STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — As Penn State tries to focus on the future, there are near-constant reminders about the past.
Retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is scheduled to stand trial next month on child sexual abuse charges that he has denied. Former FBI director Louis Freeh is leading the university’s internal probe into the scandal, one of several other inquiries into the case.
The school is trying to repair its image and go about with the business of academia while it deals with the aftermath of a crisis never before seen in higher education.
“It’s critical to see that there are a lot of positive things that are happening at this university,” school trustee Kenneth Frazier said at a board meeting this month. Frazier heads the trustees committee overseeing the Freeh investigation, and findings are expected to be released around the start of the next academic year in late August.
Despite the focus on the Freeh report, “the life of the university goes on unabated,” Frazier said.
Indeed, more than 8,500 seniors graduated two weeks ago at the system’s main campus in State College. The university could have its biggest incoming class in six years this fall with acceptances increasing 6 percent, Penn State President Rodney Erickson has said.
And a student-organized dance marathon in February, billed as the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, raised a record $10.68 million to benefit pediatric cancer patients and research.
