Editorial column: Stop rewriting Nittany Lion history in wake of Sandusky charges

Arianna Delin By Arianna Delin
on December 02, 2011 at 8:50 AM
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In the spring my friends and I walked around campus taking graduation pictures. We stopped at each place that had significant meaning to the lives that we had during our years at Penn State. Our last stop: the Joe Paterno statue.

Who would have thought that six months later the man that helped make the school become what it is today would be under such scrutiny and everything we thought we knew about Penn State would be questioned. How far will it go?

Penn State’s reputation as a party school is nothing new. However, we are also known as one of the top schools for academics and most of all, we were known for our football program. Success with honor, as head Coach Joe Paterno would say.

Penn State was where I made my best friends and had the best experiences. It was the nights spent studying late with roommates for an exam. It was waking up at the crack of dawn to go to a horse show and tailgating on Saturdays. We were, and are, proud to be Nittany Lions.

Jerry Sandusky was allegedly caught in the Penn State locker room showers with an under-age boy “horsing around” and touching him inappropriately. Sandusky is being charged with child abuse and multiple victims have come forward stating that they were abused in addition to the one boy seen in the showers.

Since the reports of the Sandusky incident have come out, it seems like everyone has forgotten that Penn State is more than just the football coaches and the wrongs that some of them have allegedly done. There’s a spotlight on any bad behavior, shining a negative light on the school and people that had nothing to do with what occurred.

But what is worse is how the administration and Board of Trustees are acting. They are taking matters too far.

By firing Joe Paterno and not allowing him to finish the season, they not only alienated the student body, but cut short the history of a coaching legend. True, JoePa may have been involved in some way with the Sandusky events, but he is a cornerstone of the university and has been coaching since he was 21. The board could have allowed him to finish coaching the last home game.

There was a rumor that the board would wait until students left for Thanksgiving break and then remove the Joe Paterno statue that stands at the base of Beaver Stadium. They didn’t, but the board did remove Paterno’s name from the Conference Championship trophy, which stands in the football museum.

What are they trying to accomplish? Will the administration attempt to erase all accounts of Paterno’s existence from campus history? Will future generations have Penn State history books with his name blacked out? How far will this scandal reach before things are taken under control?

In addition to the Joe Paterno statue rumors, there have also been accounts from present students that some employers are no longer interested in hiring them for an internship or job due to their connection to Penn State University. What do the students have to do with the football coaches?

As an alumna, I never thought that I would have to defend my alma mater from such events. At graduation, my friends and I had interviews lined up with jobs in the future. We had no worries about wearing Penn State T-shirts around town, or placing magnets or license plate covers on our cars. That was a daily activity with no hesitation, something every Penn Stater would do with pride.

Now, I think twice before putting on my Penn State track jacket and wearing it to the store, for fear of receiving comments about my school. I do think that the students need to stick together and show their pride for their school, but after hearing that my friend had her car egged for having Penn State stickers and magnets, I am hesitant to have my alma mater displayed for the world to see.

Our legal system will decide the guilt of anyone accused of a crime. Sandusky is being accused of breaking the law, and after all of the evidence is presented he may go to jail. In a live interview with NBC days after the news broke, the assistant football coach said that he “liked the company of young boys.”

However the judge finds Sandusky and the remainder of the football coaches, how much of this is going to change the face of Penn State? And what will it take for it to stop?

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