Penn State fails to ensure background checks for youth camps staff, state audit says

PITTSBURGH – A state audit says Penn State fails to ensure all workers coming in contact with children through university-operated youth camps have required background checks, even five years after reforms announced in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said as many as 57 youth camps held during 2016 may have operated with one or more staffers not having the background clearances required by law to be on file. His auditors found 7.9 percent of the youth camps they examined had at least one clearance missing for at least one staffer associated with the camp.

Penn State held 732 such camps in 2016; auditors examined the records for 76 of them.

“This error rate is poor for any university, but for PSU, it is particularly concerning considering the issues emanating from the Sandusky scandal,” DePasquale said.

Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach who operated a charity that held youth camps on campus and in conjunction with the university, is serving 30-60 years for sexually abusing children.

DePasquale initiated the audit of the state’s largest university in August 2016, saying he would examine progress made on reforms since the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, including Clery Act compliance and recommended governance changes reaching as high as Penn State’s board of trustees

The first-ever performance audit of Penn State also was intended to focus on costs and tuition affordability.

“Nearly five years have passed since the news broke about Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children,” DePasquale said at the time. “Through this audit, we will test the university’s implementation of new policies and procedures intended to prevent sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.”

In all, the 100-page-plus report offered nine findings and 23 recommendations to improve university operations and stop rising tuition.

According to the audit, Penn State will be implementing changes and expects to have a new human resource system with improved record-keeping and centralization of the background check process in place by the end of this year.

DePasquale’s audit found that Penn State has worked to address the majority of governance recommendations listed in a 2012 report issued in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal. He said the university has taken “significant steps” to correct some of the previous weaknesses in governance.

But two of those previous recommendations remain an issue, according to the audit.

DePasquale said Penn State and the Legislature need to do more to change the university’s governance and transparency approach; specifically, they need to reduce size of the board of trustees and submit the university to the state’s Right-to-Know Law and the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act, statutes it currently is largely exempted from obeying.

DePasquale noted that Penn State recently moved in the opposite direction, increasing the size of its board of trustees.

“PSU’s Board is too unwieldy for effective governance – and especially so now that it has expanded its size,” he said. DePasquale cited board governance experts with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, saying, “Effective boards are no smaller than seven or greater than 15 in size.” Penn State’s board has a total of 38.