Business & Professional Ethics 7th Edition by Leonard Brooks,Paul Dunn

Exercise 63

In June 2012, Jerry Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing ten boys while he was an assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University. His abuse of children went back almost fourteen years, and was known by his superior, Joe Paterno, the head football coach. In 1998, there was an investigation by Penn State campus police after an allegation that Sandusky had molested a boy in the football shower room. It was later revealed that Paterno lied when he said that he was not aware of the 1998 investigation. In 2001, there was a report that Sandusky had abused a ten-year old boy in the showers at Penn State. Paterno convinced the university's senior administrators, including President Graham Spanier, that they should simply issue a warning letter to Sandusky. Finally, in November 2011, Sandusky was arrested on charges of sexually abusing ten boys. That same month Paterno, who held the record for the largest number of victories in American college football history, and Spanier, who was one of the longest serving of U.S. university presidents, were both fired.
In July 2012, Louis Freeh, a former director of the FBI who had been hired by Penn State University, issued a 250-page report to the university and turned his evidence over to the Pennsylvania State Attorney General. As a result, Tim Curley, the athletic director, and Garry Schultz, of campus police, are now facing criminal charges for their role in the 2001 cover-up.
Why would so many senior administrators protect a known pedophile and engage in such a cover-up? According to Freeh, there was a pervasive fear of bad publicity. "That publicity, Mr. Freeh said Thursday, would have hurt the nationally ranked football program, Mr. Paterno's reputation as a coach of high principles, the Penn State 'brand' and the university's ability to raise money as one of the most respected public institutions in the country."
Football is big business, raising millions and millions of dollars for American universities. Numerous administrators and officials at Pennsylvania State University put a higher value on college football than on the welfare of children. How would an organization develop such a misguided culture?