STATE COLLEGE - The story exploded a year ago Monday: former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky arrested for sexually abusing the boys he was supposed to be mentoring. Two university administrators charged with keeping a report of abuse from police and enabling Mr. Sandusky's pedophilia to continue.
Within days, the university's trustees fired President Graham B. Spanier and called on executive vice president and provost Rodney Erickson. The same night, the board fired longtime coach Joe Paterno, sparking a student riot along College Avenue.
In the months since, Mr. Erickson has acted to move the university swiftly through the storm. He agreed to sanctions against its football team. He pushed for the adoption of 119 reforms recommended in the wake of an internal university investigation. And he testified before a state grand jury, which last week recommended perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Dr. Spanier.
"In some ways, it has gone by remarkably fast," Mr. Erickson said Monday. "When the days are so full, as my days have been over the course of the last year, it has gone by quite quickly."
Mr. Erickson conducted a series of 20-minute one-on-one interviews with newspapers from across the state.
"Something bad happened here, and we can't forget about that. We have to make that right, and we have to continue to be a national leader in the fight against child sexual abuse but we're going to move ahead," Mr. Erickson said.
Mr. Erickson, who ordered a bronze statue of Mr. Paterno removed from outside Beaver Stadium in July after the internal probe revealed evidence of his involvement in the coverup, said the school would keep Mr. Paterno's name on a campus library and should "for as long as the library stands."
With "time and perspective," Mr. Erickson said, the university could determine a way to honor Mr. Paterno's achievements. "I would hope that at some point we would be at a place where we can view Joe Paterno's contributions to the university and the many positive contributions that he made in a way that will unify the Penn State community rather that continue to drive it apart."
Mr. Paterno's firing became an immediate flashpoint a year ago.
Penn State students turned downtown State College into a battleground of tear gas and broken glass. Many chanted support for the fired coach and screamed obscenities at the men they viewed as responsible for his plight - Mr. Sandusky and the two officials charged in the cover-up, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz.
Angry alumni denounced the decision as a "rush to judgment." Former Penn State running back Franco Harris called for Mr. Paterno's reinstatement even as the former coach lay dying last January.
"It did come in rolling waves. It certainly was unexpected in the way it all unfolded," Mr. Erickson said. "Certainly now, looking back on it, the nature of the presentment against Mr. Sandusky was such that actions had to be taken, and the board took some very deliberate actions."
The allegations of Mr. Sandusky's abuse, encapsulated first in a 23-page grand jury report released Nov. 5, 2011, emerged at his June trial as horrific tales of a dream friendship with a local legend turned nightmare with a serial pedophile.
Mr. Erickson said he learned the charges were coming only a day before Mr. Sandusky's arrest. He read the presentment a day or two later. "I was horrified by what I had read. I never had read anything like that, certainly had never associated anything like that with Penn State," Mr. Erickson said.
Mr. Erickson denied a report indicating that Ed Ray, the chairman of the NCAA executive committee, said the organization never threatened to suspend the university's football program, the college sports version of the "death penalty." Mr. Erickson said Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA, told him the organization's boards "want blood" as they discussed potential sanctions in July.
"The only way we had a chance to avoid the death penalty - multiple years of the death penalty - was to try to move toward a consent decree of severe sanctions," Mr. Erickson said.
Mr. Erickson said he also appeared before the state grand jury used in the attorney general's investigation, but that he could not discuss his testimony. Mr. Erickson, a member of the Penn State faculty since 1977, plans to retire in 2014.
Contact the writer: msisak@citizensvoice.com