Under the baobab: Thon tops Happy Valley happenings, federal action impacts higher ed

Yahoo

01-03-2025

Happy Mardi Gras and Ramadan Mubarak.
The Bryce Jordan Center filled to the rafters and rocked all night long as the annual Penn State's IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon concluded. The event raised $17.7 million to help defeat childhood cancer, which was nearly a million dollars more than last year.
Jo and I were also blessed to be honorary coaches for the Lady Lion basketball team, witnessing how hard they train and play. In these trying times we are encouraged to see the sacrifice and effort put forth by these and other committed students. We will overcome these present struggles and the community will be better for it.
Elsewhere in the community, the Center for the Performing Arts presented Grammy-nominated saxophone impresario Lakecia Benjamin, one of the top horn players on the planet. Performing brilliantly for nearly two hours, her jazz combo transitioned from the otherworldly bebop chords of Coltrane to the get down gospel rhythms of the Black Church. CPA continues to bring world class innovative programming to our community which inspires, educates and entertains.
Tempest Productions is presenting a new play, 'Hoarding,' written by Prof. Michael Berube and featuring Stephanie Gates, Cynthia Mazzant and Elaine Meder-Wilgus. Performances run through March 2 at the Tempest Studios. The Nittany Valley Symphony invited 'casual and serious listeners of symphonic works' to its annual Family Concert at the Eisenhower Auditorium. The performance included: Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, Movement 1, performed by Anh Nguyen, and Sergei Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf.'
The Juneteenth Sneaker Ball Committee of Leslie Laing, Elton Hayes, Terry Watson, Chiluvya Zulu, Meagan Jones, Wanda Cromarti, Qiana Jackson and Francine Jackson held a delightful Caribbean Buffet for over a hundred folks which helped raise funds for the 1865 Freedom Legacy Scholarship fund. The event was sponsored by the Nittany Zetas, the Borough of State College, Calvary Harvest Fields, Happy Valley Improv, Websters, WPSU and The Graduate Hotel. The keynote speaker was Prof. Roderick Lee from PSU Harrisburg.
DEI in colleges
The U.S. Department of Education threatened to pull federal funding from schools that use race as a factor in admissions, hiring and other areas. In response, Interim President of the University of Pennsylvania Larry Jameson dissolved the school's DEI commitment at its medical school. Unlike courageous PSU President Neeli Bendapudi, he decided to not resist.
Some are ashamed of being labeled 'affirmative action babies.' I proudly stand on the shoulders of the heroes, heroines and martyrs who fought and sacrificed to open closed segregated doors so that I, a young Black man, could matriculate at Yale Law School. The opportunity did not materialize because those in power had a sudden charitable change of heart or succumbed to a humanitarian impulse to reverse the idiocy of white supremacy. My opportunity was forged in the furnace of struggle, hammered by the valor of those who faced down water hoses, police dogs and billy clubs. It came on the backs of men, women, and children, Black, white and brown, who stood up to tyranny, went to jail for freedom, and many who sacrificed their very lives so that others could walk to the voting booths and vote with dignity.
Like Vice President JD Vance I was one of a few non-Ivy Leaguers at Yale Law who had graduated from a state college. We both suffered from 'imposter syndrome,' feeling that we didn't belong. He wrote a book. I had other leverage. Though I had graduated magna cum laude and had LSATs in the top 5%, what got me into Yale was the tenacious fight of those who marched in the Movement. A dream showed us where we could go, but the picket line got us there. It mandated sweat and blood and will again. We are because of who they were and what they did.
Ubuntu.
Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party's nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.