Posts filed under ‘Undergraduate education’
A Timely Class in Journalism Ethics
From our intern, Emily Kaplan:
Over the weekend, a friend of mine tweeted: Boy, what I would do to sit in on a journalism ethics class at Penn State this week.
I am fortunate to be enrolled in that course this semester—COMM 409: News Media Ethics, a section taught by Malcolm Moran, a veteran journalist and head of Penn State’s John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.
My friend was right—Tuesday’s lesson was never more relevant. When I walked in, I had pretty good feeling we wouldn’t be discussing the assigned reading on the syllabus. Not after a weekend where dubious reporting and social media gone wild resulted in an announcement that the most recognizable face of this university had died—when in fact, he was still alive.
“There’s nothing more important to be right about than if an important figure is alive or not,” Moran said. “Nothing.”
So who better to be a guest lecturer than Mark Viera ’09? He’s the New York Times reporter who dispelled reports that Joe Paterno had passed away Saturday night by simply asking a family spokesman whether the rumors were true.
The class had a meta feel. Moran asked Viera what lessons from the course he has applied to his reporting—and what lessons couldn’t be taught in the classroom. Moran also pointed out the seat that Viera occupied just a few semesters ago. The girl sitting there now has some big shoes to fill. Viera, 24, has been one of the Times’ lead journalists in Penn State coverage over the past two months because of his familiarity with the school and dogged reporting.
But Tuesday, he stood in front of about 50 of us. Everyone seemed attentive as he spoke. I don’t know whether it was respect for Moran, respect for Viera or simply respect for the subject matter, but I didn’t see one person texting under their desk or day dreaming blankly at the wall. (more…)
A Classroom Discussion on the Week’s Events
Class started with a moment of silence. Someone dimmed the lights, and the standing-room only crowd—700-plus strong—in 100 Thomas Building for Sam Richards’ SOC 119 class paid tribute to victims of sexual abuse. And not only the alleged victims of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“We want to honor what they’ve been through and how they are a part of this and how they have been forgotten,” said sociologist Laurie Mulvey ’94g, Richards’ wife, who teaches the class with him. “And we also want to recognize the people in this room who are victims. There are plenty of you in here.”
So began another afternoon in the classroom of one of Penn State’s more outspoken faculty members. The title of the course is Race and Ethnic Relations, but that’s just a jumping off point sometimes. Richards had tweeted the day before that he couldn’t see sticking to the syllabus during such a momentous week on campus.
“We really thought a lot about whether we were going to do this class,” Richards said Thursday afternoon, introducing the discussion. “We decided the value of speaking today was greater than the value of staying silent.”
Added Mulvey, “We want to let you know from the outset that we are definitely not here to give answers. At best, we’re here to give you guidance about how to walk through this difficult moment and think through this difficult moment. “
Richards started by asking the students to complete this sentence: “I feel …”
Here’s a list of the answers:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Circa 1707
I had a chance yesterday to stop by the Playhouse Theatre on campus to meet some of the MFA acting students who will be appearing in The Beaux’ Stratagem later this month, and to hear the director, Di Trevis, talk a bit about the play. (And to shoot a few advance photos, as shown here.)
The Beaux’ Stratagem is kind of the 18th-century version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels—it’s a comedy focusing on two con men trying to swindle young heiresses in the British town of Lichfield. One of the two ends up falling in love with one of the women, which was not supposed to be part of the plan, and things get comically complicated from there.
MFA student Bianca Washington as Dorinda.
The actors and actresses are all Penn State undergrad and grad students, and I was surprised to hear that Penn State students in the costume design program created all of the costumes as well. William Schroder, who teaches both costume design and scenic design at Penn State, oversaw the costume design.
And director Di Trevis is a big deal—she’s an English theatre director with a pretty impressive pedigree. She’s been on campus since the beginning of the semester, working with the cast and crew to get the production ready.
The play is what’s called a “restoration comedy,” which as I understand it is a production from the late 1600s (the Restoration period in England) that has a little fun with the social mores of the time. So I get the sense that we’re in for a pretty bawdy, entertaining evening when the show opens on Feb. 24.
I’m looking forward to attending a dress rehearsal or two in the days leading up to opening night—I love shooting photos of theatre, especially with cool period costumes like these—so I’ll be posting some more images in a week or so.
Tina Hay, editor
Share Your Gym Class Memories
I don’t know much about this photo, which our graphic designer, Jessie Knuth, found in the University’s archives the other day. I can make an educated guess, though, that this woman got an A in bowling. Look at that focus!
We’re collecting our readers’ stories about gym class for an upcoming magazine article, and while it’s probably too much to hope for that the woman in this photo (circa 1943) will see this and write in with a story, I hope she will. I love long shots, and there’s got to be a story there!
We want your stories, too. Condense your phys-ed class memories to no more than 300 words and e-mail them to us at pennstater@psu.edu, fax them to 814-863-5690, or snail-mail them to The Penn Stater magazine, Hintz Family Alumni Center, University Park, PA 16802. We need them by Jan. 24.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Cute Fishies Coming Soon
Fijian reef / photo by Jeremy Cohen
One of the stories we’ve been working on for the January-February issue is a photo essay featuring some gorgeous underwater images shot by a Penn State faculty member and administrator. Jeremy Cohen is an associate VP for undergraduate education and a professor of media studies in the College of Communications—and from the time he was a teenager, his avocation has been scuba diving and underwater photography.
This story came about in an interesting way. Bill Mahon ’94g, VP for university relations, one day happened to notice a bunch of framed underwater photos lining the walls of Jeremy’s office in Old Main. He asked Jeremy about them, one thing led to another, and Bill ended up deciding to have about 10 of them posted to the Penn State Facebook page. I happened to see them on Facebook and immediately sent the link to our art director, saying, “Let’s do a photo essay on these!”
Jeremy graciously shared a bunch of his images with us and spent a lot of time talking to me about the stories behind them, about the state of the world’s coral reefs, and about fellow Penn State faculty and students who share his interest in the oceans. It turns out that (more…)
A Weekend with the Birds (and the Bird Banders)
A tufted titmouse, freshly banded by the Penn State crew.
I know this past weekend was Homecoming and all, but I spent most of it thinking about birds. I mean, I watched the football game like everyone else, but … well, let’s not talk about that.
On both Friday morning and Sunday morning, I got up extra early and headed out to the edge of the Arboretum at Penn State to meet up with grad student Emily Thomas ’07a, ’09 and a small group of undergrads—all of them from the wildlife and fisheries science program—to watch them band birds.
I had seen a bird-banding operation once before, on a trip to Alaska, but that was a brief encounter. I thought it would be fun to hang out for a longer time, see a lot of different birds, and take a lot photos. And I was right: It was quite cool.
Emily Thomas fits the bird with an ID band using special banding pliers.
The way bird banding works is this: The volunteers stretch big “mist nets” (sort of like badminton nets, only much taller and longer) in various sites, then wait for birds to accidentally fly into them (more…)
Natural Fusion Welcomed Home
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a nice article today about Natural Fusion’s dedication as a conference center for Bayer MaterialScience in Robinson Township, Pa. Natural Fusion is the house that Penn State students built for the Solar Decathlon last fall; we blogged yesterday about the house getting a permanent home at Bayer’s corporate campus just outside Pittsburgh.
The building serves as an example of energy-efficient design, and in keeping with that theme, instead of the traditional ribbon cutting, the company celebrated its new conference center by planting a tree.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
Solar House Finds Its Home in Pittsburgh
Photo: Geoff Rushton ’01
The solar house that Penn State students built last fall now has a permanent home. It’s now in place at Bayer MaterialScience in Robinson Township, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh; the house was commissioned in its new location today.
Students from three colleges—Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Arts and Architecture—built the house for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, an event in which 20 schools from across the country and around the world compete to build the best solar house. The houses in the competition were on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last October. The decathlon is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Natural Fusion, Penn State’s entry, is a small building—just 800 sq. ft.—and is a solar-powered, zero-emission structure. We took some photos of the construction progress back in August, but if you want to check out the end result, you’ll have to head to the Bayer MaterialScience campus, where the building now serves as a conference center and a showcase for Bayer’s new EcoCommercial Building initiative. (Bayer helped to fund Natural Fusion and helped review its initial designs.) You can also check out a virtual tour at the team’s website.
Penn State students also entered the 2007 Solar Decathlon. That entry, MorningStar, is on display next to the Centre County Visitors Center, across from Beaver Stadium. It’s open for tours most Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
Giving the iPad the Old College Try
The iPad is cool, right? You know you want one. That’s how all Apple products are. You see it, and you want it. But what exactly is its purpose?
Cole Camplese is trying to find out. Camplese is Penn State’s director of education technology services, and he’s carrying his new iPad around this month — meaning no laptop or iPhone, both of which he usually relies on — to see if it belongs in students’ backpacks. He’s still using his laptop in his office, but other than that, it’s all iPad. You can follow the experiment on his blog.
Camplese cites a blog by Christopher P. Long, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Liberal Arts, for the reasoning:
The iPad is much less intrusive in collaborative contexts than either a laptop, which tends to come between members of the group, or an iPhone, which isolates individuals, severing each from the dynamics of the whole.
The Chronicle of Higher Education sees the use in campus life, too. “I’m writing this column on an iPad, sitting on a couch with it propped, very casually, on my lap,” Christopher Young writes. “Either I’m learning how to use it, or I’m unlearning habits picked up from so many years with a mouse. But one thing that is clear is how casual and unobtrusive it is compared with a laptop.”
According to The Chronicle, George Fox University and Seton Hill University have announced plans to hand out iPads to freshman next year to see how it goes. Who knows? Maybe some future class of Penn State freshmen will find an iPad waiting for them when they arrive on campus, too.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
A Little Opera in Happy Valley
I had a blast last night. At the opera. (Crazy, I know.)
I had an opportunity to attend, and shoot photos at, a dress rehearsal for the Penn State Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro, which will be staged Friday and Saturday night at the State Theatre in State College. I had had almost zero exposure to opera before last night—and I loved it. The performers, all of them Penn State undergraduates or grad students, were terrific; the costumes were exquisite; and the opera itself is hilarious.
This particular production is all in English, and the music is provided by a woodwind quintet plus piano—here again, all students.
A pair of grad students in vocal performance and pedagogy, Aidan Davis and Kate Scally, play the lead roles of Figaro and his bride-to-be, Susanna (see photo at top). Or at least they did in last night’s rehearsal: In a few cases, one person will play a given role in the Friday night performance, and someone else gets to play the role on Saturday night. There are 11 roles in this particular opera, but something like 14 students in the cast.
I was impressed by all of the performers in the cast, but I especially got a kick out of the elderly Marcellina and Bartolo (photo above—click on any of these to see ’em bigger), whose facial expressions and mannerisms were just a hoot. I was even more impressed to discover later that they are played by two Penn State freshmen! Julia Wolcott and Chris Hollobaugh are recent State High grads, and they were just great.
Another character well worth seeing is the Count’s page, Cherubino, played by junior music major Liz Walton (photo at right). The fact that a woman was playing a man’s role confused me at first (remember, I said this was my first opera!), but Kris Allen, who was there to record a segment for WPSU-FM, explained to me that Cherubino is what’s called a “trouser role” or “breeches role”—a male role almost always played by a woman.
I can’t say enough about what a great production this is. Kudos not only to the students but to Ted Christopher, head of Penn State’s opera program, who is the show’s artistic director, and to associate professor Beverly Patton, who is its musical director. A shout-out also to the School of Music and the Institute for Arts and Humanities for sponsoring the production. IAHS, for example, helped underwrite the costume rental, from a premier shop in Toronto called Malabar Ltd.—and did I mention how exquisite those costumes are?
I can’t believe it’s taken me more than half a lifetime to see The Marriage of Figaro, but I’m very glad I got to see this Penn State rendition of it. If you’re in town this weekend, I highly recommend you check it out.
Tina Hay, editor
P.S. Penn State Live has posted 10 of my photos from last night’s rehearsal—you can see ’em here.
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