opinions
editorial opinion
How 'bout Penn State?
Many high school students apply to Penn
State because it's cheap. Because they've
heard the name before. Because their big
sister went there.
After they've been accepted, some high
school students are embarrassed by their
choice. Penn State is just a state school. It
has no name. A president never graduated
from it.
But once they get to the University, many
students quickly change their opinion. Penn
State vibrates; it's exciting. The University
and the community are a thriving laborato
ry where students can continually test
themselves.
Unlike many smaller schools, Penn
•State's offerings are diverse and varied.
Students can major in such fields as rural
sociology, nuclear engineering, Portuguese
or individual and family studies. They can
choose from hundreds of student organiza
tions to get involved with. They can mingle
with professors of national stature. They
can do, be or think just about anything they
want. •
Where else but Penn State can you:
• Study in the No. 1-ranked progams of
meteorology, architectural engineering, art
education or nutrition?
• Meet professors who have won presti
gious international awards, such as John 0.
Almquist, who received the 1981 Wolf Foun
dation award for his pioneering research in
artificial insemination of livestock.
o Participate in ap AG Hill Festival or
the Little International Livestock Exposi-
op-ed/what is Penn state?
Outstanding program
I'm pleased to be a graduate of the College
of Health, Physical Education and Recre-,
ation, which has several programs widely
recognized as being No. 1.
In national surveys conducted both in 1980
and 1982 of the overall quality of doctoral
programs in physical education in the United
States, Penn State was rated as No. 1. These
findings supported data compiled by a pro
gram review committee of Penn State's grad
uate school that concluded "it is probably the
leading overall graduate program in health
and physical education in the world."
- • The Health Education Athletic Training
Option was ranked by a 1982 accreditation
team as the top athletic training program in
the country.
The School Health Certification Option in
Health Education was ranked by the Pennsyl
vania Department of Education as the best
health education professional preparation
program in the state.
• Penn State's Health Education Depart
ment serves more people through continuing
education programs than any other health
education program in the country.
The extraordinary sport and recreation
facilities of the college are the most extensive
and diverse of any university in the nation;
they contribute greatly to Penn State's supe
riority in activity classes, intramurals, inter
collegiate athletics and club sports. Research
facilities are similarly without parallel, and
the Noll Laboratory for Human Performance
Research is No. 1 in the United States and
world-class in program and capability.
Most importantly, the national and interna
tional recognition of the outstanding achieve
ments of both the faculty and the students in
the College of HPER help make Penn State a
byword for quality.. For example, biomechan-
Part of what keeps Penn State so vital is
that it is a leader in science and technology.
One of the best observatories of seismic
activity in the United States is located in the
basement of Deike Building where the
earth's rumblings are observed, recorded
and sent to the National Ocean and Atmo
spheric Administration.
In another sphere, the space shuttle Co
lumbia carried a Penn State experiment
into space. In the medical field, a University
professor helped develop a cancer detection
test. The list could go on and on . . .
But Penn State isn't just University Park
or the Commonwealth campuses; it's the
whole state. A professor from Penn State
serves on the Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion Panel on the Decontamination of Three
Mile Island. The University's agricultural
extension service provides services for
thousands of farmers.
When the Nittany Lions defeated the
Georgia' Bulldogs on national television,
viewers got only a small taste of what it's
like to be Penn State Proud. We're proud of
our football team, but we're equally proud
of our school.
After that stunning victory, the phrase
heard in the streets of New Orleans quickly
became "How 'bout them Lions?" replacing
the outworn drawl of "How 'bout them
'Dawgs?" But Penn State, as Joe Paterno
will readily admit, is more than football.
What everyone should have been asking was
"How 'bout us? How 'bout Penn State?"
ics Professor Richard C. Nelson is the 1982-83
Alliance Sch(Mar for the 40,000-member
American Alliance of Health, Physical Edu
cation, Recreation and Dance.
Joe Paterno is right, "We're No. 1 in many,
many things . . . . We are Penn State!"
Ron Avillion, Resident Assistant, Classes of
1965, '1966
Jan. 8
WHO SIYS PENN SLATES
OM NUMBER ONE
IN. FOOTBALL
World class
Probably the most important indigenous
commodity from the state of Pennsylvania,
with the obvious exception of the national
champion Nittany Lion football team (how
'bout them Lions!), is coal. And with respect
to coal science in particular, and fuel sciences
in general, the fuel science program at Penn
State is certainly also deserving of a No. 1
RaC7bo VISITS FLOOD 01616q11ER AREA. Wevds rrelA
ranking.
A Department of Fuel Technology was
established at the University in 1932 in recog
nition of the importance of fuels to the welfare
of the citizens of Pennsylvania.
Penn State has today what is probably the
most extensive expertise on coal and carbon
aceous materials of any university in the
United States. It is also eminent in the field of
combustion.
Work in the Penn State Fuels and Combus-
occrißf-
camm
The. Daily Collegian
Tuesday, Jan.' 11
tion Laboratory, which is part of the research
facilities of the fuel scince program, has
achieved worldwide recognition, as has the
work on the fundamental processes in flames
that is carried out in other laboratories of the
program.
Fuel science is an applied science of fuels
and energy that is concerned with the opti
mum use of our energy resources. Over the
last decade, it has become apparent that the
supply and consumption of energy have a
major impact on all facets of society.
The use of coal in combustion and carboni
zation, and its conversion to gaseous and
liquid fuels plays an important part in the
program. However, fuel science is also con
cerned with origin, characteristics, purifica
tion and utilization of all fuels. -
Now the fuel science program offers oppor
tunities for graduate and postdoctoral study.
The program includes about 50 graduate
students who are supported by grants from
both private industry and government agen
cies. Nine distinguished faculty members are
affiliated with the program. In the past 20
years, faculty and students have published
about 400 research papers. Since 1950, about
100 masters and 120 doctorate degrees in fuel
science or fuel technology have been
awarded.
Along the lines of being No. 1, Penn State
granted the first bachelor of science degree in
fuel science in the nation in 1934: Although the
undergraduate program was not offered from
the early 1970 s until 1983, the bachelor of
science program in fuel science has recently
been reinstated (Fall 1983) because of in
creasing recognition of the importance of
energy to the economy and environment.
Penn State should be proud to be associated
with such an important research and educa
tion program. The fuel science prgram should
certainly be included among Penn State's
claims to No. 1.
Timothy Golden, graduate-fuel science
Jan. 7
gi; Collegian
Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1983
©1983 Collegian Inc.
Phil Gutis Paul Rudoy
Editor Business Manager
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op-e
, I
1 i.I
Overcoming a state school inferiority compl-x
Editor's Note: Bruce A. Murphy, Univer
sity assistant professor of political science,
is the author of "The Brandeis/Frankfurter
Connection: The Secret Political Activities
of Two Supreme Court Justices," a book
that achieved national prominence after its
release early last year. The following is
excerpted from a speech he gave at the
spring Honors Convocation.
By BRUCE A. MURPHY
Researching and writing "The Bran:
deis/Frankfurter Connection" was one of
the most challenging and thrilling adven
tures of my life. Spending the last quarter of
my life paging through thousands of docu
ments in libraries all over the nation has
helped me to appreciate problems faced by
scholars in every academic field.
As I reflect on the relevance of that effort,
and of my career, it becomes clear that
beyond the story of the publicity surround
ing the book there is another, perhaps more
meaningful, story that is not being told. It is
that story that I frequently. tell my own
students at the University.
While I am not that much older than my
students, it seems that we are from very
different college generations. My peers pro
tested the war in Vietnam, helped launch an
Equal Rights Amendment and professed a
concern for pursuing a humanistic college
experience.
Now it seems that students worry about
the nuclear holocaust, protest tuition hikes
and are far more concerned with whether
their degree will be a ticket to a high paying
job after graduation.
Even though students in our two genera
tions have many differences, they also have
some great similarities. I see in my students
the same sense of confusion I had about how
to get the most out of a college education.
But after attending the University of Massa
chusetts at Amherst and teaching at the
University, I see that many students also
suffer from the same affliction that .my
peers and I had.
Many of them are victimized by a "state
school inferiority complex."
The symptoms are all too familiar. The
students here are told by some, as I was in
Massachusetts, that Penn State only offers
an inexpensive education, the potential for a
good social life and a great football pro
gram.
Perhaps many feel, as I did years ago,
that they had to come to Penn State because
they couldn't afford to go to an Ivy League
school. As a result, my students lack what I
lacked, a sense of self-worth about their
educations and a sense of self-confidence.
I face these symptoms and battle them on
forum
what is penn state?
an almost weekly basis when talking to my
students. In my first year of teaching here a
dozen women came into my office for advice
about their careers in law. Imagine my
horror when they told me that despite their
superior qualifications (all had better than
3.5 grade-point averages and more than 650
out of 800 on their Law School Admissions
Tests) they all wanted to become parale
gals.
Why? Because, they told me, they did not
feel they would be able to compete with
representatives from other schools. After
counseling by my wife, who is an attorney,
and me, eleven of the twelve went on to do
distinguished work in law school the
twelfth chose to delay her legal career.
Moreover, I am continually dismayed
each spring when my graduating seniors
express many of the same doubts about how
they will fare in competition with students
from Ivy League schools. But it turns out
that they can equal and often exceed the
efforts of those other students.
These symptoms are not unique to stu
dents. The Newsweek Magazine reporter
doing the story on my book asked me,. "If
you are so good, why are you teaching at
Penn State? Why aren't you teaching at
Harvard or someplace like that?"
How does one respond to such foolishness?
Perhaps by asking, "If you are so good, why
don't you write for 'The New Yorker'?"
Knowing that you will probably face such
insults in the future, if you haven't already,
perhaps a few words about my experiences
coping with the "Ivy League Syndrome" (a
contributing cause of the '"state school infe
riority complex") will be useful.
The worst day of my life, or so I thought at
the time, was as a high school senior on
April 15, 1969. On this day, the reporting day
for college admissions, I knew that I would
not be able to afford to go to an Ivy League
school. That meant that I would only be able
to go to UMass, where I had applied simply
because the application was free.
Despite the fact that my high school
guidance counselor told me that I was
letting down the entire school by not going to
an Ivy League college, it turned out to be the
best non-decision of my life. UMass had a
real strength in political science, especially
in constitutional law (which became my
major field of interest even though I origi
nally intended to go to law school). More
over, the sheer size of the university made it
possible to partake of a wide diversity of
programs that might not be available else
where.
quickly discovered, however, that
UMass had another advantage. Despite its
large size, I found the doors to various
professors widely open and they were will
ing to discuss anything. This sort of personal
counseling was indispensable to someone
coming from such a small high school.
Over time, I developed personal
relationships with two professors Dean
Alfange Jr. and Sheldon Goldman and
they have guided the major steps in my
career. Even though I received all these
benefits, I was continually haunted that
perhaps because . of a lack of money I was
not getting as good an education, or as
prestigious degree, as I might get else
where.
When it came time to choose a graduate
school the choice came down to two pro
grams Harvard's or the University of.
Virginia's. Virginia, the state school, had
one of the foremost experts in my field of
constitutional law. Heniy J. Abraham had
already made it clear that I would be able to
enjoy the same close working relationship
with him that I had with my two advisers at
UMass.
Virginia was clearly the better place for
me to go. So naturally I chose Harvard.
Here, finally, was my chance to make up for
what I believed to be a lack'of prestige of my
undergraduate school and to compensate
for what I knew had been an inferior educa
tion.
'The real irony is that your reputation does not
depend upon the school's so much as the
school's reputation depends on you.'
I don't mind saying that the choice was an
unmitigated disaster. After two weeks there
I knew I had made a mistake. There was no
close personal attention either for me or,
from what I could see, for the undergrad
uates. Now I waited in the hall hoping for
five minutes of the professor's one office
hour a week (if he. was campus at all that
year.)
The whole experience can be summed up
by one story.
In one seminar the professor told a story
about how the Army had messed up its
administration. Knowing everyone in the
seminar knew everyone else's background,
he commented, "The problem with the
Army is that they take the best and bright
est boys, like the ones from Harvard Col
lege, and they are picking up butts in the
street. On the other hand, the real dolts, the
intellectual scum of the earth, like the
graduates of the University of Massachu
setts at Amherst, are placed in the top
posts." I decided very quickly that if this
was what a prestigious education was all
about, I could study elsewhere:
And so I ended up at the University of
Virginia. Here, I was once again able to
enjoy a close working relationship with
professors. Furthermore, I was able. to
observe undergraduates being treated to the
same open-door policy that I had enjoyed at
UMass.
But most importantly, I was able to dupli
cate my experience at UMass by finding two
other personal advisers professor Abra
ham and Robert J. Harris. These two men
took a very nervous student, quite burned by
the experience at Harvard, and cared
enough to carefully rebuild his confidence so
that he could resume a career of study
leading to college teaching.
One of professor Abraham's kindnesses in
that first year was to offer to be co-author of
an article with me, a very unusual offer for
a young graduate student. It was this article
that became the forerunner of the Brandeis-
Frankfurter book. Quite frankly, it is be
cause of his hours of work with me, and the
careful attention of the other three advisers,
that I am now in this career.
By the time I was launched on this book I
had learned my lesson. There were times
when eminent scholars told me the idea just
wasn't important enough to pursue, or that
there just was not enough material to fill a
whole book. My solution was to listen closely
to my four advisers who were saying that
the project was worth doing.
Now I am teaching at Penn State. And one
of my roles, as I see it, is to keep my
students from making the same mistakes I
made. I think it took me until I was in
graduate school at Virginia to realize the
value of the education I had received at the
state universities.
I knew then that the best day in my life
was when I decided to go to the University of
Massachusetts. I decided at that time to
pursue my teaching career at a state univer
sity, if at all possible, in order to re-create
for my students some of the experiences I
had enjoyed. In that way, I felt I could repay
the four advisers who had spent so much
time with me.
How does one cope with the "Ivy League
Syndrome?" How does one conquer forever
the "state school inferiority complex" in the
face of some people who will always believe
that such public institutions are just not
worthy?
After 13 years of facing these snobbish
skeptics I am simply sick and tired of
hearing their nonsense. The argument
seems to be that the quality of an education
is somehow equal to the expense of that
education, or the exclusivity of the school.
Because some of these schools now cost
more than $13,000 a year to attend, and Penn
State costs less than three times that ($2,118
for in-state tuition and $2,274 for room and
board for a three-term academic year), I
guess these pundits would say the education
at the other school is three times as good.
What it proves to me is that the other
school's education is three times as expen
sive.
The quality of the education a student gets
at any school can only partly be attributed
to the resources of the school itself its
teachers, its library, its administrators and
The Daily Collegian
Tuesday, Jan. 11
its physical plant. An equal part of the
education's quality comes from the individ
ual student. What does he or she do to seek
out and use the resources of the school, and
what is done with the education after grad
uation? The real irony is that your reputa
tion does not depend upon the school's so
much as the school's reputation depends on
•
you.
You cannot go through life feeling you are
less well educated than those who have
attended exclusive private colleges. If our
students feel that they must apologize some
how for attending a state school no matter
how foolish that view may be they nec
essarily diminish other's perceptions of this
school in making excuses. Like other types
of prejudice, though, this one cannot be
beaten by mere argument. It can only be
conquered by example your example.
What, then, can we do by example to
change the views of others? The answer is to
change our own perceptions. Don't either
undervalue your education or underesti
mate the extent of your own ability. You are
easily equal to, if not superior to, the best
students at every other campus in America. '
I am afraid that just writing this and
relating what I have faced over the years
isn't going to be enough when you are in
situations where others from exclusive
schools will be trying to intimidate you.
They will try their best to make you feel that
you are at an initial disadvantage. During
those times, the solution is very simple:
Have coofidence in yourself. Know how
good you are and what you are capable of •
doing. While others are telling you how good
they are, you can quietly show them that the
game of life is to be played and not de
scribed. Your only competition should be
not with others but with yourself. Set high
standards for your work,and do your best to
exceed them.
The truth is that Ivy League snobbishness
can be useful. Let these people think what
they will about the value of their degrees.
You can quietly do your work and wait for
the opportunity to show your real worth to
your employer, your professor or whomever
oversees your efforts.
When that moment arrives and you do
excel, the snobs will have never expected it
and you will catch them terribly unpre
pared. In the long run, perserverance, will
ingness to work and quiet confidence are
what will make the difference in the success
of your efforts.
Justices Brandeis and Frankfurter and all
of the other Ivy League alumni are proud of
their schools. And they have every right to
be. But students in our state universities
must be equally proud of their schools and
the value of their educations.
My charge to you is to join me in launch
ing a counter movement. The time has come
for more people to be state school chauvin
ists. There is a wonderful slogan on this
campus: "Be Penn State Proud." I would
just expand that a bit to say let's "Be State
School Proud." And why not?