What a great day for Penn State! Founders’ Day, THON and the day after the announcement of a Penn State-Paterno peace agreement.
In her statement on Friday, Sue Paterno said it best: ‘It is time to come together and devote our energies solely to education, research, and the advancement of one of America’s great institutions of higher learning.’
And what better way to begin this new journey as a more united community than to reflect on our founders’ vision — a vision that set Penn State apart as the first public institution in the world to combine classical education with pragmatic studies in science and engineering to educate our youth to help build our great republic.
Editor’s note: The following was previously published by StateCollege.com in 2017 and is republished today in recognition of Penn State’s 165th Founders’ Day.
Feb. 22 is an important day in history for a number of reasons — some obvious, some subtle and some yet to be revealed. Yes, it is George Washington’s birthday (1732). It was also a magically patriotic day in 1980 that brought the Miracle on Ice, when a young group of amateur hockey players beat the formidable Soviets, undoubtedly the world’s best team at the time, at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.
But closer to home, it is also Penn State’s birthday, now known as Founders’ Day. On Feb. 22, 1855 the Farmers’ High School was founded — in the middle of nowhere, but with a grand vision.
So how did the great institution of the Pennsylvania State University come to prominence from such humble beginnings? The same way that Pennsylvania was established, from whose humble beginnings arose the mighty United States of America: One person and a vision.
In the latter case, it was William Penn’s ‘Holy Experiment’ which began when he landed on our eastern shore and established Philadelphia ‘the City of Brotherly Love’ in 1682 and later established a forebear for the U.S. Constitution with the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges in 1701, a form of government that lasted until 1776.
As Pennsylvanians, we should never forget the significance of our state in the founding of this great country. We truly were the Keystone of the Republic. Likewise, there is an incredible story behind the founding of Penn State that, like all things, begins with the seed of an idea.
I cannot do justice to articulate this in this short space, but I can include some insights from the thought-provoking and very inspiring short book Is Penn State a Real University? by Penn State alumnus and former trustee Dr. Ben Novak.
It all began with an annual report by A.L. Russell, the state’s Superintendent of Common Schools, in 1851. He proposed an agricultural college “devoted wholly to real and inevitably profitable knowledge.’ While hard to fathom this today, this was a revolutionary concept at the time.
First, a little understanding. ‘Higher education’ at that time consisted of only classical studies, a legacy and remnant of our European ties and under the exclusive domain of the likes of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc. But the hardworking, bootstrapping, pioneering spirit of the new republic demanded something more. And, like hundreds of other firsts in our great state, leave it to Pennsylvanians to envision a better way.
‘This was a new idea of education quite beyond the classical idea of a University,” Novak wrote. “It did not eliminate the elegant and classical studies, but was intended to add to them and infuse them with the new principles and impetus of the scientific and the practical.
‘He was proposing an entirely new approach to education which he believed would someday eclipse the greatest of the classical Universities. His vision for the future Penn State was grand from the very first moment of its conception.
‘Russell’s dream, vision, and enthusiasm caught on.’
An idea whose time had come that quickly inspired others to action with the Agricultural Society recommending in 1853 the founding of a new school and Gov. William Pollock and the state legislature making it official on Feb. 22 two years later.
‘Penn State was founded to do something with the idea of a university which no one else had ever done before,” Novak explains. “The vision of the founders was an idea meant to deepen and broaden the idea of a [classical] University… Penn State’s new idea of what it means to be a real university has guided her destiny ever since and continues to this day to challenge it and to prod it to greatness.’
But something even more special evolved over time. When young men and women are brought together with a common vision, and given the opportunity to be free, without bureaucratic restraint, an explosion of creativity and empowerment manifests itself – much like our young America proved to the entire world. Nothing but bare hands and natural resources to start and look what we built.
Thus, a culture of engagement and responsibility emerged over the next century, the likes of which had never been seen before. In February 1907, a college publication proclaimed: ‘No college in the world possesses a more ideal environment for the development of the Truest College Life and the Loyalist College Spirit, and we have them both.’
A great example of this incredible spirit is exemplified by the very active role students played in the planning, design and funding of the Hetzel Union Building (HUB). Overwhelming student demand and a committee including student leaders convinced the administration to move forward with the project, which was funded entirely by the students. The drive and determination of the students to satisfy their own needs led to the building. And, I might add, it was on-time, as well, since the first official function was on Feb. 22, 1955 — the 100th anniversary of Penn State and the second year as a university (finally designated as such in November 1953).
With this student achievement, the founders’ vision had been realized. As Dr. Novak described it on page 56, ‘the founders’ vision was that there should come to birth in the Nittany Valley a new spirit and a whole new type of community.’ Or, as Erwin Runkle the first Penn State historian, wrote long ago, the object of the Land Grant idea ‘was not to secure resources…but rather to build a new type of citizenship.’
The essence of the story is that the real purpose of the university is to not only educate on the classics and the scientific and practical applications of such, but also to create an environment, a culture, a character and a spirit that goes far beyond ‘knowledge’ that can be tested. A culture that the students themselves create by their extensive involvement in extracurricular activities and out-of-classroom learning experiences. And due to the vision of its founders, Penn State was the first in the nation to do exactly that, to lead the way. What became known as “the Penn State Way.”
The founding of Penn State was based on a radical new idea, a great educational experiment, just at the founding of Pennsylvania, and thus our country, was the result of a radical idea, a great ‘Holy Experiment’ by William Penn. And how truly fitting it is that our nation’s first great Land Grant university, the “people’s institutions” as the Morrill Act of 1862 referred to them, was founded on the same day that our great first president was born.
And now you can answer that trivia question, ‘What do George Washington and Penn State have in common?’
Thomas Lee Meade is a 1987 Penn State graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering and founder of Room Doctor Furniture Co. in State College. He can be reached at info@RoomDoctor.com.
