As a Penn State alum, this week has been the most gut-wrenching, miserable week of my life. The fact that one of our own would commit the unspeakable is something I'd never have imagined just a week ago. To see our university leaders all fail to act appropriately when presented with the opportunity was another swift punch to the gut. Then, the reaction to the firing of coach Paterno by a small portion of our student body was yet another massive disappointment. But that is not Penn State. It will take many, many years for our school to regain our credibility, but in earnest, we will move forward.
I don't hesitate to speak for all of the 550,000 Penn State alumni in saying that we want justice for the victims; we want a complete and total airing of the truth, and we want anyone involved in failing to help those children to be furiously punished. Even if the facts ultimately point to a failure of our beloved coach Paterno, then so be it.
But I also want to thank Nebraska's fans and football team. I've always enjoyed when we've played Nebraska – your fans travel well, are great people to spend a weekend with and are total class acts. By coming to Happy Valley and playing a football game this weekend, you helped the healing process for so many Penn State fans who had absolutely nothing to do with this scandal. I'll always be a Nittany Lion, but from this day forward, I'm also a huge Husker fan. Thank you.
Scott Krouse
Penn State Alum `99
Westlake, Ohio
An open letter to Tom Osborne, the Nebraska football team and the people of Nebraska:
I'm not a Penn State grad, not even a fan of the football team, just someone who lives in the area. I want to thank you for participating in this football game. You didn't have to and no one would have blamed you if you didn't. That you did was not only an act of courage, but also an act of compassion and understanding. Your presence in Beaver Stadium (helped) begin a community-wide healing process, allowing our community to express its shame and sorrow for those of our neighbors who have been victimized by the failure of those we trusted. The sense of shock and sadness is palpable in this community. The only thing that I can begin to compare it to is when a family member does something horrid and your immediate reaction is shock. You know what your loved one did is wrong and requires punishment, but you still love them. We know we have a long, hard road ahead of us; we know that because of the sins of a few, all will be forced along that path. (Saturday) was a beginning step toward redemption. Thanks.
Fred Wilder
Centre Hall, Pa.
To the Nebraska community:
I am presently writing you as a lone individual – I do not now, nor will I ever pretend to, speak on behalf of the more than 40,000 Penn State University Park students, nor the nearly 100,000 members of our two dozen commonwealth campuses and assuredly not on behalf of the nearly half-million Penn State alumni around the country and around the world. I can only speak for myself, and this is the experience I had the last few days interacting with the Nebraska community members who came to Happy Valley for (Saturday's) football game.
On Friday, your first fans began making a visible presence felt in downtown State College, Pa. I was, personally, a bit relieved that they came after all the speculation resulting from the horrific events over the last week. It has been a turbulent time for all of us in the Penn State community, and no one could reasonably blame anyone for their trepidation in the face of willingly going into fray, so to speak.
On Friday night I saw members of your community proudly clad in scarlet on the lawn in front of Old Main, participating solemnly, respectfully and supportively during an emotional candlelight vigil. Your fans stood by us while we listened to various community speakers, the Penn State Blue Band, a capella performances and a heartbreaking anonymous letter from a PSU student chronicling her own experiences with sexual abuse. Most importantly, while we prayed for the victims of unspeakable crimes committed in our own community — and victims of sexual abuse all over — you were quite literally standing beside us and standing for what should have been the focus of our community's attention and national media attention all along.
All day Saturday Nebraska fans filled seats in Beaver Stadium, seats in our restaurants and bars and explored the campus we call home. In spite of a close ending to an exciting game – an ending that, I must admit, I wish had a slightly different outcome (ahem) — your fans were gracious and continued to be grateful and kind everywhere I ran into them. From friendly passers-by on campus to a lone Nebraska fan at a gas station on the outskirts of town calling a friend back home to talk about how well things were going in Happy Valley, I did not have a single bad interaction with any member of your community. I sincerely hope the experiences of your Huskers were similarly positive.
Overall, the purpose of this letter is to thank you – all of you. As I said, this has been an extremely difficult time. Emotions have been running high and, to say the least, have gotten the best of most of us at one time or another. As the nation and world have seen, this week glaringly revealed the worst of not just college athletics and higher education, but the worst of humanity as well. The support of your community has shown many of us in Happy Valley the best of college athletics, the best of higher education and the best of humanity. Your support — both implicit and explicit, intentional and incidental — made a world of difference for our entire community this weekend and will continue to allow us to pick ourselves up, to renew our commitments to the values and ideals we seek to uphold and to remember the victims and prevent future tragedies from ever taking place. Thank you again, and I, personally, look forward to seeing you in Nebraska next fall.
is a member of the 
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~a Penn State Student