STATE COLLEGE — On the anniversary of Jerry Sandusky’s arrest, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said the university has a lot to be proud of.

“We’ve got a tremendous culture of students who are not only engaged in their own learning, but giving of themselves,” he said Monday.

In the months after Sandusky, a retired assistant football coach, was arrested and charged with molesting young boys on and around the campus he inhabited for more than 30 years, Penn State has tried to atone for his crimes and ensure that similar misconduct won’t go unnoticed in the future.

Amid the upheaval last year of losing longtime university President Graham Spanier, who now faces charges of covering up Sandusky’s crimes, and legendary head football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer shortly after being fired, students have continued their traditions of academic discovery and community service.

That’s why, Erickson said, he can’t fault the class of 2013 for choosing to donate a sculpture celebrating the school’s legendary spirit — a three-dimensional rendition of Penn State’s “We Are” rallying cry — instead of giving money to fight the scourge of child sexual abuse that cast a shadow over the university.

“The fact that the students chose something that reflected pride in their university, I think shouldn’t be construed as somehow that they’re not supportive of those activities,” Erickson said in an interview.

They’re the same students who organized and attended the “Blue Out” in September that raised $75,000 for the prevention of sexual assault and who have raised $89 million for pediatric cancer research through the university’s dance marathon, Erickson noted.