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.

Some of the highlighted ‘educational opportunities’ :

• Hands-on training in the trading room for Smeal business students.
• The Learning Factory for engineering students.
• IST students have opportunity to partner with businesses.
• Education students have the Philadelphia Urban Seminar.
• Communications students get to work in state-of-the-art production studios.

Some of our wanted ‘educational opportunities’:

• The ability to use a stun gun on a live subject for criminal justice majors.
• Dr. House to teach medical students, Gil Grissom for forensic science majors, and Jack Bauer to speak in classes on terrorism and yelling assertively.
• A how-to-strip class for acting majors.
• A how-to-hack class for computer science students.
• A how-to-cover-up-skeletons-in-your-closet class for political science majors.

“Those things that make a Penn State education so valuable are costly to set up, operate, and maintain, which is part of the reason we need the level of funding we do,” said Mountz.

The next step for the appropriations process continues on March 3rd with a state Senate appropriations hearing.

Let’s hope that the state House hears Pres. Spanier and awards Penn State the necessary appropriations, because I’d really like to take CAS 100 with Ben Stein.

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