Earlier this year, there was talk of Penn State President Graham Spanier taking over the post of NCAA President after the death of Miles Brand. G-Span did not want the job, however, and Mark Emmert was eventually elected to the position.
But in his quest to keep all college citizens safe, it was announced on Tuesday that Spanier has been selected to head the Bowl Championship Series Presidential Oversight Committee.
Onward State recently sat down with University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) President Christian Ragland, Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) President Mohamed Raouda, and Graduate Student Association (GSA) President Jon Lozano to discuss the University’s acceptance of the proposal to have students sit on the University Budget Committee. This step will allow Penn Staters to play a more active role in deciding how Penn State funds are should be spent.
Read Onward State’s interview with Ragland, Raouza and Lozano after the jump, and find out what this change will mean for you.
s many of you may know, Graham Spanier is in touch with the student body. They don’t pay him the big bucks for nothing. He gets involved, and he knows what’s going on. Perhaps the best tool available to him is his yearly tradition of spending move-in weekend in a freshman residence hall. By doing this, he’s able to get to know some students, check up on the condition of student life, and make a good impression.
Through the Penn State Facebook page, he shared some of his thoughts from the experience. Read on to hear Dr. Spanier’s thoughts (with some reading between the lines by yours truly)…
Earlier this afternoon, President Spanier spoke with CNN news anchor Ali Velshi on the state of higher education in the United States. He weighs in on a study conducted by the College Board about the US lagging behind other developed countries in graduation rates among young adults. He believes that the US isn’t actually lagging behind but that the rest of “the world is catching up to us.”
Read on to see what GSpan had to say about higher education in the US…
Knight Apparel, a major supplier of college-logo clothing to hundreds of American universities including Penn State, has announced that their new factory in the Dominican Republic pays over three times the country’s minimum wage and allows unions, a groundbreaking step in their efforts to promote corporate social responsibility.
Read on to learn more…
It seems like every time we turn on SportsCenter, they’re reporting about another school committing some sort of NCAA violation. Several major college athletics programs have been hit with sanctions by the NCAA, but over the years Penn State athletics has stay free of scandal involving violations of NCAA policies. One of the big reasons for that is Penn State President Graham Spanier’s commitment to running a clean athletic department. In an interview with BlueWhiteIllustrated.com, he discussed how he goes about keeping Penn State athletics an example for other schools in how their departments should be run.
Read on to find out how he does it…
As reported earlier, the Penn State Board of Trustees has given Graham Spanier a three-year extension on his contract; he will be Penn State president through 2015. When the new contract takes effect July 1, President Spanier will also be receiving a raise on his annual salary from $620,000 to an even $700,000. The increase itself ($80,000) and the new salary are a significant pile of change, but considering Spanier’s accomplishments and the advances Penn State has accrued under him, it seems warranted.
The agreement will increase Spanier’s tenure to 20 years, making it one of the longest terms for a university president in the country—few extend back beyond the 21st century. In the context of Penn State itself, these 20 years from 1995-2015 will be the second-longest term in Penn State history to George Atherton’s 26; Spanier will share his spot on the leaderboard with Ralph Hetzel (1927-1947, and he has a street named after him). We generally don’t think of history in our own time; we think it as part of the past. However, here and now, Spanier’s reign is a historic one that has shaped and continues to shape the University; a formative period 150 years after its founding.
Read on to learn more about Spanier’s career at Penn State so far and what the future holds.
The Spaniers will be living in Schreyer House until at least 2015.
The new contract, agreed upon between the Board of Trustees and Dr. Spanier, amounts to a three-year extension for the man who, according to Penn State Live, has been called “one of the most influential college presidents of our time.”
Come 2015, only President George Atherton will have held the position longer.
Read on past the jump to learn more.
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.
Amid a variety of issues, such as basketball tournament expansion, college football playoffs, and hiring of minority coaches, the NCAA Executive Committee finally selected Mark A. Emmert as the fifth president of the NCAA Tuesday. Emmert, the current president of the University of Washington, will be filling the spot left by the late Myles Brand, who passed away in September of 2009. James L. Ish will continue to hold the interim position until no later than November 1 when Emmert will take over.
When talks to replace the late Brand began, Penn State’s president Graham Spanier seemed to be a likely candidate. However, Spanier quickly denied the allegations and will continue his tenure at dear Old State.
Learn more about Emmert after the jump.
I guess I understand why people don’t want to fill out the census: We have enough homework assigned every night –why should we have to complete yet ANOTHER assignment? And we don’t even get credit for this one!
Well, we actually kind of do.
Penn State – University Park students make up roughly 75% of the State College population. This basically means that if we students don’t mail the census back, then 75% of State College doesn’t exist in the Census Bureau’s eyes.
How does that affect you personally? Why should you care? Read more after the break.
As a part of a panel of leaders made up of Pennsylvania’s state institutions, including Temple and Pitt, Pres. Graham Spanier traveled to Harrisburg yesterday to answer questions regarding Penn State’s funding needs.
Spanier and the panel met before the state House Appropriations Committee in what is considered the second step (the first being Gov. Rendell’s recent budget announcement) in the annual appropriations process.
Pres. Spanier had plans to inform the legislature about the funding needs of the university, as well as the educational opportunities made available to students because of said funding, according to Annemarie Mountz, Assistant Director of Public Information at Penn State.
Read on for some of the ‘educational opportunities’.
Are you a rising sophomore (i.e after this semester you will be a sophomore)? Are you attending University Park currently? Do you wish to become a better leader? Then the Presidential Leadership Academy is for you!
The program itself is 3 years long and accepts only 30 applicants from each class. The Academy aims to prepare students to make difficult choices and to welcome diversity and consider multiple interpretations of a given situation. It will also teach the importance of attire, decorum and personal character.
Some cool stuff that goes on in the Academy:
- Taking a one -credit seminar led by Graham Spanier!
- Taking a three -credit course which emphasizes critical thinking
- Participating in at least three field experiences which are planned annually by the Academy to give students broader perspective on social and political issues.
Applications are either done through a nomination by Penn State faculty/staff or self-nomination. The deadline is due Feb 26, 2010. For more information on applications click here.
Well the time has finally come for good ol’ G-Span to head out there and show his alma mater all that he has learned from us here at PSU. The Des Moines Register had an interview with President Graham Spanier, which is actually a good look into his life as a president. In the interview he talks about the time he spends in the dorms (at the beginning of the year in East), the changes university life has seen since his time as a student, and how he spends his free time. The title of the speech he will be giving is “What I Can Learn Sleeping in the Residence Halls.”
One of the better questions in the article related to the speech’s title:
So what’s with sleeping in the dorms?
I’ve been doing that at the beginning of the fall semester for years. It helps me put a finger on the pulse of students. The speech has a catchy title but it’s about keeping up with what is happening with students.
I can say that I have personally seen G-Span spend some time in the dorms over here at East and he does get to know the incoming class. In fact, he actually goes around and talks to every student and tries to get feedback from them straight off the bat. He also advertises various important events that first-years should attend so they may become attuned to the Penn State culture. Also, he performs magic (he still can’t make the CATA buses appear on time, though)!
Read on for some more good stuff from the interview.
Update 11:30: Well what do you know! Both we and the Collegian had this one wrong. No new policy was passed at Tuesday’s meeting. Rather, a resolution was passed that was meant to put on record the Senate’s “opposition to the early dismissal of classes by teaching staff for anything besides legitimate professional reasons,” according to Annemarie Mountz.
The original column is below in italics.
A new policy was passed on Tuesday by the University Faculty Senate which is now being moved to President Graham Spanier for approval. What is this new policy? To stop professors from canceling classes before break begins.
College of Liberal Arts Senator Dennis Gouran put it best when he said, “It is unprofessional behavior on the faculty’s behalf to cancel classes because they are simply giving themselves and students an early start home.”
