More than four years after a child sex abuse scandal shook the state’s flagship public university, the words “Jerry Sandusky” continue to reverberate in criminal and civil court cases involving Penn State University.
That said, the school’s alumni association finds in a random membership survey being released today something it can tout: The university's standing overall among its graduates appears to have improved.
Eighty-seven percent of alumni who responded said they hold positive views about their alma mater, according to the survey's numbers.
That’s up 5 percentage points from May 2012 in the immediate aftermath of former assistant football coach Sandusky’s November 2011 arrest for sexual assault and — amid a firestorm over Penn State's handling of the scandal — the subsequent departure of top university officials including then President Graham Spanier.