Guys, look, the statue is coming down. In fact, if it's still up whenever PSU plays its next game I'll ride with NC Skins and help tear it down. Actually I won't, but I'll ride along and will defend NC once he gets arrested. While I can't prove it, I'm reasonably sure that these Board member quotes arguing that the statue should stay up are coming from one of the five or so new members elected this year after running on pro-Paterno platforms. People like this:
New Penn State Trustee Anthony Lubrano needs a dose of this little thing called reality (Video) | Larry Brown Sports
I do need to pushback against what I think has really been some piling on, here and other places. First, I'm not sure people realize that Penn State commissioned and paid for the Freeh Report. They didn't have to do that. More importantly, if they were trying to further suppress this story (as changing the channel in the student union is supposedly evidence of) they wouldn't have taken the lead in commissioning this type of report, or they would have farmed it out to someone less capable and unbiased than a former FBI director. The school has made some mistakes but it is trying to do the right thing moving forward and isn't getting enough credit for that. Everyone got fired, including Paterno before we knew the extent of his involvement (which ended up costing several board members their positions, not profiles in courage but still.) This stuff about changing the channel in the student union is an example. What do you think is more likely? That this was an order from up high to keep students in the dark? (Students who have like internet and stuff.) Or that this was the decision of some 12 dollar an hour shift mananager who probably has never been trained in PR and working under international media scrutiny? If they wanted to suppress this stuff they wouldn't have commissioned the report, simple as that.
SS, I don't get why you are so concerned about football players who had nothing to do with this but want federal scholarship funding cut for students who similarly had nothing to do with any of this, scholarships that allowed people like me to attend the most expensive state school in the country and are basically responsible for everything that I now have in my life. I get why people are angry but to just vindictively wish pain on anyone who has any PSU affiliation at all is just mean, and to show solicitude for football players (who can just transfer to a comparable institution easily) but not for regular students (who can't) is just perverse. I really don't get it.