April 2010 Archives

Blue / White weekend is always fun, but this year was particularly enjoyable.  There was the festival, the game, the bright weather Friday and most of Saturday, and the buzz created by the announcement that Penn State will raise $2 billion in the next four years, much of it to support students directly.

But the best part for me was to see the success of Sue Paterno's inspiration: the first annual 5K Run for Special Olympics. Despite threatening weather, hundreds turned out to run, to walk, and to watch--all in a great cause.  Sue Paterno was thrilled with the turnout and the financial support generated for Special Olympics. Check out the Collegian's story on the event for more details.

And Sue Paterno was very pleased that so many Paterno Fellows volunteered their time to help.  Here are some of the people who stepped up (I'm sure I'm missing some too):  Christine Theberge, Ashley Simon, Alex Pecora, Dolce-Marie Fletcher, Adaola Onyenaka, Caitlin Bonsman, Bevin Hernandez, Erin Morton, Christen Buckley, Eydsa La Paz, Lauren Perrotti, Kaitlun Lynes, Adam Boyer, Kate Burlingame, Sarah Eissler, Chloe Rommes, Alyssa Symanski, and Danielle Emerson all pitched in to register runners, handle race details, and clean up.

This will be an annual event, no doubt about it, one that is sure to grow into something big.  And given how much fun it was and how much the Paterno Fellows took to it, I'm thinking it should be an annual philanthropy as well. Now that we know it'll be happening next April, we can get organized in a major way to help--let's provide volunteers to find runners, to scare up contributors and sponsors, to help out during race weekend, and even to provide a bunch of runners who are PaternoFellows. 

I'll be in touch with you in the Fall semester to  see who wants to take a leadership role as we organize a major effort, as well as to see who just wants to help.  I'm imagining an overall coordinator of the Paterno Fellows team, as well as coordinators to find race-day volunteers, Friday and Saturday volunteers, racers, and who knows what else. 

It'll be a perfect way for many of you to fulfill your commitment to give back.

PS I have just one regret: 
Franco Harris showed up to lend his support as well.  But I missed an opportunity to ask him if the ball touched the ground on his famous Immaculate Reception catch as a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Paterno Fellows:  It's a Challenge

This "Toni Delivers" doesn't mean pizza.

Toni Morrison was at her best in her presentation on campus two weeks ago, wasn't she? I've been meaning to comment on it. 

Her presentation was surprisingly political, if you ask me.  No, she didn't mention anyone by name.  And she didn't mention any specific political issues that are in the news.  But her commentary about "living on the edge," in borderlands, had all kinds of political implications at a time when open borders, closed borders, and national identity are all issues all over the globe.  How do we protect ourselves against terrorism?  How do we handle immigration?  What can be done to moderate tension between Israel and the Arab world?  What are our national responsibilities when something like the earthquake in Haiti takes place?  You can use her advice to guide your thinking about all kinds of issues.

I have to say that I also appreciated that the closing word in her speech was "home."  That's just how she ended the last time I heard her in action, about fifteen years ago.

Most people thought the Question and Answer period was even better than her talk.  And I can see why.  The questions from the audience were terrific, and they offered Morrison the chance to give her views about all kinds of things, in a way that was tremendously interesting. 

It was great to see 55 Fellows and aspiring Fellows at the pre-lecture gathering, too.  Sue Paterno got a kick out of talking to many of you, and she's looking forward to more such opportunities. 

Paterno Fellows:  It's a Challenge

The time has come to replace three graduating members of the Paterno Fellows Student Advisory Board. Over the past two years, the Board has been responsible for collaborating with faculty, staff, and students to advise the director and to help arrange Fellows activities and events. As an active member, your service can be used to fulfill the leadership requirement of your Paterno Fellows commitment.

Interested? Please contact Brandon Gatto at beg5025@psu.edu to set up an interview time. Thanks for considering this; Brandon looks forward to hearing from you.

Paterno Fellows:  It's a Challenge

I sat in the evening on a weathered wooden bench outside Eisenhower auditorium chatting with other early comers, enjoying the balmy drafts of the approaching summer and chasing small talk with coffee and Black-and-Milds, trying to get in the journalistic spirit. I had never done this before, journalism, and had just as much real writing experience. I was here on vague assignment from the Paterno Fellows Blog, a guinea pig; "Cover the Toni Morrison event in April". So that's what I was doing. Outside were a mixed bunch; scholars and doormen mingled amongst librarian-looking fifty-somethings clutching worn copies of Beloved and students equipped with cynical smirks and snide remarks for the instructors who had sentenced them there. Interestingly, all met my hellos with smiles and we struck up general conversation on Ms. Morrison. Talk rambled from favorite works and women's rights to the start of football season, in which I interjected aimlessly (having read only what I could of The Bluest Eye in the two hours before). After a few minutes the doors were opened and the conversation carried up three flights of stairs, through double doors and into the well-catered reception room atop the auditorium. I immediately spotted nametags and balked at all the necessary evils that surely accompanied them: small talk, awkward acquaintances, tiny plastic cups with too much ice. But the reception was nicely done, the conversation unusually lively, and overall it was an enjoyable preparation for the coming presentation (after all, any reception with Mrs. Paterno is an enjoyable one). Downstairs the click and hum of audio equipment greeted the Nobel Laureate's quickly amassing audience and beckoned me to slip out and secure a front row seat, which I did shortly thereafter.

Forty-two minutes later I stumbled out of the Eisenhower with all the symptoms of academic battery: self doubt, a nebulous sense of enlightenment, an array of seemingly unanswerable questions, and an aptitude toward periods of question and confusion accompanied by socially unacceptable quietude and "that look". Ms Morrison had given a behemoth of a speech, of that I was sure, and I had come to some serious revelations, but what? The symptoms were there... but nothing. I was confused, my brain reeled, and I found myself struggling to regurgitate a single point that Ms. Morrison had made so abundantly clear and all-important just minutes ago. I chalked it up to the format. Ms. Morrison's rhetorical style and breadth of topic are more readily suited to text than speech. The concepts need to be turned and tumbled amongst individuals, talked over and polished by minds before being exposed for their knowledge. The problem is that speech can't be reread, nor can its pages be dog-eared and highlighted for later discussion. So I left, confused but excited. Luckily, I had captured the entire presentation with grade-F audio quality and could now wade painstakingly through it over and over until I had what I thought was the truth, and hopefully something that I could put on paper.

Ms. Morrison said the Humanities function best and most beautifully from the edge, the border and that this is a site of critical perspective vital to creative, evaluative and progressive production, but can one really produce creative and critical works while subject to the stresses associated with living at the borders of the status quo? Isn't it easier and more efficient to create as part of the norm where one knows they can work without fear or insult? Ms. Morrison tells us that the constant assault on the gates and gatekeepers of the edge from both sides imposes an inside-outside dichotomy and that the effects of this dichotomy are prolific, significant and evolving in all realms of society and culture. Does this dynamic really exist or are the significances and implications of the relationship of "insiders" and "outsiders" being fabricated or exaggerated? Could it really be as she says; two sides eternally pitted against each other, struggling for power by all means necessary, human lives as pawns in a zero sum game? Maybe not, but to reject an idea because of its remarkable and uncommon severity is ludicrous and leads to the "too big to fail situations" that we find ourselves in right now. Take a step back as students, creators and participants of our world's various cultures. Do you feel that Ms. Morrison's dichotomy is accurate or existent? What of the burdens of "the edge" or other realms of society? The issue is raging, but widely untouched by students in academic institutions across the nation. Please weigh in with a comment or screed, and explore the edge.

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's In."

Hunter S. Thompson
Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga