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FORWARD CONTINUED FROM 19 learned to think about the future dif- ferently, not as the place where our hopes and dreams reside, but as a dodge, a last refuge to be invoked when the past can't be discussed. You say you want to move forward? It's probably because you've got some- thing to hide. And the constant churn of the news cycle, which is even faster now than it was seven years ago when the steroid hearings took place, makes it that much more tempting to simply wait for the next tabloid news story to come along and change the national conversation. Sooner or later, Lindsay Lohan is going to crash her car into something. Maybe Donald Trump will find Barack Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. What's the harm in obfus- cating when attention spans are only 140 characters long? Here's the harm: Obfuscation erodes our trust. It makes us cynical about everyone's motives. And if it's bad for individuals, it's even worse for institu- tions. Individuals have behaved stu- pidly and selfishly for all of history, but institutions are supposed to have checks and balances. They need the trust of their customers, clients, in- vestors, constituents, friends, fans and/or alumni to survive in a competi- tive world. When those institutions fail – think Lehman Brothers or Enron or the Nixon administration – we place the blame not just on individual crimi- nality, but on a culture of corruption. Everyone is implicated, guilty and in- nocent alike. Which brings us to Penn State. The university is in a dreadful spot right now, trapped between a horrific episode from the past and an all-too- distant future in which it is once again defined by its academic prestige, its scientific and medical breakthroughs and, yes, its athletic success. It wants to move on, but the only way to do so is to revisit the Jerry Sandusky scan- dal. That is going to be an excruciating process, as Sandusky's trial showed, and it's going to continue for months if not years, with the results of Louis Freeh's investigation expected to be re- leased in July and former Penn State administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz set to face trial on perjury charges sometime after that. 24 A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 Patrick Mansell As difficult as it may be, the Penn State community cannot flinch as it tries to figure out what went wrong. The university needs to examine its in- stitutional failures in detail and make good use of whatever it learns. It needs to do these things because, un- like a disgraced ballplayer or shady banker, it can't just lay low until the heat dies down. It needs the public's trust. The scandal has already taken a huge toll – first and foremost on the lives of the victims. The testimony in the Sandusky trial was gut-wrenching, rage-inducing. You wondered: How could someone commit such acts? And how could anyone think they were do- ing the right thing by not going to the authorities? Clearly, those questions have been weighing heavily on the minds of Penn Staters, and not just since the start of the trial. An Alumni Association poll conducted in May found that 48 per- cent feel more negatively about the university in the aftermath of the scandal. Bear in mind that this is a community whose faith is not easily shaken. Penn State alumni are among the most enthusiastic in the nation. In the same survey, 97 percent of respon- dents said they were "satisfied" with their student experience at Penn State, and of those people, 78 percent said they were "very satisfied." Some say that enthusiasm is part of the problem. A recent Newsweek story previewing Sandusky's trial portrayed State College as an insular company town in which concern for Penn State, and the football program in particular, might just trump any desire to see jus- tice done. The story pointed out that Sandusky's attorneys fought to have the proceedings in Bellefonte, an un- usual request given the severity of the charges. Was it because he was more likely to get a sympathetic jury in Cen- tre County, one that was too blinded by its love for Penn State football to convict? That was definitely the impli- cation. Meanwhile, on CNN and Fox and Twitter, pundits expressed con- cern about jury members' ties to Penn State and about whether some of them might be looking to protect the school. The jury ended up convicting on 45 of 48 counts, proving that those fears were unfounded. I don't think anyone in Centre County ever really bought the notion that a local jury with ample Penn State connections wouldn't be able to do the right thing. It is possi- ble, after all, to want justice done and want a Rose Bowl victory this fall. One doesn't negate the other. Penn Staters watched the trial with a mixture of dread, disbelief and nau- sea. No one wanted to wallow in the details of the Sandusky case, nor did anyone particularly want to relive the wrenching events of the past eight months. At BWI, that has made it a bit of a challenge to put together a Year in Review issue, and it has led to some changes. Most years, for example, these pages contain a rundown of the year's highlights and lowlights ranked in order of their significance. This year, we figure you've got those lists committed to memory and could recite them on demand without any assis- tance from us. It's pretty clear what the highlights of the year were, and even clearer what the lowlights were. The horror of the attorney general's presentment. The shock that followed the sudden firing of Joe Paterno. The sadness of Paterno's death in January. It's all imprinted in our memories. Nothing will erase it. Nothing will change it, either, so the only thing to do now is to learn what we can and to look ahead. That's not a dodge. It's a challenge that Penn Staters have no choice but to accept – a challenge to make this a better place. Maybe you thought that the San- dusky scandal was a perfect storm, a rare combination of tragedy and indif- ference, all of it occurring in a small W W W . B L U E W H I

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