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.
A job listing of sorts has gone up on Penn State Live in the hopes of recruiting a new Dean for the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Here is a summed up version of what the University is looking for in the new Dean of IST:
Have an intense understanding of the concepts that are taught and researched at the College of IST.
Have the credentials to be a tenured professor.
Be able to fundraise like crazy.
The committee in charge of choosing a new Dean is led by Honors College Dean Christian Brady. The committee will be accepting applications starting February 15 and will accept applications/nominations until the position is filled.
As a student of the College of IST, I'm looking for a few things from the new Dean:
Maybe you’ve heard that the Ritenour Building is having a contest to rename its east wing. Maybe you’ve heard a little section of the Colbert Nation here at PSU is trying to get it named after America’s ballsiest fake pundit.
Why, you ask? Well, if you’re not an avid Colbert follower, it’s hard to explain. This guy just loves putting on a conceited act and his viewers love to encourage it by doing things like voting online to name a Hungarian bridge after him, which he won with over 17 million votes. The Ambassador of Hungary presented Mr. Colbert with a declaration certifying him as the winner of the second and final round of voting, though it was later announced that the bridge would instead be named the Megyeri Bridge, as it couldn't be named after a living person.
Most recently, Colbert won a contest to name a room in the international space station after him, with write-in votes! NASA ultimately decided to name the room Tranquility, saying that the organization always had the right to choose an appropriate name. They did, however, name a treadmill after Colbert.
If you'd like to contribute your vote to the legacy of Stephen Colbert, visit the contest website until January 25th and make your voice heard for America’s greatest American.
One caveat, though.
The winning name will then be entered into the name pool which includes faculty and staff submissions. Dean Larson will choose the name for the center out of that group in late February, so ultimately the winner's submission may be the name of the new student center.
Let's hope Dean Larson is a member of the Colbert Nation.
Lots of people love professional basketball (NBA). What a lot of people don't know, though, is that college hoops is much better.
10. No incidents thus far of players leaving the court and going up into the stands to attack fans.
9. No uniforms like this.
8. March Madness. That’s exactly what it is.
Check out the rest of the list after the jump.
Onward State is finally writing about Onward State. How meta. But really, we are pretty awesome. Even the Chronicle of Higher Education approves!
The Chronicle ran a story about us on Monday and posted a supplementary video on Thursday. You can read the article HERE and watch the embedded video on this page.
The story praises the budding genius of our founder, Davis Shaver, and also emphasizes the importance of assigning editor Eli Glazier (Sadly, my favorite editor, Evan Kalikow, ended up on the Chronicle's cutting room floor, save for a shout-out in the video) (Editor's note: Awwwwwwwww).
Although our editors pave the road, let's not forget our writers and photographers, the vehicles that ride this road to journalistic success. We have all earned this honor. In that spirit, we'd like to announce a series of profiles that should hopefully help you put a face on your favorite Onward State writers.
For now, check out the Chronicle article and continue enjoying Onward State, one of the nation's most exceptional blogs.
Do you love the Nittany Lion? The football team? PJ Maierhofer? The Drum Major? Cheerleaders? Have you ever dreamed of meeting these people? Ever wanted PJ to teach you baton twirling? Or wanted to play broomball with the PSU hockey team? Do you love kids?
As a Penn Stater, you should have answered yes to ALL of these questions, and therefore the following information should excite you: the Penn State Marketing Association is auctioning off the previously mentioned (and more) "dates" with some of Penn State's best! The event is Wednesday, January 20th, at 7:30 in Heritage Hall in the HUB. There is a suggested donation of $3 at the door, with all proceeds going to THON (note that this is NOT an official THON event). Check out the Facebook event page here.
What "date" would you most like to have? Magic lessons with Graham Spanier? Let me hear it in the comments.