Over the past six years I’ve become addicted to the Paterno Fellows Program. And why not? Thoreau wrote in Walden that “if you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; now put foundations under them”–and our students, faculty, and alumni have certainly offered way-beyond-generous foundations in order to make the Paterno Fellows dream into a reality. And so for years now I’ve had experiences with students that I can’t get enough of.
For starters, I’ve met (and introduced students to) a former U.S. President; two Nobel laureates; leaders in business and commerce, medicine and the arts; and the greatest coach in college athletic history (and his incredible family). Even better, I’ve gotten to know hundreds of the most ambitious (and most unassuming) students you can imagine. You get the point. Addictive.
But for the good of the program it’s time for me to withdraw; my term as Director is up as of June 30. I’ve asked Dean Welch and Dean Long to find a faculty member to take over who will have plenty of energy and fresh ideas in order that the program might reach its full potential, and already several of our best faculty members have expressed interest. I will be here to assist in those efforts whenever I can (after all, you can seldom end an addiction completely), and I will enjoy continuing to work with Paterno Fellows as much as I can as a member of the English faculty.
My withdrawal will be good for me too. It will give me a chance to finish two research projects that I want to tie up before I retire and to do some teaching that I love. In fact, I’m already planning to offer two honors gen ed courses in the spring of 2014 on the civil rights movement, one of them as a two-credit Spring Break trip to key civil rights sites such as Washington, DC, Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. I can’t wait, and I hope some of you will be interested in enrolling–stay tuned for details.
Thanks again to all of you for your support, cooperation, and inspiration. Paterno Fellows and aspirants are what Penn State is all about, so I want to stay involved. It’s another habit, one that I don’t want to break.