Wendy Silverwood: 2/26/2016 Public Comment to BOT

At the core of any community is its values -- the shared ideals about how people should act toward one another, the standards to which we hold ourselves, and those beliefs we find important.

I wanted to address two of these Penn State core values out of the six that are published.

INTEGRITY: We act with integrity and honesty in accordance with the highest academic, professional, and ETHICAL standards.

Conversely the integrity, professional and ethical standards of individuals within our former Office of Attorney General ran counter to those of the University.

Frank Fina was the star prosecutor in that office — the guy who made Governor Corbett’s career.

Fina, along with other officials including those involved with the Sandusky case are caught up in what we now know as ‪#‎PornGate‬ and ‪#‎HateGate‬.

Among the hard core pornography Fina circulated from his office, much of it included images of women engaged in anal sex, oral sex and group sex.

Images of women being VIOLATED with various objects.

Recall that prosecutor Fina supervised that inflammatory grand jury presentment indicting Tim Curley and Gary Schultz with failing to report a crime of violation.

A crime acoustically and physically impossible as described, and later born out as untrue by evidence and testimony to a jury in the courtroom.

Yet nevertheless the media has repeated this singular lie as if it were the unassailable truth.

Prosecutors have a license to lie. It is not a stretch to see who was behind that lie.

Not once has Penn State ever paused to reflect on the established ethics, honesty and integrity of Tim, Gary, Graham & Joe – instead you chose to question and disbelieve.

Perhaps you should seriously question the ethics, honesty and integrity of Frank Fina.

RESPECT: We respect and honor the dignity of each person and embrace civil discourse.

Civil discourse ceased the moment John Surma stepped over Steve Garban’s body to ax Joe in an ill-timed, late night press conference carrying out a personal vendetta.

Civil discourse was replaced by verbal and physical harassment, death threats, vandalism and horribly flawed, sensationalist reporting in a media stampede.

Respecting the honor and dignity of Joe, Tim, Gary, Graham, the Lettermen, the student/athletes and the Penn State community at large, vaporized when a former prosecutor with a License To Lie indicted and smeared us all on July 12th, 2012.

Fina and Freeh chose to dishonor by selectively leaking to the media, even including a few Board members to carry out their deeds.

I ask that you respect and restore that honor to these people and their families and you insist on civil discourse by the media and the public.

Frank Fina and his fellow gunslingers in the Office of Attorney General reigned with fear & intimidation. It meant there were no holds barred on anybody who worked there.

These same prosecutorial bullying tactics were used to silence and discredit Tim Curley and Gary Schultz – suppressing evidence, falsely charging them and corruptly cooking up a scheme to charge Graham Spanier.

Appallingly, your own General Counsel helped with the deception.

Frank Fina’s email scandal of #hategate and #porngate has ripped open a constitutional crisis in our commonwealth.

It has exposed a network that ascribes to core values of Intimidation, Misconduct, Malfeasance, Dishonesty & Deceit.

A set of values that are antithetical to the values of Penn State.

Values that have destroyed lives, livelihoods and reputations, and shaken the very core of the community.

Is this our new standard?

Barron and "Old Guard Plus" continue the incivility toward alumni

Barron's and Board's recent actions continue to show a lack of respect for the intelligence and the opinions of Penn State alumni

by
Ray Blehar

When President Barron sent out his now infamous "civility" email and video, both he and I agreed that civility and respect go hand in hand.

The recent decisions by Board chair Keith Masser to disallow public comment on Board reform demonstrated that President Barron's plea for civil discussion of issues has gone unheeded.

In addition, proposal A+ that was accepted by the governance committee (minus Anthony Lubrano) was nothing more than a power play to keep the "Old Guard Plus" (OGP) in control.  It was quite a show of disrespect for the intelligence of PSU alumni for Richard Dandrea and the rest of the sponsors to think that alumni wouldn't immediately recognize this proposal for what it was.

Finally, President Barron's discussion with Barry Fenchak, the alumnus who was denied a chance to speak at the September 19th meeting, revealed that Barron has been co-opted by the OGP when he made a number of disingenuous statements in an attempt to justify the existence of the unaccountable members -- which happens to be the majority - of the Board.

Comments on Board Reform Unwelcome, Silenced

Barry Fenchak has been working for over two years on his proposal for BOT reform.  Along the way, he has met with a number of officials, including Senator Jake Corman, to discuss why the reforms are so badly needed.  Given that Board reform was a topic of high interest inside and outside of Penn State, Fenchak requested to provide public comments about his proposal at the Friday, September 19th meeting.  In fact, when he logged in to sign up on September 12th, he was too early and the web-site was not yet up.  When it eventually came on line, he was the first to sign up.

On September 17th, he received a notification from Jeanie Andrews stating that "we are unable to accommodate your request" to speak at the meeting.  Fenchak was incredulous that he wasn't chosen, given his topic AND that he was the first to sign up.

Civility: Barry Fenchak denied opportunity
 to speak then forcibly removed from meeting

In addition to his attempt to speak at the Board meeting, Fenchak had arranged to meet just prior to the Board meeting with President Barron.  At that point, he again broached the topic of being turned down to speak and asked Barron if he could be afforded a spot, since there were two or three "no show" speakers.

Even more incredibly, Barron told Fenchak that he could not speak because he had already had his chance.  Fenchak, who had never spoken at a Board meeting, alerted Barron to that fact.  To which Barron responded, you're written plenty of letters and emails over the past two years. 

At the close of Friday's meeting when the last scheduled speaker finished, Fenchak approached the microphone stand to speak.  The microphone had been removed, but he went on with his presentation, only to be cut off by Keith Masser and told that he could sign up for another time.  Masser stated we are "moving on" as he moved to adjourn the meeting.  He was then approached by a rather large individual who confronted him and apparently motioned for others to come and assist in the removal of Fenchak.

Fenchak also noted that it was very "uncivil" for many of the Board members to leave the meeting at the start of the public comment session.  As you will see on the video, there are many empty chairs around the table and most are occupied by the alumni elected trustees.

Barron's Disingenuous Justifications for Unaccountable Board Members

After Fenchak had been denied the chance to speak at the meeting, he followed up with President Barron in a series of emails, one which specifically asked:

"Do you believe that the governance board of Penn State should be an accountable, democratically elected body......or do you support the current non-accountable unauthorized factional structure?"

Barron response stated that he would not answer the question because it presupposes only one answer (which of course, is the right answer).

However, Barron's disingenuous answers began shortly thereafter when he tried to justify the unaccountable, non-elected members (my emphasis added).

First, Barron stated:  "We receive considerable state-support.  A part of the accountability for receiving that support is to have board members appointed by the state if you are a public or public-related institution.  This may be direct appointments by the Governor, or appointments by a Board of Regents (appointed by elected officials) or both.  They expect accountability because universities operate partially on taxpayer dollars.  This is the common practice.   We are accountable to elected officials who are the distributor of taxpayer dollars.

Separating fact from fiction:  
1.  The Commonwealth provided $272 million of a $4.9 billion budget for 2013.  That's only 5.6% -- hardly considerable.  It's about the same amount of money that PSU got in donations (private gifts, grants, and contracts).  

2. The only elected government official on the Board is Governor Tom Corbett, who has attended just one meeting during his tenure as governor.

Next, Barron attempted to justify the Business and Industry trustees.  "Most boards dearly love to have business and industry representatives.  They create connectivity, open doors, often donate significantly. They have wisdom from operating large institutions.  Most are alumni and, as such, add even greater value.   I know of no public or private institution that doesn’t work very hard to have business and industry leaders on their boards if state laws don’t get in the way. 


Separating fact from fiction:  
1.  If the B&I trustees were so connected, one might expect that a considerable amount of PSU's research grants would come from industries represented by this group.  That is not the case.  PSU's 2013 OMB Circular A-133 audit of Federal grants reveals none of the companies associated with the B&I members among the grantees.  Typically, private sector companies like Boeing, SAIC, Northrup Grumman, and many others provide research funding via "pass throughs" (see page 43 of the audit report).    

The fact of the matter is our B&I trustees are mostly in banking, investing, and finance -- which provide little in the way of grants.  

2.  Those of us who have been watching since 11-9-11 are hard pressed to see any wisdom coming from the direction of the B&I trustees.  Consider that almost every benchmarking activity related to Board reform showed that PSU's Board was exceptionally large and that a smaller Board would be more in line with other Universities.  Yet, Richard Dandrea and others offered AND PASSED a proposal to increase the size of the board.  This brought more negative comments from Senator Yudichak, who went as far as to state that the BOT's attempt to change the structure of the Board may be illegal.

Barron closed with another  false statement about PSU's funding:  "We also have to remember that this institution operates almost solely on dollars from students and the taxpayer."


Separating fact from fiction:  
1.  Less than half of the University's revenues are from tuition and the state appropriation

About $1.82B of $4.9B (37%) is from those sources and  -- the state appropriation is rather minuscule at $272 million.  

2.  The "institution's" other major sources of revenues include Hershey Medical center at $1.3B (28%), government and other grants about $620M (12%), and the rest are cats and dogs, none contributing more than 8%.

It is very hard to give President Barron the benefit of the doubt at this point, given that he has been in place since May and seems to be of the mindset that he can "snow" the alumni about the operations of PSU.

Conclusion

On September 19th, over 1500 alumni signed a letter, which was run as a 2 1/2 page ad in the Centre Daily Times asking President Barron to bring Louis Freeh back to campus for a civil discussion of the Freeh Report.

To date, the authors of the letter (Eileen Morgan and I) have not received a response.

It appears that when it comes to having a meaningful and civil discussion on the issues, President Barron has opted to stand with the OGP and shut out those who disagree with the University's positions.

Trustee decision on settlement driven by secrecy, self-interest, and football

Yesterday's decision by the intransigent "Gang of 19" was secretive, self-serving.

By
Ray Blehar

After taking some time to reflect on yesterday's decision by the PSU BOT, it comes as no surprise that the 11/9/11 trustees and their "Praetorian Guard" (a.k.a., the Gang of 19) used that vote as a means to avoid discovery in the Corman v. NCAA  lawsuit.  If a settlement is reached without going through the discovery, another avenue for finding out the real story behind the NCAA Consent Decree will be shut off.   

The Corman suit was imminent and would have perhaps revealed some of the behind the scenes negotiating and deal making between the BOT inner circle and the NCAA.   With that lawsuit in the rear view mirror, the PSU legal counsel will keep up its fight to avoid turning over information pertaining to the Paterno v. NCAA lawsuit.

BOT Secrecy

Recall that in November 2011, in the immediate aftermath of the Sandusky scandal, the PSU BOT promised to be more open and transparent and in February 2012 launched its openness web-site.  However, when the alumni started asking the tough questions during Erickson's "listening tour" and during time provided at PSU BOT meetings, the Board quickly retreated from its openness position.   As we know from the efforts of Ryan Bagwell, Bill Cluck, and others, Penn State is not about to make an exception about being exempt from the Right-To-Know law and it will attempt to use attorney-client privilege whenever possible to avoid revealing information about its activities.  

Eckel: Protect board reform
discussions by using
attorney-client  privilege

In September 2013, board member Keith Eckel, who chairs the Committee on Governance and Long Range Planning, recommended that the governance consultant hired by Penn State be an attorney so that all discussions would be protected by attorney-client privilege.  

Of course, Eckel is a piker when compared to Kenneth Frazier.  Frazier, who was the General Counsel for Merck when it defended against the Vioxx lawsuits, attempted to preclude all Merck communications that went to its legal department from discovery under the auspices of attorney-client privilege.  The judge in the case, Eldon E. Fallon, rejected the argument and ruled that attorney-client privilege must be determined on a document-by-document basis.  Merck made several other arguments attempting to "blanket" protect information from discovery and those too were rejected by Judge Fallon.

Frazier:  Behind the A/C
privilege moves?

Frazier was elected as a Business and Industry trustee on July 1, 2009 -- not long after the Sandusky investigation had been put before a grand jury.  I'm certainly not implying any connection between Frazier's election to the board and the Sandusky investigation, however the evidence on how PSU responded to grand jury subpoenas indicates that Frazier may have been advising then-PSU General Counsel Cynthia Baldwin on how to avoid turning over information.  

Prosecutor Frank Fina's letter of December 19, 2011 (see exhibit O) admonished Baldwin and PSU for attempting to perform its privilege review without law enforcement supervision.  As Fina rightly stated, that procedure completely defeats the purpose of the subpoena, which was to ensure that materials are gathered in their "natural and unaltered state."

Baldwin: Ultimately responsible for
grand jury subpoena non-compliance

Right-To-Know (RTK) emails obtained from the PA Department of Education revealed that Frazier, Tomalis, and others involved in the Special Investigations Task Force had several discussions about the Fina letter regarding "Grand Jury Subpoena Compliance."  Frazier remarked that he believed there were "issues with the incumbent" (Baldwin).  

Baldwin announced her retirement just one month later in January 2012, with the press reporting her retirement was not related to the Sandusky scandal.  The Fina letter and subsequent email evidence suggests the opposite.

The value of the RTK efforts of Bagwell and Cluck cannot be overstated.  Those efforts have provided the PSU Community with considerable insights into the behind the scenes activities of the Board, the Board's attitude toward the alumni, and the cooperation between the Freeh group and the Attorney General during Freeh's so-called "independent" investigation.  

There is no doubt that the lid is being lifted off what happened at PSU and there really is nothing that the PSU BOT or General Counsel Steve Dunham can do to stop it.  The most positive outcome of yesterday's meeting was that the Alumni Trustees got those who want to maintain secrecy on the record.  While the vote will go down as a vote on a settlement resolution, the real issue that brought the NCAA to the settlement table was undoubtedly discovery in the Corman case.  Secondarily, the Gang of 19 and the NCAA also want to avoid getting egg on their collective faces from a ruling that would invalidate the Consent Decree.

Good Public Relations for the BOT, Not Penn State

The Board's handling of the Sandusky scandal was rated as the top public relations disaster for 2011 and 2012.  Dozens of media outlets wrote stories on how badly the University had mangled the communications, despite the fact the PSU has one of the top communications programs in the country.  

PSU's Dr. Donald Hambrick,
World Renowned Mgmt Expert

That irony shouldn't be lost on any of us, considering that PSU has one of the foremost management experts, Dr. Donald Hambrick, of the Smeal College of Business on staff, yet PSU's management of the University since 11/9/11 has been disastrous.  One would think the Board would be wise enough to turn to some of PSU's own in-house experts for help, but as the evidence has revealed, the Gang of 19 (and it's 11/9/11 predecessors) know what's in the best interest of PSU.  

The Gang of 19's PR efforts can be summed up rather simply.  Make sure that the public knows just how horrible things are at PSU right now and that the University is so fortunate to have a  Board that will fix everything.  Translation: the Board doesn't mind trashing the University, so long as an occasional crumb of good news is written about them.

The most recent example of this was the decision to include the Sandusky crime statistics in the data for 2012, rather than in the years the crimes actually occurred.  30 of the 63 crimes reported for 2012 happened between 1970 and 2011, according to campus safety officer, Gabe Gates.  The overall result of that decision was to (artificially)  thrust into the top position among U.S. colleges and universities for having an unsafe campus environment in the total number of forcible sex offenses for the years 2010-2012.  PSU PR employee, Lisa Powers, remarked that PSU didn't mind the "additional scrutiny" if it meant that the University could "share its best practices."  I'm sure other universities and colleges are beating down the BOT's doors to learn from them.

Seriously?  You can't make this stuff up. 

Moving along to the issue of the Consent Decree, several of the Gang of 19, including Keith Eckel, Kathleen Casey, and Richard Dandrea, stated that one of the reasons the Board should not strike the language about complying with the Consent Decree was that "we" (meaning, "they") had made such progress that it would be wrong to turn back now and send the wrong message about Penn State.  

Cutting to the chase, the Gang was clearly focused on what they believe will be a positive report from former Senator George Mitchell and the positive publicity it will generate about the alleged improvements at PSU.

Mitchell: AIA mointor or PR for BOT?

I anxiously await the report by Senator Mitchell to see if the Board has reigned him in and kept him focused on his role to monitor the 8 of 9 recommendations in the Athletic Integrity Agreement.  Note that recommendation 5.4 Academic Support for Athletes was completed in June 2012 -- before the Consent Decree existed.  In other words,  the inner circle and Erickson accepted a recommendation that they knew wasn't applicable at the time the CD was signed.  The other eight weren't exactly necessary either in terms of improving things, but needed to support the fallacy fixing our "integrity" problems.

If Mitchell's upcoming report is like the previous one, it will be well outside the scope of the AIA and give the Board pats on the back for everything and anything it accomplished.  I also suspect that Mitchell will not be so forthcoming in reporting the "warts" that have popped up since his last report, such as Emmanuil Kaidanov's lawsuit against Dave Joyner and Julie Del Giorno.  The lawsuit maintains that Joyner and Del Giorno fired Kaidanov in part because he was complying with an NCAA rule that required him to investigate potential NCAA violations by one of his athletes.

As the Alumni trustees rightly pointed out, Penn State has been doing things the right way for the last 61 years not just the last two. Penn State football was recognized by Miles Brand, former NCAA president, as the model for combining academics and athletics.  It wasn't just Brand who knew this.  Everyone knew it.  And that is why there is such a gulf right now.  When Mark Emmert condemned the PSU culture, his statements were based on the fallacies contained in the Freeh Report.  PSU alumni will fight everyday (until we die) against having to live a lie.

The Gang of 19 has fully bought into the lies of the Freeh Report and, by extension, the NCAA Consent Decree, as a means glorify their role in "fixing" the culture at PSU.

Blinded by Bowl Games

Closely related to the Gang of 19's desire for the positive report from former Senator Mitchell, was their expectation that the report would also bring relief from some of the sanctions.  Most likely among the relied would be the lifting of the bowl ban and the restoration of a few scholarships.  This too would result in positive publicity on the sports pages for the Gang, but as is typically the case, would dredge up the false narrative of how the football program put its success above the welfare of children.

Perhaps the most interesting comments of the day were made by Gubernatorial Appointee, Kathleen Casey, who said this:

Kathleen Casey: NCAA is her client?

" I think that if the removal of this language is to suggest that we would be backing away from the continued commitment to full compliance with the consent agreement, I think that'd be a horrible message to send, at a time when, again, they're looking at the prospects of additional relief and this relief is not efemoral (sic). This is real, I don't disagree with, I understand very deeply the, the issues that have been raised about some of the alumni. The search for truth and the desire for so greater accounting. What I'd also say though, I can't believe that would result in a statement today that we are disavowing our continued commitment to the clients."

Commitment to the clients?  Is Kathleen Casey actually saying our "independent monitor" (Mitchell) is a client? And the plural statement also implies she views the NCAA as a client, as well.

We understood that Louis Freeh was legally a client of the BOT, but now we've just gone into a whole new realm of understanding the perceptions and priorities of Ms. Casey - and it's rather disturbing.  While she understands deeply the issues of the 600,000 alumni, we're just the cattle. The persons we need to please are George Mitchell and Mark Emmert.  I think that's the message here and given what has transpired over the last two years, she's not the only one of the Gang who believes that.

To summarize, the wishes of the alumni "for truth and the desire for greater accounting" shall be trumped by the good publicity generated by the roll back of a few sanctions.  That is not just Casey's view, but also made clear by Dandrea and Eckel.

As Lubrano succinctly put it, "trading integrity for football.We're not interested in becoming that."

Financial Impacts

Goldstein, Lord, and Lubrano also brought up the financial side of the decision, with Goldstein making the cogent argument that more time should be spent to analyze the outcome of this decison.  Lord said it was far more than a $5 to $15 million decision and rather another $100 million  decision.  

Clearly, the Gang of 19, and their predecessors no the 11/9/11 Board had little appreciation of the financial impact of their decisions.  John Surma's remarks on that fateful day was that the board made the best decision to serve the "long term interest" of the University. 

That ill-fated decision to fire Paterno and Spanier and tacitly admit guilt for enabling Sandusky's crimes is nearing $200 million in additional costs in fines, consulting and legal fees. A November 2013 accounting by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette put the total at $171 million.  

The 11/9/11 trustees also erred in concluding that the victim settlements would be paid by PSU's insurer - The Pennsylvania Manufacturer's Association Insurance Company.   The policy in effect specifically excluded payments for sexual abuse and molestation.  As a result, the $59.7 million in settlements paid to the victims were from University funds.  The University is suing in an attempt to recover the monies, but has little chance of winning the lawsuit.  Its policy which has been in effect since 1992 states that sexual abuse and molestation is not covered.

The other side of this equation are revenue declines, which are not just related to athletics but to overall giving to the University.  The issue of openness and transparency rears its head here  as well, because the AD didn't publish its Nittany Lion Club renewal information for 2013 and 2014.

Nittany Lion Club

Once upon a time, the NLC would provide a letter or email each year updating the NLC membership and point standings. That allowed members to gauge were they might fall in the pecking order for seating and purchase of away game and bowl tickets.  

The latest figures from the NLC only cover the years 2008 to 2012 and they revealed a decline of nearly 1,500 members in the NLC from 2011 to 2012.  

Also, note that 2011, the first year of STEP, showed a spike in lower level contributors.  That is exactly what STEP was supposed to encourage - bringing new fans to Beaver Stadium using the lure of premium seating.  But it appears that 2011 was a fleeting success, as the sour taste of 11/9/11 surely had much to do with the decline from 2011 to 2012.  We are left to wonder where membership was in 2013 and 2014.

Merchandising

Merchandising is a rather important metric because it is a gauge of perceptions about the University.  If people like you, they buy your t-shirt.  T-shirt sales are down.

From 2011 to 2013, Penn State fell from #10 to #19.  Interestingly, from 2011 to 2012, PSU had fallen just two spots to #12, but when the Freeh Report went unchallenged, which by extension meant that the Board allowed PSU's reputation to be smeared, the bottom fell out.  In terms of dollars, PSU 2013 revenues from merchandising, royalties, advertising, and licensing came in around $5.1M.   

On a related note, local businesses reported a 20% drop in revenues since the scandal.  This was noted in the film,  365 Days: A Year in Happy Valley.

Ticket Sales

Attendance has been on a constant decline since peakng in 2007, however the drop off from 2012 to 2013 was visible to the naked eye.  One only need to look around Beaver Stadium in 2013 to get a reminder of what the 11/9/11 decision meant to PSU's once loyal fan base.  For most games, the tops of the both the East and West stands were vacant as were patches of premium seats around mid-field.  The upper decks were perhaps 2/3 full (for most games).  The AD reported that the average attendance from 2012 to 2013 dropped by only about 143 fans per game, from 96,587 per game  to the 2012 average of 96,730.  Who should we believe, the AD or our own eyes?  

Donations

Overall donations to the PSU athletics fell from $34.2 million to $25.5 million between 2011 and 2012.  In 2013, it fell by $1.1 million to $24.4 million. 

2013 PSU Report on Philanthropy and Giving

Penn State took a rather dramatic decrease in gifts and endowments from 2011 to 2012.  The major spike in 2011 was due to a very good year in bringing in new commitments. On average, there are about $275 million new commitments per year, but in 2011 that spiked to $353.3 million. The decline from 2012 to 2013 was very modest and appears to be a return to "normalcy" if viewed optimistically.  However, it is also possible that 2011 could have been the "new normal," but the Sandusky scandal took away those gains.

Sanctions Impact Will Be Felt Long After 2016

Yesterday, Eckel and others were equally oblivious in their assessment that the settlement decision was a short term deal and that the end of the sanctions is just around the corner.    Eckel also opined to fight the NCAA though litigation would drag on for years and that PSU is better off to get this behind them.

Earth to Eckel -- most any litigation would end long before the "punishment" ends for the Athletic Department -- and that punishment was given to the AD by the 11/9/11 Board, not the NCAA.

The reality of the situation is if things go as planned, the AD will be done paying on its loans related to the scandal in 2047.  That would be the end date of the internal loans that PSU would provide to the AD to finance the fines.  A quick back of the envelope accounting reveals that providing the AD a 3% interest loan over 30 years would result in the AD paying out about $3M annually in principle and interest on the loan.  That's $3M off the bottom line and essentially offsets the average Big Ten annual bowl revenue share.

Rejecting the Consent Decree Remains As The Right Decision

Complete rejection of the Consent Decree results in savings of $60M to PSU immediately and turns what would be a zero net gain in bowl revenue over the next 35 years into a positive cash flow.  

It seems that the Gang of 19 (and their predecessors) don't have any appreciation of the concept of fiduciary responsibility.  The simple math here is $60M vs. $10-15M.  Reject the consent decree and PSU keeps its money and only taking a small hit for the remaining bowl revenue loss.  Part of the rejection of the CD would also be terminating Mitchell from his unneeded role as AIA monitor.  Perhaps, Mitchell could offer his services elsewhere.  I hear the Governor is looking for a new education advisor to replace Ron Tomalis.

Yesterday was a major opportunity lost.  

The Commonwealth court drove the need for the settlement discussion when it questioned the validity of the CD.  Even the dissenting judge on the panel remarked that spending the previous agreement by the Board to pay the $60 million in fines was a violation of fiduciary responsibility as the purpose was outside the mission of education.

The NCAA is taking arrows from all sides and the public's opinion of it as an organization couldn't be lower.  It was time for the Board to take a stand.   

Telling the NCAA to take a flying leap would have also done wonders to repair the damage between the Board and PSU alumni, fans, and friends.  

People who are withholding donations would again open up their wallets.  Those of us who decided to forego our "extra" football tickets would likely buy them back.  Quite honestly, that decision would have moved PSU toward real unification for the first time since 11/9/11.

But it was not to be.  

Secrecy and self-interest is standing in the way.

Senator Yudichak sees what we all see.

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NCAA Half Measure on Sanctions Falls Short

The NCAA's decision to roll back some of the sanctions as a result of "progress" with the Freeh Report's recommendations on Athletics is yet another smokescreen by Emmert and the BOT.

By
Ray Blehar

While I welcome the decision by the NCAA to restore some of the scholarship to the football program, it's reasoning for doing so is nothing less than farcical.

As most Penn Staters - and college football fans in general - know, Penn State had a sterling reputation for its ability to perform at high levels on the field and in the classroom.  All this done with not a single NCAA violation.   

In  the years prior to the Sandusky Scandal, Penn State's 89 percent graduation rate and 85 percent Graduation Success Rate were tops among all teams in the Associated Press' final 2009 Top 25 poll, according to NCAA data. The Nittany Lions' GSR and four-year federal graduation rate were second only to Northwestern among Big Ten Conference teams, according to the NCAA's 2010 graduation report.

For the late Coach Paterno's career, the Nittany Lions have counted 16 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athletes, 37 first-team Capital One/CoSIDA All-Americans® (47 overall) and 18 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners. 

And in 2010, NCAA President Mark Emmert, called Joe Paterno “the definitive role model of what it means to be a college coach.” 

PSU needed the Athletic Integrity Agreement like a fish needed a bicycle.

However, less than one year later, Mark Emmert would levy unprecedented sanctions on PSU, based on some obscure rules buried in the NCAA By-Laws which were buttressed by slim evidence provided  in the now discredited Freeh Report.

Today's decision to reduce the NCAA Sanctions is little more than a Hail Mary pass by Emmert and the BOT with the hopes of appeasing their opponents who they incorrectly accused of being part of a non-existent "football culture" at PSU.   

The opposition is not going away.  Not until all the wrongs are righted -- more on that later.

But what of this fallacious reasoning for the reduction of the NCAA Sanctions?

NCAA and Penn State's Revised Consent Decree

The revised Consent Decree, below, states that the NCAA has reduced the sanctions because of the compliance and efforts toward implementation of the....Athletics Integrity Agreement.




























What is truly amazing about the "progress" that PSU made since last August is that it's ability to meet the Freeh Report recommendations for Athletics, on which the AIA is based, required them to do very little.

While the AIA is about a dozen pages long and filled with a lot of language, the bottom line is that addresses a dozen (12) recommendations in the Freeh Report that were mostly unnecessary and unsupported by evidence.  And when you read how PSU addressed the recommendations on the PSU Progress Web-site, released in July 2013,  you will see what an "outlaw" program PSU must have been to take such drastic changes (sarcasm).

A brief summary of the  recommendations and commentary follows.

5. Athletics
5.1  Recommendation:  Intercollegiate Athletics Organization Structure:  Revise structure to define lines of authority and responsibility.   Action:  Changes made to number of senior members responsible for football operations, compliance and human resources.  

Comment:  As usual, in the aftermath of a crisis or scandal, recommend redrawing the organization chart.  Consulting 101.

5.2  Recommendation:  Athletic Facilities Access:  Evaluate security protocols for athletic, recreational, and camp facilities.  Action:  PSU originated Policy AD 72 regarding facilities access and improved video surveillance/card access procedures.

Comment:  Sandusky committed no crimes on PSU's campus after 2001 and the majority of his crimes occurred off campus.  No crimes were ever reported as occurring at a PSU sports camp.  There was little need for this recommendation.

5.3  Recommendation:  Intercollegiate Athletics National Searches:  Conduct national searches for key positions including head coaches and Associate Athletic Directors and above.  Action:  PSU crafted policy HR-101 to require national searches and national searches are underway for the baseball, softball, and swimming/diving programs.

Comment:  Recommendation should be implemented retro-actively back to 11-9-11 and a national search for a qualified Athletic Director should commence immediately.  Oh, and we need to find a new fencing coach.

5.4 Recommendation:  Academic Support for Athletes.  Action: Already fully implemented in June 2012 (in other words, no action taken because none was needed).

Comment:  Recommendation was unnecessary as evidenced by PSU's already outstanding academic record for its athletes.


5.5 Recommendation:  Athletic Compliance:  Hire additional compliance staff.  Action:  Two positions added and an upgrade of an existing positon.

Comment:  Not needed.

5.5.1 Recommendation: Benchmark Athletics Compliance:  Benchmark peer institutions.  Action: PSU completed benchmarking with Big Ten schools and is considering hiring an additional compliance staff member.

Comment:  PSU's only peer in the Big Ten is Northwestern.  Most other conference schools have had NCAA violations, including Michigan (NCAA Final Four banners removed from Crisler Arena) and  Ohio State (on probation, 2010 wins vacated). Prior to 2011, eight Big Ten schools had been hit with major violations since 2000.  This recommendation was/is ludicrous.

5.5.2 Recommendation:  Compliance Reporting Relationship.  Establish and effective reporting relationship with the University Compliance Officer.   Action:  Associate AD for Compliance and Athletic Integrity Officer will report to the Director of University Ethics and Compliance.

Comment:  Sounds good in theory, however, a legitimate conflict of interest policy is the key to an effective Ethics program.  PSU doesn't have the former, thus it cannot accomplish the latter.

5.5.3 Recommendation:  Intercollegiate Athletics Compliance Registration.  Realign to ensure the AD staff members is overseen by the Athletics Compliance Officer.  Action:  Some new duties assigned to compliance staff.

Comment:  Nothing to see here.

5.5.4 Recommendation:  Compliance Education.  Ensure personnel have knowledge of NCAA, Big Ten, and University rules.  Action:  Compliance staff conducted training and will emphasize following rules in employee performance evaluations.

Comment:  Quite a novel recommendation.  Employees should follow rules.  Remember, PSU paid $8M dollars for this nonsense.


5.6: Recommendation: Compliance Training. 

E

nsure that Athletic Department employees
comply with University-wide training mandates.

Comment:  The Freeh Report did not cite any specific instances in which athletic department employees alone were not complying with training mandates.  Freeh's report cited University wide lack of compliance.


5.6.1: Recommendation: Track Compliance: Training 

Provide and track initial and on-going training for 

athletic staff in matters of leadership, ethics, the 

Penn State Principles and standards of conduct, 

abuse awareness, and reporting misconduct 

pursuant to the Clery Act and University policy.

Comment:  Same as above. This recommendation/correction applies to PSU as a whole, based on the evidence presented in the Freeh Report.


5.6.2: Recommendation: Management Training 

Opportunities 

Include Athletic Department employees in 

management training programs provided to other 

University managers.

Comment:  There was no evidence in the Freeh Report that indicated Athletic Department employees weren't already participating in management training offered by the University.

Conclusion

It's evident that most of the recommendations regarding improvements to PSU's Academic Integrity were not needed and the only one that most people agree was needed is a national search for a new Athletic Director, which of course, PSU is not considering.  Also, rumor has it that PSU is looking to extend Director of Athletic "Affairs," Dave Joyner's tenure by seven years.  The bottom line is that PSU did next to nothing to "fix" the non-existent integrity issues in the athletic department and the BOT and Emmert are patting themselves on the back for this nonsense.

Recommendations

This half measure by the NCAA (and the BOT) is, as BOT member Anthony Lubrano put it, a "baby step" in righting the wrongs that were an outgrowth of the BOT's mishandling of the Sandusky Scandal.

PSU alumni, students, fans, and supporters should not be satisfied until the NCAA:
1)  Rescinds all of the sanctions (scholarships and wins fully restored).
2)  Refunds the money PSU paid in fines.
3)  Refunds the money wasted by PSU to hire and pay George Mitchell/DLA Piper.

In addition the remaining 11/9/11 PSU BOT members, including Erickson, must:
1)  Issue apologies to the Paterno family, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley, and Gary Schultz.
2)  Resign

The Pennsylvania Legislature must:
1)  Reorganize the BOT and install interim trustees and a new President.
2)  Continue to press reforms in Pennsylvania's Child Protection system.

We are not moving forward until the full truth is known, the NCAA sanctions are removed, PSU is properly governed, and Pennsylvania's children get the protection they deserve.