As we all await the Freeh report on Penn State (it will be released today), consider the Joe Paterno statue. Consider universities with a penchant for putting up statues of their living coaches and presidents — like Mountain State University in West Virginia (photo of its statuesque, just-fled, president here, along with details of its loss of accreditation). Ask yourself which sort of political leaders have statues of themselves dotting the landscape. Ask yourself why faculty members at Penn State weren’t so embarrassed by the cult of personality on their campus – a cult that made Paterno and his inner circle untouchable for years — that they opposed that statue.
You say it wouldn’t have done any good to oppose it? Of course it wouldn’t. That doesn’t matter. You’re supposed to go on record as caring about these sorts of things.
July 12th, 2012 at 8:28AM
From the NYT article, Paterno’s preemptive reply:
“Regardless of anyone’s opinion of my actions or the actions of the handful of administration officials in this matter, the fact is nothing alleged is an indictment of football or evidence that the spectacular collections of accomplishments by dedicated student athletes should be in anyway tarnished.”
So.
July 12th, 2012 at 9:10AM
http://assets.espn.go.com/pdf/2012/0712/psupressrelease.pdf