A crisis doesn’t end based solely upon how well it’s handled at first.
In the case of Penn State University, I’d argue it could be decades before the outside world talks about the school without mentioning the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal in almost the same breath. 
That’s a shame. Penn State has long been one of the nation’s top institutions of higher learning. According to U.S. News & World Report, it’s is No. 8 among public universities and No. 37 overall among America’s 280 national universities. It boasts nearly 600,000 living alumni.
The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon is a yearlong effort to increase funds in the fight against pediatric cancer. Since 1977, it has raised more than $114 million. “THON” is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world.
I’m happy to praise PSU for these and many other great attributes. However, PSU administrators have failed their students, faculty and alumni with their recent actions in the wake of the Sandusky crisis. They have been completely tone-deaf when it comes to now-hollow declarations about the school’s reputation meaning more than the football program’s success. Deeds haven’t matched words.
We won’t re-litigate the Sandusky affair here, other than to remind you that it not only was the Associated Press top sports story of 2012, but also the AP’s No. 6 overall story of 2012.
That should have served as a harsh reminder to those in charge at Penn State that the hard work they did to restore the school’s good name would be built on a house of cards if they failed to remember the unprecedented nature of the disgrace.
Unfortunately, once football coach Bill O’Brien – the widely praised successor to Joe Paterno – bolted for the National Football League this past winter, the post-Sandusky administrative narrative that football would forever take a backseat to the overall character of the school began to seem like little more than an internal talking point.
Even as James Franklin was announced as the new coach in January, several of his former players awaited trial for sexually assaulting a student in June 2013 while he was head coach at Vanderbilt. The players were dismissed and Franklin has been cleared of wrongdoing by the prosecution. However, everyone had to know that additional facts would come to light as the trial approached.
Sure enough, last week, news broke that Franklin spoke with the alleged victim to check on her well-being and also emphasize her importance in attracting potential football recruits to the school.
Let me reiterate that Franklin has neither been accused, nor convicted of any wrongdoing. But if you are a school trying to rebuild its reputation less than two years removed from a sex scandal of epic proportions, you can’t tell me there isn’t another qualified coach from the more than 120 NCAA Division I-A schools or 32 NFL teams who wasn’t coaching a team embroiled in a sex scandal the previous season. Should Penn State have really taken that risk with literally hundreds of other choices at its disposal?
Even if you’re willing to make that leap, the next upper-level hiring decision by Penn State’s administrative staff should firmly establish that poor judgment in the wake of the Sandusky scandal has now become a pattern.
As comprehensively reported in a New York Times article last month, Florida State University allegedly fell short of performing due diligence during its investigation of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston’s alleged 2012 sexual assault of a fellow student. Florida State, of course, went on to win last year’s national championship with Winston at the helm of its offense after the local prosecutor announced he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute Winston.
To quote directly from the article: “University administrators, in apparent violation of federal law, did not promptly investigate either the rape accusation or the witness’s admission that he had videotaped part of the encounter. Records show that Florida State’s athletic department knew about the rape accusation early on, in January 2013, when the assistant athletic director called the police to inquire about the case. Even so, the university did nothing about it, allowing Mr. Winston to play the full season without having to answer any questions.”
How does that matter for Penn State? It just so happens former FSU president Eric Barron was named Penn State’s next president in February and was still set to take over in that capacity in University Park this month.
In an email to Bloomberg Businessweek, a Penn State spokeswoman wrote, “Penn State Trustees conducted all appropriate, thorough background checks and investigations required by institutional policy.”
After you endure one of the most horrific scandals in higher education history, I believe you need to conduct the hiring process of exceedingly well compensated public employees like Franklin and Barron with an approach so squeaky clean that it makes bleach seem like raw sewage.
Thus, the post-Sandusky platitudes about football coming second to the reputation of the school increasingly now ring empty and appear disingenuous. Actions must match words during and in the aftermath of a crisis situation on this scale.
Shouldn’t Penn State have done a better job reinforcing that the school’s long-term reputation matters more to stakeholders than getting the “hot” coach or hiring a president from a school where football has long been more important than any class being held on its campus?
Penn State needed to take the long view and stick to the path. Instead, it chose to forget lessons learned in the immediate aftermath and seemingly refocus on more quickly making up for lost athletic revenue caused (ironically) by penalties handed down to the football program in the wake of the Sandusky scandal.
Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter @churchjeremy. 
