When I sat back one night in January thinking about my time at Penn State, I tried to come up with a single word that would adequately describe my experiences here. As I attempted to determine what that magic word might be, my mind began to grasp the absurdity of that challenge. How could I possibly distill four years of my life, countless friendships, and untold numbers of memories, down to a single word? An impossible task to be sure. So instead, I took the easier road and went with three words: For the Glory.
As a graduating senior, I've been looking forward to seeing the list of commencement speakers for all the various colleges. Throughout the years Penn State has had some pretty cool cats come to send its graduates out with a bang; including famous filmmakers, corporate CEOs, and Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners. This year is no exception with some pretty big names on the docket. We've got the full list after the jump.
On April 9th, Scott Sandelin did something that had never happened at Minnesota-Duluth before. He brought home the NCAA Division I Hockey Championship. With 1 year remaining on his contract at UMD, Sandelin is looking like an ideal candidate for Joe Battista, associate athletic director for Ice Arena Operations and Hockey Development, who's currently on a nationwide search for Penn State's first varsity hockey coach.
For years, I've been hearing people mention that the University owns a private jet that Graham Spanier can use to fly to Harrisburg and other locations for university business. Most of the time it's mentioned in jest, with the the joke that the plane is used for extravagant trips for upper-level university officials. But nobody's ever been too upset about that concept of the university owning a private jet.
There's been a lot of talk over the past several weeks about Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett's proposed state budget and how it will affect Penn State. The proposed budget eliminates $188 million from Penn State's state appropriations, severely impacting Penn State's budget. But for a University with an operating budget of over $4 billion, $188 million is a drop in the bucket, right? Not exactly...
Penn State alumni Frank and Janet Dudek committed $2.5 million yesterday to the University to support several academic units. The donation will help establish scholarships, support research and purchase laboratory equipment for the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the Eberly College of Science.