Voices of Central Pa

Here is the video for the free presentation given on April 30, 2012 on Penn State's University Park Campus. Penn State professors Michael Mann, Donald Brown, Janet Swim and Rick Schuhmann, and graduate student Peter Buckland spoke Monday evening at “Changing the Moral Climate on Climate Change,” a talk that focused on climate change denial. Mann is director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center and part of the 2007 Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Susannah Barsom, with the university’s Center for Sustainability, moderated the event, which included a question and answer session.

David S. Alston, the first African American Penn State football player (along with his younger brother, Harry), was immortalized in a bust that was unveiled on April 21, 2012 during the Penn State Black Alumni Reunion "Blue White For the Future Scholarship Gala" at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The bust, sculpted and donated by Penn State Professor of Art Blake Ketchum, will have a public home in the All-Sports Museum, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. In addition to the sculpture, a scholarship fund is being established in Alston's name.

Who, left to right: Peter Buckland, Dr. (Juris) Donald Brown, Dr. Janet Swim, Dr. Rick Schuhmann, and Dr. Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, Nobel-Prize co-winner for his work on the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.

by Sierra Dole with Lucy Bryan Green

It’s no secret that the number of non-Pennsylvania admissions at Penn State University Park campus has been increasing for years. In fact, the number of out-of-state and international admissions has increased every year for the past ten years, according to Jill Shockey of the Penn State Public Information Office.

In the past year alone, the number of non-Pennsylvania students increased from 11,799 (30.6 percent of the student body) to 13,115 (33.7 percent of the student body). According to the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions website, 4,621 of those students are international students coming from 131 countries.

The increasing number of international students at Penn State is an important component of the university’s “commitment to diversity,” as outlined by its “Framework to Foster Diversity,” initially implemented in 1998.

However, many students, both international and American, express concern that the university is too distracted by the numbers to focus on integrating these students inside and outside of the classroom.

by Bridget Dwyer

George Arnold, newly appointed executive director of the Downtown State College Improvement District (DSCID), states that his professional background makes him the perfect man to juggle the many roles necessary to be successful in his new position.

Arnold was selected in February by the DSCID’s Board of Directors to replace former Executive Director Jody Alessandrine. According to its website, the DSCID has a simple mission: “To provide a safe, clean environment in State College Borough and to enhance the image of Downtown State College to encourage people to live here, work here, play here, and visit here.”

by Lucy Bryan Green

Nearly 40 Centre County residents gathered for a Local Food Forum on April 3, during which Transition Towns State College (TTSC) unveiled a new project: “A Guide for the First Year of Local Food.”

Bill Sharp, co-founder of TTSC, said that providing resources that will allow people to start using more local food is part of building a more sustainable and secure community.

by Steven Herb

Graphic artist Lynd Kendall Ward was the subject of the powerful new documentary film essay, “O Brother Man,” shown April 20 in Foster Auditorium at University Park.

Ward, who studied at the National Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany, was inspired by the engravings of Frans Masereel, and their common man subject matter.

View Larger Map Parking nearby at the HUB parking deck off Shortlidge Road.

Tom Corbett Political Cartoon by Shawn Raymond

That Saturday, the day of the Penn State-Nebraska football game, former player Bob Capretto told ESPN he had a conversation with Corbett about the board’s actions to fire Paterno.

“And the governor said, 'I told them to do it,' " Capretto said. "He was proud of it. I told him, 'You don't realize what you have created here. The damage to Penn State is enormous.' "

In the Outside the Lines piece, Corbett is painted as zealous at the chance to play a role in the Penn State scandal.

Specifically, the report states, most members of the university’s Board of Trustees “felt uncomfortable with his role,” according to one unnamed trustee, who went on to refute that Corbett played a minor role in decision to dismiss Paterno and Spanier. http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/corbetts-camp-fires-back-at-espns-report-linking-him-to-paternos-firing-1039762/

Students at Penn State are attempting to bring political comedian Stephen Colbert to campus. 

Started by freshman Remy Maisel, Penn Staters for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow is a branch of Stephen Colbert’s own fundraising organization, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. The super PAC plans to not only satirize the current corrupt state of campaign finance, but they might even bring Stephen Colbert himself to campus.

by Sean Flynn

Before the national media descended upon State College and long after they left, local reporters and media organizations have been at the forefront of unraveling the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

Breaking the story

Two years before the grand jury presentment against Sandusky was made public, a young Centre Daily Times reporter named Sara Ganim got her first tip. According to her February 2012 interview with Glamour, an unnamed source told Ganim a victim alleged that Sandusky had committed sex crimes.

But Ganim’s story would not see print until she left Happy Valley in January 2011 to join the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Nine weeks later, the Patriot-News broke the story: a grand jury was investigating Sandusky.

by Bridget Dwyer

Plagued by falling gas prices, bogged down by regulatory process and opposed by environmental groups, Resource Recovery’s efforts to open a landfill and industrial park in Centre County have largely ground to a halt.

The company’s project land comprises 5,758 acres in Snow Shoe Township and Rush Township, according to their website.

That website lists six distinct projects planned for the property: a waste-to-ethanol project, a landfill, a natural gas drilling project, a water treatment plant, a quarry and the reactivation of railways to bring waste to the site.

Each project has separate issues which have stalled the overall plan for more than eight years.