Russell Frank
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State College Man Leaves Bubble
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“America this is quite serious.” – Allen Ginsberg SAN FRANCISCO – O what a sheltered life I lead. I’ve been in San Francisco for two days and, bumpkin that I am, have spent much of the time gawking: In a nice bit of symmetry, I am here to help my son move to California 30 years…
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Frank: Forget Bucket Lists. Aging Is for Savoring
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As I entered the murky zone between middle and old age, I came up with a slogan: “If not now, when?” Meaning, I should go-be-do while I’m still hale and hearty. Specifically, that meant more hiking and biking. Results have been mixed. Yes, I hike and bike. But I also still work – by choice.…
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We’re Not Closing Campuses, We’re Optimizing Them
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When the university’s wordsmiths hide the possibility of layoffs behind words like “responding to challenges in agile ways,” or when they frame closing campuses as “optimizing” or “reshaping them,” they’ve got to be reminded that we’re all supposed to be in the truth-telling business here, not the spin business.
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Hang in There, Class of 2025!
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You’d never know from all the happy faces at commencement on Saturday how anxious the Class of 2025 is. I know because all 19 students in my Editorial, Opinion and Commentary class were graduating seniors and almost all of them wrote about the things that are freaking them out. Back in the days of newsrooms,…
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Candy Is Dandy, but Keeping Your Student Visa Is Sweeter
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In my campus mailbox last week I found a sandwich bag filled with “fun size” packs of Skittles and Laffy Taffy. They weren’t for me, as an unsigned message, handwritten on a blue Post-it note, made clear: Hello. Could you give this to Jack for me? I read your article and I feel awful, I…
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The ICE Man Cometh to Penn State
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Jack is an international student at Penn State. I’m not going to tell you his real name, where he’s from or what he’s studying because I don’t want to reveal anything that might make his situation more precarious than it already is. Last week, Jack received an eviction notice from the landlord of us all,…
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Coach Franklin’s Staff Accidentally Texted Me Their Game Plans
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Penn State football coaches included me in a group chat about its next game against Ohio State. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started getting caught for touchdowns.
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Announcing the Million Alte Kaker March
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The term anticipatory obedience is popping up a lot these days to describe educators, politicians and bazillionaires who are crawling on their bellies like reptiles before anyone is forcing them to do so. As Timothy Snyder writes in “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” people will preemptively do what they think the authorities…
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‘Paranoia Strikes Deep in the Heartland’
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Among the many Valentines I received on Feb. 14 was one that appeared to be from Penn State Human Resources informing me that I needed “to complete a new I-9.” Googling, I learned that I-9 is a proposed interstate highway connecting Bakersfield to Stockton in California’s Central Valley. Hmm. I’ve driven from Bakersfield to Stockton…
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D-E-I is D-E-D
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Dear National Science Foundation, I am in the midst of preparing an NSF grant application and, as I am sure you can appreciate, I want to make sure that my proposal does not run afoul of new evaluation criteria inspired by our 47th and hopefully last president (long may he live before passing the royal…