By
Ray Blehar
Just when I thought I heard the most hypocritical thing to come out of the BOT's mouths on Monday (ref: use of discovery materials for might be used for PR against the University), Richard Dandrea's comment today made me realize that the PSU Board knows no limit when it comes to hypocrisy.
Dandrea suggested that the number of alumni representatives on the Board be decreased because several other schools don't have alumni on their boards AND....that not that many alumni vote in PSU elections. Note that Dandrea, as a B&I Trustee is voted in by only five people who comprise the B&I Selection Committee. Last time I checked, 30,000 was more than five...if in fact, he got five votes. He only needed three.
Paterno v. NCAA
Monday's hypocritical statement was one for the ages. In PSU's response in Section C of its motion for a protective order of discovery materials, it wrote:
This was quite rich coming from a group of individuals that waived attorney-client privilege so that Louis Freeh could hold a grandstanding press conference that caused the most negative publicity in the University's history.
Seriously? This group, who used the Freeh Report to tarnish and smear the University as a having a culture that placed football ahead of the welfare of children, to exact draconian sanctions on the football program and cost the University hundreds of millions of dollars was concerned about bad PR?
Yes, they were. Obviously, the documents and emails they don't want the public to see must put some of them at great personal risk, likely of criminal charges.
I guess when it comes to PR that might taint a jury pool, our BOT isn't nearly as enthusiastic about broadcasting information about itself as it was about giving a blow-by-blow on the progress of the victim settlements last Fall.
Jess Stairs
When the Agricultural Trustees abandoned the caucusing procedures in its last election to ensure that Jess Stairs didn't win a Agricultural Trustee seat, the BOT went to VP for Administration, Tom Poole to adjudicate a kangaroo court ruling that the election result should stand.Stairs didn't buy the kangaroo courts ruling and decided to file a lawsuit. The hypocrisy came in PSU's response:
“The University is very disappointed that Mr. Stairs has chosen this course of action and that it will be required to devote University resources to defending this litigation,”
This is quite ironic coming from a University that has wreaked financial havoc on itself by not standing up for itself against the PA Office of Attorney General and the NCAA. Moreover, it now finds itself fighting it insurance company in an attempt to get back the money it paid the Sandusky victims.
PSU's insurer, the Pennsylvania Manufacturer's Association Insurance Company has rightly refused to pay because there is an abuse and molestation exception in the policy that came into effect in 1992.
Ken Frazier
This is an old one, but in terms of the Sandusky scandal, it has to come as the height of hypocrisy.In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, Frazier took to the microphones and said this as part of the PSU BOT's reasoning for firing Joe Paterno (my emphasis added).
"To me, it wasn't about guilt or innocence in a legal sense, it was about these norms of society that I'm talking about: that every adult has a responsibility for every other child in our community."
However, Frazier then did an about-face on March 15, 2013, when he was pressed about the role of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare responsibility to protect children.
"Once again, we did not investigate the Department of Public Welfare or anyone outside Penn State. Irrespective of whether you think they have a responsibility, that was not within the parameters of the Freeh Report.
Don't adults work for the Department of Public Welfare? Aren't they paid with our tax dollars to protect children?
In other words, Ken Frazier's position was this:
All of the kids across Pennsylvania can get screwed. All that PSU cares about is that the kids don't get screwed on our campus.
Isn't that allegedly what caused this entire scandal?
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