Steve Garban, Chairman of Penn State University Board of Trustees has official resigned from the position on Thursday in the wake of the recent FBI investigation reports that et al revealed that Garban withheld information regarding the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case from the rest of the Board members and therefore prevented the board to prepare for the aftermath of the trial.
In a letter, Garban says that his presence on the board was becoming "a distraction and an impediment," (Associated Press) for trustees and the university.
Earlier this month, former FBI director Louis Freeh, released a 267 page report, which was formed over seven months of investigation, more than 400 interviews, and a review of over 3.5 million documents. The Freeh report, as it has come to be called, not only implicated top PSU officials, but also revealed that the Board of Trustees handled the matter very poorly and was greatly responsible for the cover-up in the abuse of young students perpetrated by former football coach Sandusky, who has been convicted of the crime and awaits sentencing in a county prison and its consequential coverup.
Garban is the first Board member to resign in light of the scandal.
The report implicated PSU Head Coach Joe Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curly, the University President Graham Spanier, and Vice President Gary Schultz in a cover-up of a 1998 shower incident in which the 68-year-old Sandusky was accused of showering with a boy and touching him inappropriately.
The Freeh report has certainly shed light on PSU's "pervasive and damaging culture at Penn State where the levers of power were tightly controlled by four men (the officials)... whose repeated failure to deal with troubling allegations lodged against Sandusky always seemed to be directed by one goal: to avoid the consequences of bad publicity," as mentioned by USA Today.
The most powerful PSU officials "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the board of trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large," according to the New York Times.
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is currently reviewing the report.
In addition to other problems the university faces, there is growing talks about measures the NCAA will take on the university's prestigious football team; there is much speculation whether the team will be slapped with an indefinite suspension better known as the death penalty. The organization has handed down the sentence only one time in its 106-year existence to the Southern Methodist University in a case that dealt with giving players impermissible benefits.
In an Interview with PBS, Mark Emmert, President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), told interviewer Tavis Smiley that the organization has not yet decided whether the 'death penalty,' is the correct punishment for the Penn State University cover-up scandal in the Jerry Sandusky, former football coach convicted of child sex-abuse, case. However, Emmert says that the option is not "off the table," according to the PBS interview.
"This is as systemic a cultural problem as it is a football problem...There have been people that have said, 'Well, this isn't a football scandal.' Well, it was more than a football scandal, much more than a football scandal. We'll have to figure out exactly what the right penalties are. I don't know that past precedent makes particularly good sense in this case because it's really an unprecedented problem," as reported by the Central Daily.
In May, a jury of seven women and five men found the 68 year-old guilty of 45 out of the 48 counts against him for sexual abuse of ten young boys over a span of 15 years. Sandusky, 68, is currently in Centre County prison awaiting his sentencing, which is scheduled to be held in about 90 days. He could face a maximum sentence of 373 years.
