Juniata College, a Church of the Brethren-related school in
Huntingdon, Pa., has been named in news reports of the investigation of
charges against Jerry Sandusky, former football coach at Penn State.
ESPN reported that in May 2010, Sandusky applied for a volunteer
football coaching job at Juniata but was rejected after failing a
background check ( http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7326214/jerry-sandusky-denied-job-juniata-college-failing-background-check-school-says
). Other media outlets followed up with reports that Sandusky continued
to be on the Juniata campus parts of last year. On Dec. 16, Juniata
president Thomas R. Kepple Jr. released the following open letter on the
college website:
Taking Action: Juniata and Steps Taken During Sandusky Investigation
Dear Juniata Community, in the last several weeks, as the alleged
actions of Jerry Sandusky have dominated news headlines, we have been
talking with various media about the facts of Sandusky's having been
present on our campus and around our football team during the 2010
season.
The story has rightly caused concern among our alumni, students,
families of our students, and other friends of Juniata. To aid in your
understanding of what happened and to give you confidence in what
Juniata is doing about it, I will share three things: facts regarding
our initial response, the facts about Sandusky's presence as we have
known and have communicated them, and what we are doing to ensure such a
situation does not occur again.
JUNIATA INITIAL RESPONSE
When Sandusky was
initially arrested, Juniata administration received information and
communication from individuals close to and employed by our football
program. We interviewed athletics staff still here, reviewed public
safety reports, and worked to ensure we understood the facts. We
contacted the state police on Nov. 9, 2011, and let them know Sandusky
had been around our team. We offered to be of assistance should they
want to interview people or perform any other investigative work. To
date, they have thanked us for calling, but have chosen not to do any
work here.
Our current athletic director, Greg Curley, and current head football
coach, Tim Launtz, communicated with players, reminding them of campus
resources if they wished to speak with counselors. We encouraged players
and coaches that, if they had information of any wrongdoing, to contact
police. We also shared with players that if they were approached by
media, to feel free to talk with them. We also offered players, if they
wished, to work with our media relations professionals, to help them
know what to expect if talking with press. We also ensured that our
media relations professionals had the facts as best we knew them to
respond to press, and urged campus staff to send all inquiries through
them.
In the days and weeks that followed, various media outlets chose to
accentuate some facts rather than others, and some outlets have made
errors of fact. We have responded to news media as they have contacted
us. While CBS 21 in Harrisburg first chose to break the story, we have
shared facts with other media outlets prior to speaking with CBS 21,
none of whom opted to run the story.
FACTS ABOUT SANDUSKY'S PRESENCE AT JUNIATA
In
August 2009, Jerry Sandusky gave a motivational talk to players, as one
of several individuals who gave similar talks during the preseason. The
former head coach, Carmen Felus, had numerous contacts in central
Pennsylvania and asked them to come and talk with players.
In May 2010, Felus, then the football coach, asked to have Jerry
Sandusky serve as a volunteer coach with our football program. As is
standard practice with anyone who wishes to do significant volunteer
work or work on our campus, Juniata ran a background check on May 27,
2010. We received notice on June 2, 2010, that Sandusky was under
criminal investigation.
Sandusky did not mention the investigation on the form for his
background check. He was informed in a letter sent to his home that he
was to have no association with Juniata's football program.
At this point Juniata College did not know the full nature of the
criminal investigation affecting Jerry Sandusky. We knew only that he
was under investigation in Clinton County.
Our athletic director at the time, Larry Bock, and provost, Jim
Lakso, instructed Felus twice in June 2010 that Sandusky was not to be
associated with the program. When Sandusky was spotted in the press box
at the Franklin & Marshall game on Sept. 25, 2010, Larry Bock again
informed Felus that Sandusky was not to be part of the program.
We have learned recently that assistant coaching staff present in
Fall 2010 were unaware of the ban on Sandusky, despite Felus having been
directed to inform his staff and players. Juniata administration was
not aware of Sandusky's reappearance and its increasing frequency late
in the fall 2010 semester until the following spring semester, by which
time the former head coach had resigned.
We have spoken with several current players and coaching staff and
accounts of the degree to which Sandusky was present after Sept. 25,
2010, are varied. We now know Sandusky attended Sunday coaching meetings
(at which players are not typically present), but do not know which
practices he did or did not attend.
We do not know and will not speculate on the relationship between
Sandusky and the former head coach, nor do we know or wish to speculate
on the reasons Felus had for continuing to enable Sandusky to be
present.
Juniata administration heard neither complaints nor commentary from
any students, coaches, or athletes about Sandusky's presence during the
fall 2010 semester.
WHAT JUNIATA IS DOING DIFFERENTLY AS A RESULT
Juniata made changes as soon as the former head coach resigned on March 3, 2011.
The first thing we did was to hire an upstanding member of the
Juniata community to serve as head coach--Tim Launtz. Launtz's
background as director of public safety and residence life made him
student- and academics-centered, and he had a record of excellent
communication and assistance with students, faculty and administration.
Tim was made clear that we expected significant communication and
collaboration, and he readily and enthusiastically agreed.
Since then, Tim has built positive relationships with the enrollment
office, the Dean of Students office, the provost, alumni relations, and a
host of other campus bodies. Tim has clearly and repeatedly shared the
mission he has for Juniata football. I quote him here: "The mission of
the Juniata football program is to make Juniata men. A Juniata man is a
man who treats women with respect; does not lie, steal, cheat; does not
use drugs; and respects the cultural differences of his teammates and
the campus community. We want our student/athletes to receive a degree
in four years, have a plan for their future, and know that they had a
positive experience at Juniata."
I have spoken with Tim many times this fall both before and after
this situation. He has elevated and broadened the communication and
connection between Juniata football and the rest of the community.
When Larry Bock left for a new full-time coaching position at Navy in
February 2011, we discussed the limitations (which Larry had pointed
out and helped us to consider) of having an athletic director who
coached at a time when he or she could give limited attention to
football. As the sport with the largest roster, largest attendance, and
largest gross budget, football had to have better oversight from an
athletic director.
Our current athletic director, Greg Curley, a longtime Juniata
basketball coach, has a season that begins after football ends. He has
been able to work with Coach Launtz, be present at games, and provide
oversight for our larger-roster sports (football, as well as field
hockey, men's and women's soccer, cross country, track and field) while
they are in season, given that basketball's season runs at a time with
few other sports active.
Greg's focus with our coaches has reiterated communication and the
primacy of Juniata's educational mission. We have an excellent coaching
staff, and their words and actions repeatedly underscore that the
education of our students is our top priority.
In January 2012, we will convene a meeting of Juniata's leadership
team, comprised of supervising directors in administration across all
campus units. In these meetings we discuss enrollment, budgets,
operations, and generally the ways we can improve. Given the human
resource issues this situation has involved, we will be discussing
proper use and administration of chain-of-command, documentation of key
communications, and a review of our whistleblower policies (recently
strengthened by our Board of Trustees Audit Committee).
We have also started reviewing with our Office of Public Safety how
to ensure people understand reporting burdens in the event of various
crimes and access issues. We have emergency notification protocols in
place, and routinely perform practice exercises with key administrative
staff, so I am confident we will be able to update and remind key
personnel of our collective duties and responsibilities.
Finally, our Board of Trustees has been fully informed along the way about these issues and our actions.
I cannot say enough good things about our faculty, students and staff
here at Juniata. They are the source of all that is great on this
campus, and their work is what defines us. Juniata is far more than the
actions of any one individual. We are the collective achievements of
many people who work to serve others, to promote peace and learning, and
to change their communities and their world for the better. And because
we are a community of learners, we will learn from what happened here,
and work toward better things.
If you have questions, please contact me.
--Thomas R. Kepple Jr., President
Source:12/29/2011 Newsline
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