Voices of Central Pa

by Alanna Pawlowski and Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell

A flurry of accusations and finger-pointing characterized the weeks following the revelation of child sex abuse allegations against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

As the State College community fell under the microscope of the national media, much of the scrutiny focused on the actions, or lack thereof, of Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier, both of whom were fired by the University Board of Trustees within a week of the revelations.

Reports concentrated to a lesser degree on Tim Curley and Gary Schultz—the Penn State officials who face charges of lying to a grand jury during the investigation of the case—and on Mike McQueary, the Penn State assistant football coach who testified to seeing Sandusky rape a 10-year-old boy in a campus locker room in 2002.

The hoards of news trucks have left College Avenue. The university has commenced its spring semester with a new president and football coach, but the horror of what allegedly happened to at least ten young boys remains. Many within the University and the broader community are left asking, "How did this happen? What could we have done differently?"

Anastasia Huncik, 3, places a Nittany Lion doll at the Joe Paterno statue by Beaver Stadium Jan. 22. Photo by Sierra Dole

Students (from left), Courtney Back, Caitlin Malone and Emilie Mariotti reflect on Joe Paterno's life while at a Penn State Dance MaraTHON meeting on Jan. 22. Photo by Lindsay Lipovich
photos available for use under Creatove Commons license - use must include a link to http://voicesweb.org/

Moyers & Company Show 102: On Crony Capitalism from BillMoyers.com.

Bill Moyers and former White House budget director David Stockman on the all-too-cozy relationship between Washington and Wall Street.

story by Sean Flynn

Mark Jones, left, and Andrew Kreider work together on Engineering Mechanics 315 homework in the Penn State Learning area in Sparks building. Photo by Jessica Paholsky

by Lucy Bryan Green

Looking back on seven semesters at Penn State, Toma Zikatanov described the college experience as a time of “growing into yourself, figuring out who you are.”

The son of two Penn State math professors, Zikatanov said his parents’ emphasis on academic achievement has been an “anti-influence.”

“For whatever reason, I’ve always had this intrinsic desire to pursue what I want to do and not what I’m told to do,” he said.

Zikatanov said that finding a major has been “a pretty arduous process.” He entered college in 2008 as a double major horticulture and wildlife and fisheries science because of his love for plants and animals.

But when he found both specializations too businesslike and not enjoyable enough, he switched to outdoor recreation. There, he said he felt like he wasn’t learning anything he couldn’t learn outside of college, so he switched to mechanical engineering.

The following poem was submitted by Dr. Robert Lima, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, from his collection Tracking the Minotaur.

Carol Houser of Curwensville rallies outside the Penn Stater during Marcellus Protest 2011 on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Photo by Doug Bauman

by Doug Bauman

Activists from across Pennsylvania gathered to express their anger with Marcellus Shale drilling, to support the health of the environment and to protest corporate America’s role in government at Penn State on Nov. 18.

Marcellus Protest 2011, “Power To The People, Not The Corporations,” was held in opposition to Marcellus Summit 2011, a conference held for industry representatives, government officials and various community groups at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

The grassroots event’s sponsors included Groundswell, Eco-Action at Penn State and Elk County C.A.R.E.S.

The first part of the rally, held at Old Main, celebrated the Nov. 8 passing of an amendment to the State College charter that guarantees borough residents the right to clean water, clean air and a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. It also enables the community to take legal action against an outside entity that endangers any of the rights afforded by the bill. This was the first popular vote on a community bill of rights to ban fracking in the nation.

In the first activist demonstration to encircle the White House since 1965, thousands protested the pending construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on Nov. 6. Photo by Catherine Jampel

Story by Catherine Jampel

President Obama postponed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline after a Nov. 6 protest at the White House. The demonstrators, estimated to be 8,000 to 12,000 in number, included a handful of State College locals and a strong Pennsylvania showing. The protest followed a two-week sit-in at the White House in August and September that led to 1253 arrests.

The proposed 1,700-mile, $7 billion pipeline would carry crude oil extracted from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands, through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to the Gulf of Mexico.

Pipeline developer TransCanada Corporation has announced plans to reroute the pipeline to avoid the Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer, the proposed route’s points of greatest contention.

Nebraska citizens and their Republican governor, environmental groups including 350.org and the Sierra Club and two transport workers labor unions were among those in the wide coalition that surrounded the White House on all four sides, sometimes two-to-five rows deep.

This was the first time citizens have encircled the White House since 1965, when an estimated 35,000 people gathered to protest the Vietnam War.

Among the protesters were locals from State College and other Pennsylvania universities.

Sylvia Feldman educates participants Thursday, Nov. 10, during the first session of the organic beekeeping workshop. Photo by Jessica Paholsky

by Bethany Spicher Schonberg

Green chilis and cumin seeds are flying, pots are bubbling and spicy smells are multiplying as fast as dirty dishes. A dozen eager cooks cluster around instructor Sunil Patel as he demonstrates the Gujarati recipes he learned from his mother—with a Central Pennsylvania twist.

Cucumbers aren’t in season, so shredded kohlrabi goes into the raita. Mashed winter squash thickens the dal and beets substitute for the kuchumbar’s traditional tomatoes. Cumin, coriander and fenugreek, Patel assures us, can be grown here.

Katherine Watt work behind the scenes, washing dishes, chopping potatoes and snapping pictures. This cooking class was her brainchild, along with a recent series of community workshops that aim to facilitate the region’s transition from reliance on fossil fuels toward a more local economy.

“As it becomes harder to transport things from China, we’ll need to know how to make our own,” Watt explained.

Participants in November’s workshop series learned to make Indian food with local ingredients, as well as scarves, honey, pillowcases, bread, applesauce and compost piles.

by Sean Flynn and Nasanin Mahmudy

Penn State graduate student Emma Bedor is watching the clock tick toward graduation.

Bedor is working toward her goal of becoming a college professor. She finished her bachelor's degree in communications at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo with less than $10,000 in student loans—far better the national average— with the help of financial aid and in-state tuition rates at SUNY Geneseo.

“[Loans] didn't used to scare me,” Bedor said. “Whatever I had to do to go to school, my mom did it for me, and I signed my name.”

Now earning a her master's degree in media studies at Penn State, she is considered an out-of-state student and pays the corresponding out-of-state tuition rate. Like four out of five undergraduate Penn Staters, Bedor receives no scholarship or financial aid from the university. To finish her master's degree, she is taking out student loans to the tune of $20,000 per semester. By the time she finishes her graduate degree, she will be nearly $90,000 in debt—debt which she will have to start paying six months after finishing school.

“Now that I'm an out-of-state student with no financial aid whatsoever, it's important that I go straight into a Ph.D program so that I don't have to pay until I have a solid job,” Bedor said.

She isn't alone.