As I walked around in the near fifty degrees weather this weekend listening to the chirping of birds and watching the mounds of snow shrink away to reveal green grass, I couldn’t help but think, “Could it be? Could spring be around the corner?” Visions of bringing sweaters home for good over spring break and retiring my ugly, but warm, men’s trapper hat danced around in my mind. But alas, those dreams have been shattered.
A major snow storm of “historical proportions” is scheduled to hit the North East and Mid-Atlantic this Thursday and Friday. While most of our home towns are just recovering from the last storm, this is said to be the one we’ll all remember. Complete with 74mph winds and blinding snow falling at a rate of an inch per hour, this storm has been deemed a “snow hurricane” rather than a blizzard.
Want more details about the severity of this snowstorm? Read the full post!
Our tip box is blowing up with copies of an email sent to College of Engineering students by Dean David Wormley in which he asks them to not participate in State Patty's Day festivities.
We ask that you use your good judgment and demonstrate your leadership by declining to participate in events such as State Patty's Day and encourage your friends to do the same.
The full text is after the jump.
Doesn't seem like the most apartment friendly creature you could find...
Continuing the recent torrent of effort to take away shift focus away from Penn State's #1 Party School Ranking, LateNight Penn State is talking about expanding. They want to have double the amount of programs next year. They cite how the recent Motion City Soundtrack drew a big crowd, and how attendance has fallen off to about 50,000 students per week (vs. about 60,000 in LateNight's prime 8-10 years ago). Putting its money where its mouth is, LateNight is asking for $350,000 more for its budget. Whether this will actually reduce student drinking remains to be seen.
Is this a good idea? Read on for some thoughts.
Once again, the State Borough Council and UPUA do not see eye to eye. UPUA is opposing a borough council plan that would turn off the pedestrian lights for the next 6 months as a trial and use us students as guinea pigs.
UPUA Chief of Staff Matthew Smith had this to say regarding the turning off of lights.
The lights are valuable to students," he said. "We want to be included in the dialogue on this issue."
He is right. Students should be allowed to bring up their concerns about whether or not the lights are turned out. According to Tom Fountaine (the Borough Manager), crime has actually risen since the installation of lights. Also, council member Theresa Lafer claims that the lights flood into residents' homes and cause students to trespass.
According to Lafer:
"The lights are bringing students into the backyards of citizens"
Thankfully, the option to turn all the lights off was overturned. I suppose the danger of students going into the backyard of citizens was overshadowed the the prospect of an increase in assault. Now the borough can get back to working on more important matters - renaming buildings and streets in honor of local and national figures.
Do you agree with this? What if we replaced all of the street lights with the Bat Signal?
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.