A source close to the board of trustees told the Express-Times that Penn State University President Graham Spanier will resign or be fired by the end of the day Wednesday.
This is just another domino in the falling pieces of Penn State’s structure in the wake of the child-sex scandal that came to the public light last Saturday.
The source’s tip of Spanier’s demise comes hours after the university’s legendary coach Joe Paterno announced that he would be retiring at the end of the football season.
Spanier is among the Penn State administrators who allegedly were told in 2002 that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting young boys on campus, but did little about it.
Sandusky is the target of the grand jury investigation accusing him of sexually abusing at least nine boys, some of whom allegedly were molested in the Penn State locker rooms. A witness to one of these alleged incidents told Paterno, and other administrators were notified.
Sandusky was banned from campus after the allegations, and two men who put that ban in place -- athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz -- were charged with failing to tell police about Sandusky. Both have stepped down from their positions and surrendered to police.
According to the Express-Times, Spanier will be replaced by day’s end with an interim president. The interim president will most likely be Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney A. Erickson, the newspaper reports.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to Spanier that they would be investigating PSU's handling of reporting allegations.
