Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Welcome Liberal Arts Citizens

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Whether you are a returning or change of location student or a new student just embarking on your college career, I want to welcome you to the 2014-15 academic year in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State.

I know many of you have had an excellent summer of study abroad, internships, work, learning, or preparing to begin college, and I hope you are refreshed and ready to turn your full attention to the year ahead.

A liberal arts education involves more than taking classes in specific disciplines, it also entails cultivating certain habits of thinking, reflecting, and responding to the world we inhabit. In addition to the excellent critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills you learn through our liberal arts curriculum, you’ll need to develop the habits of leadership, imagination, initiative, and engagement if you want to create a fulfilling life for yourself.

We have a rich set of resources in the College to help you do this, beginning with our excellent corps of experienced academic advisers, and extending to our Career Enrichment Network, which has financial resources to help you study abroad, find an internship or a mentor, or pursue research.

To encourage you to do this and to enable you to track and document your progress, I am happy to invite you to participate in our Liberal Arts Citizens Badge program:

Liberal Arts Citizens perceive globally, lead ethically, take initiative, and engage their communities in meaningful ways. The Liberal Arts Citizen badging program is designed to encourage and recognize the actions that demonstrate these values and skills in our Liberal Arts students. Badges in four categories – global perspective, leadership, initiative, and engagement – will help you navigate the opportunities available in the College of the Liberal Arts.

We are one of the first units at Penn State to roll out such a badge platform, and we did it because we wanted to help you document and demonstrate the habits of the liberal arts that will give you an edge in creating a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Plus, we thought it would be fun.

So as we begin the year, I invite you to become a liberal arts citizen by taking full advantage of the resources we have to enrich your liberal arts experience.

Sincerely,
@deancplong

Opening a Dialogue on Graduate Student Healthcare

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@deancplong: Alex, a few weeks ago, you brought concerns about changes to graduate student health insurance policies to my attention. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), together with increased usage of the existing plan, have resulted in a projected increase in health care costs for graduate students in 2014-15.

Prompted by your concerns, I have looked into the situation further, so let me start with some of what I discovered. The actual cost of graduate student plan last year was 105% of the insurance premiums received. Normal usage is up to 80% of the level to which the plan is funded. As a result, even with no changes due to the ACA, premium rates set by Aetna would have increased in 2015 by a minimum of 30% based upon the usage of the benefits.

According to a March 26th memo from Jean Vasilatos-Younken, Interim Dean of the Graduate School, although the new plan will be more comprehensive, Aetna (Penn State’s student medical plan insurer) has projected an increase to premiums of 30%, an increase to deductibles (from $75 to $250 for individuals; from $225 to $500 for families), a reduction in coverage from 100% to 90% for in-network service (with an out-of-pocket max. of $1350 for individuals and $2700 for families), and the adoption of a $150 co-pay for emergency room visits (which is waived if the individual is admitted to the hospital).

Students are understandably concerned about these changes, and I thought we might discuss those concerns here and open a wider conversation about possible ways to respond to the situation.

Alex Feldman (Graduate Student in Philosophy): Thank you for inviting me to contribute. I think the major concern right now for us is to ensure that our voices are heard in the decision-making processes, that administrators and insurance representatives understand our situation, and that whatever decision is made is fully transparent.

Graduate students did not receive any form of notification about the proposed changes to their plan until February 25 of this year. They did not have a chance to discuss the changes with administrators until March 27.

The changes have been presented to us as largely inevitable consequences of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka “Obamacare”). Without getting into the technicalities of the law, I would just like to say that graduate students need a better explanation than the one we have effectively received: that our current plan is too good to be legal under the new law. “Large group plans,” for example, are not subject to the same legal requirements that Aetna is using to justify our benefits reduction. (Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare has a good fact sheet on this.) We would like to make sure that the university is actively considering all options for graduate insurance.

@deancplong: I think it is critical for graduate student voices to be heard and for the process to be as transparent as possible, which is why I appreciate your willingness to engage in this public discussion here on the blog.

The proposed changes to the health plan for graduate students certainly caught me off guard and from what I can tell, the proposed increases were not anticipated by the upper administration either. Dean Vasilatos-Younken has told me that we now have a third-party consultant looking at the plan to assess if what Aetna has projected is really required by the ACA. If it is, the consultant will help us look into how best to address the situation under those constraints. So it is not just the graduate students who are looking for a better explanation about the impact of the implementation of the ACA.

Alex Feldman: Yes, I understand that insurance companies are using the ACA nationally to justify increased costs for many vulnerable groups. The Centre Daily Times, for example, recently reported on the effects of the ACA for rural residents. I urge the university to enter into dialogue with other groups affected by the law and to advocate on behalf of all members of the Penn State community.

@deancplong: I know the university is trying to address this issue with a wide swath of faculty, students and staff. With regard to graduate assistants, the university has said that the University contribution for plans that cover family members will be increased to 75% (up from 70%) for plans that cover a spouse/domestic partner or children, and to 76% for the family plan (up from 70%). They have also agreed to maintain the current 80% subsidy for individual plans.

Alex Feldman: Yes, I read about that, but this solution would leave out the thousands of graduate students who are not currently subsidized by the university. A better solution, in my opinion, would be to extend a cost-offsetting subsidy to all graduate students, regardless of whether they are on assistantships or fellowships. Administrators at the March 27 meeting suggested a 3% raise, but it is not clear how helpful this amount would be after increased taxes and inflation. If the university does want to pursue stipend raises as a solution, I would urge them to give a flat amount to all graduate students, rather than a percentage-based raise, which disproportionately benefits those at the top while doing little for those most in need.

@deancplong: The March 26th memo did mention the possibility of a 3% raise, which I took to be a very good development considering that faculty and staff rarely see raises as high as 3% in a year. I understand that this increase, together with the increased University contribution to the higher cost plans, will offset the anticipated increase in monthly premiums for all graduate students. (I have some examples that I’ll post in the comments.)

Still, your point is well taken that we need to consider how to ensure that those who are most in need of help receive it. My understanding is that a Task Force is being established to investigate other options to address those additional needs.

There are a number of other issues at stake here as well, including the question of how to ensure a “living wage” for graduate students. Perhaps we could take that up in a separate post but open it up here for the thoughts and ideas of those who may be following along with us.

What concerns do you have about the changes to graduate healthcare coverage? What suggestions do you have to effectively address the situation? How can we further facilitate thoughtful discussion about this issue?

Beginning as Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Education in Liberal Arts

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There can be little doubt that we are living through a time of great transformation in higher education. New forms of digital communication have opened new possibilities for education even as they have disrupted and caused us to reconsider traditional modes of pedagogy and scholarship. The liberal arts finds itself repeatedly required to justify its worth and legitimacy in a digital age.

During my tenure as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, we have tried to respond to this situation by putting these new modes of digital communication into practice by demonstrating how the liberal arts is a specific and valuable way of engaging the world we inhabit.

To this end, we have sought to build an online community around the virtues of a liberal arts education by emphasizing habits of engagement that can enrich our online lives and in person relationships: the ability to communicate effectively, an openness to and appreciation for diversity, a sensitivity to the ethical implications of our decisions, and a commitment to respond to complexity with nuance and a sense for the wider whole to which we belong. These abilities are cultivated by a liberal arts education rooted in the virtues of generosity, worldliness, and ethical imagination.

In taking on new responsibilities this July as Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Education, I hope to extend this online digital community to the graduate level. 

With graduate students, as with undergraduates, the strategy is to amplify the excellent work they do rather than to push information at them via social media. To this end, we intend to create profiles of our students, invite them to give public voice to their graduate experience, and support them in their attempts to integrate digital modes of communication and collaboration into their academic research.

On the undergraduate level, we created the Liberal Arts Voices podcast and the LAUS Blog to highlight the transformative educational experiences our students have; we built the Career Enrichment Network to help them navigate a successful path from college to the world of work; and we created the Office of Digital Media, Pedagogy and Scholarship to facilitate the effective use of technology in academic research and teaching.

Extending this to the graduate level will involve specific challenges, as our graduate students are more reticent – for understandable reasons – to engage in scholarly communication in the digital public sphere. Nevertheless, over the next few months, the Office of Digital Media, Pedagogy and Scholarship will begin to reach out to our graduate students in the humanities and social sciences to encourage them to more actively craft an online identity that will expose their academic work to a wider public and position them effectively for a successful job search. 

In addition, look for some changes to the current Liberal Arts blog space, which will shift from what has been a largely undergraduate focus to one intent on amplifying Liberal Arts Voices from across the College, from graduate and undergraduate students to faculty and staff. 
To signal my own shift in responsibilities, I have changed the twitter handle under which I tweet in my role as Associate Dean. My new handle is @deancplong, (if you were following me as @LAUSDeanLong, you are now following me as @deancplong).
In the coming months, we will roll out a more robust set of resources associated with our Humanities in a Digital Age (HDA) initiative. With the support of Eric Silver, the new Associate Dean for Research in the College of the Liberal Arts, we are now accepting proposals from faculty for digital humanities research projects. If you have a project for which you would like funding, visit the HDA Faculty Grant Application Form. Preference will be given to projects that have a good chance of external funding after a period of seed funding from the College. Graduate students with interesting Digital Humanities projects are encouraged to contact the Director of Graduate Studies in their department who can nominate them for a Superior Teaching and Research (STAR) Award.

Despite widespread talk that the liberal arts are in crisis, I have never been more sanguine about the value and versatility of a liberal arts education at both the undergraduate and graduate level. As I move into my role as Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Education, I invite you to lend your voice, energy and insight to our efforts to put the virtues of the liberal arts into practice during this period of intense transformation. These changes will be enriched by the traditional values of excellent scholarship and intentional living the liberal arts have always embodied.

Welcome to Spring 2013 in the Liberal Arts

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Sparks Building in December by LAUSatPSU
Sparks Building in December, a photo by LAUSatPSU on Flickr.

Dear Liberal Arts Undergraduate Colleagues,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all new and transfer students to the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) at Penn State, and welcome back to all returning students from what was hopefully a restful, albeit it short, break!

As we head into the Spring 2013 semester, I encourage you to join our online community, where students, faculty, and staff can connect with one another and reflect on the liberal arts experience at Penn State. Visit these sites often, and have your voice heard by participating in the ongoing conversation.

The LAUS website is the main source for all of the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office, and it includes useful information about the various programs, processes, and units within LAUS.

The LAUSatPSU blog focuses on the vast experiences and diverse perspectives of liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. You are certain to find a wide variety of content, including student posts about recent internships or study abroad experiences, tips from the CLA advising staff, episodes of Liberal Arts Voices podcast, and much more.

The LAUS Announcements blog is your one stop to get recent news, updates, and announcements important for liberal arts students. Find out about upcoming events, deadlines, and opportunities by subscribing to the LAUS Announcements blog.

I also invite you to connect with us on our social media channels. You can follow me (@LAUSDeanLong) and the LAUS office (@LAUSatPSU) on Twitter, “like” our Facebook page, view our Flickr photos, and watch our YouTube videos. You can also follow our advising team @AdvisingLAatPSU.

Finally, I encourage you to regularly check the College’s event calendar to discover the many activities and opportunities that are scheduled throughout the semester. This spring, the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network put together a series of career-related, international, and professional development events that should be of particular interest. These events are designed to help fulfill the mission of the Career Enrichment Network, which is to assist Liberal Arts students with applying and further developing their skills through internships, undergraduate research, and study abroad experiences. Attend as many of the workshops and information sessions as you can in order to prepare for your job search and beyond.

With all of these opportunities to engage and connect with the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office–both in person and online–I hope this spring will be a fulfilling and transformative semester.

For “the wondrous child”

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Mutual admiration by Targuman
Mutual admiration, a photo by Targuman on Flickr.

There are no words to express the grief our Penn State community feels with the family of Chris and Elizabeth Brady, and their daughter, Izzy, at the sudden death of their son and brother, Mack. 

Yet words we must find … and pictures to remember … and action to memorialize. 
For words, we might listen to Emerson, who himself lost his son too soon: 
Excerpted from Threnody:

The south-wind brings 
Life, sunshine, and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire, 
But over the dead he has no power, 
The lost, the lost he cannot restore, 
And, looking over the hills, I mourn 
The darling who shall not return. 
I see my empty house, 
I see my trees repair their boughs, 
And he, –the wondrous child, 
Whose silver warble wild 
Outvalued every pulsing sound 
Within the air’s cerulean round, 
The hyacinthine boy, for whom 
Morn well might break, and April bloom, 
The gracious boy, who did adorn 
The world whereinto he was born, 
And by his countenance repay 
The favor of the loving Day, 
Has disappeared from the Day’s eye; 
Far and wide she cannot find him, 
My hopes pursue, they cannot bind him.
For pictures, we might look to his father’s Flickr page, where we find these of “The gracious boy, who did adorn/The world whereinto he was born”:
For action to memorialize, we might contribute to a soccer scholarship created in his name and honor.
Mack loved soccer and his dream was to play keeper on the US National Soccer team. The Brady family asks that gifts in honor of Mack’s memory be made to a soccer scholarship in Mack’s honor so that, as his father said, Mack “will, in some sense, ‘be on the field’ that he hoped to play on some day.”
Memorial gifts may be made online at http://givenow.psu.edu or by sending a check, payable to Penn State with “In memory of Mack Brady” in the memo line, to: Penn State University, One Old Main, University Park, PA 16802.
Perhaps these words, images and actions will allow us to lean together into the grief that is the loss of that “wondrous child.” 

Dialogue on Diversity: Responding to Difference

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Vendor in Cuetzalan Market by LAUSatPSU
Vendor in Cuetzalan Market, a photo by
Chelsea Jackson via LAUSatPSU on Flickr.

LAUSDeanLong: Kasey, one of the things we talk about as a core value of the liberal arts is being open to diversity. This is different from tolerance, which is merely to put up with something that might otherwise be unpleasant. The liberal arts ideal involves more than that, it means to embrace diversity as an enriching part of our lives, as what gives human life texture and depth.

That is why the images we have seen of the Penn State students playing on the most insensitive and demeaning caricature of Mexicans is so disheartening. It reflects poorly on all of us and demonstrates that we are doing a poor job cultivating one of the central ideals of a liberal arts education. How are you and your fellow students thinking about and responding to this incident?

KaseyOK: I think that students are generally disappointed by this situation. While a divide seems to exist as to exactly how out of line the students’ actions were, I think we have all acknowledged that the stereotypes that were highlighted were extremely offensive to us and to Mexicans. We simply wish the students had thought about the consequences of representing people of this culture in a degrading manner.

As you mentioned, in Liberal Arts we strongly value diversity and encourage all students to be open to and embrace people of other cultures. Personally, I do not believe this incident stemmed from hate; however I believe it did come out of a lack of these values which we have distinguished as being central to a liberal arts education. Looking ahead, I think we as individuals need to re-examine the way we incorporate diversity into our lives, and learn to do more than tolerate others, but to seek actively opportunities for growth through exposure to diversity.

LAUSDeanLong: You are probably right that the incident did not stem from overt hatred, but it did emerge from a culture of ignorance and xenophobia. It is probably easier to address overt hatred than it is to address more subtle and therefore perhaps more pernicious forms of racism and cultural ignorance. It is our responsibility as an institution of education to respond in ways that enable us to honestly examine and redress our own prejudices, even and especially when they are embedded in the institutional and cultural structures in which we live.

Another important dimension of this episode is the role social media played in exposing the incident. One aspect of social media that I find compelling is the way it can reveal something about ourselves to us as a community; often it reveals aspects of ourselves it is difficult to face. The public nature of social media is critical in this regard. Do you have the sense that students appreciate the extent to which their social media presence is, at heart, a way of appearing in public, with all the power and implications that involves?

KaseyOK: At this point in our lives (being in college, applying for jobs and other opportunities), I believe students are developing an awareness of this public face that social media provides. Students take steps such as altering Facebook names, creating multiple Twitter accounts, and blocking certain people from their social media platforms in order to maintain “privacy.” 

However, I do not think that students have an awareness of how what they post on these sites reflects on them as individual people. You mentioned how social media reveals things about ourselves that we do not want to face, and I believe this is an area to which we students need to turn our attention. While students have mastered blocking specific people from viewing their sites, they are not focusing on what image their statuses and pictures are creating to the people who are allowed to view it. This also ignores the fact that all things posted on the internet have the potential to reach an unintended audience; the internet does not allow us to keep anything truly private.

My question to students is this: why post things on social media that you would not want everyone to see? Is there a general lack of understanding of the power of the internet, or do we just choose to ignore it?

LAUSDeanLong: And to your questions, I would add: what vision of ourselves as individuals and members of the Penn State community do we want to embody in our social media and face to face relationships? How does the liberal arts ideal of embracing diversity, as opposed to merely tolerating it, fit into that vision of ourselves?

Reaffirmation and Renewal

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234/365: Beautiful Start by cplong11
234/365: Beautiful Start, a photo by cplong11 on Flickr.

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues: 

In the life of a university, fall is a time of both continuity and renewal. 
Those of you returning to campus bring with you the wisdom of your past educational accomplishments now enriched by a summer’s internship or travel or the comforts of home. 
Those of you joining us as freshmen or transfer students bring with you a diversity of past experience that enriches our community by opening us to new perspectives. 
Never in the history of our university has this reaffirmation and renewal been more important or more appreciated. We welcome your return with anticipation, sober in the recognition that a challenging opportunity lies before us. 
The painful revelations of the past 10 months offer us a chance to reshape our community by affirming our long tradition of academic excellence, redressing our past failings, and rededicating ourselves to the pursuit of an education capable of deepening our understanding of the world and enriching our relationships with one another. 
As a student entering or returning to the College of the Liberal Arts, I invite you to bring your best self to this most important academic year. We faculty, staff and administrators have been preparing for your arrival and for the work we have ahead of us. Bring your thoughtfulness, your creative talents and a willingness to shape and be shaped by the life of this university, which finds itself this fall in need of the revitalizing energy you bring with you. 
Sincerely, 
Christopher Long 
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies 
Professor of Philosophy and Classics

Teaching into the Crisis

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Today a group of over fifty faculty in the College of the Liberal Arts gathered to deliberate about how best to respond to the students we will encounter next week in our classrooms as we begin a new academic year in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that has impacted our community.

Since the news of the scandal broke last November, we in the Dean’s Office have thought a great deal about how to respond to staff, faculty, alums and students in ways that push us toward a vision of Penn State as an academic community of integrity and rigorous inquiry. 
Organizing and modering a faculty panel discussion entitled Teaching into the Crisis is the latest in our attempts to engage faculty in ways that open new opportunities to deliberate about how best to reaffirm the values we have always sought to embody: excellent scholarship, innovative teaching and conscientious service.
Here I have gathered information about the panelists and resources to facilitate further deliberation with one another and our students:
The Panel in the order in which they spoke:
    • Debbie Hawhee, Professor of English, Co-Director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation
    • Lorraine Dowler, Associate Professor of Geography and Women’s Studies
    • Eric Silver, Professor of Sociology and Crime, Law and Justice
    • Kyle King, PhD Student in English; Laura Brown, 2nd year Master’s student, English
    • Brian Redmond, Lecturer in Psychology, Advisor of the World Campus Psychology Club
    • Moderated by Christopher Long, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies
Resources
Articles of Interest
Diigo Shared Links
Diigo is a service that allows groups to share bookmarks associated with a particular issue of common interest. We invite you to follow our Diigo Group where we will post links to resources to facilitate deliberation on the Penn State crisis.

<a href=”http://groups.diigo.com/group/deliberating_penn_state” >Shared Links for Deliberating the Penn State Crisis</a>

Dialogue on the Freeh Report

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313/365: Old Main by cplong11
313/365: Old Main, a photo by cplong11 on Flickr.

LAUSDeanLong: It is a real honor, Kasey, to continue our tradition of dialogues between the LAUS Dean and the President of the LAUC with you today. The dialogues are intended to open a space of mature and honest communication with students in which we can address issues of central concern to the College and the University. There is, of course, no more pressing issue of concern today than the recent release of the Freeh Report. 

The report outlines the failures of senior leaders in the university to act on behalf of the safety and welfare of child victims of a sexual predator, and of a university culture of deference to authority that prevented reports of crimes to flow to proper authorities (14, 127ff). It designates the transformation of this culture as the most challenging task facing the Penn State community (18). 
As a member of the faculty, an administrator, a husband and a father, I want very much to contribute to the transformation that we need to accomplish together, but I must admit, I feel tremendously saddened, disappointed and even disheartened as I read through this report. I wonder about the students; how are you feeling? 
KaseyOKeefe: I would say the vast majority of students share that disappointment and sadness you mentioned, Dean Long. We came to Penn State trusting those in power, and expecting them to live up to the upstanding reputation that we were proud to become a part of. We felt let down in November, when it felt like the rug was being pulled out from under us, and I believe that feeling returned today, reading a summary of everything that went wrong over the course of many years. Further, as young adults and simply as human beings, it is extremely upsetting to see people we respected put children’s lives in jeopardy for the sake of careers and reputations.  
Along with these uneasy feelings, however, comes a strong sense of unity and promise of hope for the future of Penn State. Many students have been tweeting or posting on Facebook all day the reasons why they are proud to be Penn Staters, and they have been urging others not to blame the whole University for the actions of few. Additionally, as you mentioned, the report calls for a transformation, and students are also looking forward to being involved in that process. A group of student leaders released a statement this morning, which assured us that they “will do the best [they] can to ensure that our institution diligently reviews and considers the recommendations laid out in the Freeh report.” I believe we students ultimately expect to see these changes made by our administration, want to continue placing the victims and their well-being as a priority, and look forward to carrying ourselves in ways that will restore and reinforce Penn State’s good name. 
LAUSDeanLong: Throughout this process, Kasey, I have been impressed by the thoughtful manner in which most Penn State students, and particularly our students in the College of the Liberal Arts, have responded to the crisis. We will need your best talents as students of ethics and psychology, of political science and sociology, of history and communication, to navigate a way to the “values- and ethics-centered community” of which the Freeh report speaks (129). Can we think together here, and perhaps ask students to think with us in the comments below, about what we can do in concrete terms to create a culture of accountability and ethical decision making? 
KaseyOKeefe: I think the main way that we can help create this culture is ongoing communication and discussion among all members of the Penn State community. Since November, Penn State students, faculty, and alumni have begun asking more questions and actively seeking out information of our decision making bodies. I believe the way we encourage accountability and ethical decision making is to continue these actions, such as following the Board of Trustees meetings and not letting them slip to the back of our minds again. We should also continue to push for student voices to be heard among administrators, allowing these meetings to have a mix of perspectives and opinions. Finally, we can promote open and constructive discussions among students and faculty. For example, these LAUS blog posts can provide a platform for non-threatening dialogue between students, faculty and administrators in the College of the Liberal Arts. I would like to encourage anyone to comment below and add to this discussion with your thoughts and suggestions about the topic. 
LAUSDeanLong: The voices of students will be critical to our ability to move toward a more open and self-critical community. In that spirit, let’s open our discussion to others and invite comments and reflections below about how we can best cultivate a renewed culture of accountability at Penn State.

Summer 2012 Open Letter to Liberal Arts Students

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Sparks Building by LAUSatPSU
Sparks Building, a photo by LAUSatPSU on Flickr.

Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues: 

Last November, when I wrote in the wake of the difficult events we were then experiencing, I cited Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet in which he wrote about the need to “live the questions” so that eventually we might live our way into the answers.
Today I write again, now in the wake of the Sandusky verdict, when some of those answers have been lived and others remain daunting and elusive. Dispersed as you now are during the summer, you are likely facing questions about Penn State, the verdict, and its implications, without having the benefit of the support your Penn State community provides. 
I write then, to remind you of two things. 
First, as students in the liberal arts, you are well equipped to respond with grace and insight to the questions you are receiving. You understand that answers are often ambiguous, demanding yet deeper and more substantive questioning; you see how the news media feeds on stark contrasts and easy oppositions; you recognize the complexity of the issues we face as a community, and your liberal arts education affords you the ability to reflect critically on them and to imagine new and productive ways of responding. I invite you to bring the full weight of your liberal arts education to bear on our ongoing attempts to live the questions we face now and into the fall semester. 
Second, our community of liberal arts colleagues is never so far dispersed that we cannot engage and support one another through our various online venues. Please join the ongoing conversations we are having on our blog and on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. We are working hard to cultivate an online community rooted in the liberal arts undergraduate experience and your voices are vital to this endeavor.
We here in the College of the Liberal Arts are focused on responding as best we can to events as they unfold even as we prepare for a large new class of freshman set to begin in the fall and the return of our impressive group of rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. You can look forward to meeting with your academic advisors, who stand ready now as ever to help you navigate your way toward graduation. 
We also have a number of new resources available to you through our Career Enrichment Network. The Network is designed to enrich your education here at Penn State and position you for success after college. Our Network Symplicity software allows you to post your resume for feedback and search for internship opportunities. In addition, the Leadership Enrichment through Assessment and Development (LEAD) program will roll out at the start of the new academic year, allowing you to identify your strengths through a series of on-line and in-person assessments. These are exciting new resources we offer to help you identify your future career path. 
As we continue to respond to events as they unfold, we also look forward to your return to campus with renewed optimism about the future we will make together. 
Enjoy the rest of your summer. 
Sincerely, 
Chris Long
Christopher P. Long 
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies 
Professor of Philosophy and Classics 
College of the Liberal Arts 
The Pennsylvania State University 
Note: If you or any of your colleagues need to talk with a professional counsellor, please don’t hesitate to call Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 814-863-0395 or go online at: http://www.sa.psu.edu/caps/schedule_appointment.shtml 
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