The deliberation that I chose to attend took place on Thursday February 26th from 7-9pm and was titled “Schooled: Is College Really Worth it?”. There are many reasons I chose to attend this deliberation: 1) It was at Webster’s, 2) It was my boyfriend’s event, and 3) I had to go to another one. As you may have noticed, none of these reasons have anything to do with me being interested in the topic, but as I later discovered, this topic was very engaging and made me think a lot about my views of college.

So despite the cold, I made the trek to Webster’s and, after browsing through the rows of books and buying myself a cup of mint tea and a coconut macaroon, I took a seat in front of the stage and read through the deliberation guide. The three approaches were very interesting to me because they weren’t really solutions to a problem, but rather different skills/interactions that students gain/experience while at college to answer the question of what the main purpose of college really was.

Approach one focused on college being a place for students to gain social and cultural awareness. The moderator really didn’t have an opening speech, she just kind of gave a brief summary of the approach. But after about 20 seconds of awkward silence, someone raised her hand and commented to break the ice and after that the conversation took off. At first the discussion focused a lot on the diversity here on campus. A lot of students told stories about how they had come from towns that were 100% white and how being at Penn State had opened their eyes to other cultures and beliefs. Being a Spanish major, I, along with another girl who was a French major, commented about how it was cool to be able to hear people speaking in Spanish while walking to class or to have friends who were native speakers of that language. The conversation then transitioned into college being a catalyst for gaining social skills that would be vital in the real world, however there was still some debate of whether gaining social and cultural awareness was the main purpose of college.

Approach two focused on attending college to become a well-rounded individual. This moderator also did not have a prepared speech and just kind of briefly introduced the topic before we launched into discussion. Right off the bat, the moderator kind of steered the conversation towards the purpose of gen eds and if we should be required to take them. That topic produced a variety of opinions, with some people feeling that gen eds were a waste of time and others loving them. I was personally surprised to discover that I sided more with the people who liked gen eds. I even found myself commenting and arguing that gen eds actually teach real skills whereas some of the core classes require many semesters of learning and instruction before you can actually do anything with the knowledge. This opinion however was not really the popular one, and the main consensus was that college wasn’t so much about taking gen eds and becoming well-rounded, but about taking specific classes that most prepared you for a career, an idea that transitioned into the next approach.

The final approach, approach 3, was that the purpose of college was to prepare for the workforce. This approach had been asserted by participants from the very beginning of the deliberation: from science majors saying that they came to college so they could go to medical school, to music majors saying that they had to go to college so that they could teach music. The moderator directed the conversation to all of the organizations that Penn State had to help with career services and placement and asked if that suggested that college’s main purpose was to prepare for jobs. Many students agreed and stated that the workforce was their personal reason for attending college.

At the end of the deliberation, the outreach team summarized the main opinions that had been stated and acknowledged that approach three was the primary reason for attending college that the participants seemed to favor. They also talked about groups that weren’t represented, such as parents, college faculty, and people who chose not to attend college, since the people present were nearly all Penn State students which reduced the diversity of opinions.

Overall, I found that I agreed with a little piece of all three approaches. I value the social and cultural aspect of college, and I enjoy taking gen eds and getting a well rounded education, but also the fact that I am a science major wanting to go to medical school shows that I am also at school for the sake of getting a job. So not only did I get to enjoy some tea and a snack, but I also learned a lot about my own views, as well as the views of others, and established my opinion on a topic that turned out to be pretty cool.

When you think of college sports, and especially college sports at Penn State, there is one clear event that immediately comes to most everyone’s mind. We all know about it, but we don’t talk about it. Especially here, it has become taboo. But it has also become arguably the biggest factor in the reputation of this university.

If you’re not quick to agree, imagine this scenario: you’re talking to someone not from this area, perhaps from Arizona or Utah or Tennessee; someone from somewhere far enough away that Penn State isn’t always on the top of their radar. If you were to ask this person “What do you think of when you hear the name Penn State”, you are kidding yourself if you think they would say “Why, it is ranked at No. 46 in the Center for World University Rankings!” or “Penn State Smeal College of Business ranks 15th among all U.S. and international business schools and 4th among publicly supported schools!” Deep down, you and I both know the two words they would instinctively blurt out . We can hear those five syllables creep into our ears and make us cringe in shame and embarrassment: “Jerry Sandusky.”

As much as we want to deny it, as much as we want to believe that our academic prestige and world-class faculty and groundbreaking research overshadow this convoluted event from our past, we know that that is not the case. All of the good things about this university, all of our accomplishments and achievements take a back seat to this single event.

Since early November 2011, when Jerry Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, Penn State’s reputation changed forever. In the Yik Yak community, the Sandusky Sex Abuse Scandal earned us names like Ped-State. People who had for generations been diehard Penn State fans abandoned their blue and white jerseys in shame. Students were embarrassed to declare their alma matter, and the entire community was devastated and humiliated by the scandal.

As we all know too well, this event didn’t just affect Penn State football. It compromised the reputation of the entire university. The actions of one man, an assistant football coach, undermined Penn State’s academic credibility, and tainted the value of a Penn State diploma.

If this doesn’t say something about the emphasis we put on college athletics, I don’t know what does. The fact that something that happened in the sector of college sports has the power to poison the once-revered reputation of Penn State as a whole sheds a lot of light on the esteemed position that athletics has in our society.

In addition to ravishing the school’s perception in the public eye, the scandal also took a tole on other areas of the Penn State community that may not have been affected if academics and athletics were not so intertwined. Enrollment dropped by over 1000 students from 2011 to 2012 and tuition between the two years spiked at a higher rate than compared to previous years. It is estimated that the university shelled out over $171 million in fees and settlements related to the Sandusky scandal, and while Penn State assures that no tuition dollars were used to cover the costs, in the end, it is all university money, and when one area of the budget gives, another area has to pick up the slack. 171 million dollars can do a lot. It can hire new, renowned faculty, it can fund innovative research, it can provide aide to students in need, it can construct new buildings and refurbish old ones. But in this case, every cent was used to cover the destruction caused by one man’s criminal actions.

Today, over 3 years after the case began, we still feel the huge impact it has left here. I remember the first time I sang the alma matter at my first football game here, the irony of the lines “let no act of ours bring shame, to a heart that loves thy name” felt like a punch in the gut. This criminal act not only brought shame to Penn State football, it shamed and humiliated the entire university. A single event involving football officials inspired comments like the quote captioning the photo at the begining of this post, and devastated the public’s opinion of not just Penn State athletics, but every aspect of the university. Perhaps if we didn’t worship college sports so much, perhaps if we didn’t put teams on pedestals and allow them to define the image of a university, Penn State’s reputation wouldn’t have suffered as much as it did.