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The Fourth Wall
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Travis Johnson
Penn State
Mont Alto
has been my
home for the
past seven
months. I'm §
not com- |
plaining,
though there is the occasional
exam and the classic late night
rush to finish a paper. But these
are a part of “the college
experience.”
When I began my search for
a college during my junior year
of high school, there were two
main factors that would
Christina Green
On March 227, University
Park administrators announced
that Penn State will have a new
organizational structure as of
July 1%t. Mont Alto, along with
all Commonwealth campuses,
will be directly affected by the
changes. At the General
Assembly meeting on Thursday,
April 7% David Gnage, Mont
Alto CEO, and Andrea
Christopher, Director of Student
Affairs, explained that the
changes will generally not affect
the way existing Mont Alto
students receive their education,
and that the restructuring will be
an improvement for our campus
in the future.
The reason for the
restructuring is that Penn State
University has become one of
the most complex institutions of
higher education in the nation.
The restructuring of the
university will grant all Penn
State campuses, including Mont
Alto, better opportunities to
share funds and other resources,
as well as better representation
at the highest levels of university
decision-making. Penn State
President, Graham B. Spanier,
stated that, “This restructuring
will allow Penn State to adjust
better to changing demographics
and the competitive realities in
the coming years, and it will
position the University to take
maximum advantage of the
strength of its administrative
resources.”
The current system that Penn
State operates under was
established in 1996. In the plan,
there are six academic colleges
outside of University Park:
Altoona College, Abington
College, Behrend College (Erie),
Berks-Lehigh Valley College,
Capital College (Harrisburg and
Schuylkill), and the
Commonwealth College (twelve
campuses, including Mont
Alto). Since then, Penn State has
recognized the need for change
in the system to meet current
challenges, and to balance
campus goals and University
goals simultaneously.
With the restructuring, Mont
Alto and the other campuses
within the Commonwealth will
join seven other Penn State
campuses to make up what will
be known as the University
College. The current CEOs at the
Commonwealth campuses,
including Gnage, will have new
titles as campus chancellors,
which is a more traditional title
for campus leaders of other
institutions at the University
level. They will report to the new
vice president for the University
College, John Romano, who
currently serves as vice provost
and dean for Enrollment
Management and
Administration. This new
administrative organization will
increase interaction and support
of functions across all Penn State
campuses.
Gnage maintains that the
relationship of Mont Alto within
the University College system
will allow the campus to
strengthen current academic
programs and access more
resources and capabilities of the
university. Although tuition will
be increased next academic
year, the restructuring has no
direct influence over the cost of
tuition. The changes should be
transparent to Mont Alto
students; however, graduates
after July 2005 will receive
diplomas from the University
College as opposed to the
Commonwealth College.
For a more detailed press
release of the restructuring
announcement from University
Park, access http://
live.psu.edu/story/11049
online.
influence my decision: First and
foremost, I wanted to attend a
school with a great reputation
and big name. Secondly, I
wanted to have opportunitics
similar to those I had in high
school. I wanted to be able to
write for a newspaper and
participate in intramural sports.
I wasn’t sure if I would get those
chances here, as it was a small
school with a small student
population. I can now say my
fears about Mont Alto were
unwarranted. Here is the biggest
socially downcast myth about
Mont Alto and why it is untrue.
I asked Mont Alto Hall
students what they thought about
the campus and the opportunities
it offered them. Many shared
similar feelings; “Mont Alto
doesn’t offer anything that
interests me.” This is never true
at any college! I believe there are
more chances at other larger
campuses to participate in more
organizations due to the size of
the student population, for
example, I would love to play
hockey for Altoona or
University Park. There aren't
many hockey players here. This
is due, in part, to where Mont
Alto pulls students from. So the
current attitude is that there isn’t
a club that interests you and you
can’t do anything about it. Ah ha!
A solution! Talk to someone
about joining an existing
organization or possibly forming
a new club that expresses your
and other potential members’
interests. It is crucial to your
college experience that you meet
many new people who share the
same opinions and interests as
you. Mont Alto offers clubs as
other campuses do. The only
downfall is that it may be difficult
to form such a special interest
group since the campus has a
smaller pool of students to pull
from.
I have asked my friends who
are students here, “How was
your weekend?” I get the same
reply almost every time by
students who stay on campus;
“It was boring. No one was
here!”
I work back home on
weekends, and I know most
students go home or maybe take
a trip to another campus. Many
students go to University Park to
watch a football game, concert,
or to visit friends. Again the
reason for this is simple. Mont
Alto is a small school in which
the student population that
attends class here comes from a
relatively close radius. Myself,
I live just thirty to forty-five
minutes from campus.
Obviously this is a trade-off for
the students that come from
farther away. There may be some
lonely weekends; however we
all have to look at the big picture.
We must stop looking at what
we don’t have, because this will
only make us wish we were
somewhere else. We can’t
preoccupy ourselves with
thoughts that the Millstream
closes early on weekends,
therefore, we can’t eat late. If we
were to do that, we may not
realize they're serving our
favorite food for the time they are
open, and we would miss out on
that. Instead we must look at
what we do have. We live on a
beautiful campus; the weather is
great for sledding in the winter
and great for just about anything
in the fall and spring, our dorms
are close to our classes and our
cafeteria. This is a small campus
so it is easy to meet new people
and share interests. Honestly, I
think I've met more people here
in the shortest span of time in my
life. The majority of us will be
transferring to University Park,
and anyone who's ever been to a
football game at Beaver Stadium,
seen a concert at the Bryce
Jordan Center, or just walked
around the campus, you know
how big it is. I imagine I will be
overwhelmed my first semester
at UP and I will look back on my
time at Mont Alto as “the good
old days.”