Penn State

Penn State will announce within the next few days what format the summer session will take, university Provost Nick Jones said in a town hall Thursday.

Jones said the university will consider challenges and lessons from the spring semester, when the university decided to cancel in-person classes in March.

Penn State has failed to protect some students and hasn’t handled all complaints of sexual harassment appropriately, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which on Thursday released the results of an investigation into the university.

Among the findings are that Penn State violated Title IX by not responding appropriately to complaints of sexual harassment. That includes student complaints in the 2016-17 academic year and complaints first reported to the Athletic Department in 2015-16 and 2017-18.  

Penn State is telling most of its employees and staff to plan to work from home for the rest of the semester.

The university had already directed faculty and staff to begin working remotely as part of efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus. That decision came in light of Gov. Tom Wolf’s March 19 order that businesses that aren’t life-sustaining close.

Penn State will not lay off employees at least through the end of April, although faculty and staff won’t get pay increases this year, university leaders said during a town hall Tuesday.

The university is also planning for the possibility of continuing remote learning through summer semester, as COVID-19’s reach across Pennsylvania and the country grows.

Two Penn State students who were traveling abroad have tested positive for COVID-19, the university’s president, Eric Barron, said.

Barron was speaking to the Board of Trustees Thursday morning during a telephone meeting.

A Penn State spokesman said the students have not been on campus. He said one student is back in the United States and has been asymptomatic. The other is still abroad. The university, he said, is “doing whatever we can to support the student, who we understand is feeling better.”

Penn State announced today that it will not return to normal, in-person classes this semester, instead keeping the entire semester online.

The move comes in response to the coronavirus and efforts to slow the increasing number of cases of COVID-19. The decision means that spring commencement ceremonies are being postponed.

Penn State plans to announce Wednesday whether the rest of the semester will continue remotely in response to COVID-19. President Eric Barron made that remark during Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting while responding to questions.

“It is the best thing to say we will answer this question tomorrow,” Barron said when asked if faculty will be delivering classes remotely for the rest of the semester. “Because, we just don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, as we contemplate many, many different issues that are related to that decision.”

Penn State has switched to online classes for the next three weeks in response to the coronavirus. But students have a window of time to go to their dorm rooms to collect books or other things they need, and that led to at least one long line at University Park, raising concerns.

The image was posted on Facebook Sunday: a long line of Penn State students standing and waiting to access their dorm rooms. The concerns were obvious.

As the website Onward State, which posted the pictures, put it: “So much for social distancing.”

In the wake of the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and in Pennsylvania, Penn State is switching to remote learning and discouraging students from returning to campus for three weeks.

Penn State announced that it is canceling in-person classes and switching to remote, online learning at least through April 3. Penn State is currently on spring break, and the university is discouraging all students from returning after the break, even if they live off-campus.

There are no known cases on any of the Penn State campuses. 

As coronavirus continues to spread, Penn State University is planning for both the short-term and the long-run, including restricting some overseas trips. 

Spring break is next week, and Penn State Provost Nick Jones said the university is getting ready.

“At the end of the day it is difficult for us to manage the travel of thousands of students," Jones said. "That said, what we are trying to prepare for is the return of those students.”

Penn State announced Thursday that the university will offer eligible staff four weeks of paid parental leave starting in July.

The university announced the new benefit policy Thursday and said it will apply to staff members who have worked 12 consecutive months prior to July 1 this year. 

The four week period has to start within 90 days following a birth or an adoption that takes place after July 1. 

Penn State has suspended a fraternity after a report of sexual assault that allegedly occurred there on Jan. 15. 

The university said in a statement Wednesday that the Office of Student Conduct has placed the Phi Sigma Delta Sigma chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity on "interim suspension" while the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response and State College Police investigate.

A former Penn State football player claims in a new federal lawsuit that other Nittany Lions players hazed him and other younger teammates.

The allegations in the lawsuit filed Monday include claims that some players imitated sexual acts in the shower. The claims also include threats of older players saying, “I am going to Sandusky you," to younger players. Jerry Sandusky was the team's retired longtime defensive coordinator when he was convicted in 2012 of sexual abuse of 10 boys, including physical attacks on university property.

Under a new Penn State policy, undergraduates who get a D or an F in a class, will be able to ask retake the class and, if they do better, have their higher grade count toward their GPA.

The university says the change — “grade forgiveness" — is part of a broader effort to help more students succeed.

David Smith, head of the Division of Undergraduate Studies at Penn State, said the university has been developing a systematic way of working with students struggling academically.

There will be no charges filed related in the case of the 17-year-old from Erie, who died in State College in October, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said in a statement Thursday.

John “Jack” Schoenig died on October 19 in a West College Avenue apartment in State College after inhaling a dose of nitrous oxide from a whip-it dispenser, the statement said. State College Police and the county’s Coroner’s Office determined his death was accidental due to chemical asphyxiation. 

The office of the Coroner of Centre County said the death of a 17-year-old who died at an off-campus house in State College last month was accidental. 

Deputy Coroner Debra Smeal reported on November 22 that an autopsy found that John “Jack” Schoenig died from chemical asphyxia due to nitrous oxide. The report also said a toxicology report did not detect any alcohol in the teen’s system.

Schoenig was a high school senior at Cathedral Prep School in Erie.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was resentenced Friday to 30 to 60 years in prison, the same penalty as before, for sexually abusing children.

Sandusky, 75, was sentenced by Judge Maureen Skerda at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. He wore a yellow jumpsuit and entered court with his hands cuffed in front of him.

Sandusky again asserted his innocence, choked up twice in brief remarks to the judge and told his supporters he loves them.