Articles tagged with: Penn State
With spring break and election season approaching quickly, the businesses conducted at last night’s University Park Undergraduate Assembly meeting will be the basis for at least the next month of the assembly’s governance.
The most major result of last night’s meeting was the announcement of the new name for UPUA’s spring concert. Wallypalooza no more, it will now be known as LAST CALL.
The assembly also debated options for repurposing the space currently occupied by the Corner Pocket and funding for the Spring Academic Council.
Encampment was launched by President Eisenhower (of Penn State, not the United States) way back in 1952 as an annual event bringing together all types of student leaders to promote dialogue within the student body.
When Gavin Keirans ran for his second term as president last spring, one of his major platform planks was the revival of Encampment (the last one was held in 2001).
This fall, President Keirans installed Greg Tallman as the Director of Encampment. At that time, Keirans described Tallman as a “prime time” person. Though his resume is indeed pretty rocking (THON Overall, Homecoming King), his success at reviving the inititve won’t be clear until Sunday March 21, when Encampment opens once again.
Tallman describes the motivations behind the event,
Through Encampment, we hope to create a forum to better enable the students of this University to be recognized. We also hope that you take this time to reach out to other student leaders and create a dialogue voicing any issues you see lacking focus at Penn State.
We met with Greg last night in Old Main to help him announce a special offer for the Penn State undergraduate community. He has 25 spots to offer the free-agents, so to speak, of Penn State– those students who are engaged and committed to the betterment of our university, but perhaps aren’t involved in leadership positions with any major campus organizations.
Encampment will be hosted by the UPUA at the Penn Stater Conference Center on Sunday March 21 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Breakfast and lunch will be provided, and transportation between the HUB and the Penn Stater will be available. Students interested are asked to email UPUAencampment@gmail.com expressing their interest no later than Friday March 5.
Penn State graduate Allison Baver just won the Bronze medal in the 3000m Short Track Relay in Vancouver. The medal was awarded after a controversial disqualification of the winning Korean team. The Americans were in a distant fourth, but after it was determined the Koreans made illegal contact with the Chinese team, the Americans were bumped up to a third place finish.
Congrats Allison! Maybe you’ll be Grand Marshall of next year’s Homecoming celebration?
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.
Today Penn State celebrates its 155th birthday (making it almost as old as its football coach. Just kidding)! 155 years ago to the day (February 22, 1855 for anyone not too good at math), Governor James Pollock signed the charter for a state-sponsored school whose goal was to further scientific agricultural research.
While we still have an excellent agricultural program, Penn State has become one of the largest and most diverse public schools over the last 155 years, with majors ranging from Forest Science to Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. Did Governor Pollock envision a school boasting dozens of campuses, tens of thousands of students, and the largest student-run philanthropic organization in the country? Did he envision football championships, legendary coaches, a three-peat volleyball team, or raising over $7.8 million for cancer research?
Probably not. But since 1855, because of students like me and you, Penn State has become more than its founders could ever have imagined and something that we can all take pride in.
(Check out a cool gallery of photos from Penn State’s history here).
Though April may seem like the distant future right now, it’s closer than you think. Movin’ On, Penn State’s longest running Spring Music Festival now has an official Facebook event for the April 17 concert, only two months away.
As usual, the event will last all day and feature a mix of local and national acts. The lineup won’t be announced for several weeks, but I’m hoping for some bigger bands than last year. Groups such as Run DMC, Fall Out Boy and Reel Big Fish have performed in the past, bands that are still popular years later.
Last year’s show was great, with some impressive performances, but it would be nice to have a headliner people can get excited about.
Though some have said having two spring festivals is cutting down on Movin’ On’s budget, I’m sure they’re going to put on another great show. I’m hoping it’s amazing. What headliner do you think Movin’ On should bring? (And please don’t say Lady Gaga!)
Valley, Penn State’s life and style mag, recently launched its new home on the interwebs.
The design is simple and everything is easily found, but I’d expect something chicer from a life & style magazine. Old issues of Valley are accessible on the site, and blog posts with fashion tips and lifestyle observations are published on a fairly regular schedule. In our opinion, it’s worth a subscription in your RSS reader!
I came across this article listing the 12 most valuable teams in NCAA football. The website, Business Pundit, collected opinion from various sports authorities about the most valuable teams and compiled them into a ranked list.
Penn State came in at 3rd place (under the Texas Longhorns and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish). But what caught my eye was the paragraph about Penn State.
Another highly valued NCAA football team with a rich history is Penn State’s Nittany Lions, said by ESPN to be the most valuable team in the NCAA’s Big Ten conference. ESPN reports that Penn State’s “team value is $99 million, and the program makes a profit of $50 million.” Its ranking as the third most valuable NCAA football team is a ten spot leap for Penn State from the last time rankings were compiled. Coached by the legendary Joe Paterno (who earns roughly $1.5 million per season), Penn State figures to continue its run as one of the most prosperous college football teams in the country for quite some time.
Do you agree with ESPN’s opinion?? Either way, good for us! Go State!
Cynthia Baldwin, 64, an English major in Penn State’s Class of 1966, is returning to her alma mater as University General Counsel and Vice President.
Baldwin, who also got her Masters in American Literature at Penn State, was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2005 and was the second African-American woman to do so in the state’s history. Of her more notable cases, Baldwin wrote the majority opinion for a case involving eminent domain and separation of church and state. Her more than 30 years working in litigation gives her a very impressive background to become basically the head of all legal concerns within the university.
Her basic duties will include launching the university’s legal counsel’s office and preparing it for the next successor. She will also take over Penn State’s legal work, which includes oversight on its contracts and policies, and establishing procedures, all of which were previously delegated to a local State College legal firm.
She will begin her new job here starting February 15th, and her office will be on main campus at University Park. She will work under the university president, Graham Spanier.
Craigslist is a big, and sometimes scary, place. Craigslist Penn State is no exception. In an effort to better serve you, our reader, we have started an new effort to highlight listings we feel should be shared with the greater Penn State audience.
We hope we can find what you’re looking for.
To the girl that found my book – m4w – 20 (PSU)
This is probably a long shot but I feel the need to address what happened today.
I appreciate that you found my book and called the number to give it back to me. When I saw you walking up with it I was awestruck by your beauty. Usually I don’t run away from beautiful girls but.. I just couldn’t control my reaction. I’m sorry I turned and ran away, subsequently falling down a staircase. I also am aware it may look like I soiled myself shortly after falling down the stairs but this was not the case, I was carrying Hershey’s chocolate bars in my back pocket and became very sweaty and hot when I saw you and they were probably crushed while I fell down the stairs. This is the best explanation.. of course the other is that I actually did soil myself which is not entirely impossible but it’s been a few weeks since that’s happened otherwise so it seems unlikely.
Er.. anyway, I really do need my book back. I promise if you meet up to give it to me I won’t run away or shit all over the place this time.
If not can you please email me questions 2 – 15 and question 17 for Chapter 1? Thanks.
I totally feel for you man, this is how I react every time I see an attractive girl on campus. Like a deranged lemming, I just make a beeline for the nearest stairwell and throw myself down it.
This is awesome that a celebrity tweeter is spreading the word! Give her some love and thank her for her help, as we try to spread the word even more about the amazing things that we can accomplish together.
Khloe has also posted on her website about THON! It’s also nice to know people were heeding our @THONwardState tweets… right?
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.”
No matter what NPR says, many employers tap into the Penn State talent pool. The difficult part is matching yourself with companies looking for your type of skill set.
Career Services has set up the Nittany Lion Career Network, a new Access Account based portal that allows you to create a profile listing information valuable for potential employers: your major, coursework, résumé, etc. It’s basically Monster but for Penn State. It is also helpful even if you’re not looking for a full-time job; there are listings for internships around the country and part-time jobs near State College.
NLCN will send you announcements about career fairs, workshops or other job-related events that it may behoove you to attend. Keeping with the theme, it’s all personalized. It isn’t for everyone though. The site suggests that students in Smeal, EMS, IST, or Eberly register with their college, not with NLCN.
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.
