Editorial: Penn State should make transparency more of a priority

Penn State’s reputation has suffered incalculably in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s grand jury… Penn State’s reputation has suffered incalculably in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s grand jury indictment, and the subsequent student riots only exacerbated matters. It’s unsurprising, then, that the university’s President Rodney Erickson felt obligated to make bold, somewhat unconvincing assurances about the college’s inevitable rebound.

In a recent interview with USA Today, Erickson promised to transform Penn State from a football-centric school to a “world-class research institution.” He added that the university planned to establish a Center for the Protection of Children, a research and treatment facility for victims of child abuse that Big Ten revenues will help support.

Although we’re glad the university is taking steps to stop pedophiles, we’re a bit disappointed with Erickson’s pledges. Despite its “party school” status, Penn State is arguably already a “world-class” institution — ranked 45th in the country by U.S. News & World Report and 43rd in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Furthermore, we don’t think excelling at football and academics are mutually exclusive (see: Stanford).

What we would rather hear from Erickson are a few concrete proposals for increasing Penn State’s transparency. Bureaucracy, not just insensitivity, allowed these alleged abuses to go unchecked. Somewhere in that chain of command, someone failed to do his or her job.

To ensure this alleged negligence isn’t repeated, we suggest allowing police — local police, not campus police — access to all internal investigations of illegal activity at every level. Had someone immediately notified State College law enforcement of Mike McQueary’s allegations, the worst of this fiasco might have been avoided.

Penn State should also consider a more thorough restructuring of its administrative hierarchy. Whatever codes of conduct hold faculty and staff to inadequate ethical standards merit a complete overhaul, and whoever was complicit in the alleged cover-up — the list seems to grow larger each day — should be suspended or fired.

To his credit, Erickson did pledge in a town hall meeting to “raise the visibility of ethics in the university,” and to create an environment in which students “feel free, either individually or as groups of students, to approach” the administration. He’s also, in his list of “five promises,” dedicated himself to encouraging a “dialogue” with community members. Thus far, however, he hasn’t delved into specifics.

Despite Sandusky’s alleged crimes, Penn State is not, to the best of our knowledge, a breeding ground for pedophiles. Thus, although the University’s efforts to help abuse victims are admirable, they don’t address a crucial problem: administrative oversight. This is Penn State’s chance to demonstrate a real commitment to transparency. Let’s hope its leaders don’t settle for anything less.