After a period of relative silence, members of the Board of Trustees are speaking up.
Seated unevenly around a long dining table in the Gilpin Room of the Nittany Lion Inn, a small group of trustees answered questions about the decisions they made as the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case first unfolded.
Since Nov. 9 -- the night Penn State lost both longtime football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier -- the trustees have faced an onslaught of criticism, most notably for the decision to remove Paterno from his post.
More than two months removed, the trustees are standing by their actions. The way they see it, Paterno and Spanier were not functioning as the leaders the university needed.
Paterno decision was a 'moral fiber issue'
In an interview at the Nittany Lion Inn on Thursday morning, trustees Keith Eckel, sole proprietor and president of Fred W. Eckel and Sons Farms; Keith Masser, chairman and chief executive officer of Sterman Masser; Joel Myers, president of AccuWeather; Anne Riley, retired State College Area High School teacher; and student trustee Peter Khoury said they did what they had to in light of what was presented in a 23-page grand jury report connected to the case.
When asked if the decision to remove Paterno was made prematurely, every trustee in the room emphatically disagreed.
"The Board of Trustees' judgement was based on fact," said Lanny Davis, external counsel to the Office of the President and Board of Trustees, who was present at Thursday's interview. "They didn't need any more information."
Davis, who also served as a White House attorney, said reading Paterno's quoted statement in the grand jury presentment confirming his knowledge of Sandusky doing something of a "sexual nature" in the Lasch Football Building locker room shower contributed to the board's decision to ultimately fire Paterno.
For this reason, Davis said, the board had proof beyond a doubt that Paterno -- regardless of whether the incident involving Sandusky actually occurred or not -- failed to report the suspected abuse to the police.
"In my mind [the removal] was based on a moral fiber issue as a member of Penn State," Agricultural Trustee Keith Masser said. "If I had allowed him to retire at the end of the season versus immediately, it would send a message that we value football over children -- and that is not Penn State."
Alumni Trustee Joel Myers also said action had to be taken in regard to Paterno's status as head coach. Paterno's impending retirement at the end of the 2011 season, which he had announced hours before he was removed, meant that he would still be on the sidelines for three more games, taking the focus off of the football players, he said.
"All we did was move the clock up 55 days," Myers said. "The university is bigger than any one person."
Still, the trustees agreed the decision was not an easy one. Even at the time of the interview, months after the fact, trustees were still emotional about the man who had impacted many of the their lives. All shared words of admiration for the tenured coach.
Myers said the board went through all of the possible emotions heading into the unanimous decision to remove Paterno.
"Joe has been so much a part of my life, and there are some board members who are closer to him than I was," Myers said.
Riley praised Paterno's abilities both on and off the field.
"He was a model in his ability to stress academics and athletics," she said.
Despite their deep admiration for the 85-year-old man, the trustees said they don't regret their decision.
"It saddens me, but had I not made that decision, I would've been embarrassed and ashamed," Masser said.
Khoury (senior-biology) pointed out that Paterno was in a tough position, with his leadership abilities compromised.
Other trustees agreed that the decision was inevitable.
"We thought for the good of Penn State that this action had to be taken immediately," Myers said. "It couldn't appear that the football program was operating independently."
The timing of the announcement about Paterno's firing and former university president Graham Spanier's removal has also come under criticism, specifically that the 10 p.m. announcement came at a prime time for the unrest that followed in downtown State College.
Masser maintained that it was necessary to break the news immediately after the decision was made Nov. 9, rather than wait until the next morning.
He said trustees feared word would leak to Paterno himself.
"It was more important to us for Paterno to hear from the board directly," he said.
Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees John Surma called Paterno that evening and told him the decision.
Despite heavy criticism from those close to the university, the trustees remain proud of their actions.
Eckel said he thought it was in the best interest of the university and the students.
'Spanier was not leading'
The trustees are also forthcoming in their decision to remove Spanier from his position as president.
"The university was floundering, Spanier was not leading," Myers said. "We went through all of the emotions that I'm sure [students] were feeling, too. We agonized."
The trustees noted absences of communication between Spanier and the board as contributing factors to their decision to remove him from office.
The board members said this became especially apparent when they were made aware that Spanier withheld his testimony to the grand jury in the case of Sandusky from the board.
"The release of the grand jury presentment was the first time the Board of Trustees has heard about the Sandsuky trial, despite that fact that Spanier had testified months earlier," Davis said. "Spanier also never informed the trustees of the 2002 incident [involving Sandusky].
According to Davis, the board was particularly concerned with Spanier's word choice in giving his unconditional support to former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schulz despite the charges of perjury and failure to report abuse that were brought against them.
Davis said it was Spanier's decision to act without consulting the board that prompted the board to remove him.
"The board was not consulted before Dr. Spanier gave his support [to Curley and Schulz]," Eckel said, emphasizing that Spanier's issue of support was not reflective of the trustees' stance.
"It wasn't a legal decision, it was a leadership decision," Eckel said. "Spanier would not be able to lead at such a time. None of us are infallible. Board of Trustees, coaches, presidents -- no one. What helps me deal [with our decision] is that Joe Paterno has said he wishes he had done more. We aren't infallible, and people make mistakes."
For the future, the trustees are confident in the newly created Special Committee and its current internal investigation, headed by former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh that is intended to uncover the university's actions surrounding the case.
"The truth has to come out, and Judge Freeh will see to it," Myers said.
Danae Blasso contributed to this report.
