As president of Penn State, I attend many meetings, conferences and events, and am privileged to spend time with fascinating and brilliant people—students, faculty, alumni, staff, business and academic leaders, politicians, you name it. I always welcome the opportunity to speak to these groups, but one of my favorite ways to interact with people is in my living room or in the brief moments before meetings and formal events. It’s those casual settings that often prompt new ideas, interesting anecdotes, spontaneous thoughts and a better understanding of Penn Staters and the community at large. I see this blog as a way of sharing that type of informal, unfiltered interaction with the broader Penn State community. So I will be embarking on this “new” way to communicate—and when I say “new” I mean new for me, because according to an unscientific calculation in The Washington Post there are some 106 million bloggers in the United States (there’s even a TV show, “Dog With a Blog” on the Disney Channel.) My entry into this vast universe of blogs is named “Digging Deeper,” which is a reference to my interest in geology and, more broadly, my passion for exploring issues and ideas. As with all new ventures, this will be a learning process and I expect it to evolve over time. My goal is to post some thoughts every couple of weeks. They may be as simple as a shout-out to all of the faculty who were recently named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (The 2015 Fellows are Leonard S. Jefferson, Evan Pugh University Professor in Physiology; Arthur Mallay Lesk, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and director, Earth System Science Center; Joseph C. Reese, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Song Tan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Kent E. Vrana, chair, Department of Pharmacology; and Andrew L. Zydney, distinguished professor of chemical engineering.) Or congratulations to the national champion women’s soccer team and their incredible coaches! I was in North Carolina for the victory, and it was a thrilling game with Duke, a formidable opponent. Or something personal such as the experiences that shaped how I view differences in our community and inclusion on campus as we move toward our annual university celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Maybe I’ll invite some guest bloggers as well. We’ll see how it goes! I would also like to hear from you. I have been advised that given my travel and meeting schedule, the most efficient way to ensure that I get your comments is if you send them directly to president@psu.edu. I can then either respond personally to you or use your suggestions in the development of future blog entries. Again, I will revisit and revise the process as I get more familiar with blogging. I’m excited about this opportunity to communicate directly with Penn State’s many constituents in a more casual format. I hope you’ll find it worthwhile as well.
