Ready for a college football playoff system? Yeah, I thought you were. Well, get excited, because according to Inside Higher Ed, it’s being…EXPLORED!

The Obama Administration has assured Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, that it is exploring options to deal with concerns raised by Hatch and others about the Bowl Championship Series. Hatch has asked for an antitrust investigation by the Justice Department, and the administration said it is reviewing that request. A letter to Hatch said that the administration also is “exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football post-season.”

You may remember that Hatch brought the issue to the table after his state’s undefeated Utes absolutely dismantled a heavily favored Alabama team in 2009’s Sugar Bowl. Could this be the first definitive example of homerism being for the greater good? We’ll see where this “exploration” takes us.

Ever say to yourself, “gee I wish the Penn State College Democrats had a blog!”? Well first off, I’m sorry that’s what you are thinking about, and secondly, today is your lucky day.


Yes, it sounds like something out of a fairy tale, something too good to be true, but it’s reality! This is what greets freedom lovers as they visit the brand-spanking new blog of the PSU College Democrats.


With general interest in politics dropping off after the 2008 election, and with the College Republicans luring in members with promises of food (and tax cuts), the College Democrats are looking to emulate the success of the Obama campaign. Since technology being a must-have weapon in any campaign or political organization, it seems only logical that the College Dems would try to spread the good word through the internet.

In Russian schools, tests take YOU! President Obama thinks that this is a silly dynamic and has included an education expert from Penn State in his U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.
Dr. Jacqueline Edmondson, PSU’s associate dean for undergraduate and graduate studies in Penn State’s College of Education was selected to join the Working Group on Education, Culture, Sports, and Media of the Obama-Medvedev Commission. I know that the Commission states that it is bilateral, but let’s be real: our education expert is going to be doing some educating of her own. Dr. Edmondson received her PhD in Curriculum & Instruction and …

Last February, Pres. Obama made announcements in a joint session of Congress that he had plans to boost the level of students that attend post-secondary educational institutions in a plan he hopes will see an increase to 60% of US college attainment levels by the year 2020.
Now leaders of colleges and universities all over the country are calling on him to do more to reach this goal. His plan, which would greatly involve increasing enrollment in community colleges, would need to have clear cut agreements that would allow students that obtain associate degrees to transfer into public universities in order …

Whether you’re one of the rabid fan that Penn State is known for or a faculty member from some New England liberal arts school who just doesn’t understand Penn State pride, you’ll be able to appreciate the little details of this year’s official Penn State Football poster.

But take a closer look at this close-up on the lower-left part of the bleachers.

The poster only costs $6 and it is available at Go PSU Sports.

Graham Spanier is calling in favors… or trying to, at least.
He sent a letter (PDF) to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about Governor Rendell’s recent exclusion of Penn State and other state-related universities from federal stimulus money.
By arbitrarily re-defining The Pennsylvania State University as non-public, simply because we are not “under the absolute control of the Commonwealth,” the Governor is setting a dangerous precedent that the Department of Education should address. If the Department approves this application as it is written, it gives governors in every other state the ability to pick and choose which public institutions they may support …

It’s possible. With the Senate vote on April 29th, bank-based guaranteed loans could go the way of the dodo. According to the Chronicle:
The plan, which Congressional appropriators will use as a guide when they draw up spending bills for the coming fiscal year, instructs the committees that oversee education to shave $1-billion from programs under their jurisdiction through a process known as budget reconciliation. Lawmakers are likely to seek those savings through major changes in the bank-based guaranteed-loan system, perhaps even eliminating it altogether, as President Obama has proposed.
The result of this is that all student loans would originate directly …

Remember when, right after November’s election, President Barack Obama said that he wanted to see a eight-team college football playoff rather than the BCS determine the NCAA national champion? If you’re anything like me, you wrote it off as a great P.R. move by the administration – getting that coveted “I’d like to have a beer with the guy” vote. While most college football fans agree that a playoff system would be more fun and fair for all parties involved – it looked like we’d be stuck wishing the Bowl Championship series away, even if the Commander-in-Chief was in agreement.
Apparently, …

We’re beginning to hear just how President Hope’s stimulus package is going to get State College going. C0ngressman Glenn Thompson is trying to brand the projects as his own, but Veblen pointed out a little inconsistency with that: Thompson actually voted against the omnibus bill.
Centre County will benefit from upgrades to Routes 26 and 64. There are two $2 million bundles of stimulus that is specifically targeted to State College.
The first will be used to start a number of shovel-ready projects; according to the Collegian, they are:

Upgrading the emergency response system
Refurbishing Fraser Road
Upgrading the Philipsburg sewer system
Establishing a mobile dental …

Part of President Hope’s energy policy is the creation of a smart grid, an intelligent infrastructure for distributing energy. He allocated $11 billion of the stimulus package to the research and implementation of a smart grid. Looks like we might get some of that money.
Lockheed Martin, a likely recipient of stimulus money, has entered into a partnership with Penn State to research smart grid technologies. Penn State Live tried to explain what the research would focus on:
Specifically, the research will include advisory and control methods, predictive and diagnostic modeling and simulation, cyber security, and the development of a test bed …

President Obama has stated that compensation for executives at companies receiving stimulus, or bail-out, money will be capped at $500,000.
Businesses aren’t the only ones receiving funds from the government in this stimulus package, so are universities; Graham Spanier, as of 2006, has a yearly salary of $545,016.
Obama’s mandate does not affect university administrators, however it will be intersting to see if Graham gets paid more than the Detroit CEOs or the Wall Street captains next year or if he gets a pay-cut?
[Thanks for the idea goes to The Daily Pennsylvanian]

While it isn’t quite “Dollar Dollar Bill Y’all“, Wyclef-style, the Federal Stimulus Bill that passed the House yesterday without ANY Republican support, has $150 billion in it for education.
In addition to increased aid to the nation’s school districts, there will be substantial increases in grant aid to needy college students in the form of Pell Grants, etc. This is perhaps the part that would most effect students at Penn State, especially those that rely on federal aid.
There is also $20 billion in the bill for school and college modernization, with schools getting $14 billion and colleges getting $6 billion.
In total, …

As part of its coverage of Hope Fest 2009, the Collegian ran a feature about how the Penn State black community responded to Obama’s inauguration.
The article was good, but by placing that article above the fold and the article about the entire Penn State community’s response to the inauguration below the fold, the Collegian implicitly made a decision that the former story was more important than the latter story.
I don’t agree with that decision. Indeed, yesterday should have been about unity– about the entire nation coming together to celebrate a new era.
It’s a small point, but I’d be interested to …

Dan Mroz is the Director of IT at Penn State.

Congratulations America.
The pictures are of students watching the inauguration at the library. The Foster Auditorium is full of faculty, staff, and students.

Update: There were other venues to watch the big event. One of which was the HUB. This picture by Brandon Falkowski really sums up the experience.

Be sure to click on it. The panorama is amazing.