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Penn State NYC Alumni Town Hall Open Thread

Here's your link, festivities to begin at 7:00 p.m.: http://www.alumnitownhall.psu.edu/

If you're Twitter-inclined, follow our own @AdamCollyer and our friend @Devon2012, who are both at the event and plan to be tweeting away until their phones say no mas.

0 recs  |  104 comments

Comments

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies...

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you

You said you wanted how many Board members’ heads on a pike?

Where in NYC is it being held?
Question for Erickson

Did you give JoePaterno permission or approval to interview with the WaPo?

Question for Erickson

Pleather or Jeggings on Saturday night?

Question for the BOT

For 2 days, the Erickson has been touring and alumni have been told to re-direct their questions to the BOT. WHY are there no BOT members here in NY?

He is cast as Gerry Ford.

For the first time, he appears to me sympathetic.

Side note: they couldn’t find a bigger room? We do Orpheus general membership meetings in bigger rooms in July.

Apparently there are lots of empty seats, so maybe it's a good thing.
Yeah, 25 or 2500 . . .

You always want somebody standing, you want it to look packed. Otherwise it doesn’t seem that important.

Tonic holds more people
Did he say so many things about athletics in his opening remarks in Pittsburgh and Philly?

I tuned in 10 minutes late last night.

Just added the embed code to this page.

So if you don’t want two separate windows, just refresh this page.

They should've had one of these in DC instead of NYC.

Would’ve been a much larger turnout.

I'm sure the Board will have more to say

After they read Paterno’s interview.

Mr. Erickson, I have a question...

PPAAAAAWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLL

Ah shit, a comm major
That was direct (harsh?).
A necessary question
It did direct focus on a certain reality.
Nice second question

BS answer

Did anybody else just see that big guy in the front row do a seat dance?
She's putting the BoT on the spot.

Or at least trying.

"We were unprepared"
to a point

but they misjudged is the bigger reason. Sounds like a solid answer

I'm not buying

They had almost a full year to do an internal investigation to see who was called to testify, what was said, put 2+2 together with the 1998 report & 2010 grand jury proceedings. They should have been prepared.

well it could be legal issues
could be - I'm no lawyer
Spanier assured the Board in the spring that there was nothing to worry about.

They apparently believed him. Maybe Spanier believed it, too.

I've come to think this is genuine, even if a wrong assessment by Spanier

I thought he was incompetent with that initial statement, but come to believe that he weighed the evidence that he had and saw no major connection to PSU. He believed there was no PSU cover up so we shouldn’t be worried.

Curly and Schultz had university counsel

is it known who McQueary had?

Question for Erickson: If I'm drinking in my apartment while watching this, am I not drinking alone?
You are not.

However, I must go. The affairs of state take precedence over the affairs of state.

Question

“Who wins in fight? Mothra or Cael Sanderson?”

at first I read this as "Mothma" as in Mon Mothma

and my response was, well, it depends on whether she has Ackbar as her backup.

This town hall

is a trap!

I have a bad feeling about this.
Try to keep your distance.
Great question

Change the composition of BOT

yes, it would be great
Are transcripts going to be available?
"you can not convince me..."

and he is the one whining about “I didn’t know I was in the Soviet Union”

In Soviet Russia

Poorly fitting Penn State hat wears YOU!

"You cannot convince me"

Is one of the worst forms of bogus argument.

“‘Common sense’ is just the accumulation of prejudiced one obtains before the age of 18.” – Albert Einstein

“A great many people believe they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” – William James

"I didn't know I was in the Soviet Union!"

My father-in-law tried that once. Called the cops Saddam Hussein in his thick Romanian accent. Kind of worked!

But he is speaking for the players

they would abandon their responsibility to attend classes and practice?

Bitching about the BOB hire?

Now THAT is embarrassing. Look, I was pretty vocal in my displeasure of the results of that search. But,

NOT THE FORUM ASSHOLES.

Unnecessary question
was he bitching or just asking about criteria for selection?

Anecdote: Erickson did tell the college of science that he thanked E. Gorden Gee for hiring Urban Meyer. They didn’t want a high profile head coach.

He said (paraphrasing):

athletics are the face of the school, we needed a penn stater, why didn’t you hire tom bradley?

FINALLY, someone says, volunteer, such a novel idea
this lady is excellent

And abuse is not just sexual nor physical, but emotional, economical, cultural, etc. We really can be the leading university in providing education and support.

Nico up 6-3 after 2
BOW TIE
TEAR BOMB TWO...no fail
Great question

but why does the moderator keep trying to cut people off. Tone deaf.

Who is the moderator?
some lady
The local PBS lady?
I think she is trying to fit in as much questions as possible because they are sticking to a strict tim constratint
Yes, we can't have too many Tims.
No, got to watch out for those sneaky Tims
Comm major just nailed that question
We're in OT!!!
Free Badgering!
who the hell is this last guy?
his daughter died canning.
Someone should rewatch this and count all the "uhs" and "ums."

He sounds like Lumberg.

Shit. This poor guy.
which poor guy, erickson or the one who lost his daughter?
Hell of alot of courage on his part

Gotta love PSU

i can't even imagine
can't believe how well he handled himself
I had the same thought.

I would not have been able to hold it together.

in messaging with someone who was a part of a Erickson's college town halls

he was very much like this. Well composed, projecting the old farm boy persona and genuine. He has spent decades as a provost with the sole intent of advancing PSU’s academic stature.

I think they meant the father.
He's far more composed...

Than I am sitting here watching him from my desk

Agreed

Here I am at my desk at work trying to look away from my co-workers because of the water works and he’s there talking about her.

I was in front row right in front of Erickson

When “Bill” the father finished speaking, there was a standing ovation. Bill was at the back of the room, so I got to see basically the entire audience applauding this man’s courage. I have 6 daughters, two of whom went to Penn State, and I can’t tell you how my heart went out to this man and his terrible loss.

So you are representing the university

That treated joepa like shit, yeah go fuck yourself. My grandparents, parent, aunts, uncles, brothers, and myself all attended penn state but my children will not. I am sorry, but I am telling the truth.

This is the exact same reaction Lavar Arrington and Brandon Short had

and they got blasted for it. And I’ll blast you too, we don’t need fickle people like you representing our university so poorly. If you’re only going to be a fair-weather Penn Stater, good riddance and don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

Never understood that expression

Why should I care if the door hits somebody I’m asking to leave and is that really a danger? What kind of hinges does this door have?

It's more concern for the door

than it is for the person exiting, RJM. No reason a perfectly good door has to be damaged by a person who needs to depart — quickly.

I see. Thanks for the clarification.
In the immortal words of Curly Bill...

Well… Bye.

you sound weak.
Well said

I despise about 90% of American politicians, but I’m not leaving yet.

I don’t think Joepa himself would encourage people to see him as a victim here. Keep that in mind. He still loves PSU.

Besides, Universities are somewhat decentralized. Some president of Yale or whatever once said “A university is just a collection of departments that share the same steam plant.” So one’s actual experience at PSU could vary greatly depending on which department one studies in, what activities one joins, where one lives, who one chooses to socialize with, etc. The BOT or even the president’’s influence on day to day life is remote. My parents both taught at PSU for many, many years. When they talked about their jobs, they talked about their immediate colleagues and maybe the department head. Rarely did the dean of their respective colleges have much role in their life and the president’s influence was extremely remote.

You don't think Joe would encourage people to see him as the victim?

You can erase any doubt. Joe is a smart man. The timing and amount of his $100k December donation was very deliberate. He knew it would send a signal to alumni. Don’t focus on me, don’t make me the victim. In maybe his darkest hour, he believed that PSU meant something more. And so do I. He’s a man and hasn’t always been perfect. But let us, once again, try to hold ourselves up to the standard he has set for us.

I have no doubt

I was deliberately understating. The technical term is litotes.

Actually, they said he donates $100,000 every year.
The donation was actually a pledge fulfillment.

Not sure when that pledge was made — almost doesn’t matter, as the Paternos would have fulfilled it even if Joe had been crucified upside down — that’s the kind of people they are. And, that’s why most of us are indignant over the method in which Joe was fired relieved of his HC duties. We are happy about his coaching that built Penn State football; we admire and respect him because of his character and integrity.

P.S. Screw you haters who are convinced he “failed” the victims.

90% is low.
I was including all those prothonotaries, sherrifs, and what not we elect.

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