THE SCANDAL at Penn State has taken up a lot of space in The Cavalier Daily - the dead tree version, as well as online - and in a lot of other media. A former defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team has been accused of raping young boys. A graduate coaching assistant allegedly saw one of those attacks. The assistant reported it to Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State coach, who reportedly sent the information up the school's chain of command. But Paterno, who is famous for running a clean program that wins football games, did not follow up - not as far as the media has reported, anyway. Paterno and the university president have lost their jobs. The assistant is on administrative leave. Two other school officials have been charged with lying to the grand jury investigating the whole thing.
If the charges prove to be true, then Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator, abused young boys for years - boys he was supposed to be helping, boys for whom he was supposed to be caring.
According to some reports, Sandusky was seriously considered as a candidate to replace former Virginia football coach George Welsh. Welsh worked with Paterno at Penn State, and was on the staff with Sandusky. The Roanoke Times quoted Welsh last week as saying, "I have no idea what to make of it." He did say that there is a library at Penn State named for Paterno - and not because of Paterno's coaching.
"That's because he gave them $3 or $4 million - of his own money," Welsh told the paper. "Plus, he was a vice chairman for a couple years of their fundraising drive. He would call a lot of people. He didn't visit many people, but he called them - not for the athletic department but for the university."
Paterno has been a role model for other coaches. His teams win. His players graduate. They seem to get arrested less often than players at some other top-tier programs. They seem to get caught violating NCAA rules less often, too.
By most accounts, Paterno is one of the best examples of what a college football coach can be. But if Paterno and his program are the best college athletics has to offer, how bad is everyone else? Paterno has not been charged with anything, but it does seem that he was less curious than he could have been about the serious crimes one of his employees was allegedly committing in his team's locker room, among other places. In addition, the Penn State administration seems to have been concerned above all with protecting the university's, and the football program's, reputation.
How did college athletics - especially football - come to be so powerful? How did it come to be more important than the university it is supposed to represent? All the money athletic programs generate is the easy answer. But according to The Chronicle of Higher Education's story about the NCAA's annual Division I Intercollegiate Athletics Programs Revenues and Expenses report, only 22 college athletic programs took in more than they spent last year. That is up from the 14 programs that made profit the year before. These financial figures include all the schools' revenue, including mandatory student fees.
I am a big fan of college sports, particularly sports at the University. I believe the University is about as clean and upstanding as any Football Bowl Subdivision program.
I have never met football coach Mike London, but everything I have heard and read about him and the conduct I have seen from him on the sidelines indicates he is an honorable, principled man. It is the system he is working in about which I have doubts. By that, I mostly mean the larger system of college athletics, not the University.
But consider this, as well: In our society, what we value is often rewarded with cash. According to a story in The Cavalier Daily last spring ("Faculty salaries barely increase," April 14) a report released by the American Association of University Professors showed that full-time professors at public universities are paid average yearly salaries of $118,054.\nAssistant professors earn an average of $69,777. The NCAA report says FBS football coaches average nearly $1.4 million. University President Teresa A. Sullivan makes $485,000 per year.
The state pays $176,104 of that. According to The Cavalier Daily, the state pays London $300,000. All together, London makes about $1.7 million a year.
In our society, money equals importance and power. When a university's football coach makes more than three times as much as that university's president, it seems reasonable to ask where that university's priorities lie. When the state pays a university president 58 percent of what it pays a coach, it seems reasonable to ask where the state's priorities lie.\nI do not mean to say anything bad about the University. It is simply operating in the system as it exists. I am saying there is something bad about the system.
Tim Thornton is the ombudsman for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
PARTING SHOT: On the art of walking and chewing gum
By Nathan Onibudo | 19 hours agoStudent journalism, and maybe even life more generally, is about holding space for multiple conflicting truths.
PARTING SHOT: Confessions of a nepo baby
By Grace Thrush | YesterdayWhile I can’t point to one specific “aha” moment where I finally started to dispel my self-consciousness and claim my pride for the paper, I got there gradually over the course of my term as managing editor.
PARTING SHOT: Asked and answered
By Honor Wood | YesterdayLooking back, the answer has been abundantly clear all along. I did it for the people.
