Penn State University has spent more than $92 million in the last two years on settlements and related costs in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal — and it could still face claims from six or even more alleged victims, according to university documents published this week.
For the victims, no amount can ever make them whole.
And Penn State claims that not a penny came from tuition or state grant. Yet they charge over $16,000/year in state tuition.
How would you feel about this as a big pocket donor?
Well, do you not want them to investigate, pay lawyers, pay the victims? I don’t see what other option they have.
I believe the point is that Penn State apparently has a huge pool of money that they have never used for scholarships and grants. But Happy Valley is still happy, they are going to a (not well regarded) bowl game.
^^ But wouldn’t a lot of that money come from insurance?
^^exactly. I have no doubt that some of this is covered by insurance.
I’m equally sure that the rates for future insurance will take up a lot of the money saved.
^^but not all to PSU. (Insurance risk is spread over thousands of schools…)
Plus, if I recall, Penn State’s was one of the few Athletic programs that made a profit. If they still do, they can readily pay their own insurance premiums, with no hit to the college’s general fund.
Still, it’s a huge sum of money, and all schools should learn from this: if you can’t do the right thing because it’s right, do it because the wrong thing just might cost you a fortune.
of course, its a huge some of money – as it should be. (Heck, I earlier argued for the Death Penalty for the fb team.) But let’s not conflate the penalty with the cost of tuition. Any connection is tenuous at best. PSU has had high instate tuition and low aid for decades.
I do not believe that the $92 million the article mentions includes the $60 million fine PSU had to pay the NCAA, to be used for child abuse prevention programs n PA. Would insurance cover that?
^^probably not, Tom, but its “only” $12 mill per year. From what I found online, the AD still had net profit of $150k in 2014, and that’s on a $110 million budget covering 30+ sports.
btw: PSU will receive $5-6 million alone for the bowl season, based on the B12 revenue sharing.
I wonder how much, if any, of the athletic profit is used for non-athletic scholarships?
I saw Sandusky gets to keep his pension.
fantastic.
If athletic money is used for non-athletic scholarships, that money is given to the general fund and then distributed to students through the financial aid office. The athletic department cannot give scholarships outside the NCAA limits and requirements. PSU athletics makes a profit. Who cares if the school pays the NCAA fines and loses a scholarship or two on the football team. The coaches haven’t had a pay decrease, each player who does have a scholarship still keeps it, the teams aren’t eating beans and rice and traveling on school buses.
I don’t think the money means nearly as much as a punishment as loss of scholarships, recruiting restrictions, loss of bowl game eligibility does. Losing those things hurts in ways money doesn’t.
I’d think that Sandusky’s pension can’t be attached while it is in the pension fund, but as soon as it is deposited into his regular bank account, it should be available to creditors. Pennsylvania may also allow judgments to be attached to his house, and as soon as his wife dies, the property may be foreclosed by creditors. His property (pension and real estate) may also go to his children, who were also some of his victims.
And the bleeding won’t stop anytime soon. Now Graham Spanier is suing Penn State!
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/11/graham-spanier-sues-penn-state-and-louis-freeh
It can’t be hurting the athletic department at PSU that badly since they are currently looking at massive renovations of Beaver Stadium or building a new stadium, with price tags ranging several hundred million to half a billion dollars.
Nobody cares. Everyone moved on. Football is all-important. Meanwhile, those poor kids …