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Rodney Erickson, the new president of Pennsylvania State University, pledged to alumni Wednesday that the institution eventually would honor Joe Paterno, who was fired as football coach in November amid a scandal over Penn State's handling of child sex abuse charges against one of his top assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky. USA Today reported that Erickson, speaking to hundreds of alumni at a town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, said: "There is no plan in place at the present time, but there will be. I can't tell you yet what it will be or when it will be, but we will publicly honor Joe and his wife, Sue, for all the many things they have done for the university, both from an athletic standpoint and an academic standpoint."
The meeting was the first of several in which the university is trying to repair its relations with alumni frustrated over the scandal. A Reuters account of the meeting said that many alumni criticized the university for not being more open about its response to the scandal, and many also questioned why Paterno was fired. Erickson pledged to be more transparent. He said that the university spent $360,000 on crisis communications during November.
