Penn State officials report continued progress on implementing recommendations made in the Freeh Report.
The Penn State Board of Trustees committee on Legal and Compliance met this afternoon to discuss a number of issues before tomorrow’s full board meeting That included an overview of Penn State’s compliance program and a status update on the Freeh Report recommendations.
Recently-hired Athletic Integrity Monitor Julie Del Giorno and Director of Ethics and Compliance Regis Becker were present to go over their work so far in complying with the NCAA integrity agreement and creating compliance structures within the university.
“I want to differentiate Penn State from the competition by emphasizing our commitment to ethics as a driving principle of our intercollegiate athletic program,” Del Giorno said. “I’m here to provide support to coaches and administrators – to serve as a resource, not an obstacle.”
Penn State Vice President for Finance and Business David Gray updated the committee on the Freeh report recommendations. According to Gray, 76 recommendations are completed with 27 in progress.
“We have begun to work in earnest on the most challenging part of the recommendations,” Gray said. “It would be our hope that we are soon going to be talking less and less about Freeh recommendations and more and more about what needs to be driven into ourselves with a set of ethics and values.”
Gray also emphasized that Penn State already had a solid foundation for compliance related integrity issues. “It’s bringing focus and coherence to what we were already doing,” Gray said.
Trustee Keith Eckel agrees.
“I honestly believe that this university has always been a great university of integrity,” Eckel said. “What is happening now is that we’re bringing focus on these issues and we’re sharpening our skills. It doesn’t mean that we were bad before but by focusing it means that we’ll be even better in the future.”
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was brought in to investigate the university’s role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. At the time his report was issued, last July, Judge Freeh said, “Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State.”
Judge Freeh provided more than 100 recommendations intended to protect children on Penn State’s campuses.
