Graham Spanier

Graham Spanier
16th
In office September 1, 1995 – November 9, 2011
Preceded by	Joab Thomas
Succeeded by	Rodney Erickson
Personal details
Born	(1948-07-18) July 18, 1948 Cape Town, Union of South Africa
Spouse	Sandra Spanier
Children	Brian, Hadley

Graham B. Spanier (born July 18, 1948) served as president of the Pennsylvania State University from September 1, 1995 to November 9, 2011. Prior positions he held include: chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Oregon State University, and vice provost for undergraduate studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. During his tenure as president the campus expanded considerably. This expansion included the creation of the Schreyer Honors College, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Penn State World Campus. It also included the merger with the Dickinson School of Law. He continues as a tenured professor of sociology at PSU.

Early life and education

Spanier was born in South Africa and grew up near Chicago in the suburb of Highland Park where he graduated from high school. A family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and family therapist, he earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and his bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State University, who honored him with the Distinguished Achievement Citation and an honorary doctorate.

Career

Spanier contributed to the publication of ten books and over 100 scholarly journal articles while a researcher. As a family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and family therapist, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Family Issues. Spanier was also an author of a study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior concerning the practice of mate swapping, or "swinging".

Spanier earned an annual salary of $545,016 while President of Penn State. His compensation was ranked third among his peers at surveyed public universities nationwide., and was the fifth-highest university pay in America, a total annual package in excess of $800,000.

"Spanier spent five years trying to block the release ... by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg [of] the salaries of Penn State’s highest-paid officials, including [Joe] Paterno, from the state retirement system. ... The university lost before the pension board, the Commonwealth Court and, in 2007, the State Supreme Court."

Board memberships

Schreyer Honors College Dean Christian Brady (left) and Graham Spanier (right), at the Schreyer Honors College medal ceremony on December 17, 2010.

He served on national boards like the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, he was deputy chair of the Worldwide Universities Network, served on the Board of Directors and a founding member of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, and chair of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities. Spanier also chaired the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.

Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal

Main article: Penn State sex abuse scandal

Spanier was criticized in 2011 for his initial reaction to a sex abuse case involving former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was charged in November 2011 with 40 counts related to alleged sexual abuse of minors. Penn State athletic director Timothy Curley and university Senior Vice President Gary Schultz were also indicted for perjuring themselves and not reporting a 2002 incident in which a then graduate assistant and later assistant coach named Mike McQueary said he witnessed Sandusky abusing a child on Penn State property.

Spanier issued a statement after the charges came to light in which he said Curley and Schultz had his "complete confidence", and they "operate at the highest levels of honesty." Spanier was criticized for expressing support for Curley and Schultz, and failing to express any concern for Sandusky's alleged victims. After this, he largely dropped from public view. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Board of Trustees ordered him to keep silent. He did, however, cancel head football coach Joe Paterno's weekly press conference due to legal concerns. Paterno was a key witness in the grand jury probe.

A group of Penn State students created the Facebook page "Fire Graham Spanier" in order to call on Penn State's Board of Trustees to fire Spanier. An online petition at change.org called for Spanier's ouster. It garnered over 1,700 signatures in four days.

The Penn State Board of Trustees announced on November 9, 2011 Spanier had resigned and head football coach Joe Paterno had been fired. In both cases their action were effective immediately. Several Penn State sources told StateCollege.com and The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that Spanier and Board of Trustees vice chairman John Surma mutually agreed that the best way forward for all involved would be for Spanier to resign "voluntarily and with grace."

The decision was not entirely voluntary. Earlier that day The Express-Times of Easton reported the Board of Trustees had given Spanier an ultimatum—resign before that night's meeting or be fired. A member of the board later told The Morning Call of Allentown that the board was very angry about his statement of unconditional support for Curley and Schultz. Although he is no longer president, Spanier is still a tenured professor at Penn State. Provost Rodney Erickson was named his successor.

The Board of Trustees issued a statement on March 12, 2012 saying it forced Spanier out. The statement said he was forced out because he showed insufficient leadership. It further said he showed insuficient leadership by making unauthorized statements to the press and insufficiently informing the board what he knew about the 2002 incident.

A Phoenix private investigator named Paul McLaughlin came forward in the wake of the Sandusky revelations. He charged in the early 2000s Spanier and others at Penn State rebuffed his efforts to report his own sexual abuse. McLaughlin charged he was sexually abused as an 11-year-old in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He named, among others, PSU education professor John T. Neisworth.

McLaughlin secretly taped a telephone conversation with Neisworth which contains a purported confession. He said Spanier responded "Don't bother" when McLaughlin offered to send him the tape. McLaughlin states his conversation with Spanier occurred in March, 2002 days before the alleged Sandusky rape. "Neisworth retired in 2002, though he continued teaching a distance-education course for a few more years," was reported in the New York Times.

Although McLaughlin identified him as a PSU admininstrator he contacted, dean of college education David Monk said he had "no personal contacts from Mr. McLaughlin at any point". He said had not been offered the tape. He acknowledged contact from a McLaughlin family member. He went on to say, “I did take the charges seriously and immediately determined that Mr. Neisworth’s Penn State duties did not involve direct contact with children.”

McLaughlin says one university official sent back a copy of the recording unopened. He also said Spanier told him, "whatever I wanted to get from the school, I wasn't going to get it". The Times article states a report from a PSU official there is no record of calls to Spanier.

McLaughlin states John Neisworth paid him a "six-figure" settlement after a lawsuit. Criminal charges were brought against three men including Neisworth all of whom denied the charges. The charges were dropped against two of the men and Neisworth was acquitted at trial.

The judge ruled the tape McLaughlin made was not admissible as evidence. McLaughlin said the charges were not sustained due to admissibility and statutes of limitations issues. He states the abuse took place in more than one state, but Maryland was the only one that allowed charges going back as far as his allegations.

Internet and copyright issues

Then-Penn State President Graham Spanier hosts a diversity summit in his residence on October 18, 2003.

Then-Penn State President Graham Spanier (third from left), posing with student government officers from Penn State satellite campuses.

Graham Spanier has an interest in internet technology and he was a founding member of the Internet2 board. He was recognized by Al Gore in 1997 for his work on the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID). More recently, Spanier has become an outspoken critic of unmonitored online file sharing, and testified before Congress in 2002 about the issue.

He was the first University president to collaborate with music companies in an effort to halt illegal file sharing among students when Penn State signed a contract with Napster that provided all students access to Napster's music catalog. He signed a contract with Ruckus Network in 2007 which provides ad-supported access to millions of songs and videos to Penn State Students. He served as co-chair of the Committee on Higher Education and the Entertainment Industry.

Colleges and universities are collaborative communities. In that spirit, many different segments of academia have contributed their views and perspectives on how higher education should address the issues posed by illegal file-sharing. And we have some level of responsibility for the well being of millions of young men and women who, while in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, are massive consumers of entertainment products at the same time they are developing personal value systems.

— Graham Spanier, "Peer to Peer Piracy on University Campuses: An Update"

Personal life

Spanier and his wife Sandra have two children, Brian and Hadley. Both their children have attended Penn State University. His wife Sandra is a professor of English at Penn State.

External links

• WPSU's website.