Penn State Under the Microscope

In all honesty, my first impression of the title given to Penn State in 2009, I wasn’t that surprised. I had heard about the school’s reputation for partying when I was applying and I can’t lie and say that it was a nice bonus to its academic standings. Penn State is infamously known for being a football-oriented school, being one of the largest in the nation, and displaying tremendous pride for being a Nittany Lion, and those are the values that I gravitated to the most. This American Life took it upon themselves to investigate what exactly qualifies a school to assume the role of the number one party school. It began with a “typical Friday night” with students stumbling, carrying on, pulling street signs out of the ground and waking up the Happy Valley residents; one in particular who used to be a part of NPR herself. She gave an inside look to the weekly encounters she experiences with Penn State partiers. My initial reaction to both Ira Glass and Sarah Koeing was considerably judgmental and pretentious. Within the first ten minutes it was concluded that the outrageous actions and crazy experiences could only be found in places like Penn State. Although this argument can be viewed in several different ways, Glass’ choice of words made it seem that his argument was exclusive to PSU, when in actuality any college in the country has the potential to be the number one ranked party school in America. It was said best by the University’s President himself that the voting is done by the students, and the students alone; there is no real adequate form of measurement taken into account, other than college students wanting the opportunity to say “hey, I go to the number one party school!” Despite some of my defensive points to NPR’s argument, I do believe there is a considerable amount of credibility in what they pointed out. Glass and Koeing approached their argument in gradual steps, beginning with silly little examples of the shenanigans that occur around campus, elevates to routy behavior among the fraternities and even some embarrassing drunk dialogue, and finally landing on the most important matter of safety.  By doing this I believe they affectively made their point that there is a definite drinking problem on campus without appearing too overwhelming and aggressive. This then raised the question amongst the university leaders on which next step to take, whether it be to wage a war between the students and faculty or a new approach. I believe one of the smartest decisions made by Penn State was to focus on helping and looking after one another rather than pressing for a dry campus, because the statistics show that most of the trouble lies with those moderate drinkers who lack a watchful eye or someone to walk home with.

My overall consensus on the investigation of Penn State’s party school status was that in some respects it was at times very entertaining and hilarious, some situations appalling and embarrassing, but all in all not 100% surprising. It was said by the reporters themselves that when else will we have the time to experience these things, make mistakes and learn from them? I truly believe that improvements can be made in protecting and ensuring the safety of the students, however, this happens all over the country and is not exclusive to Penn State. I just hope that by making an example of our University, people learn a thing or two from it. I definitely know that I have.

My Favorite Bench

Several times a week I find myself with time in between classes and instead of hauling all the way back to my dorm, just to turn back around soon after, I explore campus. I promised myself upon arrival at Penn State that I would spend each day taking in a new part of campus. While there are beautiful spaces all over campus, one spot in particular that I eventually find myself at by the end of the day. Down on the southwest end of campus at the intersection of West College Ave and South Allen St, facing the Sacket Building is my personal escape. Under a canopy of oak trees sits a wooden bench, enough to fit two or three people, if you squeeze, that absorbs a just enough sunlight to keep you warm without becoming too overwhelming. In close proximity to downtown there’s a mixture of the blue loop coming and going, the shifting gears of bikes making their way up the daunting hill, students on the phone walking to and from class, the mouth watering smell of freshly baked bread and hot coffee from Irving’s, and possibly the most alluring characteristic is the family of ducks that wait by the bushes behind the bench for a kind student to spare some food. This particular spot on campus perfectly juxtaposes both the fast paced downtown with small town appeal that drew me to Penn State in the first place. It displays the best of both worlds, making it the perfect escape from the stresses in my life.

Palmer Museum of Art: Modern Limits

            Walking into the Palmer Museum of Art, I have to admit I was impressed. I’ve always been one for the arts and I’ve found myself in MOMA or the National Gallery of Art on random weekends, but Penn State displays art just as beautifully. As I made my way through the first floor I wasn’t struck by anything in particular, probably because I knew that I have an affinity for modern art. Upstairs I came across several striking pieces with vibrant colors and straight to the point messages, however, I wanted to be challenged by a piece instead of picking something easily understood. It wasn’t until the end of my visit that a painting titled Modern Limits, created by an American artist; William T. Wiley caught my eye. At first glance I didn’t understand anything about it, but I still had that visual appeal. Examining it more closely I learned the piece was made in 1975, using acrylics and charcoal on canvas, and beyond the technical components, the artist was predominantly known for his influence in the northern California Funk Art Movement; which can be “categorized by irreverence and self-consciously unrefined style.”

            The painting is in landscape form with a frayed and withered looking border. There’s a gray consistency among the painting, starting with its background and darker strokes of gray and black covering the majority of the canvas. Color such as red, yellow, orange, green and blue do appear sporadically throughout the painting however, in much smaller amounts, like a single stroke or line to add subtle variation. In the center of the painting there is a crescent moon with light beaming from the edges with a hint of yellow. Most of the defined images appear in the bottom left corner where an eye is peering through a telescope facing a skull with a broken smile. In addition on of the main focal points of the piece, a set of stairs drawn to resemble that of blueprints originates in the bottom left corner. Weaving and out of the painting are what seems to be smoke or a screen the envelopes the buildings, roads and workers. Another small reoccurring theme throughout the artwork were little quotes of ambiguous nonsense such as “well I think such and such and it has to be this or that or so and so because of such and such and we’ve named them this because of that.”

Upon first looking at Wiley’s piece I wouldn’t necessarily say it had an emotional impact on me, but generated curiosity.  What’s its purpose? What message is it sending me? I have to admit that that’s why I loved it so much, it didn’t have a literal meaning, I had to explore. With more investigation of the painting the colors, more importantly the juxtaposition of the hard and soft use of gray and subtle pops of color conveyed a somber and overwhelming emotion. It gave me the impression that the gray and black smoke serves to impose a feeling of miscommunication among society, and that it all has become just white noise, which in all honesty scares me a lot. I hope that with our fast-paced country, we don’t continue to progress and move forward without any real direction.

           

Wiley’s Modern Limits serves to support his belief in the Funk Art Movement, by means to “reintroduce social responsibility into contemporary art.” While it was painted in the mid-1970’s, the artist references his father’s job as a surveyor for the U.S. government when he was a young boy. Even though there is a significant gap in time from when he painted the piece and the point of reference, the underlying meaning pertains to modern day standards. My interpretation of Wiley’s argument is that there’s a conflict with the need to push boundaries and progress as society, when development must happen organically and can’t be forced. With the help of Wiley’s notes of complete ambiguity, it drives the argument that constructive and beneficial decisions are not being made, but we continue to build our society just for the sake of not being left behind or considered as inferior by others. I believe the name in its own describes the artist’s feelings that limits must be put into place for healthy progression. As far as Wiley’s credibly goes, the origin of the Funk Art Movement began with him and his colleagues at the University of California at Davis and expanded to a countrywide movement that influenced the art world immensely. 

 I had an amazing time walking from room to room throughout the Palmer, and I hope to spend more than just an hour there so I can take in everything it has to offer. 

Journal #1: My life as a writer

            As a child I had a wild imagination, creating stories, immersing myself in fantasies, and escaping to my own world, where the wild things are. Somewhere along the line I feel like I lost sight of that genuine creativity. All through high school I found myself just “getting by” with my writing as a student. I guess you could say that it was a rare moment when I was truly passionate about what I was writing. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher my junior year who pushed my boundaries and guided my writing style into a more advanced standing. However, senior year I was pushed straight back into mediocrity with a teacher who preached the philosophy of “it’s my way or the highway.” And no, I’m not exaggerating. Therefore, you can understand by I chose to write about Harry Potter during my AP exam, it was the only novel of “comparable literary merit” that I could write passionately about. Despite my grievances with the rhetoric and composition taught in high school, I hope to leave all of those pessimistic views and make a complete 180 and return to that state of imagination that consumed my life as a child. I mean everyone wants to be a kid again in one way or another, why not in writing, just without the crayons.  

            As a developing writer I can confidently say that I have acquired quite a few strengths, starting with my ability to accept constructive criticism. Despite my previous bitter emotions towards my high school teachers, I was always able to listen and recognize what I need to improve on as a student and writer. Another strength that I have developed is my ability to whole-heartedly invest in a piece of work, hold on there’s a catch, when I have a strong opinion or find myself passionate about. I know most people can definitively say the same thing, however, my best work has come from topics where I have more than an ounce of interest.

While that can be considered one of my greatest strengths, at the same time it serves as one of my biggest weakness as a developing writer because I don’t care to give it that 110% that I would do with topics I have interest in. Tough luck, everyone has to indulge in situations that they don’t necessarily agree with or feel motivated by. So I plan to look at the vast differences throughout Penn State as inspiration to take everything in and give it a fair chance. On a more technical level, I also hope to improve on my transitions from one paragraph to another. For some reason in high school, I was always under the impression that my ideas flowed throughout my work, until I was corrected of that notion when I received my paper.

I believe that I have been afforded an excellent opportunity within this course through peer review to have my work be seen by eyes other than the teacher and mine. On a personal level I plan to grow as a writer by giving everything a shot and allow myself not to be narrow minded in my opinions. Hopefully these actions will not only improve my skill as a writer but as a person as well.

A form of memorable art I stumbled upon a few years ago on a spur of the moment trip to the National Gallery of Art, still to this day resonates with me. The photography of Robert Frank, most famously known for his work traveling across United States and capturing the day-to-day lives of Americans from the early 1920’s to late 1950’s. One of the things that struck me the most was his ability to encompass both a rawness and beauty during the hardest years of our country’s history. Frank truly has a talent for exposing the emotions of every passing face captured by his camera, and most notably, without the support that color ordinarily offers to a message. I’ve enclosed one of my personal favorites from his collection because it reminds me of the young Kate, who had quite the amazing imagination and which I hope to return to. http://www.shanelavalette.com/images/journal/dannywilcoxfrazier01.jpg