Report: Penn State President Rodney Erickson Says Freeh Investigation Should Wrap by July

Penn State’s internal investigative report into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal could be released within a month, according to a report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Speaking at a Capitol news conference Friday in Harrisburg, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said he expects the investigation to be completed by mid-to-late July. The report will then be released publicly at the same time university trustee members see it.

The investigation, headed by former FBI director Louis Freeh, was the brainchild of the Board of Trustees after public backlash for its handling of the Sandusky scandal last fall. It’s to unearth how much university officials knew about Sandusky’s behavior and explain their actions and inactions.

‘We’ll have to wait to see what the Freeh report finds,’ Erickson told reporters in Harrisburg. ‘We will take responsibility for whatever is identified in the Freeh report, and we will make changes that address any issues that are raised.’

Hundreds reportedly have been interviewed, and the scope of the investigation is said to cover, in part, university administrators’ relations with the athletic department and the culture of power within athletics.

Penn State had previously said the report was due out by the start of the fall semester. Now, it appears that time frame has been pushed up.

Tuition Talk

Erickson also said he’ll recommend only a 2.9 percent in-state tuition increase for main campus students at the July 13 Board of Trustees meeting, one of the lowest tuition-increase proposals in recent history.

He’ll propose a 1.9 percent tuition increase for in-state students attending commonwealth campuses.

A 2.9 percent increase for in-state undergraduates would yield an additional cost of $439 for the year, making total tuition bill $15,563 a year.