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.”

However, considering that next year’s schedule has fewer games, the price per game will stay the same.


Tuition, on the other hand, will almost definitely be increased. In a meeting with the Board of Trustees last week, Graham Spanier announced students should expect to see a tuition hike of between 2.9 to 4.9 percent.


Spanier also noted that the difficulty Penn State had attaining its appropriations this fall should have been a hint that tuition might have to be adjusted to compensate. If you haven’t been paying attention, well, surprise!


As is it the media’s job to play the blame game, let’s start first with the Pennsylvania legislature. They wouldn’t give Penn State the entirety of its appropriations request and now students have to make up the difference. Also, we can throw some blame on the university’s representatives. Sure, they probably did their best, but why let facts get in the way of a good blaming? While we’re at it, Graham Spanier probably had something to do with this monetary meltdown… and you thought he and Fast Eddy were friends!


But the main culprit, the real son-of-a-bitch responsible for the tuition hike, is NBC. They ruined late night TV and ultimately spurred the final decision to raise tuition.


It could be worse. Even a five percent increase isn’t the end of the world (which is still in two years, btw). And at least Penn State isn’t the University of California. They call that a riot? Raise our tuition 32 percent and we’ll show UC how college rioting is done!

In December 2005, alumni and friends of Penn State donated $44.4 million. Sounds like a lot, right? This past December, those alumni and friends donated over $58 million, setting a new fundraising record (in a single month) for Penn State.


President Spanier had the following comment, according to Penn State Live: “Our donors continue their loyalty to Penn State, and we are most grateful to each of them for their exceedingly generous support, which is essential to the University’s future.”


Of the December total, 31,000 donors gave over 37,000 gifts. Eleven of these gifts surpassed $1 million.


Penn State hopes that this new record will fit into an upcoming crescendo of gift-giving, culminating in the “For the Future” campaign, a fundraising initiative beginning on April 23, 2010. The campaign emphasizes education affordability for students of modest means.


Will the recession impact this year’s donations? Slim personal budgets may cause donors to purchase necessities rather than partake in philanthropy. However, let’s hope our wonderful alumni choose to give back to dear old State.

A question that always leads to some interesting debates.


Do executive officers of organizations deserve the amount of money that they receive every year?


On Wednesday, the Collegian reported that Penn State President Graham Spanier was ranked 6th nationally among public university presidents in terms of annual base salary for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. In total pay compensation Spanier ranks 18th among the same group.


My question to the Onward State community is whether his $590,000 salary is too much.

Before gracing Happy Valley with his presence, President Graham Spanier got his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Iowa State. I’d say they’ve served him pretty well—so well, in fact, that Iowa State is having Spanier as their keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebration of ISU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Said Michael Whiteford, the College’s dean, “That he is a university president and an Iowa State sociology graduate makes his return to campus for our college’s 50th anniversary all the more meaningful.”


Our beloved G-Span will leave us when he travels to Ames, Iowa, to give his speech: “What You Can Learn Sleeping in the Residence Halls,” an apt reflection of today’s college students. It’s an appropriate subject for the venue, as going to college is infinitely different from 50 years ago. And he, of anyone, would know, from actually sleeping in the residence halls among the rank and file each move-in weekend.


ISU quotes Spanier as saying, “I always enjoy returning to Iowa State, since it brings back so many fond memories.” Memories of going back and forth between the library and chapel, of course. No, but really, any man who has participated in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and is the president of one of the biggest universities in the United States is the definition of well-rounded, to the point where you wonder if he’s for real.


More power to you, G-Span, you’ve showed us how real you are. Go show your alma mater what you’re all about.

Yesterday we ran a story regarding Graham Spanier possibly being considered a candidate for the NCAA Presidency. However, the Centre Daily Times is reporting today that Spanier has ruled himself out as a candidate. He states in an email to the CDT, “I am aware that my name has been mentioned, and I have been approached about the possibility by a number of people, but I am not a candidate for the position.”


This is a good thing for Penn State… Spanier has done great things and losing him would be a blow to the school. And it’s not as if the NCAA doesn’t have plenty of other Presidents to choose from!

Penn State President Graham Spanier hasn’t been here for as long as JoePa has, but he’s become such a recognizable part of the University that I have a hard time envisioning Old State without him. Spanier has been University President since 1995 and was a member of the faculty from 1973-1982 before leaving for several administrator positions at other universities across the country.


Yesterday though, the Associated Press ran a story discussing who will succeed Myles Brand as NCAA President. Brand died of pancreatic cancer on September 16. The report names Dr. Spanier as a potential candidate for the NCAA Presidency. One of the main reasons is based on the fact that Dr. Brand had served as a University president before taking over the NCAA (University of Oregon [1989-1994] and Indiana University [1994-2002]). Brand’s tenure was marked by a commitment to improving the student-athlete experience by focusing more on academics and education (something Penn State has never had a problem with). Oregon State University President Ed Ray, who is in charge of finding a replacement for Brand, has hinted that his committee is leaning towards a University President.


The report names University of Hartford president Walter Harrison, Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman, NCAA executive Bernard Franklin, and Graham Spanier as possible candidates. Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman (a contemporary of Spanier’s), Hampton University president William Harvey, Molloy College president Drew Bogner, Widener University president James Harris and Weber State president Ann Millner make ou the rest of the committee in charge of selecting the new president, and are not considered viable candidates themselves.

As if being a magician, juggler and University President weren’t enough, once again Graham Spanier has released his annual list of movie reviews. There are only twelve (compared to last year’s 17), but I feel they offer some fascinating insight into the mind of the G-Span.

I’m sure many of you checked your email yesterday and received this delightful gem from Penn State:

Here’s the important things I learned from this video:

0:14 – This professor finally made friends this year
0:18 – “I’ll put the values of Penn State against any university in this country”. NUMBER 1 PARTY SCHOOL! WOOO!
0:27 – This guy’s a level 68 mage in his online fantasy world. Hail!
0:38 – How long have you been working here? You JUST decided it was good to be here? I don’t think that’s the message the video is trying to convey…
0:48 – I always feel like I …

What do you do during your free time? Play video games? Watch TV? Check Tiger Woods’ Twitter? As detailed in a recent Centre Daily Times article, Sandra Spanier, a Penn State English professor and wife of Graham Spanier, leads a 15-year effort to publish an extensive, complete volume of the correspondence of Ernest Hemingway.
Along with other scholars, Professor Spanier has tracked down hundreds of letters written by the great American author, some dating as far back as 1918, when Hemingway was a teenager in the army. The letters are then painstakingly entered into a computer by hand, and archived.
The group …

First off, before I begin, I have to thank the BJC Staff for allowing us to review this show and the amazing seats.
After Graham Spanier exited stage left, ringing his sleigh bells, the world famous Rockettes took the stage in a reindeer motif to introduce Santa, who whisks us away on a holiday adventure.
At first I was a little skeptical. I mean, it’s just a bunch of chicks prancing about with Christmas carols, right?
Wrong.
Seriously, I wasn’t really excited to see this show besides the free tickets for me to take a date. But, the Rockettes really know how to put …

A few days ago, we posted about an upcoming meeting between administrators and the student organization United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). Here’s the 411: The groups met to discuss the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), which requires collegiate wear to be produced in factories that support the rights of its laborers. They’ve asked for the Penn State president’s signature before, and he had denied, just like he did when they asked this time.
Spanier and his crew refuse to sign the document until the Department of Justice makes its ruling, as the DSP is said to violate anti-trust laws. USAS asked them …