Michael Berube, who sat as the Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Penn State, has written an essay entitled Why I Resigned the Paterno Chair. For an English professor, he does a poor job (in my estimation) at answer the question he poses as the title of his essay. I’ve read through it several times and I honestly can’t tell anyone why he gave up his endowed chair.
For those who are not in academia, an endowed chair is a very big deal. It assures the professor holding it that their position will be funded – so if the school faces cutbacks, the endowed chair is pretty much exempt (of course, the endowed chair is only as secure as the endowment, but that’s a separate issue). This allows the professor to pursue research in whatever area the endowment specifies. It is one step above mere tenure in a professor getting to manage their career for however long that career lasts.
To resign an endowed chair means that the professor is giving up the assurance of doing exactly what they want for the rest of their life and subjecting their career to whatever level of insecurity their school offers. In short, it’s kind of crazy. Of course, Berube has the kind of CV that assures he won’t be on the cutting room floor anytime soon (he remained director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at Penn State and is still a professor there). Regardless, it’s a drastic step.
My understanding of his essay runs: “You know the public story about Penn State, but there is a lot you don’t know. In many ways, people have been treated unfairly. Other schools have also done rotten things, but haven’t faced the penalties meted out to Penn State. I wish we lived in a better world.” It doesn’t explain to me why he resigned his endowed chair.
What it does do is draw back the curtain and give us just a glimpse and numerous problems in American higher education, which Penn State serves as an example of only because it’s the school in question. But it also misses what I think it the single most salient point of the child sex abuse scandal – the culture of athletic idolatry (which is endemic, if not pandemic, in American universities) allowed a predator to escape detection for an extended period of time.
I’ve had people defend the “athletic-academic system” to me under the guise that it gives an education to young people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it (through the scholarship system). It is true that it does this; but it is a by-product of its intention – to allow schools to profit off of the athletic abilities of generation after generation. Penn State, for example, made $50 million in profit in one year alone. I’ve yet to hear anyone explain why Penn State should harvest such a windfall. Yes, the athletes get an education and a shot at going pro – but a semi-pro league would also allow them to do that without desecrating an institution of higher learning.
I think Berube does an excellent job of making the Paterno family real and human. It’s easy to forget that there are regular people who loved – truly loved – the people who were directly involved in the scandal. I think they can be forgiven for not wanting their loved-ones’ to be reduced to a single dimensional caricature, and the worst possible one, at that. I also think that the people directly involved in covering things up can be forgiven for their panicked reactions. After all, I had a few emotional reactions to the story as it came out.
I don’t believe that sports figures should be held to a “higher standard.” They are, after all, simply people who are talented and skilled in sports. There is no ethical or moral imperative in sports. It’s just about winning. The cultural worship of sports actually impedes moral and ethical development in sports participants, especially those who rise to the highest levels of achievement.
One of the most difficult stages of grief to get beyond is denial, because denial is a very strong and infantile defense mechanism. It is primal. This is especially true when a tight-knit community colludes to promote that denial. The Penn State community needs someone like Berube – someone who holds enough status to challenge the status quo from the inside – to stand up and break through that denial. He stood in the perfect position to do so. He gave it up, voluntarily.
One explanation is that he hoped that his resignation would provide a strike against that denial. I think, however, it merely shows his humanity. It shows that he, too – like all of the people with the Penn State signs in their yards – wants to get back to business-as-usual. He doesn’t want to defend holding the Paterno chair. He doesn’t want to be the one who draws the bright line between the best of the Paterno family, and what everyone assumes to be the truth of the Paterno family. I can’t blame him for that.
I just wish he would have said that.
