Sen. George Mitchell has released his second quarterly report — as mandated by the NCAA — on Penn State’s progress in abiding by the NCAA sanctions and implementing the Freeh report recommendations.

Predictably, the report has only positive things to say about Penn State’s compliance with the athletic integrity agreement.

“During the period since our first report, Penn State has continued to make steady progress in implementing the requirements of the AIA and the recommendations made in the Freeh report,” Sen. Mitchell said in a press release.  “Penn State completed its implementation of actions that the AIA required to be accomplished within 120 days of its effective date, including identifying and hiring a new athletics integrity officer.”

Notably, the report mentions that Penn State has petitioned to throw out five of the recommendations made by Freeh. The NCAA and Big Ten both agreed to permit the exemptions.

These exemptions include things that might not be practical in a university setting, and are as follows:

• The Office of Human Resources must be realigned to report directly to the University’s president.
• The Office of Human Resources must be separated from the Office of Finance and Business.
• An executive search firm must be used for all senior executive searches.
• Policies and procedures for programs involving non-student minors must be overseen by the Office of Human Resources.
• Adopt a more robust Human Resource information/capital management system.

“The University also continues to make progress in its implementation of most of the Freeh Report recommendations,” Sen. Mitchell said.  “There are five recommendations in the Freeh report that the University requested not be implemented in the manner recommended.  After reviewing Penn State’s reasons for this request, I agreed and conveyed my recommendation to the NCAA and the Big Ten Conference along with Penn State’s letter to me about these matters.  Both organizations have now consented to that request.”

“This report continues to evidence Penn State’s ongoing commitment to integrity, responsibility and ethical conduct, as well as the significant progress that Penn State has made and continues to make since July,” President Rodney Erickson said. “We still have more to do, but we’re gratified that Sen. Mitchell and his team recognize all that we have done and that we are committed to continuing these efforts, in full compliance with the consent decree and the Athletics Integrity Agreement.”

You can read the full report below:

Athletic Integrity Report