Penn State
Senate push seen for Open Records legislation
September 17, 2012
HARRISBURG - An effort to rewrite the state Right-to-Know law started well before the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State University, but fallout from the case is providing momentum to tackle the issue this coming fall. Read More…
Pa. lawmakers want greater openness from Penn State and others
August 21, 2012
When a newspaper in March 2011 first exposed a grand jury investigation into a child sexual-abuse scandal involving Pennsylvania State University, a lone member of the school's board of trustees e-mailed then-president Graham B. Spanier demanding answers. The trustee's effort to get information was revealed in a scathing report on the scandal by former FBI Director Louis Freeh. But the trustee's identity was not disclosed. Penn State subsequently declined a request from The Inquirer to provide the trustee's name. It's just one example of the kind of information Penn State and the three other "state-related universities" is not required to reveal because they are not fully subject to Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law. Read More…
Wagner: Make Penn State more accountable to taxpayers
July 27, 2012
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner on Thursday called for changing the way Pennsylvania State University operates by subjecting the school to right-to-know laws and removing the president as a voting member of the board of trustees. Read More…
Opinion: So much for more openness from Penn State, trustees
July 27, 2012
Despite proclaiming to embrace a new spirit of openness and transparency, Penn State’s board of trustees reacted to the news of NCAA sanctions by calling a hasty and unannounced closed-door meeting. Read More…
Opinion: Apply open records law to Penn State
July 19, 2012
Journalism educator Al Tompkins, a faculty member at the journalism training organization Poynter, followed the recent Louis Freeh report accusing Penn State leaders of covering up what they knew about Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse allegations by putting the focus on the university's exemption from the right-to-know law. Read More…
Opinion: How Open Records law would have stopped sex abuse sooner at Penn State
July 13, 2012
The Freeh report on the Jerry Sandusky Penn State sex abuse scandal makes many recommendations on how the whole rotten mess might be avoided in the future, including transforming the very culture of the university. Sadly, the report fails to recommend a tangible key change that might have exposed the problems and protected children years ago. Read More…
Support gathering to require more transparency at Penn State
July 09, 2012
HARRISBURG — Since former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky’s arrest last November, state lawmakers have tried to make Penn State University open up many of its internal documents as a condition of receiving taxpayer support. Read More…
