Archives for July 12, 2012

Just a reminder of today’s schedule.

At 9:00 AM the Freeh Report will be released to the public. A PDF version of the report in its entirety will be available at www.TheFreehReportonPSU.com. (NOTE: Predictably, the servers are overloaded, so it might take several tries to get through. While you are waiting, ESPN is reporting that the “long-awaited internal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky [child sexual abuse scandal] says senior leaders disregarded the safety and welfare of his victims.” The report is 267 pages long, so don’t plan on reading it during your morning crapper break, unless you’re as old as this Turkey!)

UPDATE: I’ve posted the report here.

Meanwhile, PSU posted this statement:

Statement from University leadership and the Board of Trustees:

Today with the report released by Judge Louis Freeh, the Penn State Board of Trustees delivered on the commitment we made last November when we engaged Judge Freeh to conduct an independent investigation into the University’s actions regarding former Penn State employee, Jerry Sandusky, and the handling of allegations of the child abuse crimes of which he has since been found guilty.

Judge Freeh and his team conducted a rigorous eight-month investigation into all aspects of the University’s actions to determine where breakdowns occurred and what changes should be made for the future. We, like many others, have eagerly anticipated Judge Freeh’s Report of the findings of his investigation.

His 267-page report has just been released at http://www.TheFreehReportonPSU.com/ and we are currently reviewing his findings and recommendations. We expect a comprehensive analysis of our policies, procedures and controls related to identifying and reporting crimes and misconduct, including failures or gaps that may have allowed alleged misconduct to go undetected or unreported. We will provide our initial response later today.

We want to ensure we are giving the report careful scrutiny and consideration before making any announcements or recommendations. We are convening an internal team comprising the Board of Trustees, University administration and our legal counsel to begin analyzing the report and digesting Judge Freeh’s findings.

As we anticipate the review and approval process will take some time, our initial response and immediate next steps will be presented at 3:30 p.m. at the Dayton/Taylor Conference Room at the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center.

These top-line reactions will provide an overview of our process for developing and implementing a plan once we have studied the report and have a better understanding of what it means and how we can implement findings to strengthen Penn State’s role as a leading academic institution and ensure that what occurred will never be allowed to happen again.

At 10:00 AM there will be a press conference in Philadelphia.

I’ll be tied up for part of the morning, but if you happen to read the report and want to comment, please feel free to add comments to this post. I’ll be back later in the day with my take on the Freeh Report after reading it.

Let us hope that the results of this investigation give us some closure, and that they answer more questions than they leave!