Question About PSU-Altoona's Reaction to Sandusky situation

[Don Hughes]

Jim Price would probably have the best gauge on this, but I wonder what the reactions are at a satellite campus like Penn State-Altoona to the situation?

[Jim Price]

I was standing in the downtown Devorris Center lobby when the news broke that Joe Paterno was resigning and that school president Graham Spanier would imminently either resign or be terminated. The mood at that moment felt like the President had just been assassinated...complete shock and awe.

PSU Altoona felt the impact, to be sure, but we tend to be a little insulated from the goings on at University Park, especially as we have turned into a 4-year school for a lot of programs. So people were talking about it, and people were troubled by it, but we carried on our normal duties as best we could. We've received some email updates both from University Park and PSU Altoona regarding the situation and the path forward from it. We've been encouraged to discuss the situation with our students, especially if we can tie it to our class discussions. Since my two mass media class sections just happened to be studying public relations this past week, I showed them Penn State's online public relations regarding the Sandusky situation, and showed them what PR damage control is about. I'm actually planning to give an extra-credit assignment to all three of my classes to write about some aspect of what happened. I figure that will enable my students to speak out about it and get it out of their systems.

I have a department meeting to attend this week; I will probably get a better gauge on how PSU Altoona is dealing with the situation at that meeting.