Penn State alumni magazine tackles scandal
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Cover of latest Penn Stater, the PSU alumni magazine. The issue examines and chronicles the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and its effects on Penn State.
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Penn State University's alumni magazine, showing up in nearly 130,000 mailboxes this month, has dedicated its latest issue to the Jerry Sandusky scandal, from a funereal all-black cover lamenting "our darkest days" to several photo montages to 38 pages examining the most traumatic event in school history.
For the glossy bimonthly magazine, it became increasingly clear as events unfolded that tackling the arrest of the high-profile former football coach on charges that he molested boys would require devoting an entire edition to the ugly situation.
"It was just too big not to cover thoroughly," Tina Hay, editor of The Penn Stater and a 1983 university graduate, said Monday.
Influencing that decision was the fact that the fallout from the scandal far exceeded Mr. Sandusky's alleged crimes. It encompassed claims that other administrators knew about the sexual assault allegations but failed to report them, national media attention, the toppling of former Penn State president Graham Spanier and the ouster of legendary football head coach Joe Paterno.
While some university publications tend to act as boosters, Ms. Hay took pride in producing an issue that she felt honestly covered a divisive, controversial and incendiary topic.
"This is a big issue in our field. Editors talk about this all the time: wanting to be able to report candidly about what's taking place on their campuses. And some alumni magazines are more capable of doing this than others. There are some courageous alumni magazines out there and others that wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot-pole."
Ms. Hay considers The Penn Stater to be in the former category. She acknowledges that the magazine is not totally independent; it is published by an alumni association that reports, in part, to the university.
But no content was censored other than a single essay that the administration said had factual problems, and no one, as Ms. Hay said, "interfered."
First Published January 10, 2012 12:00 am
