Will Penn State grads have trouble finding jobs?
— -- Last fall, Penn State enjoyed a reputation as the favorite destination for corporate recruiters. A year later, as Penn State deals with a sex abuse debacle that could drag on for years, some Penn State seniors are worried their degree could work against them.
"People who've heard of Penn State throughout the scandal have already formed some sort of negative opinion of us," says senior major Joe Martin, who graduates in May with a degree in kinesiology — a program that works closely with the athletic department, which has been at the center of the controversy. Fabled football coach Joe Paterno was fired last month after criminal charges were filed against a former assistant football coach. Penn State president Graham Spanier also was fired, and two Penn State administrators have been charged in connection with the criminal case.
This month, campus officials are going on the offensive. Damon Sims, Penn State's student affairs vice president, flanked by a delegation of deans and career services officials, is meeting with recruiters in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to emphasize the school's academic reputation. President Rodney Erickson, who replaced Spanier, plans similar meetings with Alumni Association chapters in the Northeast over the next several weeks.
The campus last year topped a Wall Street Journal ranking of schools that nearly 500 recruiters said produced the best-qualified graduates. Penn State alumnus Steven Raz, co-founder of a corporate recruitment company based in Parsippany, N.J., doubts the scandal will hurt job-hunting students. "Their education and what they've personally accomplished really comes first" to employers, he says of students.
Siemens, an electric and engineering company that announced last week that it's looking for currently enrolled college students to fill more than 300 positions in its internship programs, is one of several companies actively recruiting Penn State students, Penn State career services director Jeff Garis says. "We evaluate every candidate on his or her individual merits," Siemens spokeswoman Camille Johnston says.
As criminal proceedings move forward, however, some prospective students find the scandal hard to ignore. "Images of Penn State students rioting in favor of Joe Paterno are now etched in the minds of millions," says Craig Meister, an independent admissions consultant in Stevenson, Md. Eight of his students applied to Penn State before the scandal broke, and all but one have since backed away from interest in the school. "So far, nothing about this is not coloring their attitudes in some way. Students and parents I work with are particularly concerned about students' chances of getting a job after graduation or during school breaks."
Credit risks?
Penn State, which has about $1 billion in debt, is under review for a possible downgrade to assess credit risks. Its current Aa1 rating is the second-highest possible and "connotes very little, if any, risk," says John Nelson, managing director for Moody's higher-education ratings. "Any negative reputational problem that crops up for a university catches our attention. … What is unusual in this case is that it rose to the level of involving senior university managers, and we place a great deal of weight on that."
Of particular concern to investors:
