Penn State Berks will host a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King Day on Thursday, January 17, 2013. The event will be held in the Perkins Student Center Multipurpose Room; doors open at 6 p.m., with a soul food dinner at 6:30.
David Aurentz, associate professor of chemistry at Penn State Berks; Frederick Haag, associate professor of visual arts at Penn State York, and Mark Maughmer, professor of aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering, have received the Alumni/Student Award for Excellence in Teaching and have been named 2012 Penn State Teaching Fellows. The Penn State Alumni Association, in conjunction with undergraduate and graduate governing bodies, established the award in 1985. It honors distinguished teaching and provides encouragement and incentive for excellence in teaching. Recipients are expected to share their talents and expertise with others throughout the University system during the year following the award presentation.
W.D. Ehrhart, "the dean of Vietnam war poetry," will read from his work, followed by a discussion at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in room 125, Luerssen Building at Penn State Berks. This event is sponsored by the American studies degree program, and it is free and open to the public.
Independence Day celebrations almost always include fireworks of some kind. The Prevent Blindness America organization recommends attending professionally organized fireworks displays rather than buying and setting off your own. This view is echoed by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which collects and reports data on fireworks-related injuries every year. They report that 7,000 emergency room visits from fireworks-related injuries occurred during 2008, including seven deaths. In 2007, there were 11 deaths and 9,800 emergency room visits from fireworks-related injury.
Disease remedies using plant products fill the market, but most have not been tested well enough to be able to assure patients that they really work or that they are safe. Here is what is known about a few products that are often of interest to patients with diabetes.
Well more than 100,000 students, alumni, friends and fans of Penn State are staying connected to the University through Penn State's official page on Facebook and through two accounts on Twitter. The University's official page on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/pennstate, is a hub of daily activity for more than 104,000 Penn Staters. On Twitter, thousands are following two official University feeds at http://www.twitter.com/pennstatelive and http://www.twitter.com/penn_state.
CSI notwithstanding, forensics experts cannot always retrieve fingerprints from objects, but a conformal coating process developed by Penn State professors can reveal hard-to-develop fingerprints on nonporous surfaces without altering the chemistry of the print. "As prints dry or age, the common techniques used to develop latent fingerprints, such as dusting or cyanoacrylate -- SuperGlue -- fuming often fail," said Robert Shaler, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of Penn State's forensic sciences program.
With more than $1 billion raised to date, Penn State has entered the public phase of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, with a goal that will make it the biggest fundraising effort in the University's history. At a celebratory event held on April 23, President Graham Spanier announced that Penn State will aim to secure $2 billion by 2014 to ensure that the University can continue to offer an outstanding education to students from every economic background while benefiting the public through research and service.
"Penn State has made it possible for hundreds of thousands of individuals to sustain their families, advance their professions, and contribute to our country's strength," Spanier told more than 1,000 volunteers and donors gathered at the Bryce Jordan Center. "The For the Future campaign will ensure that we can continue to prepare our students for leadership in a world vastly different from any that previous generations have experienced."
A concussion in young athletes can cause significant problems, especially if not recognized and treated properly. The risk for concussion can certainly be reduced by using the proper equipment and following the rules, but it will never be eliminated. Soccer players and lacrosse players risk collisions with opponents or striking their head on the ground after a fall. Softball and baseball catchers and umpires risk getting concussions from foul balls.
As Penn State looks ahead to the future, its administrators are wrestling with what it means to be a public university at a time when public support for higher education is waning. Over the past 10 years, higher education in Pennsylvania has received a 4.8 percent increase in overall funding, while the state budget itself has increased more than 36 percent and basic education has seen a rise of almost 49 percent in that same time period. At the same time, higher education is losing ground in the court of public opinion, as many Americans are skeptical about whether colleges and universities are doing all they can to control costs and keep tuition affordable. Given this scenario, Penn State Provost Rod Erickson said the University cannot continue with "business as usual."