Why we are “We Are…”

***Published in State of the Valley, Penn State Lehigh Valley's student newspaper***

The immense capacity of Beaver Stadium. The confines of a pavilion at new student orientation. The mind of a Nittany Lion alumnus as he thinks back to his glory days. What do these three localities have in common? They all have joined in on Penn State University’s beloved chant: “We Are Penn State!”

Despite the popularity it garners from countless athletic spectators, peppy Lion ambassadors, and prideful students past and present, the cheer brings up a few queries. What makes it so crowd-pleasing? What does it mean? And where did it come from?

Several teachers shared their insight on what they believe is a perfectly suitable chant. “The chant is very meaningful to me, particularly since we are at such a small branch of Penn State,” explains English professor Dr. Margaret Christian. “I love our local campus with its cozy feeling, but I also love being part of a huge, prestigious university—the recognition that I see in my colleagues’ eyes when I go to academic conferences and say, ‘I teach at Penn State.’  Even at the Lehigh Valley campus, WE are Penn State.”

Business professor Michael Krajsa believes Penn State’s renowned huzzah is not only unifying, but useful: “From a strategy and marketing perspective, our chant is powerful, priceless, and poetic. It speaks to the essence of Penn State’s ‘brand identity’ establishing an explosive verbal relationship between the customers who exclaim both ‘we are’ and our brand, ‘Penn State.’”

However, a handful of freshmen do not believe the slogan is all that special. Salma El-Ashry thought, “For a university so big and lively, you'd expect something with a little more pizzazz than just simply stating what university we belong to.” Kyle Niemkiewicz considered it to be, “…lame. ‘We Are Penn State.’ What are you going to do about it? Who cares? It fails.” “We need something more fierce,” commented Marquita Broxton.

But whether it is considered lame or powerful, meaningful or non-fierce, “We Are Penn State!” has always been the prominent rally cry ever since its creation six decades ago.

The 1947-1948 Nittany Lion varsity football team, also known as the “Men of ’47,” was one of the first teams to accept African-American football players in a time of nationally widespread racial segregation. The team had accomplished a perfect 9-0 season and was ranked as the fourth-best team in America. But despite such an impressive feat, the NCAA had considered disallowing the Nittany Lions from playing in a bowl game.

Eventually, an invitation to the Cotton Bowl against Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas was bestowed upon Penn State. Unfortunately, negativity arose once again when the NCAA started conceiving more ideas. This time, officials wanted to have a meeting to discuss whether the African-American Nittany Lions should travel to Dallas and play amidst heavy protesting at SMU. And when the Caucasian All-American offensive lineman Steve Suhey was asked by the press about this matter, his response was simple: “We Are Penn State. There will be no meetings.”

The 1948 Cotton Bowl had no winner as it ended in a 13-13 tie. But the Men of ‘47’s undefeated record remained intact when halfback Wally Triplett, Penn State’s first black varsity starter, scored the game-tying and game-saving touchdown.

In 2001, university president Graham Spanier gave a speech at Encampment, a retreat for Penn State students and faculty to discuss with the president about issues regarding the university. He mentioned the motto: “‘We Are Penn State’ embraces our differences and unites us as a community despite those differences. ‘We Are Penn State’ is a proclamation of unity, backed by our resolve to come together for a common purpose.”

Local initiatives focus on sex abuse victims

***Published in the March 2012 edition of Voices of Central Pennsylvania***

In the weeks following the surfacing of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the outpouring of support for victims took many forms—thousands attended a candlelight vigil, hundreds joined Facebook groups like “Help the Victims of Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University” and national organizations like the Let Peace Come In Foundation established funds to help pay for victims’ counseling.   

Although such responses have seemingly tapered, several recent efforts show a commitment to supporting the recovery of victims, helping the broader community process the scandal and preventing future abuse.

On Sunday, January 29, the Centre County Women’s Resource Center (CCWRC) hosted a screening and discussion of the documentary In A Town This Size at the State Theatre. The documentary incorporated interviews with the victims of a sex abuse scandal that involved a pediatrician in a small Oklahoma town and also told the story of the filmmaker, who was a victim of sex abuse.

According to Mary Faulkner, the CCWRC’s director of counseling services and advocacy services, the CCWRC wanted to host an event that focused on the experiences and needs of survivors.

“Unless someone works in victim services or in the court system, it is rare to hear from survivors about how the abuse affected them,” said Faulkner.

“The documentary presents first-hand accounts for survivors and offers some important parallels to the Sandusky indictment. It’s very humanizing in terms of demonstrating that survivors are our neighbors, our co-workers and our friends.”

The 283 people who attended the screening also sat in on a panel with filmmaker Patrick Brown, who directed of In A Town This Size, in addition to survivors featured in the documentary and experts in the field of sexual abuse prevention.

“The level of accessibility of the story is very high,” said Faulkner. “At first, people seemed hesitant to ask questions and concerned about saying things the right way. But there were many people who wanted to speak and spoke from very personal places.”

One branch of university is offering its own response. The Children, Youth and Families Consortium (CYFC) a part of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, has announced a $15,000 faculty fellows program to support two social sciences faculty members interested in extending their research into the domain of child maltreatment.

“At Penn State, faculty members' children, youth and family expertise lies primarily in research on how to prevent problems in child and family adjustment and development,” said CYFC director Susan McHale. “[This means] that the university's investments have primarily been in faculty whose expertise involves finding ways to promote positive family and youth development and adjustment rather than waiting till after problems have occurred and fixing them.”

According to McHale, the CYFC’s preventative approach has stemmed from a desire to make the most difference with a limited budget, but that this strategy has its limitations.

“Unfortunately, this means we just don't have the faculty here who are knowledgeable about what to do for children for whom prevention hasn't worked,” McHale said. Our recent CYFC initiatives like the fellowship program are aimed at developing such capacity within our faculty.”

Although there hasn’t been a great deal of other publicized initiatives in support of the Sandusky victims, this is no way is any indicator that it has ceased completely.

According to Mary Faulkner, support for the victims can be separated into two stages: short-term and long-term. She said that when the news broke, supportive initiatives occurred because people really felt the urgency to do something. Now, she added, the community is in a stage where a lot of community organizations are getting together and trying to create sustainable long-term initiatives.

“There has been a lot of coordination between the local YMCA and the Centre County Youth Service Bureau along with some of the judges from the Courts of Common Pleas in Bellefonte and Mayor Elizabeth Goreham,” said Faulkner. “What they’re trying to do is look long term and decide what needs to be in place to help protect children and to help increase safety for the children in the community.”

These long-term initiatives will come in the form of increased coordination to provide safe places that children can come to if need be, according to Faulkner. Right now, everyone is working to make sure they have the right stakeholders in the room in order to get people joined in one collaborative conversation to provide this service for the community.

A great deal this conversation has focused on prevention, according to Faulkner. Specifically how State College can be a place where something like this wouldn’t happen again. And how systems can be placed where people can come forward to get the kind of services they need to seek some kind of criminal accountability or get the kind of healing or counseling services they need.

Since April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, many events will take place on campus and in State College to raise awareness of general issues of sexual violence, according to Faulkner. In addition to initiatives about sexual assault as it pertains to women at Penn State, there will also be a movement to define sexual violence more broadly and to look at sexual assault in terms of all the different populations it affects.

Specific events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month include a Healing Gathering sponsored by Penn State’s Center for Women Students on Wednesday, April 4 at 6:30 in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center as well as a poetry slam and several documentary screenings at the beginning of the month. At the end of April, there will be an event called “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” sponsored by Men Against Violence.

Errors go unaddressed on veterans memorial

***Published in the May 2012 edition of Voices of Central Pennsylvania***

Plans have been made to fix the factual errors on the Miles Township Veterans Memorial in Rebersburg, Pa., according to Vonnie Henninger, secretary-treasurer of the Miles Township Bicentennial Committee.

“We know that there are some mistakes on the monument, we plan to fix them and there will be money to fix them,” said Henninger.

According to Henninger, the group of Miles Township citizens that make up the monument correction committee will raise money through fundraising and the mistakes will be fixed once the committee has certain that it has the correct information.

“We have had people come in and tell us that their names are missed, and we’re working on it to make it right,” said Henninger. “We have all intentions of making it right and [we will do] whatever we think is necessary to make corrections.”

State Representative Mike Hanna said he has been to constituent meetings where people have expressed concerns about the monument and has also had conversations with the committee that put the monument together.

“The information, while being generated locally, didn’t follow protocol on what the various categories of veterans are,” said Representative Hanna. “I understand that all of this is being addressed now and I’m going to try to work towards correcting any mistakes that were made.”

Hanna said that, to the best of his knowledge, Miles Township is working cooperatively to get it done. He has also offered any assistance he could provide to help make the corrections happen.

Despite the pledges to make progress the corrections have been a long time coming for local veterans. One veteran in particular, Jim Hironimus, has been fighting extensively to get the corrections made for the honor of all local veterans.

           

“I just want accuracy,” said Hironimus, an Air Force veteran who saw combat in the Vietnam War. “If it’s going to be history, make it accurate. For some people, the biggest thing their life is to have their name on a plaque, so why should their name be up there for something they did and then have someone up there who didn’t do squat. It takes away the honor of being on a monument.”

As written in the October 2011 issue of Voices, the main issue with the monument is the incorrect source data. According to Hanna and Hironimus, the committee that put the monument together used improper methods to gather information for the names on the monument.

Four years ago, before the monument was erected, Vonnie Henninger asked Hironimus to fill out a form so that he could be on the monument. Hironimus told her that that was not the proper way to go about getting the information. The proper way would be to acquire DD-214s, which are the documents issued to veterans that proves they served in the military, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

In fact, Hironimus even sent the monument committee a copy of his own DD-214 to show them the way.

“I told [Vonnie] I would be glad to help if she needed help, but she told me that everything was okay. But when they put the names on, a lot of them were wrong,” said Hironimus. “If you were a history major and you were doing a historical project, wouldn’t you make sure you had historical data? There were three historians on the monument committee and none of them asked for any historical data. None. You would think that somebody would ask, especially since I told them they needed historical data.”

And even after the committee was informed that the monument contained errors, they had an easy way to fix it. Hironimus recalled attending a township meeting and mapping out a way for the monument to be fixed at little to no cost.

“I showed [the township supervisors] the forms they needed to give to all the families and gave them a name of a woman who works for a monument company that will give you a discount for metal plaques to put over the mistakes,” said Hironimus. “I said she’ll try to get you a discount or get it done for free, but you have to verify the names.”

And still, the errors remain unfixed while other local projects like the Gramley schoolhouse across the street from the monument are being well attended to.

“My theory is that they’re scared to fix it because half the names on the monument won’t be allowed to be on there. And there’s no room on the monument for corrections. It is a mess,” said Hironimus. “Why doesn’t anybody in Miles Township do anything? Why don’t the other veterans say this is wrong? Because it’s a small town community and everybody knows everybody. They don’t want to raise hell.”

Other problems with the monument include the lack of any mention of the Gulf War—and the inclusion of peacetime veterans in its place—and the fact that, even though some names have actually been taken off as incorrect, the names are still slightly visible.

Hironimus recalled another township meeting where he and two other local veterans showed up to talk with township supervisors about the monument.

“They said ‘Mr. Hironimus, you have five minutes.’ Now these are guys I graduated with and went to school with. And they said ‘Mr. Hironimus, you have five minutes,’” said Hironimus. “I explained my problems and asked who was responsible and whether or not it was going to get fixed. Nothing was said.”

Another veteran, Rich Swartz, said to the supervisors that he wasn’t there about himself; he was there because his son was in Operation Desert Storm and the monument lacks any mention of the Gulf War.

“People don’t care about the monument and they don’t care that it’s wrong. All they know is Uncle Joe’s name is up there and he’s on a monument. And that’s all it is,” said Hironimus about the lack of community outrage regarding the mistakes. “If you’re going to do a job, do it right or don’t do it in the first place. And don’t dishonor veterans.”

'Endure, Master Wayne'

***Published in the newspapers of East Penn Publishing in July 2012***

I'm going to the movies after work.

I'm going on a mini road trip with friends to the IMAX theater in Reading because the only IMAX theater in the Lehigh County makes me want to chug a bottle of Advil.

Unlike the one at Rave Motion Pictures, the IMAX in Reading isn't an assault on the eardrums, but rather complete embracing of cinematic spectacle well worth driving an hour both ways.

And, since one of my favorite filmmakers is Christopher Nolan, I would not want to see any other movie out in theaters now than his newest film, "The Dark Knight Rises."

"But David!" someone might say. "What about the shootings in Colorado? That guy, James Holmes, killed a dozen people that was screening 'The Dark Knight Rises'! It could happen to you, too! Wouldn't you feel safer hitting up a local Redbox, renting 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' and watching it with friends in the comfort of a plushy suburban basement?"

First of all, shame on anyone for having the misplaced gumption to recommend "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" to any living organism. I'd rather pry my head open with a shrimp skewer and replace my brain with gummy worms than pay money to see that again.

But, more to the point, no. I wouldn't feel safer.

In fact, missing out on a movie I want very badly to see just because of one chance savagery would make me feel even less secure in this world.

See, the weird thing about me is that I love movies and, therefore, I love going to the movies.

I love cinema's ability to entertain, to provoke thought and discussion, to serve as art and even give me more of a reason to enjoy popcorn than I usually do.

And this love of visiting the theater and expanding my passion for movies cannot be taken away from me so long as I continue to breathe on this planet, especially not by any sort of red scare inspired by a singular lunatic.

We cannot let one unfortunate tragedy impact our everyday lives in any way and, for the most part, we as a nation have developed quite an aptitude for moving on.

A roller coaster might crash once and kill a couple people, but hundreds of thousands of Americans still ride them each day regardless of their uncertainty.

Nobody really knows what hot dogs are made of, but still they remain a major staple of the typical American barbecue regardless of their uncertainty.

There's a scene in "The Dark Knight," the second movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman series, where Bruce Wayne asks his trusty butler, Alfred, what he thinks Batman should do in the midst of adversity. "Endure, Master Wayne," Alfred replied. And that's exactly what I plan on doing. I plan to endure.

So, with respect to those afflicted by that horrible massacre in Colorado, I'll see you at the movies.

Webster’s to reopen in late February

***Published in the February 2012 edition of Voices of Central Pennsylvania***

Elaine Meder-Wilgus, owner of the locally popular Webster’s Bookstore Café, thinks that books should be a part of everyone’s daily life. And, since 1999, Meder-Wilgus has been able to share this passion with the State College community through her own business.

However, the turbulence of the American economic recession swept Webster’s up in its path and forced the South Allen Street location to close when its lease ran out after Meder-Wilgus fell several months behind on the rent. Webster’s moved to a temporary location on 121 S. Fraser St. and operated out of there until the six-month lease was up.

Since the initial closure of the main location on South Allen Street, State College residents and friends of Webster’s have responded with great support. “When we first got the news that we were losing our lease, my family and I thought that was pretty much it and we were out of business,” Meder-Wilgus said. “And then, a groundswell of thousands and thousands of people came forward and said, ‘No. We won’t let this happen.’”

These supporters did all that they could to lend a helping hand to Webster’s, according to Webster’s Internet sales manager Molly Haight. “People donated their time to unpack boxes and sort books for us,” said Haight. “We had people come in every day being like, ‘So what can I do?’ Just because they love Webster’s.” “[The help] came in the form of pure energy, kind words and monetary support to help get us through this last year and a half,” said Meder-Wilgus.

And so, thanks to the passionate masses of its supporters, Webster’s is now set to re-open in late February once everything is organized inside. Webster’s will be moving from its former location on South Allen Street to 133 E. Beaver St., once the home of Creative Oasis art studio.

The new space is twice as large the previous location, which Meder-Wilgus says will allow Webster’s to store more books. The large space will also allow Webster’s to consolidate their business into one building instead of multiple locations for a bookstore and café, a book warehouse and another café.

“It’s such a fantastic space for a bookstore because it’s slightly underground and it’s not as expensive as the old store, which means we can afford to house more books,” said Meder-Wilgus. “We’ve been able to go through some of the old stock and discover some forgotten gems. We’ve had boxes of books that have been sitting around unopened for nine or ten years because we didn’t have the space to put them out or the time to deal with them.”

Along with the bigger bookstore, the new Webster’s will feature a larger kitchen, a stage for live performances and two gallery walls for art exhibits. One gallery will be named after the late David E. Newman, the founder of Creative Oasis.

“[Newman’s vision] for Creative Oasis was to give people who may not be connected professionally or academically to art space to create,” said Meder-Wilgus. “So we’re giving space to exhibit what people create to honor his memory.”

Having an art gallery featuring local artists in a coffee shop will also provide a unique artistic experience for customers, according to Haight. “Actual art galleries are at a disadvantage because people simply walk through, look at everything and then leave,” said Haight. “At Webster’s, you can sit, have a coffee and enjoy the gallery.”

The East Beaver Street space will also be more accessible than before, according to Meder-Wilgus and Haight.

“The new location is a beautiful rectangular shape with two exits and lends itself to better flow because that other space was sort of a bowling alley,” Meder-Wilgus said. “We had to have different sections for the café, the records and the bookstore and even though we managed to blend them together, there was a natural separation by the length and dimensions of the old space. In the new space, we can really allow for people to walk around and not feel like they’re standing in a hallway.”

“Before, there was a sense that people were trying to look at books and other people were trying to get past to get to other things all the time,” said Haight. “The new location will be more browsable.” 

In addition, Webster’s has a new advisory board of professional financiers who will volunteer their time to keep the business’ accounting in control and prevent another situation like the one in 2010.

“The income side of Webster’s was always successful, but it was the overhead that had really become too much,” said Meder-Wilgus. “And when the recession hit, our expenses just kept going up. So this advisory board has been really fantastic in getting all the plans in order. I’m incredibly blessed that these people have stepped forward to be on this advisory board to assure the health and wealth of Webster’s and the community that resides within it.”

With Webster’s financial house in order, Meder-Wilgus and her staff are now focused on getting the new location stocked, coded and ready for the grand opening in late February. The reopening, according to Meder-Wilgus, will be marked with a festival of diverse events that will celebrate the culture and energy of the local community. 

“It’s going to be tremendous,” said Meder-Wilgus. “We have belly dancers lined up, we’re going to have readings, a political singer-songwriter coming in to do a performance and an open mic night.”

Along with the opening festivities, Meder-Wilgus is also excited for all to see the new bookstore. “People are going to lose their minds when they come in and see the sheer volume of books,” she said. “I can’t wait. They’re going to squeal. It’s going to be great.”

Steinem urges women to achieve balance in their lives

***Published in The Parkland Press and The Times News in June 2012***

When asked about what it was in her life that led her to feminism, Gloria Steinem, the 78-year-old writer, lecturer, and prominent activist in the American feminist movement simply responded with three words: “Being born female.”

“Actually, the question I ask myself is ‘What took me so long?’ because I was in my early thirties before I understood that just working hard and being obedient wasn’t going to cut it,” Steinem elaborated. “We needed to have a movement.”

And in her talk entitled “The Longest Revolution,” which was the marquee event at the third annual Women’s Summit June 7, Steinem engaged the audience of local businesswomen that filled Cedar Crest College’s Lees Gymnasium in that movement with her unique wit and insight.

“One of the biggest changes of the movement over the past 30 to 40 years is the sense of control over your future. Women now say to me ‘this is what I want to do in 20 years.’ My generation absolutely did not do that,” Steinem said. “It’s up to each of us to figure out what we need to achieve balance and to achieve our full circle. The purpose of this day is to help us do that.”

Steinem, who has long been fighting for women’s rights since co-founding the feminist Ms. magazine in 1972, spent her time at Cedar Crest College giving women advice such as speaking their minds regardless of what other people think and trusting their intuition even when intuition gets a “bum rap” as a “female thing.”

“If it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck and you think it’s a pig, it’s a pig,” Steinem joked.

Steinem also said women today should embrace their individualities in order to bring about change to support the women’s revolution.

“The question is how those unique talents can be used and also be a part of the human community at the same time,” Steinem said.

She also let the audience of businesswomen in on her secret to good leadership: “behave as if everything you do matters.”

Eventually, though, Steinem tackled the main topic of her talk, “The Longest Revolution,” which she said was “obviously the women’s revolution because it’s the deepest and because it is the primary false division into which human beings are put.”

“And how did we get into this notion of masculine being the subject and feminine being the object?” Steinem asked. “Unequal roles.”

Steinem would ultimately spend much of her talk encouraging the women in the audience to join together as they did at the Summit to shatter that perceived inequality in society.

“You have already found the single most important thing in this conference because what we need to do is get together in groups like this and discover that we are not crazy, the system is crazy,” Steinem said. "In all great social justice movements, all changes come from people having the courage to say what's happened to them and then hearing six or twelve other people say, ‘You feel like that? I thought only I felt like that!’”

After her talk, Steinem called for the spotlight to be taken off of her and put on the audience for a brief question and answer time. One audience member, who said she felt revitalized through Steinem and her work, asked Steinem about the “F-word: feminism” and how young women today say feminism is dead.

Steinem said that the name is irrelevant. It could be feminism or it could be “womenism, women's lib, or even girl power with two or three r’s.”

Many Women’s Summit participants in the audience responded favorably to Steinem’s talk.

“I think Gloria’s terrific,” Marna Hayden of Nazareth, president of Hayden Resources Inc., said. “She’s been a leader for years and it’s wonderful to have her speak to as many people as possible. It’s surprising how many of the younger people don’t realize how far we’ve come and, even more, how far we have to go.”

Kathryn von Badins of Allentown, an attorney for Pavlack Law Offices P.C., said she was inspired by Steinem and her talk and that, without Steinem, she and other women would not be able to be attorneys today.

Family garden offers cornucopia of fresh produce

***Published in The Parkland Press in June 2012***

When Michele Jacobs and her family decided March 20 to plant a garden in the backyard of their Orefield home, it was originally just going to be a trial and error experiment with simple seeds just to see what would grow.

Now, the Jacobs family garden boasts a supremely veritable cornucopia of assorted fruits, vegetables and herbs.

In addition to the broccoli and carrots they recently pulled, the garden contains dill, catnip, lettuce, red cabbage, green cabbage, eggplant, arugula, banana peppers, parsley, cilantro in one section, according to Michele Jacobs.

In the larger section of the garden, there are tomatoes, hot peppers of all different kinds, sweet peppers, cantaloupe, watermelons, pumpkins, peas, corn, zucchini, and cucumbers for making pickles later, which is why they planted dill.

For the Jacobs family, the garden has helped them save “a lot of money” because they are able to use their garden as their own personal produce department.

“We eat everything,” Jacobs said. “A lot of the time, when you go to the store and buy the bag [of salad], it ends up going bad. So now, we basically just come back [to the garden] when we want a salad or anything, we just cut it down and take it inside to wash it.”

They also take the time to share their plentiful harvest with their neighbors. One such neighbor, Catherine Mlynek, said the garden has been a source of joy for both Michele and her kids.

“The kids are fascinated by the little farm they have back there and it’s healthy for [them], too, because they’re learning things,” Mlynek said. “Instead of sitting in the house playing video games or whatever it is kids do these days, they’re out there cultivating and breaking up the ground so the rain can seep through.

“Every once and a while, Michele will say, ‘Cat, come over and look at my garden!’ It seems like the garden [grows] right in front of your eyes,” Mlynek said. “I’m so impressed with it and [Michele] just loves it. She puts her heart and soul into it.”