Recently in Associate Dean Long Category

Dear Liberal Arts Undergraduate Colleagues,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all new and transfer students to the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) at Penn State, and welcome back to all returning students from what was hopefully a restful, albeit it short, break!

As we head into the Spring 2013 semester, I encourage you to join our online community, where students, faculty, and staff can connect with one another and reflect on the liberal arts experience at Penn State. Visit these sites often, and have your voice heard by participating in the ongoing conversation.

The LAUS website is the main source for all of the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office, and it includes useful information about the various programs, processes, and units within LAUS.

The LAUSatPSU blog focuses on the vast experiences and diverse perspectives of liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. You are certain to find a wide variety of content, including student posts about recent internships or study abroad experiences, tips from the CLA advising staff, episodes of Liberal Arts Voices podcast, and much more.

The LAUS Announcements blog is your one stop to get recent news, updates, and announcements important for liberal arts students. Find out about upcoming events, deadlines, and opportunities by subscribing to the LAUS Announcements blog.

I also invite you to connect with us on our social media channels. You can follow me (@LAUSDeanLong) and the LAUS office (@LAUSatPSU) on Twitter, "like" our Facebook page, view our Flickr photos, and watch our YouTube videos. You can also follow our advising team @AdvisingLAatPSU.

Finally, I encourage you to regularly check the College's event calendar to discover the many activities and opportunities that are scheduled throughout the semester. This spring, the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network put together a series of career-related, international, and professional development events that should be of particular interest. These events are designed to help fulfill the mission of the Career Enrichment Network, which is to assist Liberal Arts students with applying and further developing their skills through internships, undergraduate research, and study abroad experiences. Attend as many of the workshops and information sessions as you can in order to prepare for your job search and beyond.

With all of these opportunities to engage and connect with the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office--both in person and online--I hope this spring will be a fulfilling and transformative semester.

There are no words to express the grief our Penn State community feels with the family of Chris and Elizabeth Brady, and their daughter, Izzy, at the sudden death of their son and brother, Mack. 

LAUSDeanLong: Kasey, one of the things we talk about as a core value of the liberal arts is being open to diversity. This is different from tolerance, which is merely to put up with something that might otherwise be unpleasant. The liberal arts ideal involves more than that, it means to embrace diversity as an enriching part of our lives, as what gives human life texture and depth.

That is why the images we have seen of the Penn State students playing on the most insensitive and demeaning caricature of Mexicans is so disheartening. It reflects poorly on all of us and demonstrates that we are doing a poor job cultivating one of the central ideals of a liberal arts education. How are you and your fellow students thinking about and responding to this incident?

KaseyOK: I think that students are generally disappointed by this situation. While a divide seems to exist as to exactly how out of line the students' actions were, I think we have all acknowledged that the stereotypes that were highlighted were extremely offensive to us and to Mexicans. We simply wish the students had thought about the consequences of representing people of this culture in a degrading manner.

As you mentioned, in Liberal Arts we strongly value diversity and encourage all students to be open to and embrace people of other cultures. Personally, I do not believe this incident stemmed from hate; however I believe it did come out of a lack of these values which we have distinguished as being central to a liberal arts education. Looking ahead, I think we as individuals need to re-examine the way we incorporate diversity into our lives, and learn to do more than tolerate others, but to seek actively opportunities for growth through exposure to diversity.

LAUSDeanLong: You are probably right that the incident did not stem from overt hatred, but it did emerge from a culture of ignorance and xenophobia. It is probably easier to address overt hatred than it is to address more subtle and therefore perhaps more pernicious forms of racism and cultural ignorance. It is our responsibility as an institution of education to respond in ways that enable us to honestly examine and redress our own prejudices, even and especially when they are embedded in the institutional and cultural structures in which we live.

Another important dimension of this episode is the role social media played in exposing the incident. One aspect of social media that I find compelling is the way it can reveal something about ourselves to us as a community; often it reveals aspects of ourselves it is difficult to face. The public nature of social media is critical in this regard. Do you have the sense that students appreciate the extent to which their social media presence is, at heart, a way of appearing in public, with all the power and implications that involves?

KaseyOK: At this point in our lives (being in college, applying for jobs and other opportunities), I believe students are developing an awareness of this public face that social media provides. Students take steps such as altering Facebook names, creating multiple Twitter accounts, and blocking certain people from their social media platforms in order to maintain "privacy." 

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues: 

Today a group of over fifty faculty in the College of the Liberal Arts gathered to deliberate about how best to respond to the students we will encounter next week in our classrooms as we begin a new academic year in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that has impacted our community.

The third iteration of the Liberal Arts Scholarship and Technology Summit (LASTS) was held on Thursday, August 16, 2012, in Foster Auditorium.  The College of the Liberal Arts again partnered with Education Technology Services (ETS) and University Libraries to provide Liberal Arts faculty and graduate students a forum in which to share insights and learn from one another regarding the use of technology for teaching and research. 

A new feature to LASTS was the addition of a pre-conference workshop held on Wednesday, August 15, 2012.  The workshop provided a forum for attendees to explore and discuss the nature of digital humanities and its role at Penn State.  More information about the pre-conference workshop can be found on the Humanities @ Penn State Libraries blog.

Thursday's event featured presenters from Liberal Arts, Education Technology Services, and the Libraries, as well as a keynote address from Cole Camplese, Senior Director for Penn State Teaching & Learning with Technology. 

The two-day event included technology presentations, breakout sessions, hands-on workshops, and panel discussions, and the conference was attended by faculty and graduate students both in person and online through live streaming video.

Pictures from the event can be viewed on the LAUS Flickr site, and below is an overview of the speakers and their topics, as well as links to their archived presentation videos and resources: 

Dawn Childress (University Libraries)
Presentation Link
Brief summary of the pre-conference workshop on digital humanities.

Cole Camplese (TLT)
Presentation Link
Keynote address from the Senior Director of Penn State's Teaching and Learning with Technology.

Christopher Long (LAUS/Philosophy)
Presentation Link
Discussion on how the research for his book, Socratic and Platonic Politics, was carried out in public through his Digital Dialogue podcast and his blog, The Long Road.

Mike Furlough (University Libraries)
Presentation Link
Overview of how some libraries around the country have supported digital humanities research, as well as one example at Penn State.

Allan Gyorke (ETS)
Presentation Link
Overview of key technology trends in higher education--including MOOCs, badge systems, learning analytics, and electronic textbooks--and how they are connected to activities occurring across the university.

Brian Young (ETS)
Presentation Link
Demonstration of Doceri, a software that allows control of a computer (podium computer or laptop) with an iPad.

Jessica O'Hara (ENGL)
Presentation Link
Discussion on how "intensive blogging" has been implemented in first-year honors rhetoric and composition courses.

Mark Fisher (PHIL) and Christopher Long (LAUS/PHIL)
Presentation Link
Description of plans for an open peer-reviewed online journal of public philosophy.  

Daniel Tripp (ENGL)
Presentation Link
Discussion on instances when the technologies that make digital scholarship possible threaten it with obsolescence, as related to the post-publication history of Red Planet: Scientific and Cultural Encounters with Mars.

Chris Stubbs (ETS)
Presentation Link  /  Presentation Resources
Overview of the creation, design, and student testing of EconU, a brand new web-based economics game.

Emily Rimland (Libraries)
Presentation Link  /  Presentation Resources
Discussion of the Research Project Calculator and the Penn State iPad User Group.


We would like to thank all of our attendees, speakers, and organizing partners for helping to make the event a success!

LAUSDeanLong: It is a real honor, Kasey, to continue our tradition of dialogues between the LAUS Dean and the President of the LAUC with you today. The dialogues are intended to open a space of mature and honest communication with students in which we can address issues of central concern to the College and the University. There is, of course, no more pressing issue of concern today than the recent release of the Freeh Report. 

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues: 

LAUSDeanLong: Over the past two years, I have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the culture of drinking at Penn State with the presidents of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council. 

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues:

Joe Paterno said that he wanted to be remembered as an educator who made Penn State a better place. However impressive his record as a football coach, his most lasting and meaningful legacy remains the contributions he has made to enrich the educational lives of our students.  Nowhere has this legacy been more palpably felt or more deeply appreciated than in the College of the Liberal Arts.

Joe, Sue, and the entire Paterno family have established scholarships supporting students who could not otherwise afford a Penn State education; they have funded graduate student fellowships, the Richards Civil War Center, and the Paterno Family Professorship. The Paternos have found ways to support the academic mission of our College at every level. 

It is fitting, therefore, that their greatest contribution has been their visionary support for the Paterno Liberal Arts Undergraduate Fellows Program.  With one hundred students set to graduate in the spring of 2012, over two hundred others who have performed their way into the Schreyer Honors College by aspiring to be a Paterno Fellow, and almost four hundred students still aspiring, the Paterno Fellows program is well positioned to enrich the educational lives of our undergraduates for generations to come. 

The program embodies these words Joe Paterno spoke to the graduates of the class of 1973:

"It is being involved in a common cause which brings us joy and memories which endure. It is making our very best effort, that we have stretched to the very limit of our ability, which makes us bigger and able to stretch again: to reach even higher as we undertake new challenges."

Our common cause is education, and Joe Paterno has made us bigger and stretched us to higher achievement. Now, he has left us and we miss him. But his legacy, our common cause, endures.

LAUSDeanLong: Returning home is always fraught with complex emotions and feelings, for you return to a familiar place a changed person.

I wonder how students are feeling about their return home for Thanksgiving this week in the wake of the complex emotional, intellectual and psychological experiences of the past two weeks.

LaurenPerrotti: Some students have already made up their minds by posting facebook statuses warning friends not to bring up the Sanudsky case. Others plan to tell family and friends that it is their week off and they are taking a break from addressing the issue. Thursday evening at the LAUC meeting, our very own Doug Dooling (@DailyDiplomat) posed the question to the council. I am fortunate that my family has been patient and understanding of both the situation and my reaction toward it. However, I know that this is not the case for every student.

LAUSDeanLong: Last week in my letter to students I appealed to Rilke who spoke about the need to "live the questions." This week, as you return home, I thought perhaps this quotation from D.H. Lawrence might speak to you as it has to me over the past two weeks:

"The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."

Our attempts to live the questions among the ruins really is difficult work. But it is work for which you all are prepared; it is the work of a liberal arts education, the work of growth and maturity. And you have resources to help you with it: your family, your professors, your friends, and our Liberal Arts academic advisers.

My hope for us this week away is that we find ways to renew our energy and refocus our attention. For when you return, we will need our collective talents, our best selves, to move forward with integrity.

LaurenPerrotti: Yes, and we thought that we might provide a space below in the comment section for students who are at home for the break who want to continue to talk through their experiences with other students on our blog. Over the course of the next week, we invite you to do just that.

LAUSDeanLong: Lauren, we have been talking in person over the last week or so about how to respond to the crisis at Penn State in the wake of the grand jury indictments in the Sandusky case. I have admired your leadership with students in trying to keep the focus on the more important elements of this experience: first, the abused children, then the question of an institutional culture and character that seems to have allowed abuse to continue. How are students processing all of this?

Lauren Perrotti (Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council President): Thank you for your compliment. After the news broke (and continued to break daily) about the Sandusky case, students have been facing a multitude of emotions. It is difficult to process all the major issues surrounding the case. First and foremost, it is the case itself, the horrific allegations, and the sadness we feel for the victims. Then there is the firing of a beloved figure, the responses of the administration, the swift acts of the Board of Trustees, the incessant media presence, and the lack of communication from the University to the students. As students, we are trying to comprehend everything, but it is difficult.

The recent email from you reached out to students, yet treated us as adults. Do you foresee more communication between administration and students as this long process continues?

LAUSDeanLong: When I wrote that email, I tried to think about what I would want to hear as a student ... then I checked with you. Thank you for looking it over.

Students have a lot of resources to bring to bear on this situation, and administrators and faculty have much to learn from how you are processing the diversity of emotions on the multiple levels you mention. Perhaps the sort of public, honest, mature and open exchange we are having here, and have had in the past, can be a model for ongoing student/administrative communication.

We have both tried to think about what a just and ethical response to all of this might look like. Certainly, it will require us not to lose sight of the crimes at the root of it, nor to forget the victims of those crimes who continue to suffer. But it will also require that we take up the question of institutional ethics in earnest, and not in name only.

What sorts of responses to this would you consider just and ethical?

LaurenPerrotti: I think that the best way to frame a just and ethical response is by promoting truth and respect. Over the course of the past week, we've felt in the dark and unclear about what is going on. I think that as you mentioned, these types of transparent dialogues are necessary. It is not us and them, but rather We Are all part of a community coming together as one.

It is important to treat this situation with the complexity it deserves. Thoughtful responses to the current situation include the Friday's vigil on Old Main lawn, the response of everyone at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, and the choice of the THON 2012 logo. Even the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) called a meeting on Thursday to openly discuss the events surrounding Penn State and to reflect on how we are feeling.

The more we communicate and deliberate together, the more we can reach just and ethical conclusions. How are other students, faculty and staff within the Liberal Arts and Penn State community responding to this crisis? What just and ethical responses would promote truth and respect?

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues:

As we process the events of the past week, it is difficult to grapple with what we and others are thinking and feeling. Each of us responds to these events from where we live, from our perspectives as individuals and as members of an educational community to which we have dedicated our time, our energy, our lives.

As students in the liberal arts, you have many resources to bring to bear on these difficult experiences. As humanists, you know something of the finite nature of human existence, of the complex and often tragic nature of human relationships, and of the healing power of words well placed; as social scientists, you know something about the role power plays in social interactions, the nature of psychological and physical trauma, and the intricacies of healthy human communities. I ask you to bring to bear on this difficult situation the wisdom of your disciplines, the power of your learning and the depth of your commitment to your friends, your teachers and your institution.

As we try to come to some terms with this experience in all its complexity, I hope we find ways to notice the beautiful and good things that are done at Penn State everyday even as we face the things we must as we learn more about what happened. Your good academic work, your integrity as students and your well placed energy contribute to what is valuable about Penn State.

Thank you.

If you or any of your colleagues need to talk with a professional counsellor, please don't hesitate to call Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 814-863-0395 or go online at: http://www.sa.psu.edu/caps/schedule_appointment.shtml For emergencies: http://www.sa.psu.edu/caps/crisis.shtml

Once, in the course of my own education in the liberal arts, I came across a passage from Rilke. My wife reminded me of it last night and it seems to be helping me at the moment; perhaps it might be of some help to you today:

"Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet


Sincerely,
Christopher Long

Christopher P. Long
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Classics
College of the Liberal Arts
The Pennsylvania State University
http://www.la.psu.edu/chrislong

Hello Liberal Arts Undergraduates:

Over the past few years, we in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office have sought to create a living online presence that is designed to cultivate community around the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State.

While many see social media as a marketing strategy that pushes information out to "clients," we in LAUS have sought to use social media technologies as an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to engage one another and to reflect in public about the liberal arts experience at Penn State.

With the excellent support of our students, staff and faculty, our online community is thriving. But for its continued success, we need your voice.

As we begin this new academic year, I want to invite you to participate in our online community.

Our LAUS website and our newly redesigned College of the Liberal Arts website serve as a HUB for all the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office. I hope you will visit it frequently and make it a favorite bookmark.

Our main LAUSatPSU blog is co-authored by liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. This blog focuses on the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts. Here you will find posts from students writing about recent internship experiences; tips about advising from CLA advisers; episodes of Liberal Arts Voices, a bi-weekly podcast produced by the LAUS Office which highlights undergraduate life in the College; and much more.

Our LAUS Announcements blog draws attention to news, updates, and announcements that are important for CLA undergraduates. You should subscribe to LAUS Announcements to get the most recent internship postings, study abroad application deadlines, dates for a variety of College events, and other information related to life in the College.

The Education Abroad Experience blog is generated by the stories and experiences of Liberal Arts undergraduates as they study abroad and travel around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad this is a great opportunity to hear directly from your fellow students and to start thinking about the type of program that is right for you.

If you are an admitted or aspiring Paterno Fellow, make sure to check out the Paterno Fellows Program blog. You will receive direct messages from the PFP Director Jack Selzer and read posts written by students involved in the program when you subscribe to this blog.

I invite you to follow me (@LAUSDeanLong) and the LAUS office (@LAUSatPSU) on Twitter, to become our fan on Facebook, to subscribe to all of our blogs, to listen to the Liberal Arts Voices podcast and, most importantly, to join the ongoing conversation about the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience.

Sincerely,

Dean Long

On Saturday, May 14th, we gathered to celebrate the 2011 graduating class from the College of the Liberal Arts. Rain threatened all day, but somehow Robin Robinson and Andrea Crews, who did an excellent job coordinating the events, managed to arrange for the rain to hold off until everyone was safely inside a packed Bryce Jordan Center. 

The front page article of today's edition of the Daily Collegian begins with the provocative suggestion that the "women's studies, religious studies, Jewish studies, and African and African American studies programs may be the next Penn State majors on the chopping block." 

The article was a speculative commentary on the alleged implications of the Academic Program and Administrative Services Review Core Council memo to the College of the Liberal Arts. It has generated significant student, staff and faculty anxiety, so it is important to clarify the ways the College has responded to the Core Council recommendations about these programs.

The programs mentioned were singled out as ones that ought to be reviewed "to determine the most appropriate arrangements for their administrative homes, organizational structures, and delivery of their curricula." This is precisely what the College has done.

The Women's Studies program is undertaking a very exciting review of their curriculum. It is designed to make it easier for students to navigate the major even as the course of study is updated to speak more directly to the most leading-edge scholarship in the field. We look forward to moving these curricular initiatives through the Faculty Senate process next year. The Women's Studies program is not "on the chopping block." To learn more about the major, visit the Women's Studies website.

• Schedule an appointment with your advisor to declare the Women's Studies major.

In Jewish Studies, we are engaged in an ongoing review of the curriculum to ensure that all students interested in learning more about the origins of the Jewish people and the forces that have shaped the Jewish experience have a strong and dynamic major to pursue. To get a sense of one exciting and dynamic course in Jewish Studies, check out this Seminar with an embedded study abroad in Cairo and Alexandria. The Jewish Studies program is not "on the chopping block." To learn more about the major, visit the Jewish Studies website.

Today marks the first day of my second year as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. Such moments invite reflection, and since I have been encouraging students to reflect upon their undergraduate experience here on the blog, I thought I would pause to consider my own experience.

It begins and ends with students. The most rewarding aspect of my experience as Associate Dean has been the opportunity to get to know our remarkable undergraduate students.

Whether it was engaging in a Dialogue on Drinking with LAUC President Geoff Halberstadt and former President Sam Loewner, or talking poetry with PSU Laureate Robin Becker and her students Natalie Kovak and William Woolfit on the Liberal Arts Voices Podcast, or experiencing vicariously the transformative study abroad experiences of students like Nicole Zinni and Justin Ogden, I have been struck and encouraged by the integrity, passion, thoughtfulness and maturity of our students in the College of the Liberal Arts.

The rich LAUS website, with its student bloggers, pictures, videos and podcasts, has been the medium through which the undergraduate student experience has been articulated and, I hope, amplified. My commitment to the strategy with which I began my tenure as Associate Dean - to use social media technologies to deepen and enrich our community of education - has strengthened as students have embraced the opportunity to reflect on their experiences in public.

Justin Ogden, who blogged for us as he spent the summer of 2010 as an intern at a shoe factory in China, gives eloquent voice to the power of blogging to focus our thoughts, slow us down and deepen our appreciation of the experiences we are having:

On Saturday, November 13th, I gave the keynote address at the Media Commons Tailgate, a community organized "unconference" where students, faculty and staff gathered to explore the impact new media technologies are having on teaching and learning.

There is little question that new media technologies are transforming the practice of education, and our practices of education must change in the wake of the emergence of new media technologies.


I conclude the presentation with some examples of how we have sought to cultivate enriching new media literacies with our students in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office.  I specifically discuss the work of Nicole Zinni and Justin Ogden, and I highlight some of the things we discussed in Liberal Arts Voices 15, when we focused on our DC interns.

Please take some time to watch the video.  I welcome feedback in the comments on this blog.

For those of you who want to investigate the videos associated with this post a bit further, I have embedded a playlist that includes all the videos I touch upon in the presentation. They give articulate voice to the kinds of enriching literacies our students are cultivating in and through their engagement with social media on our site.
  Finally, I include a link to the Traditional and New Media Literacies Prezi itself for those who want to navigate through in more detail.

Hello Liberal Arts Undergraduates:

Over the past year, our Undergraduate Studies Office has developed an extensive online and social media presence dedicated to building community around the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. Our goal is to use social media technologies as an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to engage one another and to reflect in public about the liberal arts experience at Penn State. As we begin this new academic year, I want to invite you to participate in our online community.

Our newly redesigned website serves as a HUB for all the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office. I hope you will visit it frequently and make it a favorite bookmark.

Our main LAUSatPSU blog is co-authored by liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. This blog focuses on the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts. Here you will find posts from students writing about recent internship experiences; tips about advising from CLA advisers; episodes of Liberal Arts Voices, a bi-weekly podcast produced by the LAUS Office which highlights undergraduate life in the College; and much more.

Our LAUS Announcements blog draws attention to news, updates, and announcements that are important for CLA undergraduates. You should subscribe to LAUS Announcements to get the most recent internship postings, study abroad application deadlines, dates for a variety of College events, and other information related to life in the College.

The Education Abroad Experience blog is generated by the stories and experiences of Liberal Arts undergraduates as they study abroad and travel around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad this is a great opportunity to hear directly from your fellow students and to start thinking about the type of program that is right for you.

If you are an admitted or aspiring Paterno Fellow, make sure to check out the Paterno Fellows Program blog. You will receive direct messages from the PFP Director Jack Selzer and read posts written by students involved in the program when you subscribe to this blog.

I invite you to follow me and the LAUS office on Twitter, to become our fan on Facebook, to subscribe to all of our blogs, to listen to the Liberal Arts Voices podcast and, most importantly, to join the ongoing conversation about the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience.

Sincerely,

Dean Long

In my commencement address for the World Campus this spring, I tried to articulate a vision of education as a lifelong journey in which we constantly stretch out beyond ourselves in an attempt to better understand one another and the world in which we live.

Here is the YouTube video of the address, entitled Milestones.  The full text can be found on my digital vita. I would welcome any thoughts and comments.

A lot of excellent work went in to making today a wonderful celebration for our graduates from the College of the Liberal Arts. Of course, our students did an enormous amount of work to earn their degrees. And they earned a celebration worthy of their accomplishments.

The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies staff gave them just such a celebration today!

Robin Robinson is the master organizer of graduation for the College of the Liberal Arts. She and her staff on the Records side of our office, Andrea Crews, Tanya Hockman and Sarah Derber, organized all the tents, food, diplomas, ceremonies and celebrations that we enjoyed so thoroughly today.

There were also a number of other members of the LAUS staff who worked today during the graduation celebration, including Holly Dickey, Mary Fleming, Ashley Tarbet, Earl Merritt, and Jillian Balay (aka @LAUSatPSU).

We also had a number of student advisors helping with the graduation ceremony itself at the BJC: Mary Cameron, Julianna Chaszar, Shery Crater, Rebekka Egger, Tracey Melnick, Whitney Merinar, Maureen Mulenga, Courtney Orr, Charlene Peters, Katelyn Perry, Karen Sones, Marie Villefranche.

Before I became Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College, I came to graduation and enjoyed the spirit of celebration and accomplishment. Now that I see all the work that goes into putting such an event together, I am struck by how lucky we are to have such a professional, organized and talented staff.

A sign of their success is the degree to which no one notices all the little things that are done behind the scene to make the event run smoothly. The danger of this sort of success is that the hard work and excellent organization that goes into it will not be recognized.

So, on behalf of all the graduates of the College of the Liberal Arts and for the faculty and administration too, I would like to thank Robin first and foremost, and also the rest of my excellent staff, who made this truly a day to remember.

It was wonderful to have Robin join us on Liberal Arts Voices episode 9 to talk about graduation. On that episode, you can also hear Nikki Hatza, our College Marshal, who gave a marvelous valedictorian speech this evening, talk about her Penn State experience. If you want to learn more about Ron Suskind, who also gave a well received speech tonight, take a look at his personal website and his wikipedia page. 

Personally, I am grateful for the help Robin gave me with the names of the student marshals I had to read (I hope I did justice to them this evening) and for her tips about how best to keep an excited crowd in order.  I am also grateful to Ashley and Jillian for helping me practice the World Campus Graduation talk I gave today. 

In all, it was a beautiful day for a celebration of excellent students.  Congratulations to all our graduates and thank you to the staff that made this day a great success.

Here are some images from the day:

 

Tomorrow I am meeting with a group of Penn State alums to talk about about how we at the College of the Liberal Arts are using social media technology to enrich the liberal arts education of our students.

The main point of the presentation is to illustrate how technology can be used to reinforce the traditional virtues of the liberal arts: ethical imagination, excellence in communication, professional leadership, global perspectives and an openness to diversity. 



We have received written comments on the initial YouTube video, and via email from some of the alums with whom we shared the video prior to our meeting.  I have gathered some of these comments below.

It is striking that when the conversation is opened to the public by social media, the modes by which people respond is so varied: video, written comments, emails and even tweets (thanks @jeffswain). On one hand, it is difficult to follow a coherent thread of the conversation unless someone gathers them together - as I have tried to do here.  On the other hand, the variety of different modes of response and the different ways the ideas in this diverse conversation are shared adds a dimension to the conversation that extends beyond what might have happened had we limited ourselves to written or in person communication.

What does this teach us about the power and the limits of social media technology?  How are we to best prepare students and ourselves not only to live in, but more importantly to thrive in a world of such dynamic and variegated communication?

Response gathered from emails from alums

David Eltringham linked to three videos here:

After seeing the headlines from the Collegian about PSU Deans "warning" students about Saturday's State Patty's Day, I thought that it might be a good idea to tweet Sam Loewner, President of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council and an officer from University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA), so we might engage in a discussion about the celebration.  Below is the beginning of our discussion, which we hope will continue in the comments here and elsewhere in the Penn State online and in-person community.

Dean Long: How are students responding to the comments reported in the Collegian and on Onward State in which Deans and other officials are attempting to address the issues around State Patty's Day?

Sam: I think the students are responding in a defensive manner.  The messages from the University range from "Don't drink" to "if you do drink, there will be serious consequences."

Dean Long: How could we enter into a discussion about the important concerns regarding responsible drinking in a productive way?  Specifically, I am interested in the possibility of a deeper dialogue about undergraduate drinking without falling into a paternalistic mode that often provokes the sort of defensiveness you mention.

Sam: Students are already taking a proactive and responsible approach. The UPUA sponsored a full page ad reminding students to make responsible decisions. The Greek governing bodies took actions that limit the roles that sororities and fraternities will play over the weekend. But let's not forget that State Patty's Day was established as a way to bring the Penn State community together.

Dean Long: I think that is an important reminder.  In talking to Meghan White, a 2006 CLA graduate working now at Allegheny College, I was struck by her suggestion that "the event attracts alums as well and it should be noted that it is up to alums to set a positive example to undergraduates about how to celebrate the spirit of Penn State in a responsible way." I think it is important to emphasize the role alums play in this and the fact that it is in some degree a celebration of the Penn State community.

The issue is, can the community respond in a thoughtful and mature way to the real problems that the event can generate?

Sam: The kind of discussion we are having here might serve as a way to begin such a response. Since this is an event based around the Penn State community, I think we can mitigate some of the problems by making sure we are looking out for one another, as I think many of the concerns center around the question of safety.

Dean Long and Sam: How will you look out for your fellow community members this weekend?  What should the University response to State Patty's Day be? How can faculty, students, administrators, and alums work together to address the complex set of issues that stem from the State Patty's Day phenomenon?

This seems to us to be a good opportunity to open a deeper dialogue about these issues and we hope that you will join in the discussion here. 

For those Twitterers, let's use the #StatePatty hash tag.

I met with Sean Healy last week to talk about the Liberal Arts Magazine he is starting here at Penn State. It will be called, Agora.

Sean tells the story of how it came about:

"When I changed campus to University Park last fall I was seeking an opportunity on campus to get involved. I found it difficult to find a student organization that I was passionate about or thought would fit my personality. I was looking to get involved in some sort of publication or magazine because I enjoy writing, and when I explored my options I found that Penn State did not have a Liberal Arts magazine. I decided that a Liberal Arts magazine at Penn State would be the perfect opportunity for Liberal Arts students and Penn State as a whole to gain from the experience of writing and the invaluable process of peer editing, review, and discussions.

This was the start of Agora and it the organization has been slowly growing ever since."

The first edition of the magazine is due out March 1st, and it will be available at the LAUS office in 119 Sparks.

Here is Sean's description of the magazine itself:

"Agora is a monthly Liberal Arts publication that seeks to promote diversity, free thought, and a marketplace of ideas for the Penn State community. All writing pieces within this publication are the original ideas of our authors who are encouraged to write about the issues they are most passionate about and feel should be further discussed. The result is a body of writing different from any Penn State publication. With no limits, our writers are free to express viewpoints that are often muffled, sidelined, or under discussed. From this thought the motivation for our name is derived: Agora.

The agora was a place of assembly unique to the ancient Greek civilization that served as both a political and commercial marketplace. The powerful symbolism embodied within the principal of an agora is clearly represented in the first amendment of the United States constitution: freedom of speech."

I look forward to the appearance of this new magazine and hope that we can work together to amplify its voice in the College and the University.

This post invites responses, video and otherwise, about how your education has shaped who you are.  Please join the discussion by commenting or posting a video of your own.

In the video I talk briefly about the impact my study abroad experience in Vienna, Austria in 1989 had on me.  I then ask you how your education changed who you are.

A few years ago, I received the Dwight bobble head pictured here looking out of my office window as I work. This picture was taken by Heather Summerlin, IT Consultant in the College of Liberal Arts, and posted on our LAUSatPSU Flickr page.

Dwight has become a mascot of sorts for the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office. He has recently returned from a trip to his hometown of Scranton, PA, where he joined a dedicated group of students from the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) as they raised money for THON, the student-run philanthropy effort to fight pediatric cancer.

The students seem to have had a good time with LAUSDwight and I have embedded a slideshow of the pictures they posted to the LAUC Flickr account.


It is great to see the dedication of these students as they participate in the largest student-run philanthropy effort in the world. LAUSDwight looks good working the phones, playing Wii and bathing in some of the over $1200 the LAUC students raised last weekend.

I encourage everyone to follow the adventures of LAUSDwight as he attends various events, official and unofficial, participating in and observing the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts.

We will be tweeting about him using the #LAUSDwight hash tag in the weeks and months to come.

One of the highlights of the Fall 2009 semester was the celebration of 100 years of Liberal Arts education at Penn State.

Edwin Erle Sparks, the 8th President of Penn State, established the College of the Liberal Arts in 1909 by bringing art and mathematics together with the School of Language and Literature and the School of History and Political Science. (For more on our history, see the CLA website.)

As many of you are aware Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake this past week. One of our own advisers, Marie Villefranche, a native of Haiti, has extended family who live in the Port-au-Prince region.

To date, they have not been in communication with Marie and her family in the States. The College of the Liberal Arts Office of Undergraduate Studies would like to extend our thoughts and best wishes for Marie and her family.

For those who would like to support the recovery and the relief effort, please visit the following organizations: Yele Haiti, the Red Cross, World Vision, Oxfam, or Partners in Health.

I hope everyone has had an excellent break and is ready for the spring semester. Although it doesn't feel much like spring at the moment here in State College, we in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office are very excited about the new semester.


As we move into the Spring 2010 semester, we invite you to join us by participating in the digital community we hope to create together:

• Join our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/LAUSatPSU
• Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/LAUSatPSU and
  http://twitter.com/LAUSDeanLong
  
• Subscribe to our YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/LAUSatPennState
• View our Photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lausatpsu/

Finally, we are particularly excited to have the excellent student leaders of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) already beginning to take advantage of digital media to get out the good word about their activities:

• Follow them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/psulauc