OK, so why didn't the Penn State stuff happen in the Ivy League?

[CTyankee]

Or maybe it did...who knows.

All this power and influence at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. Why not? These people were rich as anyone and super powerful with grads at the highest level of government and industry...what happened?

[virgogal]

1. Could happen anyplace.

[former9thward]

2. You answered your own question.

Maybe it has happened there as well as many other places.

[CTyankee]

5. If the maxim about "absolute power corrupts absolutely" holds water, then the Ivy League

would have been a natural for this kind of scandal.

My guess is that the Ivies do not award sports scholarships. Their idea is to promote, well, scholarship, so they don't do that. Perhaps that is the key to the problem. Once the sports scholarship and worship takes place, the school is at risk of trouble. It ain't a good sign for lots of state schools, if that is the case...

[Cerridwen]

21. I just read on wiki that you are correct; no athletic scholarships at Ivy League

schools.

I have no idea how accurate that is.

[CTyankee]

26. my ex husband is a harvard grad so I used to hear this ad nauseam.

but I think it is true, actually...

[mazzarro]

3. I thought Penn State is also an Ivy League School as well!

My impression is that it is the only state university that is also an Ivy League school - if I am not mistaken.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Penn, not Penn State.

[CTyankee]

7. No, but the University of Pennsylvania IS an Ivy League school, but not Penn State.

nt

[melissaf]

8. There are, to my knowledge, no state universities

in the ivy league. The university you're thinking of is the University of Pennsylvania, nicknamed Penn, which is a private school located in Philadelphia. It has no connection to Penn State.

[pnwmom]

17. Cornell is in the Ivy league, and it's part state, part private. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. U of Penn, not Penn State

Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League

[Gabi Hayes]

4. smarter, wealthier, better connect, more powerful. they know how to get away with things there.

[CTyankee]

12. And slicker at getting away with it...true.

But when the Ivies got more egalitarian then more students from lots of different backgrounds started to get in and that started a new era for the Ivies. More minorities, more women, and it made a difference I think. But state schools have always HAD that difference, so it is hard for me to understand why the Penn State thing happened and not an IVY school...

[melissaf]

13. Tragically, Sandusky got away with his crimes for years.

[lunatica]

10. To be fair

This isn't about all of Penn State. It's about their athletics department and even more specifically about their football department.

As to other universities? Well stay tuned. Sooner or later these things out themselves.

[CTyankee]

14. well, the Ivies have been around for a LONG time. Seems it would have come out by now.

There are PLENTY of liberal IVIES in these schools who would LOVE to out their schools on this issue. Stay tuned...

[pnwmom]

19. It didn't come out at Penn State till recently. This could happen anywhere, anytime. n/t

[CTyankee]

20. Yep. Recently, it came out that every single ONE of the residential colleges at Yale

were named after slaveholders! Doncha love it?

[pnwmom]

22. Wow. Just lift a rock . . . n/t

[CTyankee]

24. Yep. Even Samuel Morse, of Morse code fame...wouldja believe?

[Angry Dragon]

11. it has happened

just the names, sex, and ages change

just look how a number of graduates prey on this country

abuse knows no bounds
it has little to do with sex, it is about power and control
they are always on the look-out for victims

[CTyankee]

15. I think my point was about the amassing of power in ONE area of a school's administration.

And football has the mass attraction and the lure of big money. Those two conspire to make it ripe for lots of corruption. Ivy League sports don't have this set up. Their power is not in their sports dept. Maybe the difference is there...Ivies have a lock on Wall St., not college football. Ain't no comparison between the two...

[JohnnyLib2]

16. Ummmm, veering into Limbaugh anti-education land, aren't we?

:banghead:

Bigger picture: these godawful cases, including the coverup, show up as churches protecting spiritual leaders
hospitals protecting staff
families keeping the ugly secret
and more

[CTyankee]

18. not sure where you are at with this...

I do live in Ivy League world, here in New Haven, so I know the folks pretty well. What are you trying to tell me...I am interested...

[JohnnyLib2]

23. I'm feeling protective of colleges in general at this point;

in view of the unfocused anger this week. My comment wasn't aimed at your OP.

When I was a grad student at Cornell (in the dim past), the prof/young woman 'trysts' were legendary. Can't remember any particular scandals at that time; it was just part of the scene.

[CTyankee]

25. young women/prof trysts...what else is new?

I remember such things at Carnegie Mellon as an undergraduate...plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[JohnnyLib2]

27. Back to your OP question,

Paterno's longevity and insularity seem to be almost unique in a university setting. I wonder if the academic politics and turnover in most settings would lessen the chances of this awful mess?

[WildEyedLiberal]

32. You're absolutely right. It's an institutional thing

Meaning, ANY institution that has a bureaucracy and a hierarchy is susceptible. It's not about religion, which is the mistake people made when the Catholic Church scandal broke, and wanted to pretend that it could only happen in a corrupt organized religion. It's not about universities or college sports, which is the mistake people are making now, pretending this only happens in macho "sports" atmospheres. This kind of tragedy can and does happen any time an institution becomes powerful enough to supercede the ordinary course of law and order; when people witness wrongdoing and instead of going straight to the police, they go to their superior in the organization. It's not limited to religion or football. It can and does happen in ANY bureaucracy - school systems, the Boy Scouts, hospitals, churches, synagogues, sports programs, government agencies, the military, and every other entity where a chain of command is instilled in people and they are encouraged to "solve problems" internally rather than externally.

[postulater]

28. Cuz the Ivy League has private shower stalls.

[NCarolinawoman]

29. Uhm, my father went to Penn and he once said, regarding athletics:

All the schools should do what the Ivy League schools do, "Pay the coaches the same salaries as the professors, and no more. Otherwise, the coaches become too powerful."

Now I remember him talking about this back in the 70's, so I don't know if this is still the policy in the Ivy League.

Although my immediate family includes alumni from Duke, University of NC, and NC State, growing up we always ALWAYS would root for Penn against any of these Atlantic Coast Confrence schools; cause my father loved Penn, and we knew they were one of the "Ivy League Underdogs".
;-)

[sylveste]

30. did he ever say

pay the professors the same salaries as the janitors and no more?

[Douglas Carpenter]

31. Penn State is a football oriented school and football is practically like a fanatical religion

in that that part of the country, having grown up in Western PA myself. There is just nothing higher and more glorious than a football star except a football legend. Add to that all the macho male bonding stuff and you have a formula for a mechanism of denial and rationalization.

[JVS]

33. Hey, you ever see what a clusterfuck our country is? Shit like Gitmo, wiretapping, etc?

Where do you think our leaders went to school?

[CTyankee]

34. A great point! Just look at the Yale-CIA connection...