STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — In Stuart Selber’s technical writing class last Monday, he and teaching assistant Michael Faris tried something a little bit different than usual.

The two instructors gave students class time to discuss the sexual abuse scandal hanging over Penn State.

After all, it had been a weekend in State College worth talking about.

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had been arrested and charged Nov. 5 with sexually abusing young boys, including one in the team’s football facility shower in 2002. Legendary football coach Joe Paterno was then fired by the Board of Trustees on Wednesday night along with President Graham Spanier, causing students to riot that night on College Avenue.

‘We found that students have lots of questions,’ Faris said. ‘There’s lots of things that are unanswered, unclear. We’re able to address questions. We’re able to talk about concerns. We’re able to talk about it from a rhetorical perspective, looking at what’s getting represented and what’s not getting represented in certain mass media outlets.’

And the media’s coverage of the event has been on the mind of Penn State students all week, as many students go as far as to blame the media for the firing of Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football history.

Outside the Paternos’ house on 830 McKee St. after Penn State came up short against Nebraska Saturday, students held up shirts and seat cushions in front of camera lenses to block footage. Paterno supporters especially targeted ESPN.

Faris said he and Selber set aside 20 minutes Monday to talk about the scandal, while taking about 30 minutes on Wednesday. But on Friday, after Paterno had been fired, students discussed the scandal for 40 of the course’s 50 minutes.

‘We kind of share that philosophy that something’s going on, it’s worth addressing, so we kind of just started class with it,’ Faris said. ‘I don’t know if (Selber) was planning it or it just kind of popped into his head, but I think we both thought it was really important.’

And so far, Faris said students have been thankful for the opportunity to discuss the scandal, something they haven’t had the chance to do often in most of their classes.

‘We got an email from one student thanking us,’ Faris said. ‘A few of them said in class that none of their other teachers are even addressing it or acknowledging it so we got an email from a student who was really appreciative. Students were talking and bringing up concerns, so I think they were pretty open to it and if they weren’t, they didn’t express it at least.’

Despite the positive feedback Faris and Selber have received from students, no media outlets have approached them about their class practice. But Faris has talked to other teachers in English composition courses and believes other instructors will be setting aside class time this week to discuss the scandal that’s too big to ignore.

And the class discussion will continue for Faris and Selber as long as students need it to. Although not every question is getting answered, Faris said, students will have more answers than they did before.

‘They’re salient in all of this, whether it’s certain reputations from the media of them that they don’t think are accurate or represent them the way they think they should be,’ Faris said. ‘So I’m hoping that students are going to start building ways to communicate among themselves and if more information comes out, they’ll be able to do that.’

jdharr04@syr.edu 

Published on November 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu