Archive for May, 2010

Now that summer is officially here (I'm from New England—therefore I refuse to wait for June 21 lest it start snowing again) it's time for that great tradition: the Memorial Day cookout. The usual burgers and steaks are a must, but Chris Raines, assistant professor of meat science and technology in the College of Agriculture has highlighted some new and unorthodox trends. See his suggestions after the jump.

THON was named one of the most efficient charities by the American Institute for Philanthropy this week. In order be deemed “most highly efficient” 75% of the money raised by the charity must got to its cause. THON surpasses this requirement by a large margin: 94.6% of proceeds go directly to the Four Diamonds Fund.

Read on to find out how THON manages to be so efficient.

If you are a long-term theater lover or just looking for an escape from the oppressive heat that State College has been experiencing lately, June is shaping up to be a decent month. Pennsylvania Centre Stage will be kicking off its 25th year on June 2nd with “Wait Until Dark.”

The production is entirely and professionally cast from Penn State alumni and current students. Included in this group is the omnipresent Bob Clendenin, known for his roles in “My Name is Earl,” “Cougar Town,” and “Scrubs.”

Read on to find out more about the play and how to get tickets for this season’s shows.

Last night, the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon released the dates for THON Weekend, the THON 5K, and the four canning weekends. Communications Overall Elaine Tanella sent an email out to THON volunteers announcing the dates. This year's THON Weekend will take place February 18-20, and the first canning weekend will be October 22-24. You can find the full list after the jump.

Attention season-ticket holders! The deadline for Beaver Stadium's Seat Transfer and Equity Program (STEP) applications is soon upon us. June 30th marks the last day for season-ticket holders to initiate a one-time transfer of their  seats. Folks, this is the only time to transfer seats to family or friends, and now it is a bit more costly.  Some fans will be paying upwards of $2,000 in the form of a donation to allow a loved-one to take their seat. Learn more about the reaction to the changes after the jump.

Many of you have probably watched TED’s talks online. Now you have a chance to see them live. The College of IST Alumni Society is organizing a TEDx event at Penn State October 10 (10/10/10). TEDxPSU is currently accepting speaker applications.

Find out more about TEDxPSU and the application process after the jump.

The Office of Admissions has just released the newest student body profile, to give prospective applicants an idea how they stack up and if they may be able to get in here. That being said, the numbers have changed in recent years. If you were to apply next fall, would you still get in to University Park campus? Read on to find out whether or not you would have gotten into Penn State if you were applying this year.

Penn State recently conducted its annual survey of student drinking. This annual assessment administered by Penn State Student Affairs seeks to gather information on issues faced by students, satisfaction, and usage of alcohol as a recreational drug. Three-quarters of the 6000 student random sample (aged 18 or over) described themselves as "light" or "moderate" drinkers. Read on to learn more about this year's survey.

Bob Warming, the 2008 men’s soccer national coach of the year, has been named the 11th coach in the history of the Penn State men’s soccer team. He is leaving Creighton University where he coached for 14 years in two different stints with the school.


Penn State had been on a nationwide search for a new coach ever since former coach Barry Gorman resigned this spring.


Read on to find out more about the new coach and what it means for next year’s soccer season.

Yep, it finally happened. On Friday, Penn State acquired the former fraternity house of Tau Delta Phi/Phi Delta Theta for $1.5 million. Regardless of the vandalism that took place days before the acquisition, Penn State agreed to pay the original price that was made back in March. Penn State spokeswoman, Lisa Powers, stated that the Phi Delta Theta Alumni group, who previously owned the property, cleaned up and repaired as much as they could before the property closed. Read on to find out the University's ideas on how to use the property and suggest your own.

Earlier this week, VisitPA, the tourism bureau of our great state, launched a foray into Foursquare, one of the world's most popular location-based social networks. It's not the first such civic endeavor into reputation building, but it is one of the largest, geographically speaking, to date. Some Penn State locations are highlighted too. The Tavern Restaurant is listed (the state explains "it's crowded because it's so good"), as is the Creamery (but, Pennsylvania, it's Peachy Paterno not Paterno Peach!).

Though it's still several months until football season, if you want to have a spot in the new and improved 2010 Student Section, it is time to pre-register for student football tickets. All returning undergraduate and first year graduate students are required to register sometime between 8 a.m. tomorrow and 5 p.m., March 27. Those who register will be eligible (though by no means guaranteed) to buy one of the 21,000 tickets being made available later in June. Read on for more details on how to pre-register.

Who is Valerie Plame? A wife. A mother. An undercover CIA agent who had her cover blown by the Bush Administration. But most importantly – a Penn State alumnae who's fascinating story is the basis for a new movie starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, due to open Fall 2010. The movie, directed by Doug Liman, debuted this past week as the only American entry “in competition” at the Cannes Film Festival. Read on to find out more about the film's critical reception.

Even though spring practice is still about 5 months away, Nittany Nation, the student section for Penn State basketball, is already brainstorming ideas for the upcoming season. I spoke with Katie Huber, president of the group, and she explained the intentions of Nittany Nation for the 2010-2011 season. Find out about Huber's plans after the jump.

The head of Penn State’s Graphic Design Department, Lanny Sommese, will be presented with the AIGA Philadelphia Fellow Award on June 10. The award is the highest honor that the AIGA Philadelphia chapter can give to a designer based on achievement and contribution to the design community. Read on to learn more about Mr. Sommese's great accomplishment.

For the second time in three years, the Penn State Men’s Golf team is headed to the NCAA Finals, following a 4th place finish at the East Regional Qualifying tournament. Seniors T.J. Howe and Kevin Foley led the team finishing tied for first and fourth, respectively.


The team carded a 3-under-par, 837 over three rounds (277-283-277) and finished just two strokes behind Kent State and Texas, who tied for first.


Finals will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Find out what the Penn State coach had to say about the team’s next tournament after the jump.

Do you like free stuff? Do you like music festivals (since there's no way you've been to enough already this year)? If so, you may be interested in Onward State and The Lion 90.7 FM's Bonnaroo Ticket Giveaway. We are giving away two tickets to this summer's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, to be held June 10-13 in Manchester, TN. If you're on Facebook or Twitter and follow Onward State and The Lion FM, you can enter.

Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved a $3.8 billion dollar interim budget for the 2010-2011 school year at its meeting last week. An interim budget is adopted each year so the University has an approved operating budget from the beginning of its fiscla year on July 1^st to whenever the Board of Trustees can approve an actual budget. This year’s interim budget is basically identical to last year’s, meaning it contains no changes to tuition adjustments.


Yay! No tuition increase! Right?


Unfortunately, that’s probably not what’s actually going to happen.

On May 6, Robin Becker, a decorated poet and professor of English and women’s studies, was named the 2010-2011 Penn State Laureate.


The laureate is meant to bring an enhanced level of social, cultural, artistic, and human perspective and awareness to a broad array of audiences.


Becker will have a much easier time bringing her voice to students thanks to the social media efforts planned by the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies Office. Check out her thoughts on social media after the jump.

One of the major selling points of Big Ten expansion has been the potential of increased TV revenues due to the subsequent expanded reach of the Big Ten Network. The Big Ten owns 51% of the Big Ten Network and the revenue it gets from subscription fees and advertising is split between all the schools in the conference. With profits reaching $66 million last year, each school in the Big Ten was cut a $6 million dollar check for the 2009 year. But that's not really the point of this post. What I'm worried about today is that while the increased revenue the Big Ten athletics programs would see is a good thing, shouldn't states that already have universities in the Big Ten right now have access to the network first?

Jay Paterno offered his thoughts this morning on StateCollege.com about the Big Ten expansion. It's no surprise that the two major factors in the decision are "money and television," but he brings up another issue that hasn't been discussed much yet: how the expansion will affect longtime relationships and rivalries. Paterno explains that by expanding the conference, the frequency of big-time Penn State-Michigan or Penn State-Ohio State games will decrease dramatically.

It has taken nearly two decades to build up the rivalries and the bonds of conference membership. It would be a shame to see some of those bonds loosened as the frequency of football competition against cross-division teams regress to the frequency with which we play non-conference opponents.

The column is definitely worth a read.

The Chronicle of Higher Education had a fascinating feature this morning about what different university presidents think about during commencement. Our very own Graham Basis Spanier shared his thoughts:

At the top of the list is footwear, since we have a number of students who stumble on the stairs to the stage, especially women who lose a high-heel shoe or flip-flop and trip forward. Next on the list is loose bracelets, since one has to beware of those with sharp trinkets that end up between the student's palm and mine. Finally, because I've been a president for a long time and have been inducted as an honorary member of a number of societies, I have to think through the various secret handshakes that may be approaching.

And now we're curious-- what kind of secret handshakes do the societies have? Share it in the comments if you know.

Representative Scott Conklin (D-Centre County) received 316,192 votes in yesterday's Democratic race for lieutenant governor-- his closest opponent, Jonathan Saidel, received 311,538. These are equivalent to, respectively, 35.4% and 34.9% of the total votes. The race is still too close to call for two reasons. According to the official website, as of 10:10 am this morning, 75 districts had not yet reported voting totals. Moreover, the Centre Daily Times reported this morning that if the final margin is less than one half of one percent of the total number of votes cast, a recount would be automatically triggered in all 67 counties.

Library patrons hold on to your hats, e-books, and iPhones, because there are some exciting new happenings underway! As a part of the ‘For the Future’ campaign, the construction of “The Knowledge Commons” has begun! By next fall, the relocated Foster Auditorium and a new Reading Room will be open to students. Through the rest of the year, the library, OPP, and the architects involved with the project will formulate plans for the rest of the renovations. Sally Kalin, the associate dean of University Libraries for University Park, explained that they hope construction begins in early 2011 and is completed by late 2011.

The former Phi Delta Theta house was intensely vandalized during graduation weekend and the damage was discovered Monday morning. The house was to be formally turned over to PSU this Friday after its $1.75 million purchase in March from the the organization's alumni corporation. The CDT reported that the house had several broken windows, light fixtures  ripped from the ceiling, holes in the walls, garbage strewn inside and out, and graffiti including boobies and a message that read “Graham Spanier kills little kittens.” Food was left rotting and the recently-made decrepit, century old house was said to smell like urine, old food, and alcohol.

Penn State's Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Friday to buy the 1.3 acre site of Kissell Motorsports for $2.6 million dollars. The lot is in Ferguson Township, 9 blocks west of the Atherton and College intersection. The purchase can be viewed in the context of other recent land acquisition--  in 2008 the university acquired a 4.66 acre lot that had been occupied by O.W. Houts, and in 2009 it acquired another property from Craig and Kathleen Kissell. The university has not yet declared its intentions for the land's long term use, but the building will probably be used by University Athletics staff for the interim. The university has talked around long term expansion plans and has not yet specified what  it would build in the far west side of campus.

George Chriss used to film public University Park Undergraduate Association and Daily Collegian meetings when he was at Penn State. He first got involved with open video during his time here. Now he is the founder and heart-and-soul of OpenMeetings.org, a website that hosts films of public meetings from around the country.


The larger concept of open video has become a new phenomenon about making video production and creation more accessible to everyone, essentially bringing video as a medium more into the forefront and having it become a more natural tool we can use to express ourselves. As we can write an essay or speech without thinking twice, we would be able to create a video with this kind of ease. Chriss was kind enough to share his thoughts and experiences with us in our latest 10 Questions piece, which is after the jump.

Google posted a offer to college students a few days ago, saying that they would receive Google Voice invitations within 24 hours. All you need is a .edu email address. Google Voice offers features like voicemail transcriptions to your inbox and free text messaging and claims that it can be used as "one number for life." Google Voice is best thought of as a lightweight operator for your own personal telephone exchange. Once you've set it up and created a new phone number, you can basically tell the system to direct calls to your various phone numbers (home, work, cell) depending on when they are placed and who they are from.

How do you like your eggs at Penn State? Scrambled? In an omelet? Fertilized? How about full of animal cruelty? According to Cage-Free Penn State,

Penn State University's Dining Services currently buys eggs from cruel "battery cage" egg farms - massive warehouses where hens are confined to cages so small they cannot spread their wings and can barely turn around. They often live among the feces and waste of other birds, and their feathers are torn off from constantly rubbing against the cage bars.

Two good tidings of great joy for Penn State basketball fans in one post?! Crazy and unprecedented, but it is the case today.


First, it was announced that the Lions have added recruit Johnathan Graham, a 6’8 power forward out of Baltimore. The Nittany Lions needed someone to fill the paint, and while Graham might not the cream of the recruiting crop, he’s certainly no slouch. Rated a 3-star recruit by Rivals.com and given a grade of 86 by ESPN, he averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds as a senior at Calvert Hall High School and graduated as the school’s second-leading scorer at 1,670 points. With a year of watching the trio of Brooks, Jackson, and Jones (and learning from every one of their mistakes), Graham will hopefully develop into a strong player during his time in Happy Valley.


Find out some details about Penn State’s upcoming home game against Maryland after the jump.