In Shaun Bennett's letter, "Underage drinking a punishable activity," Oct. 10, he writes, "I respect the professors who have spent their lives bettering the student population a heck of a lot more [than Joe Paterno]."

Maybe he needs to pick up one of the many biographies written on Joe Paterno. No person in the history of Penn State has done more for this university and its students. There is not enough room to even begin to list all of his contributions to Penn State, so I'll touch on some important ones. The man has given a lot out of his own pocket to support more faculty positions, scholarships, campus construction (most notably the interfaith spiritual center and Penn State All- Sports Museum) and expand the student library to double its previous size. In total, his family's personal donations are believed to be the most ever from a college coach to his or her university.

In addition, he has recruited and coached many Hall of Fame Scholar-Athletes, first-team Academic All-Americans and NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners. And in the most recent account, Penn State graduated 74 percent of its student athletes, well above the national average of 54 percent.

Next time you're going to publicly bash a man whom you know nothing about, how about you do a little research first, or at least have some perspective.