How Penn State Can Rebuild Its Brand and Reputation By: Elliot S. Schreiber, Ph.D. Tel: (302) 381-6209 Email Dr. Schreiber Website: www.brandandreputation.com

Penn State is embroiled in a crisis of unparalleled proportion for a university. While the trial of Jerry Sandusky will proceed, there are sufficient questions about what Penn State officials did and did not do to help guide the university's decisions. If it waits for the end of the trial, precious time will have been lost, countless qualified students will have either not applied to Penn State or will have gone elsewhere, great faculty will have been recruited away (talent often is lost during a crisis), and alumni and corporate donations will be lost. Already, Moody's is likely to downgrade the university's rating, increasing the cost of capital for the university at a time when it needs all the resources it can get.

Here's a game plan for the university:

1. Apologize, and not just to the victims. Apologize for allowing football and Joe Paterno to become larger than the university itself. Declare that never again will it allow a coach to run things without checks and balances.
2. Admit that it may have a culture problem and pledge to investigate if this is the case, and if so, to change the culture. This means that Penn State needs to declare that it may have allowed its priorities to become out of proportion. It is an educational institution, not a football factory.
3. Install a system that not only allows "whistle blowing", but also encourages and celebrates those who speak up. Penn State and the entire community of Centre County, PA, are suspected of having been in collusion to protect the image of the football program. Indicate that this is no longer permissible or acceptable.
4. Reject any possibility of attendance at a bowl game before the offer is made. Do not wait for the outcome of the Big Ten championship. Make it known that Penn State does not deserve nor does it want the attention for a bowl bid. It has more important things to focus on.
5. Stop suggesting that it needs to worry about the football team that did nothing wrong or 60,000+ students who should not be denied football. Companies close plants and discontinue products despite all the time despite similar calls. Teach the students and the 100,000+ football fans that Penn State has, and should have different and more balanced priorities.
6. Appoint a chief ethics officer from outside of Penn State. The new president, Rodney Erikson has indicated that he will have an ethics officer reporting to him. That's fine, but someone who has risen up within the insulated Penn State system should not be a candidate. Appoint someone from the outside who comes from a culture that Penn State wants to emulate rather than someone who cannot see "the forest for the trees."
7. Take down the Joe Paterno statue from in front of Beaver Stadium. Demagogues build statues to themselves. Cults build statues to existing heroes. Most universities wait until after the coach is gone. Penn State showed its unsavory love of one man with that statue. Take it down during the summer so that people know he is no longer considered a "god" at the university. The university can leave his name on the library since he raised money and gave his own money for that effort.

In short, the Penn State culture needs to be "blown up." It allowed Joe Paterno and his "cult of personality" to foster and grow. I know that Paterno did not molest the kids, but he allowed Sandusky to exist and, according to Sandusky, Paterno never once talked to him about the issues that were supposedly brought to Paterno's attention in 2002. That is simply unacceptable behavior for anyone.

Penn State must go beyond its comfort zone if it is to rebuild its reputation. If it simply takes measured steps, which it is accustomed to do, it will not rebuild trust and confidence. The consequences of inappropriate actions could be disastrous long-term.