According to design plans, the first and second floors, designated for retail and commerical space, will have large glass windows. There will be an open courtyard on the third floor of the building. The next seven floors will be for student housing, with non-student housing planned for the next two floors. The 12th floor will host non-student housing and event space. The building will also have a multi-level internal parking garage.
Board of Trustees candidate Ryan Bagwell began the "Sunshine Fund" to help finance his fight with Penn State in court over open records. As of yesterday, Bagwell said he is $5 away from reaching $13,000 in total contributions. After deducting credit card and PayPal fees, the fund’s net contributions total $12,641.
John Montgomery "Monte" Ward, the second man to pitch a perfect game in professional baseball history, called the Nittany Valley home 150 years ago. He is also the first Penn State baseball player to throw a curveball -- he is sometimes incorrectly given credit for inventing the curveball -- witnessed by a crowd of students in front of Old Main. But Ward's place in baseball history is not only due to his impressive pitching and batting records: He was honored posthumously by the Hall of Fame in 1964 for revolutionizing the sport by leading a revolt against the unfair treatment from baseball's board of directors. His forward thinking prompted others to change the way the sport was regarded, as both a pastime and a business.
The next film dealing with Penn State and the State College community will hit center stage next week at Sundance Film Festival, a highly selective annual event that draws thousands of submissions to premiere over the course of ten days. The Tillman Story filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev directed Happy Valley, a nonfiction feature that will focus on "the Penn State University community that was rocked in 2011 by charges of sexual abuse involving former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky."
U.S. News released its list of best online bachelor's degree programs yesterday, with Penn State World Campus rated third out of hundreds of higher education institutions. Central Michigan University and SUNY College of Technology - Delhi are the only schools ranked higher than Penn State.
After learning about the murder and finding himself fascinated with Aardsma's story, former Patriot-News reporter David DeKok decided to write a book about the case. The book will focus on the personal lives of Aardsma and her killer, as well as the investigation of the murder. It will also be a portrait of an era: Penn State in the late 1960s. DeKok weaves in the history of the civil rights and anti-war movements at the university, including the 1970 student riots.