Cleaning house
I just learned that Penn State has fired the football coach and the president for failing to ensure the safety of children under their supervision. About time. Maybe they had no legal obligation to report (and if necessary re-report) sexual abuse of children, but there's a moral standard that is higher than mere laws.
As a Penn State graduate, I am not in the least surprised to hear what's been trickling out of the campus the last several days. I can tell you from my own experiences in and around Penn State (I grew up in State College) that the football players got away with all sorts of shit. There was at least one rape report involving a football player in the student newspaper every year. Not once was there mention of so much as a hearing. I'm sure lots of money changed hands to ensure that the players kept playing. And they raised hell in the library during their enforced "study" time; I worked there and I threw a mob of them out of my department once.
Then there was my "it's not fair" moment. I had worked 20 hours a week all summer long even when I had mono to earn the money I needed for my fall term textbooks. When I went to buy them, there was a football player in line ahead of me. He showed the cashier a letter and his entire stack of texts was free. Free tuition and room and board, too. I couldn't have afforded school without taking out student loans had my father not been a professor and thus I got a 75% tuition discount. Don't hate me for that: he was in Art Education and was probably the lowest-paid full professor on campus, so we deserved a perk or two. I don't think athletes deserve a free ride; you can't be both a professional athlete and a student, there isn't time.
As a Penn State graduate, I am not in the least surprised to hear what's been trickling out of the campus the last several days. I can tell you from my own experiences in and around Penn State (I grew up in State College) that the football players got away with all sorts of shit. There was at least one rape report involving a football player in the student newspaper every year. Not once was there mention of so much as a hearing. I'm sure lots of money changed hands to ensure that the players kept playing. And they raised hell in the library during their enforced "study" time; I worked there and I threw a mob of them out of my department once.
Then there was my "it's not fair" moment. I had worked 20 hours a week all summer long even when I had mono to earn the money I needed for my fall term textbooks. When I went to buy them, there was a football player in line ahead of me. He showed the cashier a letter and his entire stack of texts was free. Free tuition and room and board, too. I couldn't have afforded school without taking out student loans had my father not been a professor and thus I got a 75% tuition discount. Don't hate me for that: he was in Art Education and was probably the lowest-paid full professor on campus, so we deserved a perk or two. I don't think athletes deserve a free ride; you can't be both a professional athlete and a student, there isn't time.