Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Agora: A Liberal Arts Magazine

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Athens, Ancient Agora
Originally uploaded by Arnaud Ab�lard

I met with Sean Healy last week to talk about the Liberal Arts Magazine he is starting here at Penn State. It will be called, Agora.

Sean tells the story of how it came about:

“When I changed campus to University Park last fall I was seeking an opportunity on campus to get involved. I found it difficult to find a student organization that I was passionate about or thought would fit my personality. I was looking to get involved in some sort of publication or magazine because I enjoy writing, and when I explored my options I found that Penn State did not have a Liberal Arts magazine. I decided that a Liberal Arts magazine at Penn State would be the perfect opportunity for Liberal Arts students and Penn State as a whole to gain from the experience of writing and the invaluable process of peer editing, review, and discussions.

This was the start of Agora and it the organization has been slowly growing ever since.”

The first edition of the magazine is due out March 1st, and it will be available at the LAUS office in 119 Sparks.

Here is Sean’s description of the magazine itself:

“Agora is a monthly Liberal Arts publication that seeks to promote diversity, free thought, and a marketplace of ideas for the Penn State community. All writing pieces within this publication are the original ideas of our authors who are encouraged to write about the issues they are most passionate about and feel should be further discussed. The result is a body of writing different from any Penn State publication. With no limits, our writers are free to express viewpoints that are often muffled, sidelined, or under discussed. From this thought the motivation for our name is derived: Agora.

The agora was a place of assembly unique to the ancient Greek civilization that served as both a political and commercial marketplace. The powerful symbolism embodied within the principal of an agora is clearly represented in the first amendment of the United States constitution: freedom of speech.”

I look forward to the appearance of this new magazine and hope that we can work together to amplify its voice in the College and the University.

Questions of A Senior Spring: To Print or Not to Print

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IMG_0303.JPGBefore I launch into my very first post, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Samantha Miller (though most everyone calls me Sam) and I am a senior liberal arts student here at Penn State. I am currently finishing up a double major in political science and minor in Spanish. I say finishing up because I have, as of the first week of January, officially filed my intent to graduate (it was a very bittersweet moment). 

 I have been a member of the University Park Undergraduate Association (more commonly known as UPUA and YOUR student government) for three years. This year, I serve on the executive board as the Director of Assembly Services. An initiative that I have been advocating for since last March has been for the UPUA to bring back the publication of a freshman handbook. This handbook would be a comprehensive, student-friendly reference that presents new students with everything they need to know about having enriching and successful undergraduate careers and to take advantage of the rich Penn State culture and opportunities by which new students will soon be surrounded. In my opinion far too much time is wasted in an undergraduate’s career just staying afloat–as official advocates for the undergraduate population, it is UPUA’s responsibility to help connect our constituents with the opportunities they want to be involved with from before day one on campus. Though this idea did take some time to go through the process of being passed and to receive an allocation of funds, I am now fully equipped with a team and a budget to make this project a reality for the incoming class of 2014 (which makes me feel so old!)
Last week The Daily Collegian printed an editorial titled “Efficiency needed for handbook” on whether or not it is a waste of student money (UPUA budget = small portion of Student Activity Fee = student money) to actually provide a free copy of a printed book to each new student. (see here:
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/01/25/efficiency_needed_for_handbook.aspx) They wrote “It’s safe to say that most students in the past years have gotten by just fine by looking up information on whatever relevant Web site that psu.edu offers. A housing question can be answered by simply googling “housing PSU” which will take you directly where you need to go.” They continue on arguing that, “Instead of using $21,000 to put out a physical handbook, why not create a Web site that would accumulate all the links and information that freshman students — and transfer students as well — would find very useful? It would certainly be a lot cheaper and more accessible than a handbook that, given the amount of information it plans to cover, could be quite large in capacity.”
Aside from the irony of print media arguing against funds being used for another form of print media, I think this raises an interesting question. Are the students getting along just fine? I would argue that they are not. We constantly hear complaints of student apathy, student drinking, and general disengagement of undergraduates from the opportunities and experiences that this Penn State Community offers to them. The easy solution is to blame the student…they just don’t care; you can’t fix student apathy, etc. etc. Well here’s my challenge: have we tried? I argue that we have not. We have done a poor job of connecting our new students with this community, never giving them the fighting chance to be good Penn State citizens. This book, a $21,000 physical and personal gift from the UPUA to their newest constituents, is an investment. It is an investment saying we want you to join our community and grow into something more wonderful and enriching than it has been before. We, the undergraduate students of the UPUA, believe in you and trust the future of this wonderful institution: shape it, grow it, appreciate it, and love it. It’s time to pay it forward, and this handbook will do just that. 
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