In the midst of Obama's health care success came another, albeit less publicized, fulfillment of a campaign promise. Congress endorsed his plan to overhaul the federal student loan system. Now the legislation moves on to the Senate, where leaders think they have the votes to get it passed.
The most major of the bill's effects on student-loans is that $61 billion in savings from switching to Direct Loans will be reallocated to support the Pell Grant program, which provides need-based tuition grants to students.
The 3rd Annual IdeaPitch Competition is a generator of that which America needs most in these hard economic times-- entrepreneurial businesses.
Hosted by the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Smeal College of Business, IdeaPitch allows teams (of which only one member has to be a Penn State student) to compete for resources and venture capital funding. The format of the competition is similar to what one would face in pursuing money from an established venture capital firm.
The grand prize is $2000, but unless you're starting a blog, that won't get you very far. In addition to the cash, the winning team gets office space in the Keller Building, the chance to participate in the Garber Practicum and potentially receive money from the Garber Fund, and free access to any legal services the team may need.
Past overall winners have been primarily technological. Last year's winner was a piece of software that linked together study aids for all the major college admissions tests. Before that was a group that offered a synthetic version of drywall.
This Friday will be the "Final Eight" round, where prizes will be presented.
The large white and yellow structure that graced on the Pattee Mall last week was produced by Dave Celento, a professor of architecture, and his architecture class. The installation is officially called the Digital Daffodil Pavilion.
Students in last fall's ARCH 497C Digital Fabrication created the installation as a class project, but it was only constructed last week. The delay seemed to have worked out well, as the design seems perfect for spring.
All the elements were designed digitally and constructed using a computer controlled mill by the students. The design itself was inspired by flower petals and, unlike many of the sculptures around campus, students are encouraged to interact with the pavilion, rearranging petals or simply sitting inside.
In what could be straight off a page of George Orwell's book 1984, a new kind of Big Brother is now watching over the world of social media, protecting colleges from potentially embarrassing situations involving their sports teams.
Read on to hear what Greg Myford, Penn State's associate athletic director, has to say on the issue.
A company called Sports Media Challenge (SMC) has come up with a search engine to check through Facebook, Twitter, and other popular websites to give schools notice on any inappropriate behavior involving a member of any of their athletic teams. This could lead to actions being taken against a player or coach before the situation gets out of hand and even saving the school from incurring any NCAA violations (see here USC football and Indiana basketball).
Forget health care in the U.S. for a minute. Forget that even under the old system (regardless of whether you think it's flawed or not), most people got at least some health care. Think for a minute of the people who have no health care. This coming Saturday, the 3rd Annual Penn State Global Health Conference will be a day of doing exactly that.
The conference is run by Penn State's chapter of GlobeMed and consists of a series of workshops led chiefly by Penn State professors. To give you an idea, some of the titles are "Issues in Health Communications," "Environmental Health," and "The Impact of Race and Stigma on People with HIV/AIDS in South Africa." The conference is intended to raise awareness of disparities in health care throughout the world, and to foster a sense of responsibility toward those negatively affected. The organization and conference also concretely make a difference through GlobeMed at Penn State's partner in Mexico, EAPSEC.
More on GlobeMed's mission and fundraising efforts after the jump.
During election season, many policy initiatives and promises are more often than not left unfulfilled, leaving broken hearts strewn across the floor like a poorly managed transplant center. One of the first for this season is from the Adewumi camp with their 10.i.10 tuition plan proposal, which hopes to lower tuition to $10,000 in the next 10 years.
Read the full post for the scoop on Adewumi's plan.