If you didn't get a chance to head over to Copenhagen last month for the International Climate Change summit, a panel being held tomorrow may give you a chance to get up to date.
The event, titled "Climate Change, Climate Justice: Lessons from Copenhagen," will take place tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in Pasquerilla Center's Memorial Lounge. Panelists will include Donald A. Brown, Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics, Science, and Law; Nancy Tuana, founding director of the Rock Ethics Institute; and Petra Tschakert, Assistant Professor of Geography and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. The discussion will be moderated by Erik Foley, OPP's new director of their Campus Sustainability Office.
The entire event will be webcast here, but you'll have to go here first to make sure your system is compatible.
Friday night was the first of what is shaping up to be one of the greatest semesters of concerts at Penn State in recent history. We Are Scientists played what was probably the most entertaining concert I've been to at Penn State. For all of you off canning this weekend, here's a recap of what you missed.
Though the doors opened a bit late due to a longer than anticipated sound check, the night ran smoothly. Before the show even started, Keith Murray, lead singer and guitarist of We Are Scientists was at the band's merch table, chatting with the early crowd, mostly apologizing for a shortage of men's t-shirts (which were all apparently bought the night before at their show in D.C.).
I got a chance to talk to Keith Murray, lead singer and guitarist for We Are Scientists last night while he personally manned the band's merch table. Armed with a list of ten questions solicited from my fellow concert goers, I took this opportunity to learn a little more about him and the band. The interview was enlightening to say the least. Read on to see what I found out...
Keeping with this semester's theme of actually getting things done, UPUA had another eventful meeting last night.
Here's the important stuff to know:
At the beginning of the meeting, a representative from "Tree Swings for PSU" spoke, seeking support for their project. Also, Gail Hurley, Associate VP of Auxiliary and Business Services, gave a presentation on her department and all the aspects of university life that it handles. Hurley played a major role in both the implementation of the new White Loop hours, as well as the recent bandwidth limit increase, and she urged students to become more involved with the department so more changes like these can be made. Mike Wallace also took the floor to give what amounted to a farewell address, saying "it's not you, it's me" in regards to his decision to leave.
Luke Pierce will be serving as Director of Strategic Implementation, basically making sure UPUA's current strategic plan is both feasible and actually followed. If his time with IFC is any indicator, this seems like Pierce is the right man to tackle a project of this magnitude.
President Gavin Keirans discussed the success of the White Loop's first weekend with the new hours. He also shared his plan to get members of the IFC to volunteer as Ambassadors to ride the bus on weekends, per UPUA's agreement with CATA. Whether it is a good idea to leave the Greek community responsible for monitoring students who are predominantly using the service as a "drunk bus" to get home from frat parties remains to be seen.
The budget for UPUA's next big project, an effort to revive Penn State's Freshman Handbook, was approved. The goal is to create a handbook that will be passed out to all incoming Freshmen, and possibly change of campus and transfer students as well. This handbook will serve as a guide to Penn State, including maps, campus organizations and services offered. While this idea seems like a noble on, little effort was made to hide UPUA's secondary objectives with this project - gaining the loyalty of new students to further cement its legitimacy. Members of UPUA will be responsible for every aspect of the guide's creation, and will have absolute control over what information is included and what is left out. The fact that UPUA makes no provision for outside oversight or control is more than a little disconcerting. We'll be sure to bring you more information on this project as it develops.
A resolution was also passed promoting the inclusion of the university's non-discrimination policy in all class syllabi and a change was made to UPUA's budget policy in an effort to better streamline small, time-sensitive projects. Low cost (under $1000) projects will no longer have to be voted on, though they will still be reviewed and submitted to the general assembly.
All in all UPUA, seems to be on a roll so far this semester. Hopefully the momentum keeps up.
It's been a little over a week since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the already impoverished nation of Haiti. Across the nation people have been working to provide aid to the island nation, from celebrities to former presidents to private citizens.
The Penn State community is no exception to this rule, with several groups and alumni both raising funds at home and providing aid on the ground.
Matthew Marek, class of '98, has been working in Haiti for a decade with the American Red Cross. He has remained in the nation and has become one of the major sources of information on the ground. Read on to see a clip of him being interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper and to find out what else Penn State is doing to help in Haiti.
Have you always wanted to get involved in movie production, but haven't felt like investing millions of dollars and years of your life? Well the Student Film Organization's 4 Day Film Festival just might be your thing.
On January 20 at 6:30 p.m. the festival will kick off in Carnegie Cinema. Groups of 2 or more will be given the guidelines for the films and will then have the next four days to complete production.
All the films will be shown on Sunday in Carnegie, and the film that most successfully follows the guidelines will get 4 free tickets to the State Theater.