I Friday, Dec. 3,2010
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The Daily
Collegian
Elizabeth Murphy
Editor in Chief
Kelsey Thompson
Business Manager
About the Collegian: The
Daily Collegian and The
Weekly Collegian are pub
lished by Collegian Inc., an
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dents, faculty and profes
sionals. Pennsylvania State
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ters as well as the second
six-week summer session,
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and columns expressed on
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ers of The Daily Collegian
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and Chris Zook.
Letters
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Ranking shouldn’t cloud reality
Though State College
has fallen to the No. 3 spot
in the safest metropolitan
areas in America after
receiving the highest rank
last year, we are still
proud that all Penn State
students can consistently
call our college town a
safe home.
But just because we
rank low in the violent
crime statistics includ
ing murder, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, bur-
Viepe WdRKIKG
10
ReGARDINfe
'ntepflesiDeHT’S
PSU sports outside Beaver Stadium
are worth student attendance, support
By Cassie Leighton
After experiencing it
once, you’re hooked.
The adrenaline rushing
through your
veins. The
camaraderie of
more than
107,000 friends
The echoing
sounds of “We
Are... Penn
State ”
A football
Saturday in
Beaver Stadium is unparalleled.
The student body arrives in
force for each game, and usually
ends up sacrificing their voices
for the next few days in attempt
to propel their school to victory.
In fact, Kirk Herbstreit once
again named Penn State “The
Best Student Section” in the
nation.
However, the student energy
and passion brought to Beaver
Stadium goes into hibernation
Mowing the last home football
game in late November.
As current vice president of
Nittany Nation, the Penn State
men’s basketball student sec
tion, our organization strives to
find ways to increase student
attendance and encourage
game day participation during
the basketball season.
From pre-game to the waning
seconds of the second half, we
work to build an electric energy
that matches the standards set
by Penn State students earlier
in the fall.
Over my time here as a stu
dent, there have been glimpses
of magic atmospheres at basket-
STATE COLIC
glary and motor vehicle
theft compiled by the
Congressional Quarterly
Press, State College still
has its full share of prob
lems.
Students, residents and
borough officials cannot
cite this ranking as a rea
son to lessen efforts to
minimize the petty crime
that plagues State Col
lege.
With an underage drink
ing problem, a string of
• o
ball games that were similar to
the ones created during the foot
ball season.
Perhaps the best example
was when more than 30 buses
filled with students made the
trip to Madison Square Garden
to witness Penn State win the
2009 NIT Championship over
Baylor University.
Never before had MSG literal
ly rocked as it did when Penn
State students bounced to
“Zombie Nation.”
We showed the power of stu
dent support and demonstrated
our ability to create a home
court advantage despite being
more than four hours away from
Happy Valley.
However, the need for passion
and pride does not end with foot
ball or basketball.
There are nearly 30 sports
teams at Penn State, and togeth
er they create one of the most
impressive athletic programs in
the nation.
Our women’s volleyball team
is three-time defending national
champions and recently won
another Big Ten title. Our com
bined fencing team has won 12
national championships since
1990, and the Penn State men’s
soccer team made it to the third
round of the NCAA tournament.
The list of exceptional pro
grams runs on and on.
These teams are composed of
our fellow students, who spend
hours every day preparing to
represent Penn State at the
highest level possible.
They deserve our support for
all their hard work and dedica
tion.
Never again will we have the
indecent exposures on
campus and recent stab
bing incidents, we all need
to remain concerned
about ways to make both
University Park and State
College safer for eveiy-
While we should relish
in the fact that State Col
lege is consistently
deemed a safe metropoli
tan area, the news should
also continuously be taken
with a grain of salt.
s. g
w
opportunity to see a wide range
of quality sports (for next to
nothing) day in and day out as
we have at this very moment.
Unfortunately, the truth is
that many students will never
see many of the Penn State
teams play during their time
here in State College.
As students, we need to work
to increase our attendance at
the events of the 26 other Penn
State teams outside of football.
It has to be discouraging for
many of those student athletes
to continually compete in front
of small crowds and in nearly
empty venues after months of
hard work.
When students do actually
show up to other sporting
events, a distinctive home court
advantage is created as is done
each Saturday in Beaver
Stadium.
The encouragement and
inspiration provided by fans can
elevate the games of our ath
letes and, in some instances, be
the difference between victory
and defeat.
Nittany Nation would like to
challenge the student body to
live up to the honor bestowed by
Kirk Herbstreit and to continue
to exemplify the standard of
excellence for the fans of all
other universities.
The power is ours to show the
nation that we truly are Penn
State at Beaver Stadium and
beyond.
Cassie Leighton is a senior majoring
in sociology and is the vice president
of Nittany Nation. She is The Daily Col
legian's Friday guest columnist and
her e-mail is cllso9s@psu.edu.
The Daily Collegian
DeChellis fails to put winning
basketball program on court
As a senior, I have been going to basket
ball games for four years now, and in those
four years I have seen a few very exciting
games. But a majority of my time inside the
Bryce Jordan Center has been full of disap
pointment.
It seems that after eight years here in
Happy Valley, it is finally time for head
coach Ed DeChellis to be removed from his
position. After leaving the Maryland game
and watching what seemed like an offen
sive game plan of who could shoot the
quickest and a defensive scheme of who
could stay the furthest away from an
opposing player, I feel like it is finally time
for Ed to go.
I do appreciate all the great things Coach
DeChellis has done for the university with
Coaches vs. Cancer and the team’s involve
ment with THON, but at the end of the day
his main goal is to put a winning program
on the court. After eight seasons of failing
to do so, I think it is time for change within
the basketball program, and I believe that
starts with the head coach.
Jason Freeman
senior-labor employment relations
INCOGNITO
Let’s get social
Social media is the buzz word thrown
around journalism and journalistic cov
erage these days, and why shouldn’t it
be? With over 350 million users world
wide on Facebook and 75 million user
accounts on Twitter with an average of
1.3 million tweets per hour (according to
an article on econsultancy.com) it is an
amazing tool to getting the news into
people's hands.
This is why, this past semester, The
Daily Collegian has embraced social
media in the forms of Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr and Foursquare.
Though we had a Facebook account
prior to this semester, we have begun to
use it more frequently. Mostly we have
been using Facebook to bring you into
the website and make you aware of
interesting articles in the paper and on
the web. However, we also use it to get
your feedback from the various goings
on of campus and downtown. By moni
toring your comments on Facebook we
try to take note of what you want to
read more of or what we may be miss
ing.
We are using our Twitter in a similar
fashion. In the future we are hoping to
expand our tweets beyond our cover
age, but for now we are primarily using
to promote stories and get feedback,
much like many prominent newspapers
like The New York Times, Philadelphia
Inquirer and USA Today. In addition, we
have been encouraging reporters to
send out live tweets from various
events, so even if you can't attend your
favorite concert at the Bryce Jordan
Center, live tweets will ensure you don’t
miss any big moments.
In case you have not noticed, we have
been attaching Foursquare venues to
our relevant stories. Though I’m sure
many of you can easily find Eisenhower
Auditorium. Beaver Stadium or Schwab
Auditorium, it s another useful piece of
information attached to the story.
Our Tumblr is the pride and joy of
the online managers. Through TTimblr
we bring to The Daily Collegian audi
ence the news and interesting facts
beyond the pages of our print version.
Recent posts include a photo of Mike
the Situation with canners, links to
other Big Ten newspapers with articles
relevant to Penn State or links to arti
cles in other venues that are relevant to
Penn State. Our most recent Tumblr
post can be seen in the Tumblr box on
our website.
We are constantly working and evolv
ing the uses for our social media and
would love to hear from you about ways
in which we can use these avenues to
bring more information to you. Feel free
to comment on this post or on any of
our social media sites to tell us what
you want to see.
SNAP, CRACKLE. POP
Aid in the fight
Wednesday was World AIDs day,
where people all over the world spent
their day spreading awareness about
the disease.
The Keep A Child Alive organization
launched its “Buy Life” campaign.
According to the group’s website, there
is a difference between life and living.
“Living may extend time for another
day. But life is far more than sleeping
and waking. Life is more than merely
existing. And, although it would be easi
er, life cannot be bought in a pill. That is
why Keep A Child Alive buys more than
just the pills needed to fight HIV/AIDS
in Africa and India. It buys the essential
nutrition, shelter, support and education
to help ensure those pills are taken
properly and effectively,” according to
the website.
Helping KCA spread the word are
celebrities like Justin Timberlake,
Khloe Kardashian and Lady Gaga-
Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at
psucolleglan.com/blags.
Shannon Slmcox
Online manager
Karina Yucel
TV reporter