I felt compelled to post about this video, which (to my knowledge) has absolutely no direct connection with Penn State or the Nittany Valley. I think its core message—about the true purpose and value of higher education—is worth sharing and does speak to a philosophy that animates so much that is good about our community.

In 2005 (a good year), author David Foster Wallace gave a commencement address at Kenyon College in Ohio. The entire thing is exceptional and worth hearing from start to finish,  but I will quote from the section that inspired this piece:

“The real value of a real education… has almost nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness, awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over.” 

In his book, “Is Penn State A Real University? An Investigation of the University as a Living Ideal,” Dr. Ben Novak shares the vision that Penn State’s founders had for a new sort of institution predicated on the concept of “Two Colleges,” one of credits and coursework and one of experience and camaraderie, where the “real University” took shape outside the classroom.

I prefaced a recent talk by Dr. Novak by explaining why Nittany Valley Press published it: Not to persuade readers to embrace its positions, but to preserve the chance to engage with them, the opportunity to encounter a new and challenging way of thinking about something fundamental in our lives and to form an opinion of it. I do find a lot to like and agree with in Novak’s musings, but I also value it as an eternal spark, fraught with the potential to ignite the fires of intellectual curiosity and discourse that perpetually refresh our Valley and its University.

Internalizing Wallace’s message brought to mind the value of Dr. Novak’s book and also reminded me of a quality that helps makes college towns unique and the Nittany Valley so special. We are lucky enough to have lived in a place where the essence of “real education” invoked by Wallace, the creative, inquisitive spirit that drives humanity forward, dwells forever. Every townie, every Penn Stater, has been touched by that in some way. And that’s pretty cool.

The point, I think, of Wallace’s speech, though it touches on the power of education to unlock our potential, is to remind us to be mindful and reinforce that the extent to which we are (or aren’t) is by our own choice. What new rewards might you reap by re-examining your relationship to Penn State or State College, by being mindful of what seems most obvious? Think on that. It’s a journey worth taking.

One of my favorite “Penn State holidays”—Blue/White Weekend—is nearly upon us. After a long, cold and lonely Winter spent away from the company of your old college pals, extended tailgating family and 108,000 friendly acquaintances, it is nice to squeeze in this little reminder of what you miss so much from five months ago and eagerly await five months hence. The event has grown substantially over the years, becoming a rallying point for any number of campus and local groups, alumni reunions and student revelry (as if they need the excuse). For me, the most memorable moment at a Blue/White game came in 2007, shortly after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, when some enterprising Penn State students organized fans wearing Tech’s colors into the game, clad in t-shirts sold to raise money for the victims.

Of course, the festivities are probably most valued as a satisfying football oasis in a desert of disposable, late-season NBA and NHL games and (perhaps even worse) early-season baseball. Since we are all about remembering and retelling the stories of the Nittany Valley, I thought it would be fun to go back in time and see what Penn Staters were saying and thinking about the football team in the Spring before one of its most memorable seasons…

Joe Paterno was already a legendary coach heading into the 1982 college football season, but one crucial, final validation eluded him – a championship. Spurned by voters in the late 60’s and early 70’s, despite a string of undefeated squads, and agonizingly stonewalled by Alabama’s goalline defense in ’79, the man who would go on to rewrite his profession’s record books still sought the cache of winning the national title. With that backdrop, let’s take a look at what they were saying about the Lions back in the Spring of ’82, only months away from the elation and relief of finishing number one at last.

This first of two articles from The Daily Collegian was published on April 30, 1982 (the Friday before the game). Some points that caught my eye:

• Joe Paterno was entering his 17th season as head coach. I bet it felt like he’d been around forever! I wonder how often he was asked about when he planned to retire (or answered, “I’ll go about four or five more years.”).
• The annual off-season hand-wringing that year revolved around the departure of two newly-minted, first-round NFL draft picks from the offensive line – Sean Farrell and Mike Munchak (NFL Hall of Famer and current Titans head coach).
• Love this quote from Joe: “If I had my way, we’d just go out there and practice without anybody around.”
• The crowd was expected at around 20,000 people (paltry by today’s standards), and you had to pay to get in!! Three bucks for adults, which I’m sure was a lot of money back then. But seriously, you had to pay to get into the Blue/White Game? Indeed, some traditions of the past are best left there.

The Daily Collegian – 1982 Blue/White Preview

The Reminiscences of Dr. F.J. Pond is a short President Atherton-era Penn State alum/professor’s remembrances of the town and campus in the early 20th century.

Dr. Pond’s recollections, transcribed from his late-in-life conversations with an assistant, might have formed the basis of a narrative-style book, but his death left behind only his disconnected and self-contained ruminations on everything from the Pennsylvania State College’s changing physical plant to the pranks pulled by her mischievous students. Nevertheless, these vignettes are a quick and entertaining read that offer readers, as the back cover states, “a vivid picture of a place both foreign and familiar.”

For me, therein lies the real value. The anecdotal, personal nature of  the piece allows us to recognize something of ourselves in Dr. Pond’s reminiscences. We form a connection and, in so doing, come to recognize how Penn State, nearly a century later, is very different, but also how it is still the same. Witnessing the persistence of these timeless qualities that pervade our Valley helps readers orient themselves as citizens of a community in time, through both their delight in discovering these stories from another era and comfort with the easy comparisons to their own experiences.

A few days ago, Onward State published a short article by Penn State student Lindsay Hummell entitled Freshman Expectations vs. Reality, capturing the mindset of one freshman nearing the end of her first year in Happy Valley. Here is an excerpt:

Floor mates

Expectation: When I went to Girl Scout Camp in fourth grade it was one big slumber party filled with bonfires, pillow fights, and scary stories. I expected nothing less of my relationships with my floor mates.

Reality: I never have, and never will, sing Kumbaya with my floor. With about 40 people living on each level, you’re bound to find a few gems, but when the girl across the hall gets caught having sex in your favorite shower and the shirt your neighbor is wearing is identical to the one that disappeared from your laundry last week, things can get kinda awkward.

I enjoyed reading Lindsay’s reflections, which brought to mind Dr. Pond’s. Her thoughts are uniquely her own and yet also much the same as those thousands of Penn State freshmen who have preceded her. They are worthwhile both as an echo of that legacy and the latest renewal of it.  And that is what makes our Valley special, magical – it is a place that is both never and always the same, welcoming an ever-changing mixture of faculty, townsfolk and students while binding them together through a shared, unchanging spirit.

It strikes me as particularly important that Penn Staters continue to put these sorts of reflections down in writing and that we continue to preserve them. Each forms one link in a long chain. They capture and preserve moments in time that remind us to celebrate our uniqueness and our common cause. Because after all, “We… Are Penn State.”