Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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ugust's heat signaled the end of summer and the return of thousands of students to Happy Valley to begin a new year at therUniversity. We arrived with loaded cars and notebooks with the new logo on it and wondered how the football team would do this year. Mom and Dad left you at your residence hall or apartment and slipped some mon- ey in your hand and forbid you to tell your other par- ent what they did. We started class- es and besieged the campus operator with requests for students' phone numbers. We want- ed to know where everybody was and what people were doing. This human ele- ment made the University so very unique. It made us willing to study hard every week night so that we could go see the Lions play Boston College in a sellout game in Beaver Stadium. Or, take a quiet hike up Mount Nittany and get a different look at Happy Valley. We progressed into fall and Home- coming brought alumni back to the school they love and we shared their the Nittany Lion. STUDENT LIFE -by Jim Swamk Mount Nittany overlooks Happy Val- ley and is the source of our legends and our pride, from Princess Nita-Nee to Landmark In Excellence excitement. We guarded the Lion so that nobody from Syracuse would spray it orange. We attended the bonfire and watched a new Homecoming King and Queen crowned. Why did students do the same things every year? Tradition. From the rituals of Homecoming, to the running of the Phi Psi 500, students loved to engage in activities that were marked by tradi- tion. We gained a sense of history and our impact on it. We knew that we were adding to the excellence of the Penn Staters before us. From Freshmen Orientation to graduation, we at- tended the Univer- sity and took so many credits, but we gained so much by our involvement with other people. We learned from one another to ap- preciate what made us different, and what made us similar. This aspect of student life was im- portant to the University community. We worked together unknowingly to uphold the traditions of the past, and add to them for the future. E D I T O R Susan M. Dougherty 19

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ans gather together to pass the Lion up the student section in Beaver Stadium. .

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Layout by Susan Daugherty -by Susan Daugherty Standing in Happy Valley for the first time as an anxious freshman, you scanned the strange surroundings for a com- forting sign. You could not help but notice the large gepogra- phic form that dominated the southeastern skyline. You had your first introduction to Mount Nittany, a landmark that has been a part of Penn State's student life and traditions since the founding of the University. Early Penn Staters, who seemed to have a love for legends, invented one to explain the creation of the mountain. The mythological Indian Princess Nita-Nt'ee was revered for lead- -by Chris Swope unnunsruwn-nnun-rvvvrv ing her people into the fertile central Pennsylvania valley, H same from enemy tribes. When she died from heartbreak after Everyone ShOUId being left by her lover, the mountain miraculously arose over- definitely climb Mount night at her burial site. . t 0 art before . In grlef over his daughter's death, Chief Waupelani had a Nlttiny pd age I t'S a hon guard Nita-Nee's burial site. The lion roamed the moun- t ey gra u ' . H tain and protected the heroine's resting place. At the begin- great tlme- ning of the twentieth century, her protector, the Nittany Lion, h. came to be the University's mascot. w'V'VNNNTJOhn W lte Mount Nittany was the subject of a university controversy in 1921. The senior class planned to create a giant 5 to stand for State on the north face of the mountain. Proposals called for the S to be created from whitewashed concrete or white pines. Both plans called for the symbol to be maintained by the freshmen class. The plan was halted when Fred Lewis Pattee claimed the mountain's natural beauty would be destroyed. More recent Penn Staters have tried to maintain Mount Nittany in its natural state rather than alter it. Different student and community groups purchased land on the moun- tain to protect it from development. In 1985, a campaign began to sell square inches of land on top of the mountain. Available to alumni as well as students, the offer allowed true Penn Staters the chance to own part of Mount Nittany. Pro- tected from developers, Mount Nittany will remain a stable part of Penn State's skyline and traditions. -by Susan Daugherty Well worth the climb, a break at the top of the mountain reveals a majestic view of Happy Valley. Landmark ln Excellence