Penn State university public relations coordinator Richard Edelman told the school’s board of trustees on Sunday that it was time for the university to take the offensive in their approach to repairing the school's image.
 
That was the message delivered during the last day of a weekend retreat at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
 
Edelman’s comments spurred a discussion about using this weekend’s season opener to showcase the university’s academic achievements. The board is hoping to take advantage of the audience tuning in to the first game since the NCAA levied sanctions against Penn State.
 
Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. Penn State’s internal investigation, the Freeh report, implicated top university officials Gary Schultz, Tim Curley, Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier, in an alleged cover-up. Paterno died in January from lung cancer and Curley and Schultz await trial on perjury and failure to report abuse charges. Spanier recently spoke out in interviews calling the Freeh report “absolutely wrong.” The Freeh report findings led the NCAA to impose harsh sanctions against the university.