On Wednesday, the State College Planning Commission reviewed a new version of a temporary use provision (which will be voted on at the nest meeting), as the Commission is considering allowing fraternities that have disbanded to live in their houses for up to two years while the chapter regains its foundation. The Daily Collegian reported:
According to the proposal, disbanded fraternities could temporarily classify themselves as a rooming house for two years, after which the landowner will decide what happens to the property. For on-campus fraternities, the university could seize the property.
The proposed policy also states that the "building ownership entity" or a "local alumni association member" that is in charge of the property itself must reside within 25 miles of State College in case any problems take place. The policy also stated that the disbanded fraternity has to apply for a permit allowing the chapter house to be temporarily used as a rooming house within 120 days of the fraternity's disbandment.
A quartet of wealthy alumni just donated $2.5 million to the Penn State University Libraries. This gift set a new donation record and will support the Pattee Library's new Knowledge Commons.
A major upcoming renovation, the Knowledge Commons will act as an information technology center within the library. Jeanette and John R. McWhirter and Ann and Peter G. Tombros are the generous donors behind these funds. Read the Penn State Live article for the details regrading their fascinating (and financially rewarding) career trajectories.
In addition to the joint gift of $2.5 million, the Tombros couple has offered $1.4 million to improve the University Libraries' collections of Classics and Greek Literature.
This fortunate turn of events is excellent news for our libraries. May the manifestations of these gifts expand our knowledge as university students.
The Penn State Alumni Association has a section on their website called the Online HUB. Despite what you may assume, this site has nothing to do with the Hetzel Union Building and not a whole lot to do with Alumni. What the website does offer are "fun downloads". This includes desktop themes, digital copies of various Penn State songs, ringtones, and the lyrics to many Penn State songs.
Thanks to this website, it appears that washed-up alumni can now relive their college glory days - on their computer! I decided to try out one of the desktop themes, so I downloaded it, unzipped the contents, and saw this text file:
This is the new Penn State University theme for Microsoft Windows 95 under the use of PLUS!
Apparently, PLUS! is a program that Microsoft discontinued with the introduction of Windows XP. So unless you're running Windows 95 (anyone?), these desktop themes aren't very much use to you. Oh well, at least their site doesn't look like a 90's Geocities page.
In December 2005, alumni and friends of Penn State donated $44.4 million. Sounds like a lot, right? This past December, those alumni and friends donated over $58 million, setting a new fundraising record (in a single month) for Penn State.
President Spanier had the following comment, according to Penn State Live: "Our donors continue their loyalty to Penn State, and we are most grateful to each of them for their exceedingly generous support, which is essential to the University's future."
Of the December total, 31,000 donors gave over 37,000 gifts. Eleven of these gifts surpassed $1 million.
Penn State hopes that this new record will fit into an upcoming crescendo of gift-giving, culminating in the "For the Future" campaign, a fundraising initiative beginning on April 23, 2010. The campaign emphasizes education affordability for students of modest means.
Will the recession impact this year's donations? Slim personal budgets may cause donors to purchase necessities rather than partake in philanthropy. However, let's hope our wonderful alumni choose to give back to dear old State.
I don’t know if you guys have heard of this movement on campus to get tree swings put up but it sounds awesome.
The idea came to Samuel Borchers and Stephanie Herbstritt after swinging around on one at a local college by Sam’s home town. Initially, the two planned on buying the materials themselves and having friends help them install the swings under the cover of night, but eventually they decided they wanted the swings to stay hung once they were up, so the duo took their plan public.
Or is the Penn State alumni association really just that expansive? The website Very Small Array recently designed a special map of Park Slope in New York City ("brave, bourgiest corner of Bourgie Brooklyn", says Gawker), a hipster haven, music mecca, indie asylum. This map has all the streets in the Park Slope area, but the street names have been changed to the names of the colleges found on the rear windows of the cars parked there (maybe). Not surprisingly, Penn State is one of the largest names on this map, along with most of the ivies. What divine knowledge can we glean from this information?
Penn State (and a large part of Onward State's readers/writers) has a large, under-appreciated hipster population
Penn State graduates are some of the only people who care enough to put a PSU sticker in their rear windshield
Being included with these other prestigious schools CLEARLY shows that Penn State doesn't get the proper respect that they deserve as an academic juggernaut
This website could be a little biased
Take what you want from this map. Regardless of any revelations you come to, it's a pretty cool project by someone with clearly too much time on their hands, and it amused me (and hopefully you) for a solid minute. Not bad.