Jessica Turnbull Fluffs Graham

Today the Collegian pretends to be the Penn State Propaganda Portal with day-in-the-life piece on Graham, by Jessica Turnbull. Should the Collegian decide that it wants to make amends for this awful example of journalism it might want to follow-up on a couple of promises Graham made to some students.

Spanier said he tries to eat in one of the residence halls at least once a month to "keep his finger on the pulse" of the university. Yesterday, he was invited to sit with seven students as soon as he entered the dining commons.

Though most were timid about sharing with the university president, the students warmed to Spanier's inquiry about what the one thing is they would want to change about Penn State. The complaints ranged from parking to a lack of academic advisers to limited career resources.

DJ Gibson (sophomore-architectural engineering) said four of the students there are part of the powerlifting team, which is in serious need of more equipment.

Gibson said the gym near East Halls has been sitting unused and would be a good place for the team to practice. Over a salad and two chocolate chip cookies, Spanier responded that he would look into contacting the athletics department about getting the team access.

Ryan Grady (sophomore-business) said he finds the limited dorm bandwidth troubling, adding that he does not pirate any music or movies but still exceeds the bandwidth by using Youtube.com.

Spanier gave his business card to the students, asking them to e-mail him so he could forward their concerns to the appropriate people.

Come on guys, check every month for the next year to see if Graham actual followed through and do a story on that.

And the story contains this strange bit which begs for some follow through.

Following the conference calls, Spanier met with a freshman who was looking for advice on which major to choose between English and public relations. Spanier encouraged her to take some time to get to know each major, reminding her that she had time to take classes in each area before making a choice.

Does Graham routinely field questions on career choices from freshman? Why the special treatment? Was this freshman the daughter of a big donor or potential donor? Perhaps this was Graham's solution to the complaints of a lack of academic advising he heard earlier in the day. Now that would be responsive. From now on, if you're confused about what to major in give Graham a call, just don't mention sweatshops. And why didn't Graham recommend his own field, public relations, to the student?

Collegian you can do better than this.





Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Collegian, bad journalism,