While most of the national focus following charges of child sex abuse at Pennsylvania State University has centered on its coaches and administrators, the scandal has reached deep into the professoriate as well. Responding to constant questions has taken an emotional toll on the university's faculty members, who have been asked by neighbors, friends, and fellow academics to explain how something so heinous could happen there. In the wake of the controversy--which led to the ouster of both the university's president and its legendary head football coach and to criminal charges against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach--faculty members are also calling for greater emphasis on academic matters and more faculty involvement in university affairs. Coping with public scorn, faculty members in State College also see a chance to shift the balance of power. Penn State's Faculty Senate, which has long felt unempowered on a campus where professors believe academic concerns are overshadowed by big-time sports, has become reinvigorated, holding spirited meetings and challenging decisions by both administrators and the Board of Trustees. Professors have also begun to put an academic spin on the issues raised by the scandal, creating new classes and special symposia to explore the proper balance between athletics and academic priorities and to ask questions about why people sometimes act unethically.