Guest Blog from Josh Jones

Lessons From Penn State

 The recent scandal at Penn State reveals more than Jerry Sandusky’s heinous crimes. It brings to light the all-too-common inaction, or even concealment, by bureaucratic leadership when confronted with allegations of impropriety - the prevailing rationale being protection of the institution. Ironically, collective silence in response to malfeasance does more harm to an institution than public knowledge of the crimes ever could.

At Penn State no less than a dozen university officials and employees were made aware of Sandusky’s serial abuse. As the many of the assaults occurred on university grounds over a fifteen year period, numerous employees witnessed the unspeakable acts in person. Despite all of this not a single person mustered the courage to stop Sandusky’s brutal crime spree or even attempted to restrict his access to victims. Instead, university leaders pusillanimously looked the other way hoping that they and their university could remain unscathed, unlike the children who they allowed to suffer. Now, in addition to Sandusky and his victims, known and unknown, three university officials are facing criminal charges, many more have lost their jobs and their reputations, and the university’s reputation is forever tarnished.

As university officials and employees we are not so different from primary actors in the Penn State tragedy. We too will likely be faced with confronting wrongdoing and will have a choice to make. Likely, hopefully even, the misdeeds we will confront won’t be as monstrous. Our reactions will matter nonetheless. Ultimately, making the hard choice and doing what we know is right, regardless of short-term consequences or fears of reprisal, will better serve us and our university.