From the Breaking News of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Penn State trustees eye changes to board structure
Friday, March 16, 2012
By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
HERSHEY, Pa. --- Penn State University trustees are meeting here today, where they are expeted to adopt governance changes to address criticism that members failed to properly address child sex allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
But even as the board's afternoon session was convened at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, there were other developments relating to the ongoing scandal.
Cynthia Baldwin, Penn State's general counsel, issued a statement confirming that state prosecutors have served subpoenas on "a number of other university employees."
Ms. Baldwin, in a statement posted today on the Penn State's website, said that it would be up to the employees and their lawyers to say who received them.
Ms. Baldwin didn't say what the attorney general's office was investigating, or how many subpoenas were issued.
Last month the university made public a federal subpoena related to the child sexual abuse scandal for which Mr. Sandusky is awaiting trial. He faces 52 counts and denies the allegations.
Baldwin said the university doesn't plan to make any additional comment about the newly disclosed subpoenas.
Also today, Quinnipiac University released a poll today showing support for the university's late football coach Joe Paterno.
Pennsylvania voters, by a margin of 46 percent to 40 percent, like the idea of renaming Penn State's Beaver Stadium "Joe Paterno Stadium," according to the Quinnipiac poll.
There was, not surprisingly, even higher support among football fans: 55 percent yes and 37 percent no. Non-football fans are against the idea, 44 percent saying no to 37 percent saying yes.
Those registered to vote who are 65 years old and up support the renaming, 51 percent yes to 32 percent.
"There is lingering respect for Joe Paterno," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement this morning. "One has to wonder: If the Sandusky scandal had never happened whether support for renaming the stadium would have approached 100 percent."
The survey of 1,256 registered voters took place March 7-12.
Trustees fired Mr. Paterno in November amid the media firestorm that followed the Nov. 5 arrest of Mr. Sandusky, accused of sexually abusing at least 10 boys over 15 years, some of them on Penn State's University Park campus.
Though Mr. Paterno alerted superiors when informed of one alleged sexual assault in a campus shower in 2002, trustees said Mr. Paterno failed to meet a moral obligation to do more to see that the matter reached the hands of law enforcement. For nearly a decade, it did not.
A statement reiterating that position this week further inflamed alumni supporters of the nation's winningest major college football coach, who died in January at age 85 of complications from lung cancer.
A reform group, Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, vowed to send representatives to today's meeting and said the full board must resign.
A half-dozen disenfranchised supporters showed up as today's meeting began, each wearing a white t-shirt with blue letters that collectively spelled out the word "Resign."
Nevertheless, the board has said it wants to stay focused on improving transparency and governance, and said today's proposed changes are a start.
Trustees are expected to act on proposals to create three new board committees, modify three existing ones and establish a steering group of key university officials tasked with providing the full board with more frequent briefings on university matters.
Board Chair Karen Peetz has said faculty are likely to join the 32-member board as non-voting advisory committee members. Students and staff may gain a similar role.
Read more:
http://postgazette.com/pg/12076/1217251-454-0.stm#ixzz1pJhNLk7G
