Penn State trustees uphold decisions about Paterno, Spanier and Erickson

The executive committee of Penn State University’s board of trustees needed just a brief conference call to reaffirm last month’s shake-up of top university personnel in the wake of child sex-abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach.

None of the committee members attended Friday’s meeting at the Nittany Lion Inn, but they were audible over a loudspeaker placed on a table surrounded by empty chairs. The meeting took four minutes.

The committee unanimously reaffirmed the firing of football coach Joe Paterno, the resignation of Graham Spanier as president and the appointment of Rodney Erickson as his successor.

 

The board scheduled the meeting after criticism that the trustees violated the state open-meetings law by taking its initial votes behind closed doors last month.