Penn State faces uncertain path forward in Freeh report aftermath Penn State University is reeling in the wake of an extensive and damning report by former FBI director Louis Freeh that cited several of the school's most powerful leaders - including revered head football coach Joe Paterno - with concealing the activities of convicted child sex offender and former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky over more than a decade. The report's findings cast a dark shadow over a school still trying to digest the scope of Sandusky's repeated unreported offenses. As the university continues to take stock of its shortcomings related to the scandal, campus safety in State College and around the country is the latest issue of concern. As the Associated Press reported: For more than two decades, colleges and universities have been required to publicly share details of campus crimes and report murders, rapes, robberies, arson and other serious offenses to the federal government. That requirement was apparently unheeded by former Penn State President Graham Spanier, other top officials and the larger ranks of university employees responsible for student safety, the recently released investigation into the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal concluded. The report by former FBI director Louis Freeh found that, outside the campus police department in State College, "awareness and interest" in the federal law known as the Clery Act was "significantly lacking." The 1990 law is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered four years earlier by a fellow student at a campus that's about a three-hour drive from Penn State. National campus safety experts say such problems spread far beyond Penn State, even as the U.S. Department of Education has stepped up enforcement in recent years and teamed up with the FBI on some inquiries. "This is a much broader concern," said S. Daniel Carter, director of a campus safety project at a charitable foundation formed by the families of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting victims. Penn State is a microcosm of the entire field of higher education. First-year head football coach Bill O'Brien has the unenviable task of trying to pick up the pieces for a team rocked by scandal. And despite the immense pressure he faces to rebuild a program whose imaged may be tarnished beyond repair, he is already proving to be a valuable leader. As the AP reported: In seven months on the job, Bill O'Brien has turned into much more than just the new leader of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Perhaps no head coach has ever inherited such a challenge in his rookie campaign. He's kind of our rock. He sets the tone for the rest of us," guard John Urschel. He sets a very good precedent for this program. Lately, any good news out of the football program has been overshadowed by the findings of former FBI director Louis Freeh's investigation into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Former coach Joe Paterno and three other school officials, Freeh said last week, concealed abuse allegations dating back to 1998.