Quote:
Originally Posted by ASTalumna06
I think you may have missed my point.
Trust me, I'm not drinking the Penn State Kool-aid. I wear a Penn State shirt from time to time. I attended a couple games while I was in school. And I went to class and graduated. The end.
Your sorority analogy is a little off. I am in no way saying "Penn State is a special and unique snowflake.". I'm not implying that Penn Staters have more pride, dedication.. or whatever.. than students and alumni of other schools. And I'm definitely not saying they can/should get away with anything and everything.
My point is that basically the entire state IS Penn State. I pretty much grew up in Boston, and there are a ton of great schools there, and many students and alumni take great pride in their school (as they should), and I'm sure many of them are more dedicated to their alma mater than Penn State alumni. But what I'm saying is that a huge chunk of Pennsylvanians live and breathe Penn State, even if they never attend the school. It is THE school in PA. That's not to say that other schools in PA aren't great or worth going to.. And I'm not saying Penn State is the best.. it's just that Penn State is a way of life for A LOT of people.
I don't know a better way to describe it than that.
But maybe that's just my perspective. All I know is, I've never experienced anything like it before. And I've thought this way for a long time - long before Sandusky's name hit the papers.
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The sorority analogy wasn't actually directed at anything you said - it was directed more at what several PSU posters in this thread and another on this same subject have said over the past few months. I don't think this means any of them or you condone the actions taken by Penn State's administration - I'm just saying that on some level - the "it's just different here" or "our relationship to our school is special" can be dangerous and can lead to those actions.
I think you have been generally more even-handed in your perspective on your experience at Penn State than some, but the bolded is one example of my point.
It makes sense that there would be less of a "following" for one particluar school when there are loads of outstanding schools whose focus is more academic and less athletic, and since this is what you knew before going to Penn State, I can see how you would believe that Pennsylvania's relationship to it is unique in some way.
As Greek or Geek suggested, you need to spend some time in a state where the opposite of your Boston experience is true - a state where the university and specifically the university's football program is pretty much all there is for many reasons (once again I offer up Nebraska). Or they're raised in a culture where college football qualifies as a religous belief system (Texas). What seems unique and unusual to you would seem expected and standard for them.
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