Penn State Students Coached on Sandusky Scandal for Job Interviews

The Penn State Career Services department is concerned that Penn State students will be at a disadvantage when it comes to securing employment due to the Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal.

So, PSU is now offering its students some tips on how to handle the issue when questioned on a job interview.

The Collegian Online, the digital format for The Daily Collegian, PSU's campus paper, reported that PSU released a letter to students on Monday addressing the fears and concerns over employment difficulties in the wake of the scandal.

Business Insider obtained the letter, written by Career Services Senior Director Jeff Garis:

Students may acknowledge that they are primarily concerned for the victims and also concerned for Penn State in these unsettling times.

However, students should keep the focus on the job or internship for which they are applying and how they will excel in the opportunity.

Students should note that they can only take personal responsibility for their individual actions. Talk about all of the good work accomplished at Penn State in building the skills and professional qualities in preparation for the position, and about the excitement to put those skills to work for the employer.

Inform the employer or internship site that, if hired, you will reflect favorably on the employer through your good work, core values and skills obtained through our University.

As of Monday, no employers had contacted the Career Services department to revoke any internship or employment opportunities formerly offered.

The letter is a proactive start, Garis said, according to Collegian.

While we hope employers wouldn't ask questions regarding this, we have to acknowledge that they most likely will.

Garis assured that he and the rest of the Career Services department are there to offer PSU students the support they need. Alumni relations also supposedly remain fully intact.

We have so many alumni planted securely in big corporations, he said. They are championing the efforts, bleeding blue and white and assuring colleagues that [Penn State] is truly a great place.

However, according to Emily Kaplan, a Penn State junior and a writer for the Daily Collegian, things are not going too well.

Kaplan recently wrote to Sports Illustrated revealing that, in fact, students have lost opportunities and PSU is losing sponsors.

Already the scandal's ramifications are swirling around campus. Four students apparently lost their spring internships because companies didn't want to be associated with Penn State. Corporate sponsors are supposedly pulling out of THON, Penn State's annual dance marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, which has raised more than $78 million for pediatric cancer, said Kaplan.

If all true, it's sad. If people don't want to wear their Penn State garb anymore, it's their decision.

Gawker expressed a strong opinion about PSU's helpful dispatch to its students.

Penn State is worried about the children! No, not those children. Their student-children, wrote Leah Beckmann.

It's true that a little preemptive preparation never hurt anyone-but if these toddlers need direction like this, there's a good chance they weren't going to nail the interview anyway.

The scandal has certain rocked the entire nation and shed a glaring light on the inner workings of the world of college football.

Jerry Sandusky spoke with Bob Costas on Monday night on NBC's Rock Center and vehemently denied all allegations against him. Well, most of them.

Well, I could say that, you know, I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts, Sandusky said.

I have hugged them and I have touched their legs, without intent of sexual contact. But, um... uh ... So, if you look at it that way ... uh ... there are things that ... that ... uh ... wouldn't ... uh, you know, would be accurate.

UPDATE: Kirsten Quisenberry, Chairperson of Public Relations at THON, contacted IBTimes to deny allegations that THON has revoked any sponsorships or donations from Penn State, as previously reported via a Sports Illustrated piece written by Emily Kaplan.The quote 'Corporate sponsors are supposedly pulling out of THON, Penn State's annual dance marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, which has raised more than $78 million for pediatric cancer' is untrue and unfounded, said Quisenberry. In fact, THON has not had any company, individual, or foundation donors take back their contributions to THON. We have also been reached out to by alumni and companies showing their support of THON and The Four Diamonds Fund. Many of our of donors have confirm donations at the same level as previous years.