Today, at around 11 AM in the HUB, Penn State’s Senior Class Gift Committee announced that the class of 2010’s gift to the University would be the Marsh Meadow Boardwalk and Overlook at the Arboretum.

“The boardwalk will serve as a ‘front door’ for pedestrians entering the Arboretum and contribute significantly to the Arboretum’s mission of ‘scholarship, research, and education of the natural landscape,'” said Mike Lampariello, senior class gift committee overall chairperson.

Almost 3,000 seniors voted last week between the Marsh Meadow Boardwalk; a Public Sculpture and Class of 2010 Endowed Scholarship; and the HUB Aquarium Maintenance Endowment. While not given the greatest of options for senior class gift (a massive statue of Joe Pa in the mountains overlooking Happy Valley in the fashion of Rio De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer would have been nice), the Marsh Meadow Boardwalk gives the opportunity for 2010 seniors to give something memorable back to their Alma Mater. Hey, if it wasn’t for boardwalks, the New Jersey Shore would be nothing but needles and sewage.

The plans include a long, wooden pathway that crosses over the James and Lynn D. Ramage Marsh Meadow, an impassable, simulated marsh area that leads to the Arboretum from central campus. Although the boardwalk is technically a gift from the 2010 senior class, it unfortunately does not give them the right to push people from the boardwalk into the marsh and claim “My boardwalk”… so no doing that.