Open the Records at Penn State

EDITORIAL, The New York Times

Published: November 16, 2011

The sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed Penn State is looking more and more like a cover-up, even as more potential victims step forward. Those investigating the case need to determine what university officials knew, when they knew it and what they did aboutallegations of sexual assault lodged against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, in 1998 and afterward.

The public’s right to know how the university dealt with the allegations, however, has been severely restricted by a provision in state law that was strongly supported by the same university officials who ignored all danger signs in the Sandusky case. Under a misguidedexemption to the 2008 state open records law, Penn State’s records — including those of the campus police — are closed to the public.

State lawmakers should revoke that exemption. The right-to-know law applies to all public agencies in the state, including schools in the state university system. It exempts four “state related” institutions like Penn State, which receive public money but operate autonomously. Graham Spanier, the former president of Penn State who was dismissed earlier this month, argued aggressively for the exemption back in 2007, declaring it needed to protect donor information, intellectual property rights and deals that the university struck with companies it spins off.

But the exemption makes no sense at all when applied to Penn State’s police force, which is vested with the same authority as municipal police officers and whose functions clearly affect people who are not part of the faculty or student body. Nor does it seem appropriate for a university that will receive more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars from taxpayers this fiscal year to be off-limits to public examination.

The need for close scrutiny of Penn State’s leaders and its police operation is underscored in the grand jury report in this case. It raises grave doubts about how the university handled allegations of sexual assault in 2002. The utter lack of accountability at the university shows why the State Legislature needs to close this loophole in the law, and do it quickly.