Former Penn State Faculty Senate Leaders Denounce NCAA Sanctions

The NCAA’s sanctions imposed on Pennsylvania State University for its response to Jerry Sandusky’s molestation crimes are based on “unproven” findings about the college’s culture, a group of former faculty leaders said.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s sanctions are based on “sweeping and unsupported generalizations” made by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was hired by Penn State to investigate the Sandusky affair, according to a statement yesterday from 30 former leaders of Penn State’s Faculty Senate.

After Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, was found to have molested boys on and off campus for 15 years, the NCAA reprimanded the university with a $60 million fine and a ban on playing in bowl games for at least four years. The athletic association cited Freeh, whose investigation found that top Penn State officials concealed allegations against Sandusky.

While Penn State needs to examine and improve its operations, “generalizations by the Freeh group and the NCAA do not provide a satisfactory basis for productive change,” the group of former faculty leaders said. “The sanctions are deeply unjust to the university and unfair to its students.”

The NCAA also vacated all Penn State’s football wins from 1998 to 2011.

-- Editors: James Callan, Stephen West

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at lwolfson@bloomberg.net