The Collegian is at its worst during summer session, when the candidate corps is an avowedly less academic group of summer session students and the bulk of its editing army is off in exotic locales such as New York and Washington.
But the Collegian’s worst is our favorite. There’s nothing better than a nice fluff piece to enjoy over a morning cup of coffee.
Last week, the Collegian published an especially good story about an alumnus living in Bar Harbor, Maine. From one of my preppy sources up north, I found out that Bar Harbor is a natty enclave tucked within Acadia …

I’m beginning to realize that this statistic is going to be brought up for the rest of the school year… here’s Jimmy Fallon making a pretty lame bit out of the news.

Joe Scarborough had Governor Rendell on Morning Joe this morning to talk about the annual budget impasse… but first, c0-host Willie Geist asked Rendell about yesterday’s top story: Penn State being recognized as the country’s #1 party school by the Princeton Review.
Rendell’s comment, delivered with a school boy’s smirk, was:
“You know, some are opposed to the liquor drink tax for the state, so given that statistic, maybe we have to take a hard look at that… only kidding guys, only kidding.”
You can find the full clip here. The question about Penn State comes just 30 seconds into the video.

An interesting thing to come out of this month’s Board of Trustees meeting, other than the proposed tuition hikes, is the news that Penn State received the second highest amount of donations ever for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Penn State received over 300,000 separate gifts from over 77,000 alumni, totaling $180 million in donations, reported Peter Tombros, volunteer chair  of the University’s capital campaign. The $180 million received was surpassed only by the $190.3 million donated in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
The University’s capital campaign, known as For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, has raised over $750 million since …

Penn State had a lot of buzz on the Internet today for an accolade recently awarded by the Princeton Review in its yearly survey of 122,000 students.
For the first time, Penn State was ranked the #1 party school. Before this year, the best (or worst?) we achieved was #3. Though, to be fair, we also did well in other categories… we were also ranked #1 in beer drinking!
Here’s the full list of our accolades:
#2 in Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid
#3 in Jock Schools
#3 in Major Frat and Sorority Scene
#3 in Best Athletic Facilities
#6 in Best Career Services
#6 in Everyone Plays …

What: THON is holding a fundraiser with the help of the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Wear your blue & white, cheer on the black & gold, and raise money FTK!!!”

When: Friday July 31 at 7:05 pm
Where: PNC Park in Pittsburgh
Cost: For ticket information, email Lauren Farrell. Tickets are available at three price levels: $12 per ticket ($2 to THON), $20 per ticket ($5 to THON), and $52 per ticket ($12 to THON).

According to a Monday court filing, reserve WR James McDonald (10 game appearances, 5 receptions for 72 yards in 2008) has been charged with driving under the influence.
The report doesn’t indicate when the incident occurred but shows it took place at State College. McDonald had a blood-alcohol level that measured between .08-.10 at the time of his arrest. The state legal limit is .08.
McDonald has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 19 in Centre County court.
While it may be easy to yawn through this incident, given that this isn’t the first time a Nittany Lion has failed a sobriety test …

To continue with our ongoing H1N1 coverage, it appears that the illness has hit the University Park campus. A Collegian article reports that ten people are infected.
Luckily, all ten are expected to make a full recovery, and it seems like the disease’s spread is being contained. However, this incident has caused some to criticize the university for a lack of communication, notably UPUA President Gavin Keirans:
“In the future, they need to be in a much more active dialogue with the student body about what is going on,” Keirans (senior-business management) said. “It would have probably been in everyone’s best interest …

Don’t get all ‘coming of age’ about it Brooke!

Last month, a documentary created by three staff members from the College of Communications was awarded the CINE Golden Eagle Award, as reported by The Collegian. The documentary, “No. 4 Street of Our Lady”, is about a Polish woman, Francisca Halamajowa, during World War II who saved 16 of her Jewish neighbors.
The film’s official site provides more detail:
On the eve of World War II, more than 6,000 Jews lived in Sokal, a small town in Eastern Poland, now part of Ukraine. By the end of the war, only about 30 had survived, half of them rescued by Halamajowa. For close …

Penn State announced today that they plan to enact the lower of the two tuition scenarios approved by the Board of Trustees last week. Penn State spokesperson Lisa Powers said that support from Pennsylvania’s congressional representatives and state legislators influenced the University’s decision. Out-of-state students will see a tuition increase of 3.7% while in-state students will see a 4.5% increase.
The decision comes following an announcement from the Department of Education stating that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell will have to resubmit his application for federal stimulus money to include appropriations for Pennsylvania’s four state-related institutions.
[source]

The folks over at the Berks County News recently sat down with Paterno to discuss many popular topics, including Bobby Bowden, a potential Big Ten championship game, and his opinion on the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
He was remarkably frank regarding the BCS, saying:
I think we ought to have a legitimate champion. I don’t know whether somebody could vote and say that Florida’s better than Southern Cal, Texas or Utah. A few years ago (2004), Auburn won all of their games. I was voting in the coaches poll and I voted for the three teams that were undefeated. I got a …

The Department of Education announced today that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell will have to resubmit a federal stimulus funds request for Pennsylvania higher education schools, and will not be able to leave the four state-related schools (Penn State included) out of the $42 million that Rendell requested.
This announcement comes on the heels of numerous protests to the Department of Education from 14 of the state’s 19 U.S. Representatives.
Early last night, Representative Glenn Thompson (R- Centre County) received a phone call from the Department of Education saying that Gov. Rendell will have to reapply. Thompson told the Philadelphia Inquirer,
“Frankly, the governor …

The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts took over State College this past weekend, infusing our college town with art and families, two commodities often lacking on campus.
But the festivities only last so long. By now, most of us are back at work, daydreaming about the fast-approaching school year or football season, depending on where proclivities lie. Not so fast though.
Before you move on mentally to thay first kick-off against Akron on September 5th, we want to know:
What was your favorite part of Arts Fest 2009?

[Picture from Brian Henry Thompson on Flickr.]

We captured arguably the best act of the festival (The Earthtones) and perused South Allen St. to document Arts Fest 2009