Penn State promised Thursday that the University would donate $1.5 million in bowl-game proceeds to sex-crime advocacy organizations. (courtesy Creative Commons)

Penn State promised Thursday that the University would donate $1.5 million in bowl-game proceeds to sex-crime advocacy organizations in an effort to do damage repair after the child-sex-abuse scandal of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the firing of Coach Joe Paterno.

Penn State finished the football season with a 9-3 record,  ranked in the top 25 college teams and will likely go to the Insight Bowl, according to The Daily Beast. There is still some talk, however, that the team could be barred from the post season.

University President Rod Erickson told the Associated Press that if the school goes to a bowl game, all proceeds will go to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape is nationally recognized in the field of sexual assault response and prevention. It was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1999 with a contract for a new National Sexual Violence Resource Center, the main information center on sexual violence in the nation, according to the L.A. Times.

“I am pleased that Penn State wants to establish a partnership with PCAR to utilize our knowledge, experience and resources,” said Delilah Rumburg, chief executive of the coalition and the resource center, to the L.A Times. “It shows strength to take a tragic situation and turn it into an opportunity to grow and learn.”

The funds that will be donated will come from Penn State’s share of this year’s Big Ten bowl revenues.

“As a university and as people within a caring community we believe it is essential to take a deeper look at the core issue of child sexual abuse and to openly acknowledge the scope of the problem,” Erickson said in an announcement to the L.A Times. “Our own experience shows that child sexual abuse greatly impacts individuals and entire communities. It is now our responsibility to assist in raising awareness and in helping fight this insidious and often secret crime. We hope that our partnership will help break the silence that surrounds child sexual abuse and lead to better protection of our children."

"This presents an excellent opportunity for Penn State to raise the national visibility of this issue," Erickson told the AP. "Our students and fans are focused on a cause to play for, to cheer for."

The announcement came a day after Erickson and other administrators faced questions in a student-organized town-hall style meeting. The forum came the same day as a man filed a lawsuit accusing Sandusky of abusing him more than 100 times. 

Erickson told the 450 attendees of the town-hall meeting that ethics would be raised "to a new level so that everyone at the university understands not just the legal thing to do, but the moral thing to do, so that we learn to do the right thing the first time, every time,” reports the AP.

Reach associate news editor Hannah Madans here.