Speeches

Pioneer Dinner : Welcome Back to the Class of 1951

It is a pleasure to welcome each of you back to Penn State. In talking with some of you before this dinner and in other interactions with members of the Class of 1951, I am always struck by the steadfast loyalty you hold for this University and the deep affection for Penn State that you have carried with you throughout your adult lives. It is truly gratifying to know that Penn State has left such an indelible mark upon its graduates. Our alumni are absolutely the best in the world and on behalf of the entire University, I'd like to congratulate you on a lifetime of accomplishments and on achieving this Pioneer milestone.

I'd like to take you back, briefly, to a time more than five decades ago when many of you began attending what was then the Pennsylvania State College. It was a time of great growth in Penn State's enrollment.

As part of that incoming class, you were selected to attend from an avalanche of admissions requests that resulted from a great influx of individuals who were returning from serving America during World War II. In fact, many of you in this room may be veterans who fought in the war and came here under the GI Bill. Some of you might have been married and lived on campus with your spouses and children. Others may have been returning students who had your education interrupted by the war. Those of you who were fresh out of high school were in the minority, because at that time, college officials herepledged to reserve 75 percent of the vacancies for veterans. The remaining 25 percent of the admissions openings were set aside for recent high school graduates. Today, Penn State is still the institution of choice for the plurality of Pennsylvanians. Last year, this institution received about 80,000 student applications, making us one of the most popular universities in America.

In 1946, the first college year for many of you, there were 2,800 freshmen admitted to the University -- a record number. But the great demand for education from returning servicemen meant that freshmen had to begin their Penn State education at one of 22 cooperating colleges within Pennsylvania. These sister institutions, like Swarthmore and Indiana Teacher's College, had agreed to lend a hand to Penn State during this difficult period of overwhelming enrollment. In addition, Penn State began opening more undergraduate centers across the state to accommodate the needs of new students. Penn State's enrollment swelled to 10,200 -- 55 percent of whom were veterans. Still, more than 1,000 qualified students had to be turned away. Today, we have an enrollment of more than 81,000 students -- about 13,000 of that number are first-year students, and a Penn State campus is within commuting distance of every Pennsylvanian.

Your time at Penn State was a time of tremendous growth and construction of new and temporary buildings. From 1946 through 1951, new housing and dormitories were erected at University Park along with Willard and Tyson buildings and the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel -- all of which are still in use today. The Earth and Mineral Sciences Building also was built during that time period. That structure, still used by EMS, has been renamed the Hosler Building in honor of one of your classmates, Charles Hosler, who earned a bachelor's degree in 1947, a master's degree in 1948 and a doctorate in meteorology in 1951. He later went on to serve as Penn State's senior vice president for research, among other positions.

You may recall the Temporary Union Building that was erected in 1948. It was an old USO recreation building that was dismantled in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and reassembled here at University Park. That student union building, which later served as home for several departments and finally as a campus cultural center, was just demolished last year when we opened our new student union. A chemistry building will now be built on the site occupied by the former TUB. I guess it wasn't so temporary after all.

I hope that while you are on campus you visit the new student union, which we call the HUB-Robeson Cultural Center. The HUB portion of the structure, or Hetzel Union Building, was named for Ralph Hetzel, the 10th president of Penn State who some of you may recall. He died in 1947. The new HUB-Robeson serves well over 25,000 visitors daily.

From 1946 to 1951, Penn State was moving forward rapidly. Education centers were opened in Allentown, Erie, Harrisburg, McKeesport, Ogontz, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and York. They joined the already existing centers in Mont Alto, DuBois, Hazleton and Altoona. These locations were the beginnings of Penn State's 24-campus system which now includes The Hershey Medical Center and The Dickinson School of Law.

As you reminisce about your time at Penn State, you might recall it being a little crowded. The massive tidal wave of students created quite a logistics problem for the University and its physical plant. You may have lived in one of the temporary trailers along College Avenue, known as Windcrest, or in the Nittany Dormitories -- just downwind of the poultry barns. Not the most desirable accommodations. Or you may have been fortunate enough to be assigned to a room in the fourth floor of Old Main, now home to administrative offices; or to a room in the new West Halls -- which still stand in the core of campus. Today, nearly 16,000 acres comprise the University Park campus, which includes 758 buildings, 31 miles of paved roads and 23 miles of paved walkways -- a far cry from the environment you experienced. And the new Sarni Tennis Center now sits at the location of the poultry barns.

While you were here, you took your education seriously. Most veterans who had returned as students were wiser than their 18-year-old counterparts and demanded much from faculty and administrators. Classes were interesting and challenging, enlivened by the experiences of those who had served overseas.

I hope I have jogged your memory a bit about the conditions on campus five decades ago. As for social life, married GIs and older students made for an interesting mix with younger, just-out-of-high-school students. I have read that some of you were protesting the removal of trees in Hort Woods. A section of Hort Woods has been preserved on campus, so your fight was not without victory. Many more of you were busy protesting the 55-cent admission price for movies in town and trying to lift the ordinance that banned movies on Sundays. You watched as our football team broke the color barrier by allowing the first Black players to play in the Cotton Bowl and you later witnessed the arrival of Head Football Coach Rip Engle and his assistant Joe Paterno -- who has become synonymous with Penn State.

Still, others of you were concerned with the assassination of Ghandi, the election of Harry Truman, the fighting in Korea, McCarthyism and other world events.

At Penn State today, our students are still concerned with their social lives, their academic pursuits, football and world events. They are actively involved in political causes, research and volunteer efforts. Just this year, our students raised $3.6 million for pediatric cancer research through the Penn State Dance Marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy in the nation.

Our newest course offerings are in disciplines that weren't even dreamed of during your time here. Our new School of Information Sciences and Technology, just one example, is now wrapping up operation of its second full academic year. It serves 2,572 students at 19 Penn State locations with more than 70 faculty across the Commonwealth. The school is on its way to becoming a major educational resource for Pennsylvania in fields critical to success in the Digital Age.

Penn State is still a national leader in the engineering and agricultural sciences, but it has also earned its place as an innovator in teaching, research and service in scores of other fields as well. Last year, Penn State research expenditures totaled $440 million, a record high for the University.

So, while much of the landscape may have changed, the traditions and core values of this institution have stayed the same. We are still Pennsylvania's land-grant university, and our role is still to serve the Commonwealth. But we have expanded that responsibility and we now serve the nation and the world through teaching, research and service.

We still provide an excellent education to our students, and our alumni still display that same Penn State spirit. Time has not diminished your ties to this institution, nor has time made us forget the important place you hold in the history of Penn State.

You are still making us proud. And for that, we salute you!