Gary Abdullah keeps a box of tissues and a bowl of chocolates in his Carnegie Building office at Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.
The items are simple offerings of comfort for students who may be going through a difficult time. But mostly, it’s Abdullah’s listening ear that makes all the difference.
Students in need of that ear are “going to come in here, we’re going to have a tough conversation and I’m going to let you cry it out,” says Abdullah, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion at Bellisario. “I’m going to give you some chocolate. I’ll say, ‘OK, you feel better? All right, get back to work.’ It is an intentional balance. We want this to be a safe place, but I know it’s my responsibility not to coddle you but so much, because we have to go back to work.”
For Abdullah, that work focuses on creating a sense of belonging for Bellisario students during their time at Penn State.
“When we say ‘We Are,’ we want them to think that they are part of the ‘we,’” he says. “Not everybody does.”
Helping students feel part of the “we” includes helping them navigate challenges from finances to adjusting to a new place often far away — and far different — from home.
“We are in a rural part of Pennsylvania; depending upon where you are coming from, this is a large change for folks. For some students, this is the biggest place they’ve seen in their lives,” he says. “For some of them coming up here, this is a quote-unquote city. They come from smaller towns from across the country, sometimes outside of the country, so they come here: ‘Look at all these people.’
“And then for a lot of students, they come here and are like, ‘What in the world? Where is everything? Why are there cows right there?’ There are some students who come here and have never seen an actual cow before. And to have to drive through cow fields in order to access [the campus] messes their mind up. That journey can be a little bit different, and trying to figure out what that looks like and how to help them walk through that in addition to, ‘Hey, now you have to work academically in a way you’ve never worked before,’ … putting all that together at the same time in that large shift of life from 18 to 22, it’s a lot.”
Abdullah’s work to help students put all that together helped earn him the 2025 Lion’s Paw Medal, which recognizes “extraordinary service to the university and its students — specifically for contributions that go well beyond one’s professional duties.”
“Gary exemplifies humility, quiet strength, and selfless service,” Lisa Bistline, president of the Lion’s Paw Alumni Interest Group, said in a press release announcing the honor. “He leads with compassion, lifts others up, and has spent decades reshaping what it means to truly support students at Penn State.”
Abdullah takes pride in putting people first, even if that means picking up a student whose car hasn’t quite made it over Seven Mountains. (He says that’s happened more than once over the years.)
“I truly believe if you take care of the people, then the institution will be fine,” he says.
Born and raised in State College, Abdullah earned bachelor’s (2003) and master’s (2007) degrees in telecommunications from Penn State and has worked for the university in various capacities for 20 years.
With diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under fire nationwide, Abdullah acknowledges this is a time of uncertainty. “Higher education as a whole in our current situation is shifting,” he says.
But he vows that he and his colleagues will continue their work to make all feel welcome at Penn State.
“And when hopefully you become a Penn State alum, at the end of everything you’ll be able to look back joyfully upon your journey here. That’s what we’ve been doing for generations now, because I stand upon the shoulders of giants, those who have done it before me. We’re going to continue to do the work.”
Here’s more from our conversation, which took place in mid-May:
The Lion’s Paw Medal honors somebody who’s gone above and beyond in service to the Penn State community. What does that mean to you to get that honor?
Abdullah: As a second-generation Penn Stater, as someone who was born in the shadows of Beaver Stadium, if you will, at what used to be called Centre Community Hospital way back in the day, it means a lot. I have been blessed to be around the institution for all of my life and to see the impact that this place can make on a person’s life, both in the positive, sometimes not so positive. And my goal as an individual is to try to make sure that folks’ journey is as positive as possible while they are here. If I can do what is necessary to help impact that, that’s what I do. I learned that from my parents, Gary and Lydia Abdullah. They’ve been in the community and working here since the ’70s, and so it’s an honor to be able to carry on their legacy.
I’ve seen you mention that you want students to leave Penn State not hating Penn State. What do you mean by that?
Abdullah: There are large groups of people who leave this place hating Penn State. Happy Valley is not happy for everyone. It can be for a variety of reasons. As we’ve become increasingly more of a financial commitment, it can be tough for students; they have the mental capabilities to be able to complete things here, but the finances don’t line up. And the struggles that students go through to try to make those line up sometimes can leave a very sour taste in their mouths because there’s different experiences you can have here as students. You have students who are just as capable as anyone else, but they are working upwards of 30 hours a week. They’ll get their degree from Penn State, but they will not have had the opportunity to have the quote-unquote Penn State experience. They just go to class and they go home and they go to work. That’s it. And so that’s not a great experience.
There are other times where, speaking frankly, cultural situations, adjusting to a place like Central Pennsylvania. We are a smaller place and while this is my home, I’ve been enough other places to realize this ain’t it for everybody. Happy Valley is a bit of a bubble, but bubbles can be either of two things. They can either be these wonderful places of freedom and joy, or they can be entrapping and they can feel almost compressing, like a barrier over you. And so how you handle that bubble is different for each individual. …
You have [one] side of things where this was a life-changing opportunity for them; they have the Creamery, they have Old Main, they have Beaver Stadium, they have THON, they have everything else. They have fully believed the entire process; they felt the whole thing and it went well. For a certain percentage of folks, that’s not the experience. And so, I want to be there for everyone, but there’s going to be that group that needs a little bit more attention to make sure it’s a good experience for them.
Having grown up here and graduated from Penn State with two degrees, does that give you a unique perspective on what students might be going through?
Abdullah: Yes, sir. My Penn State lessons — I was born in the’80s — started in the back of the car listening to my parents as they break down the happenings of the day; as we would go home from wherever I was at and Dad would pick up Mom, I’m just sitting in the back listening to everything that they’re talking about. It’s a journey for some folks. And then having my own Penn State experiences. Even though I’m a State College kid, all of my social circle was focused outside of State College folks; I had a wide variety of friends coming from Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, as far away as India, and just the learning lessons I had from having a lot of people come into my hometown and seeing how they had to process that experience, and actually paying attention to it. I’ve had a chance to see a lot of things and to understand a little bit more.
What do you see as the primary mission of your office?
Abdullah: I’m the vibes guy. My job is to really help make sure that what students call “the vibes” are right inside the Bellisario College. Penn State is a big place. I can’t control what happens everywhere. But inside the Bellisario College of Communications, my job is to make sure that no matter where you’re coming from, no matter how you identify, you feel as if you are part of what we like to call the Bellisario College family. You’ll see I have it on the walls out there. We have it on hoodies and t-shirts.
I want you to feel like you are part of something that is a little bit smaller than the 46,000 [students] up here, but it’s still bigger than yourself, and that you have a group of people that you have a common goal, a shared goal. And so that’s making sure that you feel a part of that, no matter what your situation is. My international students, my students of varying neurodiversity, my students who are coming from different sexual gender-identity backgrounds, a lot of people are finding themselves while here. …
There was a path you had to get through while you were here. How we help you walk through that, and which allows you to actually still be going to class and to getting a job … that’s our purpose and our point. Making sure that everything feels good and feels right for the faculty, staff, and the students of the Bellisario College. It can be a lot, but that’s my goal.
Let’s talk about the broader picture with DEI programs under attack from the Trump administration. Have you felt that impact here?
Abdullah: In terms of what is happening on a national scale, we have been blessed in certain ways that, institutionally, Penn State is continuing to be supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion work. That having been said, what’s happening on a national scale boils down in a local way because our individual students are impacted. In the last round of changes, in which some students had their statuses as international students either revoked or changed, the students were very worried and I had students who went home. We have one student, they received an email in the middle of class on a Tuesday saying their status had been changed. They were out of the country by Wednesday.
And even with some subsequent changes coming from the national administration, now it’s as a discussion between parents and students like, “Do we feel safe to send our student back, because we don’t know if it’ll change again?” There’s a thing that just kind of hangs in the air. So, while I feel we are blessed that a lot of things haven’t changed as far as directives from Penn State administration, the pressures that exist on a larger national scale still impact myself, my colleagues, and the populations which we serve. That includes the staff, students, and faculty; there are uncertainties and things that aren’t known.
The Trump administration argues that the reason they’re getting rid of DEI programs or advocating for their removal is that everything should be merit-based. What do you say when people raise that?
Abdullah: Basing things upon merit is ideal, but who are the persons or the things that are judging who has the merit? Who is making that determination that my qualifications are enough? And what are some of the ideas that go into that decision-making process? Are you seeing my name and being concerned about something, just even in my name? And so all of a sudden, I’m not quite as merit-based, I don’t deserve to be here. There are some folks, they’ll go into things like, “It’s off of fit. We just feel this person fits here better.” How do you determine what fit is? Because that’s feel. “I have two equal candidates. This one just feels better here for the team.” OK, define feel and fit.
We look at what true diversity, equity, inclusion is. There are folks who have needs based off of things such as neurodiversity — they’re battling through ADHD, ADD, they have other learning mechanisms in which they need some help. That is the world of DEI. That is literally what that is. For our folks who may need some help physically, making sure that we have enough ramps for people to be able to access curbs on campus. Making sure that we have doors that automatically open in some spaces, so if I’m in a wheelchair that I can access those spaces and those doors. Are there bathrooms that are accessible to people of all physical ability levels? That’s DEI. People don’t necessarily think of it in that way, but that’s literally equity in terms of facilities and being included. …
When you really begin to think of what all DEI encompasses, people have become so fixated upon certain racial and ethnic things they don’t see the fullness of what this work is.
In addition to that, if all things were equal, sure, it would be merit-based and that merit-based would be wonderful. That’s based off the assumption that all things are equal. And if we need to have the conversation that all things are equal, then that’s just a larger conversation that … we’re going back to the beginning again. Because it’s OK to recognize that not everyone comes from the same starting place.
Our job here at Penn State is to be able to educate much of the public, the Pennsylvania public. So, for instance, equity inclusion for Penn State includes accessing some of our rural students, more rural parts of Pennsylvania. Otherwise, I could just go to the more affluent parts of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, cherry-pick all those students here, and that would be it, if it was just affluent students only. We want as an institution to be able to say, “Hey, we’re educating the whole of Pennsylvania and providing access to a wide group of people.” We are a land grant institution, but we’re actually an international organization as well; we’re getting students from everywhere. We want to be able to provide access to a wide variety of people.
What’s next? Are there any initiatives coming up in the summer or the new school year?
Abdullah: What’s next is continuing to provide services for students and faculty and staff who may not be certain about the direction of higher education. As we sit here right now, higher education as a whole in our current situation is shifting. I’ll put it that way. It’s shifting. There are different priorities that are being made evident in different ways. There’s a lot of movement inside of higher education. What is the new normal going to look like?
And as that continues to evolve, people here are listening. And they’re living it. While for some folks it is a quick read on a scroll or it is a repost of something, for other people — the students and staff and faculty that are here on all our campuses — it is their life.
Folks like myself and the folks that I work with, we’re going to work hard to try to make sure that everyone, even in times of uncertainty, can feel certain enough to be able to access the fullness of what we have available and feel good about doing so. And that’s tough. But that’s the work we’ve chosen to undertake. T&G
Mark Brackenbury is a former editor of Town&Gown.
