dance Marathon). Just Joe Pa and the football team. This football culture, while certainly not the only cause, greatly contributes to the party culture at Penn State (for example listen to the This American Life story about Penn State). See? Even before the scandal, Penn State didn't exactly have a sterling reputation. Which is sad, because my Penn State has no relation to the commonly perceived Penn State. I studied and worked hard to get a great education from a great institution.
Granted, I did have a chip on my shoulder about the football program. First up, I still can't fathom why so many people enjoy watching the sport. (A 4 hour game with just over 11 minutes of activity? What? See here for the Wall Street Journal analysis of NFL games, but I am sure college football is just as bad). There were several weekends when our home rugby pitch was totally parked in by miles of tailgaters that converged from all over the state who watched with bafflement as we played rugby just a mile form the filled and cheering football stadium. Our rugby team, true student athletes dedicating our time to a sport we loved without scholarships, fame, or even basic university support, would spend one weekend a year cleaning up the football stadium after a home game as a fundraiser. I only went to two games in the stadium and froze my butt off both times as they were the last of the season, but did tailgate occasionally. But for the most part I have made my piece with the program, considering that the untold wealth that football brings to the university has certainly had a net positive effect on the academics.
That all said, it is sad to see Joe Pa go. Did he deserve to go? Probably. The board needed to set a clear example that this behavior would not be tolerated. While Joe Pa did everything that he was legally required to do regarding the 2002 allegations, he probably is morally culpable to do more. (Although a long discussion could break out about the rigid hierarchy and chain of command at any university). But the actually degree to what he did know or anyone else is still unknown - so much of this case is murky. But as the Chinese water torture nature of these investigations spin on, more and more details will emerge as to what exactly what he or others in positions of power did or did not know. My suspicion is that there were enough people who had inclining of bad stuff going on but no one could quite put pieces together (or wouldn't). And there was probably some elements of protecting the golden cow of the football program which showered 50 million dollars per year on the university and the untold millions that flowed into the community of State College. But the truth will out. I do feel like Joe Pa was treated unnecessarily badly by the media (a survey showed a few days after the scandal broke that the majority of people in the US thought that Joe Pa actually perpetrated the acts) mainly because he did run such a clean and respected program. The 24 hour new grist called for everyone to be more outraged by the last person that talked about it, so the only outcome that could have happened was that the Joe Pa sainthood was destroyed. And as for the student "riots" at Penn State? These were stupid activities of a few idiots that of course made the news and tarnished the whole event. No one talked about the thousands of students who showed up to the make shift peaceful vigil in the streets of State College (as witnessed by a few friends of mine that still live there) who were just there because they didn't know how else to deal with the sudden departure of their belovedgrandfather coach.
But I do know if there were even hints of something horrible like this being perpetrated in other programs around the university, for example the floor hockey or gymnastics programs, you can guarantee that those programs would be gone. And if there were even hints of bad behavior, behavior so trivial as compared to the current allegations, against less respected programs like, for example, the my beloved rugby program, I can guarantee you that it would have been incinerated will the full force of the university.
But I am sad to see Joe go, and this scandal will take decades to fade from memory. The university will take a beating not only in the sphere of public opinion, but fiscally as donors shy away from its sullied reputation. In light of this scandal, Penn State only being know as a party and football school seems like a quaint problem to have.
Here is my opinion of the whole tragedy from my very personal perspective. First off, I was probably one of a few persons in the history of Penn State to attend the school knowing nothing of the football program or the head coach Joe Paterno. My first week at Penn State was just before the start of spring semester in 1996. Not many students were there, just my fellow transferees with whom I went to buy books from the student book store. I remember being very puzzled about all the life-size cutouts of some strange looking guy with thick glasses at the end of every aisle. I asked my roommates who the weird looking guy was. It seemed like everyone and everything in the store just stopped - you could have heard a pin drop. People stared. How could I not know who Joe Paterno was?
Well I didn't, but over the course of my 8 years at Penn State I did learn quite a bit about this guy. He ran a huge football program which appeared to eschewed most of what had come to be associated with college football. You know, the entitled athletes run amok, student athletes who had no intention of studying, etc. He valued study and hard work, and he nurtured academics in his program and as of the last ranking had an 87% graduation rate, number 30 out of the 266 in college football counting all D1, Ivy's, and military academies. (Shockingly, a significant proportion have only 40-60% graduation rate!) Joe Pa lives in a modest home in a modest neighborhood close to the university where all students know where he lives. He donated most of his exorbitant salary back to the university that had made him. This and his fundraising clout he endowing a beautiful $13 million expansion to the main library among countless other good works. Overall, hard not to like the guy, even if you pooh poohed the football program (which I did).
And it was this football program always came with a dark side to me. Prior to the scandal, if you asked almost anyone in the US about Penn State and they would say football. Not the excellent academic programs like my own Material Science program, consistently ranked in the top 5 in the world. Not the engineering programs, not the meteorology programs. Not the even the largest student run philanthropic event in the country (Dance Marathon). Just Joe Pa and the football team. This football culture, while certainly not the only cause, greatly contributes to the party culture at Penn State (for example listen to the This American Life story about Penn State). See? Even before the scandal, Penn State didn't exactly have a sterling reputation. Which is sad, because my Penn State has no relation to the commonly perceived Penn State. I studied and worked hard to get a great education from a great institution.
Granted, I did have a chip on my shoulder about the football program. First up, I still can't fathom why so many people enjoy watching the sport. (A 4 hour game with just over 11 minutes of activity? What? See here for the Wall Street Journal analysis of NFL games, but I am sure college football is just as bad). There were several weekends when our home rugby pitch was totally parked in by miles of tailgaters that converged from all over the state who watched with bafflement as we played rugby just a mile form the filled and cheering football stadium. Our rugby team, true student athletes dedicating our time to a sport we loved without scholarships, fame, or even basic university support, would spend one weekend a year cleaning up the football stadium after a home game as a fundraiser. I only went to two games in the stadium and froze my butt off both times as they were the last of the season, but did tailgate occasionally. But for the most part I have made my piece with the program, considering that the untold wealth that football brings to the university has certainly had a net positive effect on the academics.
That all said, it is sad to see Joe Pa go. Did he deserve to go? Probably. The board needed to set a clear example that this behavior would not be tolerated. While Joe Pa did everything that he was legally required to do regarding the 2002 allegations, he probably is morally culpable to do more. (Although a long discussion could break out about the rigid hierarchy and chain of command at any university). But the actually degree to what he did know or anyone else is still unknown - so much of this case is murky. But as the Chinese water torture nature of these investigations spin on, more and more details will emerge as to what exactly what he or others in positions of power did or did not know. My suspicion is that there were enough people who had inclining of bad stuff going on but no one could quite put pieces together (or wouldn't). And there was probably some elements of protecting the golden cow of the football program which showered 50 million dollars per year on the university and the untold millions that flowed into the community of State College. But the truth will out. I do feel like Joe Pa was treated unnecessarily badly by the media (a survey showed a few days after the scandal broke that the majority of people in the US thought that Joe Pa actually perpetrated the acts) mainly because he did run such a clean and respected program. The 24 hour new grist called for everyone to be more outraged by the last person that talked about it, so the only outcome that could have happened was that the Joe Pa sainthood was destroyed. And as for the student "riots" at Penn State? These were stupid activities of a few idiots that of course made the news and tarnished the whole event. No one talked about the thousands of students who showed up to the make shift peaceful vigil in the streets of State College (as witnessed by a few friends of mine that still live there) who were just there because they didn't know how else to deal with the sudden departure of their beloved
But I do know if there were even hints of something horrible like this being perpetrated in other programs around the university, for example the floor hockey or gymnastics programs, you can guarantee that those programs would be gone. And if there were even hints of bad behavior, behavior so trivial as compared to the current allegations, against less respected programs like, for example, the my beloved rugby program, I can guarantee you that it would have been incinerated will the full force of the university.
But I am sad to see Joe go, and this scandal will take decades to fade from memory. The university will take a beating not only in the sphere of public opinion, but fiscally as donors shy away from its sullied reputation. In light of this scandal, Penn State only being know as a party and football school seems like a quaint problem to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment