University Park, PA

Penn State University has received $208 million in donations during the 2011-12 school year at the height of the child molestation scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The amount raised was the second highest in the Nittany Lions' history but the number of individual donors was higher this year than any time in Penn State's history.

With more than 190,000 donors giving money to the school, Penn State said the record numbers showed that "donors remain connected to and strongly invested in Penn State."

"We are grateful to the scores of donors who, through incredibly difficult circumstances, have supported our students and our institution in record numbers," Vice President Rodney Kirsch wrote in an online statement.

In 2010, the Nittany Lions raised more than $274 million in what Kirsch described as a "bonanza year" for fundraising. The amount included an $88 million gift from Terry Pegula, the largest private donation in Penn State history. The money was used to upgrade the school's club hockey team to Division I and build an arena.

The child sex abuse involving Sandusky rattled the university, resulting in the firing of legendary head football coach Joe Paterno and the resignation of former president Graham Spanier.

Paterno was fired after he was charged of not doing enough to stop Sandusky after he was informed about an alleged sexual abuse incident in 2001.

Sandusky was charged and eventually convicted of molesting children on campus property, He awaits sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts last month.

Meanwhile, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Shultz were criminally charged with perjury and failing to report sex abuse.

Several investigations were launched into how the university handled the sexual abuse allegations and why they were never reported to police, including an internal investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

The results of Freeh's investigation are expected to be released this week.