Coming on the heels of Dean David Wormley’s letter to College of Engineering students and Dean Christian Brady’s blog post to Schreyer Scholars, Dr. Eric White, Executive Director of DUS, recently sent an email out to his young charges echoing their sentiments.


White basically said that students do many good things, like THON, but also some things that don’t make them look so good, State Patty’s being one of them.


Read on for the full email.

Following up on earlier research, Onward State has examined the latest NACUBO College Endowment Study and updated our findings. Nothing groundbreaking here. The economy was poor, and in fiscal year 2009, the Big Ten endowments continued their decline from fiscal year 2008.


Penn State’s endowment lost nearly 21% of its value, which is in fact a middle-of-the-road figure relative to the rest of the Big Ten. Northwestern University experienced the largest decrease in endowment value by percent, almost 25%. Purdue escaped 2009 with less damage to its endowment than any other Big Ten university, suffering only a 16% loss.


The news isn’t all bad however. The Collegian reported that Penn State, along with many other universities, has experienced an increase in its endowment since the NACUBO numbers were complied.


From a low of $1.26 billion, the university’s endowment has risen to $1.46 billion, a 16% increase. Onward State recently solicited the other schools in the Big Ten for their endowment figures from the end of calendar year 2009 to see how Penn State stacked up.

What feels like forever ago, we blogged about a breakdance circle that came together on the floor towards the back of the BJC.


Cumberland Valley THON was lucky enough to get a video of the dancers as they were getting down.

Our friends over at the Daily Collegian transcribed the lyrics…


Penn State, look around/ See this love that we have found


New decade: 2010/ For the Kids once again
THON THON, THON THON, THON THON, Everybody
BJC, show your pride/ Move your Diamonds side to side
Lions, Tigers, Mud, oh my!/ Joe Paterno, still our guy
Homecoming in the snow/ Sorry to see PJ go
Women volley for three-peat/ National Champs, can’t be beat!


The rest is after the jump.

Aaron Clark is frustrated that the Greek Community has been blamed, almost exclusively, for the drinking problem at Penn State.


This frustration recently manifested itself in a manner that has become all too familiar… he made a Facebook group.


The group, titled “Greeks for Equal Accountability“, was created “to bring attention to the fact that the IFC, its chapters, and all Greek organizations are making the most concerted effort to minimize risk, excessive drinking, and the negative stigma we began to carry when we were announced #1 Party School.”

Colbert Nation has been successful, garnering 85% of the vote, but will the Center actually end up bearing Colbert’s name?

Read on to find out…

Yup. This pretty much sums yesterday up. For some laughs, check out the Penn State Facebook Fan page.

Those in attendance last night at the UPUA meeting may not have been expecting anything interesting to happen, but they were in for quite a treat.


Drama ensued partway through the marathon session when DJ Ryan, CCSG Liaison to UPUA, resigned his position, effective immediately. The resignation was not a personal decision of Mr. Ryan, but of CCSG as an organization. CCSG, after attempting to collaborate with UPUA on many issues of importance, decided that they were not interested in continuing a formal relationship with a group that did not want to work with them.

David Sanborn and crew played their version of jazz at the State Theatre last night to a packed house of older folks. Sanborn, on alto saxophone, was backed by keyboards, a drummer, and the famous Joey DeFrancesco on the B-3 organ. The whole evening he had the crowd, the median age of which was easily 55, clapping their hands and snapping their fingers in time with the music. Personally however, while I am an avid fan of jazz music, I am not a fan of his type of jazz music. Sanborn’s music is usually categorized as smooth jazz. I don’t think that’s a very fair classification. For those unfamiliar, smooth jazz is a genre dominated by the infamous Kenny G. Having taken MUSIC 007, the Evolution of Jazz, with the great Dan Yoder, I learned that this is the lowest genre of jazz. Sanborn, on the other hand, I would describe as  a funkier version of the aforementioned Kenny G. So, a little better, but not much.


Sanborn is touring for his latest album, his 24th, titled “On Everything”, the title track of which is about his first grandchild, Genevieve. In addition to songs from that album, he played many others including the popular standard “Let the Good Times Roll”. That was probably the group’s best song of the evening. Sanborn filled the breaks between songs with stories about his new granddaughter. He complimented the State Theatre, noting that he had never been to State College before, unless he was here in the 70s, because, he joked, no one remembers the 70s. Humor aside, musically, the night was dominated musically by Joey DeFrancesco. The organist Sanborn called the “Philosopher of Funk” soloed throughout the night and was immensely more creative and entertaining than Sanborn himself. There was a reason the show was billed as “Featuring Joey DeFrancesco”. Sanborn’s solos were short and predictable, and he had a habit of continuing playing after the band had stopped, almost as if he needed to have the last word. That being said, Sanborn has clearly been doing something right throughout his career, having garnered six Grammy Awards. But, if Taylor Swift can win over Gaga, then maybe that’s not such a big deal either.


Sanborn’s next stop is the Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel tomorrow if you want to see how your impressions match up to my review. Additionally, if you are interested in jazz music, WPSU has a jazz show Fridays from 9-11 pm. One of the hosts of the show attended the Sanborn concert and is interested in local feedback about her jazz programming and any requests you may have. She goes by the name of Rain and will be broadcasting next on February 12th. Her email address can be found here.

Photographer: Stefan Choquette, Onward State Editor of Photography || stefan@onwardstate.com

If this goes down, would you go? I hear she’s rumored to be a big deal.

You read correctly.


Local public media outlet WPSU will be auctioning off an autographed pair of JoePa’s signature glasses at its Connoisseur’s Dinner and Auction on February 20th. The event, which will be held in the Alumni Ballroom at the Nittany Lion Inn, is the place to be if you want to rub shoulders with the elite of the local public broadcasting community. In order to bid on and possibly win the famous specs however, you need not attend. Bidding will begin online this Monday for the glasses as well as for a signed Derek Jeter baseball bat. In the past, WPSU has auctioned off other JoePa memorabilia including autographed khakis and socks, but this is the first time his iconic glasses will cross the auctioneer’s stand.


If you want to go to the dinner and help local public broadcasting, be prepared to pay for it. Tickets are $180.00 per person and can be purchased here. Though, I suspect that if you are in the market for JoePa’s glasses, $180 is small potatoes.

Who all is interested in going to this show? It’s a shame it isn’t on State Patty’s Day, but who cares?

Looking ahead to March Madness already? The semester just started! Also Jeffrey, you would have known about the bandwidth boost if you had read our post about it before break.

hen you sit down to watch Texas and Alabama square off in the BCS National Championship tomorrow, take some solace in the fact that if the BCS was based on academics, neither team would be in the Big Game.


Instead, you’d be cheering on Dear Old State (ranked #1) as they battled against Stanford (ranked #2) in Pasadena. In the New America Foundation academic ratings of the Top 25 ranked teams, Alabama ends up ranked 8th and Texas ranked a lowly 25th.

The end of the year brings the annual Penn State Live Trivia Quiz!
While finals just finished last week and you might be hesitant to take yet another test, give it a try. God forbid you learn something over Winter Break!
When I took it, I scored a 50%. I’m  pretty embarrassed about that, but let’s see how well you can do.
The multiple-choice quiz can be found here. Happy Testing!