The Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team began competing in the first leg of EcoCAR 2: Plugging In The Future competition over the past year. The three-year competition involves fifteen teams includes fifteen North American teams that receive a donated Chevy Malibu, which students work on in order to lessen the negative impact that the car has on the environment. The catch: they have to retain both it’s performance and consumer appeal.
Perhaps a mere coincidence or perhaps exactly what I had asked for, my editorial on hazing seems to have sparked a discussion on the subject within the local media in recent weeks. At the time that my piece was published, there had not been any recent incidents for me to cite in order to back up my assertion that the problem had not been curbed in any way, shape, or form. Several commenters pointed that out, including current Intrafraternity Council president and Sigma Alpha Epsilon brother Vinnie Lizza, who said that "no one knows hazing is occuring if people ... do not report it."
The Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team is taking their talents to Los Angeles Friday for the EcoCAR 2 Year One Final Competition.
Ah, graduation. A time for pomp, circumstance, and reverence. I had the opportunity to attend two ceremonies this weekend to wish friends farewell. There, I encountered deliberate efforts to kill the solemnity of commencement. Even though the announcers asked for the audience to be silent so that all the parents could hear their children’s names called, the requests were duly ignored. Read more about our writer's experience after the jump.
CollegeACB returned as PSUACB recently, but it wasn't as anonymous as you might have assumed.
To paraphrase Mark Twain: The reports of higher education's death have been an exaggeration. American universities produce more research and relevant knowledge for the world at large than any other institutions I know of. Tuition may be too damn high, but over the long-run, undergraduate degrees are definitely worth the cost. But Penn State could be so much more. It used to be, I think.