The assignment requires the student to read the article “Penn State’s Trustees Recount Painful Decision to Fire Joe Paterno” regarding issues related to the Penn State/Sandusky scandal. The article was published in the New York Times which can be accessed at: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-trustees-recall-decision-to-fire-paterno.html (Links to an external site.)
The final reflective paper should focus on a discussion of ethics. You must identify at least
2-3 ethical dilemmas for the President or the Board of Trustees presented in the article or otherwise identified in other sources. You should utilize the criteria in the rubric below to reach
certain decisions and justify your decisions which may or may not be consistent with the
manner in which the Penn State leadership resolved the ethical dilemmas. As part of your analysis,
you should identify the stakeholders which is an important step in the process.
Each student shall:
1. Read the assigned article in its entirety for understanding;
2. Assess the ethical and legal issues arising in the article from your perspective;
3. Establish your personal opinion on the issues (may be the same or different from the decisions by the Penn State leadership);
4. Use the rubric below to guide you in persuasively expressing your conclusions.
Your final submission should be 4 – 6 pages long. It is not important that your instructor agree with your position, because there are no absolutely right or wrong answers in the case of ethical issues in particular. Rather, your grade will be determined by how persuasively you argue your position including making references to facts, case law, legal doctrines or frameworks and ethical considerations as distinct from legal thinking that will support the position you
have taken.
*It must include a mandatory cover page (not included in the recommended length of submission above).
