The THON dancers, since 1973, have helped raise approximately $61 million (plus this year's total) to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund at the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.
But, prior to Friday afternoon, I'll admit I did not know too much about THON. I knew that there were dancers that participated in THON and I knew that they had to remain awake for the whole weekend. But with the help of THON dancer Matt Swingle and the rest of the THON volunteers, I learned everything I needed to know.
When the dancers first step on to the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center, they are essentially partaking in an embodiment of the struggle that the Four Diamond Families go through each and every day. The dancers battle exhaustion every minute just to make it to the next hour, just as each cancer patient fights each day to see the next. For both, at times, to quit would appear to be the most appealing road to take. But they won't quit. It's all or nothing.
Read the full post for more.
Today Penn State celebrates its 155th birthday (making it almost as old as its football coach. Just kidding)! 155 years ago to the day (February 22, 1855 for anyone not too good at math), Governor James Pollock signed the charter for a state-sponsored school whose goal was to further scientific agricultural research.
While we still have an excellent agricultural program, Penn State has become one of the largest and most diverse public schools over the last 155 years, with majors ranging from Forest Science to Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. Did Governor Pollock envision a school boasting dozens of campuses, tens of thousands of students, and the largest student-run philanthropic organization in the country? Did he envision football championships, legendary coaches, a three-peat volleyball team, or raising over $7.8 million for cancer research?
Probably not. But since 1855, because of students like me and you, Penn State has become more than its founders could ever have imagined and something that we can all take pride in.
(Check out a cool gallery of photos from Penn State's history here).
The money THON raises has increased almost three fold in the past decade from around $3 million in 2000 to close to $8 million this year, and some people wonder what has caused such a dramatic increase in donations. Most wouldn’t say students are working harder (because they’ve always worked hard). Maybe more students have gotten involved in the past ten years. But how can one explain why, despite the recession, during which one study says 94% of non-profits reported negative effects on fundraising, THON has managed to raise its donations?
Daniel Victor, a Harrisburg area newspaperman, thinks that the use of Facebook might be at least a contributing factor, as evidenced by a February 21st tweet in which he wrote, “Theory: Could #Thon's economy-bucking success since 2005 be correlated to rise of Facebook? Maybe it created more consistent peer pressure?”
Read on after the jump for some more details.
In 2007, the National Study of Student Hazing found that 68 percent of women in Greek life experience hazing before joining their sororities. Penn State is not immune from this barbaric behavior. Serious reports of hazing have recently been reported at Penn State Altoona.
ABC News reports that "Joanne" pledged a Penn State Altoona sorority and suffered from severe hazing. Her potential sisters made her clean the kitchen floor with her fingernails. They screamed about her worthlessness, threw her against brick walls, and forced her to drink black, dirty water. When Joanne finally quit, the girls keyed her car and left scathing messages on her Facebook profile.
Along with most colleges, Penn State Altoona strictly prohibits hazing, yet it happens nonetheless. Hazing frequently includes labeling areas of fat on girls' bodies with marker and "boob ranking," in which girls are rendered topless and ordered by their breast sizes.
Obviously, this is awful behavior, and the fact that it occurs causes me to question the decency of my fellow college students. Hazing has probably occurred for a long time, but why have young women recently become so violent and hateful? I look to overzealous feminism and the bawdiness of reality TV for answers.
Sororities should bond through unity and accomplishment, not mental trauma. To any hazers out there, remember the moral pillars that support your establishments.
Sam Settle, who we interviewed in a series of four videos posted last spring, spoke this past weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the Stars of the Future panel about the Climategate scandal and its relation to Penn State via Professor Michael Mann.
But the most interesting thing in his short address was not his comments about the supposed "whitewashing" Penn State did of the scandal. Rather, it was his characterization of the difference between conservatives and liberals as being the difference between right and wrong
The simple fact is that when we are right and they are wrong, we should say so. And for those of you who have been paying attention, when we are right and they are wrong is basically all the time.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/v/iT1KeQOA3H4&hl=en_US&fs=1&
Craigslist is a big, and sometimes scary, place. Craigslist Penn State is no exception. In an effort to better serve you, our reader, we have started an new effort to highlight listings we feel should be shared with the greater Penn State audience.
We hope we can find what you’re looking for.
Girl I see at 3pm on campus most days - m4w - 23 (PSU)
I know we never talk, because you'd probably never talk to me. But in all fairness I went through a lot of trouble finding out where you live and I've been parked outside with binoculars for like 12 straights hours, can you at least pull your blinds up or something? Hope this isn't a problem but I feel like I deserve something for all of this effort.
Also could you bring me some hot chocolate if you see this? Gas is expensive and I had to turn the heat in my car off a few hours ago. It's quite unpleasant in here. Temperature-wise that is. Dave Matthews Band helps pass the time, no complaints there.
The good old stalker trick. Never grows old. What if you followed the wrong person home? What a waste of gas.