The public displays of mourning have come to an end. The items around the statue have been removed, the ceremonies are over, and Joe Paterno has reached his final resting place. Along with the statue, this is a location where Penn Staters will go for generations to pay respect to a man who has done so much for us all.
The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 is one of my favorite pieces of legislation.
A Congress atrophied by the Civil War sent a bill to President Lincoln that, when signed in to law, changed the face of tertiary education in America. In a research report I did in seventh grade about Penn State, discussion of the Morrill Act took up more pages than it probably should have. It made a higher education both affordable and valuable to the common man. This was an Act designed not to increase the number of scholars of law or divinity, but of botany, agriculture, and the "mechanical arts."
Penn State became one of the nation's first land grant institutions.
Penn State University was founded in 1855 to be a “land-grant” university. Now, more than 150 years later, our university tops lists as the most expensive public school in America. However, one key factor that those ranking systems, as well as many students, miss is the fact that Penn State is not a public university, it’s currently “state-related.” With Governor Corbett’s recent announcement of a 30% cut in state appropriations, now is the time for Penn State to make the official switch to being a public school.
In the wake of Governor Corbett's proposed budget cuts for universities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, education leaders have made statements voicing concerns that their schools will be put under pressure to make additional cuts to their already leaner programs.
Tuesday, on Penn State's Facebook page, fans of the page were informed of policies that prohibit any political advocation for Board candidates, but in their own comments, they unintentionally called the board "horrible".
Per University Archivist Jackie Esposito, the mementos that once surrounded the Joe Paterno statue have been moved to a storage space provided by Intercollegiate Athletics.