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Day: March 1, 2010

Benninghoff Comes for Coffee, Maybe Cookie

Pennsylvania Rep. Kerry Benninghoff is coming Wednesday to drink some coffee at the Abba Java Coffeehouse here in town. He will be here between 9:30 and 11:00 am to hold mobile office hours and, I don't know, work on his novel in public.


If you want to come see Benny and the Jets, you have to make a phone call and schedule an appointment in advance. The phone number is (814) 355-1300.


Also, it sounds like if you just want some coffee at Abba Java, you'll probably need to call that number in advance as well. So if you frequent that particular coffee house, I'd get on my phone.


No word yet on the cookie.

Staff Profile: Steve Sharer

The Staff Profile series is a new feature at Onward State. As the semester progresses, we will provide a window into the life of each Onward Stater. Readers: meet our writers.


Steve Sharer joined the Onward State team back in January 2009 when it was but a young lion cub of a blog. Steve writes on all sorts of Penn State topics, including the Penn State Marching Blue Band, The College of IST, and Penn State-related technology (among other things). He's also responsible for bringing the Stately Inquisitor (a buddy from High School) to Onward State to tantalize you with the most intriguing questions you've ever seen.


By day, he majors in Security & Risk Analysis with minors in Information Sciences & Technology and Geography. And by night, he heads up the Security & Risk Analysis Club as the President. Steve also performs in the Penn State Marching Blue Band as a trumpet player with 310 of the most outstanding people you'll meet at Penn State (hint: you can find him in the "P" in the "PSU" formation during pregame).


Read more about the illustrious Steve Sharer after the jump.

ARHS and UPUA Get Us Home Safely

ARHS and UPUA have accepted the fact that Penn Staters drink. With the help of new information cards, they're striving to get students home safely.


The cards display phone numbers for three taxi services, the number for the campus escort service, and a miniature CATA bus schedule. The front and back are shown here.




Steve Roberts, associate vice president of Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), conceived the idea of the cards in light of the recent State Patty's Day. We contacted Mr. Roberts for an explanation of these cards.

"The cards are printed on cardstock and thus are durable. Additionally, they are not in the traditional format of a flyer or larger piece of paper which would typically be thrown out. The cards are about the size of a normal business card and slide easily into your wallet or purse so that when students go out it's not a hassle to bring it with them."



In addition, he says that several bars and apartments have already requested information cards to distribute to students.


At my floor meeting last night, my RA passed around a stack of these cards. My floormates agreed that while the front side may prove useful, the reverse side is laughably illegible due to the minuscule font size.


This initiative is a great idea, and I hope it succeeds. However, a bit of advice for the lost drunkard in need of transportation: call a taxi, don't wait for the bus. It's highly probable that you can't decipher the font.

Facebook Study: Students Focus on Ideal College Life

A recent study,entitled, “Look at us: Collective Narcissism in College Student Facebook Photo Galleries” by Andrew Mendelson and Zizi Papacharissi, professors at Temple and University of Illinois (respectively), found that college students’ - specifically underclassmen - “central objective …on Facebook was the recording and posting of their participation in the social rituals of college.”


The pair looked at 20,962 photos and 13,543 comments on 333 Facebook pages, examining the subject matter in the photographs, the behavior of the subjects, the aesthetics of the images, the organization of the photographs, comments on the photos, and even what was missing from the photographs. Social and sporting events were the primary local of the pics, parties being the most common.


The study also found that families and academic related activities were notably absent. The two researchers believe that the main point of photos posted was to show others your ideal college life style and the tagging and commenting serve to “reinforce group cohesiveness and closeness.”


Read on for my take on the study.

The Madness of State Patty’s Day

Late last week, we asked if the pendulum was swinging on State Patty's. Our answer? A loud, albeit slurred, "NO!"


State College police handled roughly 365 calls related to State Patty's Day. University Police dealt with another 55 calls. This wasn't your average Saturday.


Penn Live reports that the arrest count doubled from last year, jumping from 80 to 160 arrests. Between 6 pm Friday and 6 pm Sunday, Centre LifeLink EMS responded to 58 calls.

UPUA Election Season Begins Today

Registration opens for candidates hoping to run for President, Vice-President, and other representative seats for the University Park Undergraduate Association opens today.


Yes, the last two years have flown by--or not, depending on the type of meds you take-- and Gavin Keirans' two-term presidency is coming to a close. Candidates can pick up their necessary materials in the elections office, room 332 in the HUB starting at 10 am on Monday.


It's important to note that your registration must be completed by the end of spring break because campaigning begins that following Monday, March 15th.


And then the fun begins.

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