Last night, each of THON's fourteen committees sent forth a pair of Captains to compete in the first ever Mr. and Mrs. THON pageant, held in HUB Alumni Hall. The event, true to the spirit of THON, raised money FTK-- $613.42 to be precise-- but more than that, it showcased the contagious enthusiasm that will permeate the BJC in just three short weeks.
Based on the opening dance and their talent performances, three Captain pairs were chosen as finalists. The Captains from the Hospitality, OPPerations and Family Relations committees were named as the final three pairs. Steve Dodge and Jeannine Bradbury (OPPerations) were chosen as runners-up, and Jony Rommel and Dave Belliveau (Family Relations) were crowned Mr. and Mrs. THON 2010.
The contestants were judged by a panel consisting of Evan Royster, starting running back for the Nittany Lions; Lou "the mic guy" Defazio from the cheerleading squad; Justin Ross, Blue Band President; and Homecoming King and Queen, Greg Tallman and Cri Cri Henry. Overall Chair Caitlin Zankowski and THON Advisor Barry Bram hosted the event. The pageant also featured performances by the Overall Committee and a speech by a former Four Diamonds child turned Penn State nursing student and Morale committee member.
http://www.onwardstate.com/staff/chase/mrmrsthon/soundslider.swf?size=2&format=xml
In December 2005, alumni and friends of Penn State donated $44.4 million. Sounds like a lot, right? This past December, those alumni and friends donated over $58 million, setting a new fundraising record (in a single month) for Penn State.
President Spanier had the following comment, according to Penn State Live: "Our donors continue their loyalty to Penn State, and we are most grateful to each of them for their exceedingly generous support, which is essential to the University's future."
Of the December total, 31,000 donors gave over 37,000 gifts. Eleven of these gifts surpassed $1 million.
Penn State hopes that this new record will fit into an upcoming crescendo of gift-giving, culminating in the "For the Future" campaign, a fundraising initiative beginning on April 23, 2010. The campaign emphasizes education affordability for students of modest means.
Will the recession impact this year's donations? Slim personal budgets may cause donors to purchase necessities rather than partake in philanthropy. However, let's hope our wonderful alumni choose to give back to dear old State.
Penn State senior and self proclaimed "social media addict" Han Ma posted a picture of his canning group being shown on a huge screen in the middle of Times Square. Also, he let us know that John Mayer apparently showed up at the Hope Gala on Friday night for THON.
We featured some Google Streetview imagery back in late December of downtown State College. Finally, Google has posted up their imagery that was taken of the Penn State campus from a slightly different photo-taking platform. At last, I can look back at my Freshman Dorm (Pinchot Hall) or the building I spent so much time in, for many years to come. Click this link to see a map of Penn State. Drag the man shaped icon from on top of the zoom bar to the area you want to see the Streetview imagery for. Read on for some sweet highlights.
The Centre Area Transit Authority recently released their CATA iPhone App for free. They previously had an app that was basically just a bunch of black and white scans of their bus schedules, then they had the balls to charge me $1.99 for it. (Turns out it was a student who made this app for their ENG411 class and then had the balls to charge me $1.99 for it, YouTube )
But their new app has hit a home run with their new GUI and GPS data. I used the updated CATABUS.com website's realtime bus locater often (amazing!), but it was a real pain in the ass to use it on my phone. More times that not I was stuck out in the cold navigating their website to find that I just missed the bus. Now I'll be able to check my bus schedules right before I leave class with only two touches of the glass to find out that I just missed the bus, and I might as well hop on www.OnwardState.com for a few moments to see whats happening.
You can get this app in the iTunes App Store now
Onward State iPhone App Usefulness Rating: A+
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.
