vol. 118, no. 85 feb. 5-7, 2018 one year later

Vol. 118, No. 85 Feb. 5-7, 2018

“I miss him every

day, and that

doesn’t show all

the time… It’s

something that

lives right under

the surface. There

was a gravity to

this that I think is

being all too quickly

forgotten, it’s still

searingly painful.”

Mike Piazza

Older brother of Tim Piazza

By Tina LocurtoTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Mike Piazza said the anniversary of his brother’s death is something he wrestled with in his head for a long time.

Red in the face, with tears welling in his eyes, he said he was unsure if it should be sullen, celebratory or “just another

day.”Back in 2017, heading into the weekend of Feb. 4, trouble was

brewing over at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house.A heavily intoxicated pledge, Timothy Piazza, sat unresponsive

on a couch with a lacerated spleen. Fraternity brother Greg Rizzo wrote in a GroupMe chat, “Tim Piazza might actually be a problem. He fell 15 feet down a flight of stairs, hair-first, going to need help.”

It wasn’t until 12 hours later that fraternity brothers called 911. But, by then, it was too late.

A night of excessive drinking and hazing in the form of an obstacle course, known as the “Gauntlet,” proved to be fatal.

That night, Tim Piazza consumed 18 drinks in 82 minutes. His blood alcohol content was between 0.28 and 0.36 percent, more than quadruple the legal limit, as previously reported by The Daily Collegian.

While hazing deaths have happened in the past, Tim Piazza’s death ignited change.

At one point, passing Beta Theta Pi was just like walking by any other fraternity house. During the day, brothers hunkered down in lawn chairs in the front yard, making idle chit-chat as students hurried to class.

On weekends, they threw parties. Beta Theta Pi, like all fraternities, promotes

brotherhood. Its mission statement, “developing men of principle for a principled life,” is proudly displayed on the home page of the national organization’s website.

One year later, however, the house at 220 N. Burrowes St. is a haunting reminder of the inaction — the “reckless disregard to human life,” as the grand jury presentment puts it —that led to a domino effect of sanctions and restrictions on what is considered North America’s largest greek life community, according to the Penn State Student Affairs website.

“Penn State is amongst the worst when it comes to the out-of-control behavior within greek life as it relates to hazing, as it relates to sexual assault and just overall bad behavior,” Timothy Piazza’s father, Jim, told

The Daily Collegian in an interview. “They have a lot to recover from.”

Greek Life: past, present and futurePiazza’s death ignited a metamorphosis not only at Penn

State, but across the nation as more universities recognized the need to take action in creating a safer environment for

students. In a matter of weeks following Piazza’s death, Penn State

levied the first set of restrictions, leading to some mixed responses — including a silent protest at Old Main from students

in greek life. On March 30, Penn State permanently banned the Beta Theta Pi

Alpha Upsilon chapter.Then, at a Penn State Board of Trustees meeting in June, the

university announced the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Council’s self-monitoring and discipline would be in the hands of the university. “We have taken on a more active and assertive role in the management

and leadership of the greek community,” Barry Bram, senior director of student engagement programs, said.Bram, along with Danny Shaha, the interim assistant vice president for Student

Affairs, both work closely with fraternity and sorority life to ensure university compliance.Evaluating the state of greek life today, both Bram and Shaha agreed it has

shifted “pretty dramatically.” Unlike other universities that suspended all greek life, including

Florida State University, Texas State University and Louisiana State University, Penn State has taken a balanced approach, Bram said — one of taking responsibility while also holding greek life accountable.

“We want the greek community to exist at Penn State,” Bram said. “We know that for some of our students, it’s a really critical part of their undergraduate experience, so we didn’t want to take that away.”

Jim Piazza, however, said in order for Penn State to be a leader in change, “radical changes” need to occur.

Piazza has inquired to meet with the Penn State Board of Trustees numerous times but said he was “denied that request, or ignored.”

He said he plans to meet with Penn State President Eric Barron, along with the BOT board chair and vice chair, during THON Weekend, even though he requested it be with the full board. Piazza said he hopes to discuss proposals, already implemented changes and what has yet to be accomplished.

As far as Barron is concerned, Penn State has implemented “extensive new measures,” according to an open letter addressing a year of “sweeping changes” to the greek life system.

“In the immediate aftermath, it became clear wholesale changes were needed to create a sustainable Greek system,” Barron wrote in the letter, dated Feb. 1. “We resolved to turn the pain

and anguish radiating through our community into decisive reform.”

While the changes at Penn State “are making a difference,” Barron said s i g n i f i c a n t problems linger.

Besides Beta Theta Pi, seven additional IFC fraternities were suspended or lost university r e c o g n i t i o n throughout 2017.

Four of these, including Beta Theta Pi, received these

penalties due to hazing violations. “We are seeing some inklings of success,” Shaha said.

“I won’t say it’s solving everything. We’re really attempting to work with the community to really create a culture of risk management.”

Still, the changes that have transpired are only the beginning.

Changes now and to come Among greek life reforms, Penn State mandated a scorecard,

grading each sorority and fraternity chapter. It was launched to help students and families make “informed decisions about membership in a Greek-letter organization,” as previously reported the Collegian.

See One YeAR, Page 2.

one year later

Greek life has seen many changes since the death of Timothy Piazza

local The Daily Collegian

By Austin KurtanichTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

It turns out any Penn State stu-dent can be a club president, vice president or treasurer. All it takes is a few signed documents and 10 or so friends with a similar inter-est.

If students have an interest or passion that they don’t see ac-tive on campus, Penn State gives them the ability to make their own club.

The only requirements are fill-ing out an “intent to organize” form and information packet, which includes an officer report form, a constitution, an advisor approval form and a membership list, according to the Student Af-fairs website.

Afterward, club leadership must attend a new student orga-nization orientation — and that’s it.

“I have made a lot of my friends through this club, and whenever we have a successful event, it just feels great,” Ryan Galuchie, trea-surer of Asylum music club, said. “We are a music club, but mainly we are a social club. We are just a big group of friends.”

Clubs are one of the main ways students get involved on campus

outside the classroom.“It is really fun to do this with

a group of friends. It is totally worthwhile and not hard at all to do the paperwork,” said Davia Dorman, president of the new Penn State Poetry Society.

Once a club receives official recognition, it is granted multiple

privileges, including free web space, use of the Penn State name and university facility space.

Students are also encouraged to go to the Office of Student Ac-tivities for any help.

From the American Helicopter Society to the Theme Park Engi-neering Group, all clubs are wel-

come. Some groups, though, may be considered too dangerous to be backed by Penn State.

“There are a couple of groups that I have to automatically say no to, and it has to do with risk and danger to the student… sky-diving and parkour have been the two I was told to say no to,”

Jennifer Grossman Leopard, as-sistant director of Student Orga-nizations, said.

There are currently 1,007 clubs at the University Park campus, according to the Office of Student Activities. These clubs are divid-ed into multiple categories, the largest of which are academic/professional, special interest, sports, fraternities and sororities, and multicultural.

And, it’s also possible to find clubs with the same purpose, such as Penn State THON special interest organizations.

“A lot of students are looking to create something on their own with their best friends, and that is fine,” Grossman Leopard said.

Nearly any odd interest can be made into a Penn State organiza-tion are eligible for funding.

Penn State has a funding sys-tem called the University Park Al-location Committee, which fields all requests from student organi-zations.

For example, if clubs need to travel from campus, host an event or purchase equipment, they can apply for funding. Groups also have the ability to fundraise inde-pendently.

To read full story, visit collegian.psu.edu.

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One YearFROm Page 1

Each chapter is responsible for submitting information to advi-sors representing the four coun-cils — IFC, Multicultural, Nation-al Pan-Hellenic and Panhellenic — that is then complied for each semester, Bram said.

Through the Office of Student Conduct, chapter violations are gathered including hazing, alco-hol and sexual assault. A fourth violation, titled “other” on the scorecard, relates to any expec-tation or policy that is broken outside of the three listed above, Bram said.

Penn State isn’t the only uni-versity “grading” greek life.

Florida State University, where pledge Andrew Coffey died, re-cently finalized its scorecard, ac-cording to WCTV.

The Piazzas doubt the Penn State scorecard is effective.

Evelyn Piazza said she thinks many of the categories are su-garcoated, such as information regarding GPA and philanthropic contributions.

“I don’t place much weight on that scorecard,” Jim Piazza said.

A recently-established Greek-life Response Team has also led the charge on reforming greek life.

Member Thomas Poole, who is also the vice president for admin-istration, said in a statement that the university has “made prog-ress” in an endeavor to refocus the community.

The progress, he said, entails the hiring of monitors respon-sible for “ongoing drop-in checks during social activities” and re-quiring chapters to sign a rela-tionship statement with clear expectations set by the university.

While Barron has been a pro-ponent of these new measures, Jim Piazza said it’s “not clear” to him if the university has followed through with everything.

“I’ve asked [Barron] a number of times to provide me with that information, and he hasn’t,” he said.

Jim and Evelyn Piazza both agree it is important to hire reg-

istered bartenders at parties and actively monitor all frater-nity houses through surveillance cameras.

“I think at any functions they have where alcohol is being served, it should be limited to the individuals that are over 21,” Jim Piazza said. “They should have either someone from State Col-lege Police or from the University Police or a real third-party vendor at the door letting people in.”

The national Beta Theta Pi or-ganization released a letter titled “It’s Time” on Feb. 2, announcing its strategic plan encompassing measures like hazing prevention and chapter cultural assessment.

“Of course, difficult as it has been throughout the emotionally exhausting and painful past 12 months, especially as we recog-nize the excruciating grief and pain of the Piazza family, the Board of Trustees has remained steadfast in thoughtful evaluation and sincere, open-minded listen-ing,” the letter reads.

The letter calls on peer frater-nities to enact similar measures.

“With Farmhouse, Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Phi Epsilon having already stepped forward on this matter,” the letter reads, “imagine if all 70 other inter/na-tional fraternities took this same substance-free housing step we all know is inevitable and needed. It’s time.”

A culture dividedBram said he was particularly

struck by State College night life, marked by the number of people “wandering around downtown” going to fraternity parties.

Chapters struggled to manage their capacity, Bram said, as they established who was “supposed to be in.”

Both IFC President John Lord, and Panhellenic President Gen-evieve Fishman said there is un-derstandably a need for change in order to create a safe and sus-tainable environment for all com-munity members.

Lord (junior-finance) said his work with the newly implemented Greek Advisory Group consists of collaborating with and updating student leaders, administrators,

board members and other stake-holders.

While the greek life changes have primarily targeted frater-nity life, Fishman (junior-commu-nication sciences and disorders) said the Panhellenic community is also affected.

“By revising and implementing new policies, Panhellenic strives to create a safe and more secure environment for all members,” she said. “Along with change, comes adversity and growing pains, but I believe the com-munity will adjust to these new norms,” Fishman said.

Tim Piazza’s older brother, Mike, who is also a student at Penn State, knows all too well about adjustment.

Overall, he said this was a “wake-up-call” for many people within greek life.

“The problem is still largely un-affected,” Mike said. “It’s far from being over, or anywhere near ac-ceptable.”

Impact on THONMike Piazza (senior-finance)

stood with Tim in the stands of the Bryce Jordan Center during THON Weekend 2016, with spe-cial interest organization Ayuda and THON committee OPPera-tions.

It wasn’t until Tim Piazza’s sophomore year that he decided to join his brother in the organiza-tions, leading an active role in the fight against childhood cancer.

Though they never had the chance to stand together last year, the impact after Piazza’s passing allowed Ayuda to raise an additional $45,000 in his name.

Following the changes to greek life, many have wondered about the ripple effect on THON.

“While it is unfortunate that sanctions may affect greek life’s ability to come together for phi-lanthropy,” Mike Piazza said, “the people who want to volunteer and raise money for [THON] will do so if they care about it.”

Ayuda President Kyle Ben-nison said he thinks the only factor that might affect the overall THON total is losing fall recruitment opportunities, which would result in less people

canning and canvassing. Bennison said he hopes “that

all those Saturdays that were previously dedicated to daylongs — that are now banned — can be refocused to fundraising.”

A family still mourningMike said it’s almost fitting for

him to feel a certain emptiness about that day, adding it is fitting to remain as a day of reflection.

“I miss him every day and that doesn’t show all the time be-cause of how involved I try to be to cope,” Mike said. “But for me and my family and all of his close friends, it’s something that lives right under the surface. There was a gravity to this that I think is being all too quickly forgotten, it’s still searingly painful.”

Jim and Evelyn Piazza didn’t know how they would be remem-bering Tim, either. Yet, Jim Pi-azza emphasized his son’s most important attributes were his selfless and caring attitude.

His son had an interest in work-ing with younger children and putting others before himself, Pi-azza said.

“He was just a very nice, intelli-gent, articulate and caring young man,” he said.

Piazza said his “number one priority right now is Mike’s hap-piness” in finishing his studies at Penn State.

As long as Mike is happy, Piaz-za said he is supportive of those choices.

Throughout the year, the Piaz-zas have also kept in touch with other families who have lost loved ones to hazing.

Evelyn Piazza said they are friends with the Gruver family, who lost their son Maxwell, a stu-dent from Louisiana State Uni-versity.

Later in February, they plan on traveling to Greenville, South Carolina, to meet with that group.

For now, they take one day at a time.

“I don’t know that anything we do this weekend would be honor-ing Tim’s life,” Jim Piazza said, “what we’ll be doing this weekend is mourning Tim’s death.”

To email reporter: [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter at @tina_locurto.

Starting a club proves to be a simple process

Matt Petrosky/Collegian

Students learn about various Penn State organizations during the Fall 2016 Involvement Fair on the

HUB-Robeson Center lawn on Monday, Aug. 22, 2016.

Linsey Fagan/Collegian

Jim Piazza reacts to the announcement of charges in his son’s death at

the Centre County Courthouse Annex on Friday, May 5, 2017.

The Daily Collegian local Feb. 5-7, 2018 |

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How smartphones impact students’

The Lion Shrine: art in plain sight

By Maddie Aiken THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Are you truly a Penn State stu-dent if you don’t take your picture with the Nittany Lion Shrine dur-ing freshman year and again in your cap and gown before gradu-ation?

For decades, proud Penn Staters have posed with the Lion, while sporting poodle skirts in the fifties, bell bottoms in the seven-ties and “mom” jeans in the nine-ties.

As the second most photo-graphed spot in Pennsylvania (behind the Liberty Bell), the shrine has become part of the Penn State tradition for genera-tions of students. And with that tradition comes a compelling his-tory.

Like Old Main’s Land Grant Frescoes, the shrine was origi-nally conceptualized during the Great Depression in order to encourage public art and boost morale, according to Jackie Es-posito, a special projects librarian at Penn State.

Esposito said a campus com-mittee wanted to create a

gathering spot on campus for stu-dents and alumni before games. Originally, people would gather around fire pits on the corner of South Allen Street and College Avenue, which was inconvenient for downtown business owners.

While the statue is currently lo-cated in the far west of campus, Esposito said when it was built it was considered a central location on campus.

After the committee decided they wanted to build the shrine, they needed to find an artist. They chose Heinz Warneke, a well-known sculptor, who was known for his sculpture of elephants in the Philadelphia Zoo.

While Warneke was paid, he paid his workers and purchased the limestone himself.

The creation of the shrine was a public art project, meaning that students had the opportunity to help Warneke as he created the shrine.

Warneke finished the shrine, which was a class gift of 1940, in 1942. It was dedicated in October 1942 on homecoming weekend.

“It was extraordinarily popular from day one,” Esposito said. The

downtown bonfires immediately stopped.

While the shrine has watched over Penn State for over 75 years, he has not gone without injury. The lion’s right ear has been detached multiple times.

Esposito said the first time this occurred was in 1978; it was broken by an unknown vandal with a sledgehammer.

Warneke came back to fix the ear. The former 1940 editor of The Daily Collegian, who was then working at Centre Daily Times, picked up Warneke at the airport.

When he arrived, he immedi-ately “wanted to see his lion.” He touched where the lion’s ear was broken and cried.

After breaking once, the ear is more susceptible to being bro-ken again, according to Esposi-to. She said in 1994, when it was broken again, a sculptor from Washington, D.C. was brought in, as at that point Warneke had died.

The shrine was renovated in 2014. A wheelchair ramp was put in, and stones from Mount Nittany were added to its base.

“I think what’s signifi-cant about it is that it’s a solid representation of the belief that Penn Staters have about their education and giving back once they gradu-ate,” Esposito said. “It definitely is a symbol of the courage and forti-tude of Penn State stu-dents.”

“Guard the Lion Shrine” has become one of the most popu-lar events surrounding the lion shrine. Dur-ing the event, Penn State ROTC guards the shrine during home-coming weekend. The event is organized by Penn State’s Lion Am-bassadors.


By Tara WuTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

It’s 2018, and smartphones are more tightly intertwined in everyone’s lives than ever. The sight of an entire roomful of people assuming the same exact position — heads down, elbows stuck to their sides, thumbs tapping away — is no rarity in this day and age. For better or for worse, smartphones are here to stay.

While there are plenty of articles that argue for smart-phones’ contributions to our lives, more and more studies and news articles have been de-tailing their negative effects on users, especially young people.

In a New York Times article published in 2014, Steve Jobs himself said he limits the amount of technology his kids use at home.

In 2017, psychology professor Jean M. Twenge published her book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tol-erant, Less Happy--and Com-pletely Unprepared for Adult-hood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us,” detailing through numerous studies and statistics exactly what kinds of effects smartphones have had on millennials.

Her book lays out the big picture of smartphone over-

use on an entire generation — a big picture that involves higher rates of depression and feelings of loneliness, and lower rates of dating and hanging out with friends.

Dr. John Mitchell is a Penn State Counseling and Psychologi-cal Services (CAPS) psycholo-gist. In his experience, students haven’t come for help specifically because they think their cell-phone usage is out of control, but he said that excessive cellphone use can play a role in exacerbat-ing issues that contribute to men-tal health issues.

Mitchell cited smartphones’ ef-fect on sleep quality as one of the biggest problems.

“When I have a student that is complaining of sleep problems, the vast majority of them will in-dicate that they are oftentimes using their phone or their tablet in bed.”

He also talked about the dan-gers of smartphone overuse on students’ real-life relationships.

“I do worry that individu-als who use their smartphone excessively are likely limiting their ability to access quality social support in their lives and thus more vulnerable to depres-sion,” Mitchell said.

He went on to say in terms of education, smartphones act as a “two-edged sword.”


Eric Firestine/Collegian

The Penn State Nittany Lion Shrine has a rich history behind it, from being moved

to its new location to its ear being broken off.

We want to hear from youSend us your comments on

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oPINIoNLeen ObeidatBusiness Manager

Sam RulandEditor in Chief

Customer service is never good enoughIn a world where instant

gratification is literally living up to its name in many cases,

consumers are getting lazier, and as a result, more selfish.

Blizzard Entertainment’s shop servers were under heavy traffic last week when the preorder for

World of Warcraft’s next expan-sion went live, which included some in-game features becom-ing available immediately. This prompted tens of thousands of players to jump onto the website and try to process their purchases.

Estimated queue times were anywhere from six hours to 6,405,119,470,038,039 days —yes, some screens actually said this. While there may have been a bit of an exaggeration in the estimation formula, the point is there was a bit of a wait.

In addition to long queue times just to purchase the game, some players who did make it through the payment process found they were charged multiple times, or unable to log in to the game, presumably due the same server stress.

Naturally, there were people who understood this and waited it out, checking the official sources for updates on when the services would be back.

On the other hand, we had the people who relentlessly complained and hurled insults

at Blizzard on the forum, with little regard to sensitivity.

Hell, you don’t see an official tweet from Blizzard’s customer service account without the first 10 replies complaining about is-sues that range from inaccurate to completely irrelevant.

But Blizzard is something of a paragon for positive customer service. Not only are they clear when communicating and usu-ally prompt with responding to support tickets, but they’re also very flexible when handling mistakes, going as far as com-pletely reversing mistakes due to human error on the player’s part.

Not only that, but in the last two years, Overwatch, another one of Blizzard’s franchises, has set a new standard for transpar-ency and developer insight.

About once a month, lead designer of Overwatch, Jeff Kaplan, hosts a “developer up-date,” which is generally about a 10-minute uncut vlog where Kaplan talks about hot topics in the community and upcoming plans for the game.

The key is that it’s uncut. It’s not a heavily edited, super PR-ified way to make an announce-ment. It’s just Kaplan talking genuinely about the state of the game and the team’s philoso-phy. He doesn’t just pick out the non-controversial, exciting new plans for the game. If he thinks the vocal complainer portion of the community is wrong about balancing, he specifically de-scribes the team’s counterargu-ment as to why they’re keeping the changes, or not making

requested changes.On top of that, when the

community is vocal about new cosmetic ideas, such as user interface (UI) changes or qual-ity of life fixes, Kaplan specifi-cally addresses these ideas and assures players that the team is looking into them.

But in one specific developer update that hit the community the hardest, titled “Play Nice, Play Fair,” Kaplan made his stance on toxicity in the com-munity very clear.

“The bad behavior is not just ruining the experience for one another,” Kaplan said. “But the bad behavior is actually making the game progress at a much slower rate.”

Specifically, the team has to put resources into anti-toxicity measures, such as a more effi-cient, yet non-abusable, report-ing system.

The problem with internet toxicity in general doesn’t depend on the website or game. You can never have a perfect community with a user base the size of Facebook or Overwatch because all it takes is a small minority of abusive people to force measures to be taken against everyone, thus limiting enjoyment and actually halting development on new features.

Kaplan compared sitting behind a computer screen to sitting in a car during a traffic jam. When you’re in your car, you can honk and yell and flip people off all you want, be-cause everyone around you is a stranger. You’re just another car on the street, hiding behind

the wheel. The same goes for the internet. There are people who feel validated saying whatever they want behind the screen because of anonymity. They’re just strangers.

But strangers are people too. And that’s not just limited to other players. Many customer service representatives are people as passionate about these games as the players complaining to them.

The difference is that one party is talking on behalf of their job, and the other party is likely talking on behalf of their leisure. One person is held ac-countable, while the other is the customer.

And it goes beyond the inter-net. Beyond just customer ser-vice representatives, cashiers, waiters, technicians and more are verbally abused every day by selfish customers.

We probably won’t ever get rid of rude customers. There will always be people who have to take that degrading verbal assault with a smile on their face. But that doesn’t mean it won’t ever change. It’ll just change for the worst.

The next time you speak to a customer service agent, keep a positive attitude. Even if it won’t get rid of the bigoted consum-ers of the world, it’ll make them easier to deal with.

Brian Cunningham is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism relations and is a columnist for The Daily Collegian. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @BrianC1785.

MY VIEW | Brian Cunningham

Cunningham

It’s been one year since Timothy Piazza died in a brutal hazing ritual at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, and over the last 12 months, the Penn State community has seen significant reforms to its greek life system.

All of these changes prompted by Piazza’s

passing have had a posi-tive impact on our univer-sity as we try to keep our

student body safe. It’s expected these greek life restrictions will continue

to do so as future students rush, pledge and eventually join a fraternity or sorority. And that’s wonderful.

However, our urgency to implement these changes stems from our emotional connection to Piazza, a Penn State student whose passing was entirely preventable.

Had our greek system not been so flawed and our university-wide drink-ing culture not been so reckless, Tim still would be here.

Therefore, we must never forget Tim.

We can never forget his smooth smile, one so welcoming and cool that we all wish we could’ve known him.

We can never forget his “strapping red hair,” described so precisely by his parents, Jim and Evelyn, in their open letter published in The Daily Collegian on Thursday.

Every sensory detail that brings Tim’s memory

to life needs to be shared, absorbed and remem-bered forever if we actually want to make everlasting and positive changes to the greek system.

For those of us who didn’t know him, we have to think of him as if he were our best friend.

That way, if our best friend is ever in the same situation, we won’t take his or her wellbeing for granted, like we did with Tim.

The name Timothy Piazza cannot be recalled simply as the answer to a trivia question 25 years from now.

It cannot be an assort-ment of letters written in black, 12-point font that we gloss over as we’re skimming a textbook or newspaper.

The most sweeping and impactful changes come when we collectively feel responsible for an avoidable tragedy.

Tim’s passing is no dif-ferent.

To ensure we never again face such a heart-breaking, preventable loss, we can never distance ourselves from what happened in early February 2017.

As years go by, we must never forget Timothy Piazza

The most sweeping and impactful changes come when we collectively feel responsible for an avoidable tragedy.

Tim’s passing is no different.

OUR VIEW

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ONE FOR THE AGES

Edward Fan/Collegian

Penn State’s Mark Hall defeats Ohio State’s Bo Jordan during the Men’s Wrestling match at Rec Hall on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018. The no. 1 Nittany Lions defeated the no. 2 Buckeyes 19-18.

Penn State takes down Ohio StateIn one of the most dramatic matches in

recent memory, the Nittany Lions were able to come away with a 19-18 victory

Anthony Cassar’s upset win over top-ranked Kollin Moore of Ohio State electrifies

sold-out Rec Hall crowdBy Jake AferiatTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

There are statistical improbabilities, and then there’s what Penn State did Sat-urday night against Ohio State.

The dual pitted the first-ranked Nittany Lions against the No. 2 Buck-eyes in a battle to see

which team would be No. 1 come Monday, and with all eyes on the Nittany Lions, they didn’t disappoint.

Going into the match, the odds were heavily in Ohio State’s favor. After all, each of the Buckeyes’ 10 wrestlers were ranked, including heavyweight Kyle Sny-der, who is an Olympic gold medalist.

Penn State on the other hand was with-out its star Jason Nolf who sustained a lower body injury last week against Rut-gers, and Bo Nickal has struggled mightily against Myles Martin.

The culmination of all of those things, plus the routine struggles at 125, meant that for likely one of only a few times dur-ing his tenure, Cael Sanderson’s squad was the underdog heading into the dual meet.

Things began how they normally do for Penn State, with hard-fought losses at 125 and 133, though Boise State transfer Carson Kuhn made his debut for the Nit-tany Lions at 125. The two early losses put Penn State down 7-0.

In the first ranked bout of the night, Penn State’s Nick Lee fell to Stanford transfer Joey McKenna by a 7-6 decision after McKenna won because of a riding time advantage to put Ohio State up 10-0.

Ten points isn’t an insurmountable lead for Penn State against most opponents. But Ohio State isn’t most opponents.

The middle of Penn State’s lineup was without Nolf, while there were questions as to who would start at 197 and how Nick Nevills would fare against Snyder, all of which meant Penn State would need a miracle — or close to it — in the second half to stand a chance against the Buck-eyes and mount a comeback.

Zain Retherford, Vincenzo Joseph and Mark Hall all won their bouts as Nickal looked to avenge his losses to Myles Mar-tin and give Penn State its first lead of the night.

Nickal prevailed with a dominant 10-2 major decision to put Penn State up 16-15 and led into the bout of the night at 197 pounds.

Enter Anthony Cassar — the miracle maker.

Penn State’s story on Saturday night has been Cassar’s story during his entire career. Cassar hadn’t wrestled in nearly three years, and this year, when he was fi-nally healthy, he was again an underdog to

crack the lineup at 197 pounds.Once he did crack the lineup, he was an

underdog to start, as he had to contend with Shakur Rasheed and former NCAA qualifier Matt McCutcheon.

And Cassar was an underdog one last time on Saturday night against Ohio State’s Kollin Moore.

Moore is the reigning national third place finisher at 197, won the Big Ten tournament at 197 and is the nation’s top ranked wrestler in the weight class.

Cassar doesn’t have the resume or the accolades of Moore, but on Saturday night, none of that mattered.

The New Jersey native pulled off a dominant 6-3 decision to upset Moore and likely solidify his spot as Penn State’s starter at 197 going forward.

The upset win put Penn State up 19-15 heading into the final bout of the night, a matchup between Nick Nevills and Sny-der, the reigning Olympic Champion.

Nevills needed a win of any type, or a loss by decision to seal the dual for the Nittany Lions.

Nevills shocked everyone when he scored first on a quick first period take-down, and it showed that Nevills wasn’t afraid to take shots against Snyder.

Ultimately, Nevills lost by 15-10 deci-sion, but it was enough to win the dual given the circumstances.

Sanderson said he normally wouldn’t celebrate a loss, but under the circum-stances, he felt Nevills wrestled well and grew after he was dominated in a 19-9 major defeat to Snyder last season.

“I thought he looked really good in his warmup and I didn’t really say anything to him,” Sanderson said. “Nevills can wrestle and he’s tough wrestler, and un-der the circumstances we’re celebrating a regular decision loss but he did a great job.”

Nevills’ loss by decision gave Penn State its 43rd consecutive dual meet win in front of a Rec Hall crowd of 6,699.

Between Nickal’s, Hall’s and Cassar’s wins — and Nevills’ loss — the vibration from celebrations at Rec Hall likely regis-tered as a small earthquake on the Rich-ter Scale.

“Overall our guys wrestled well but we lost some close matches,” Sanderson said. “The guys did a great job, and every-one wrestled well.

“It was a great dual and Ohio State has a really great team and we’ll see them again shortly.”

The Nittany Lions are back in action at the Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.


Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Aferiat51.

WRESTLING

By Sara PerlowitzTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Penn State proved last night why they are ranked No. 1 in the country, and An-thony Cassar proved he can handle any

and all competition he will face at 197 pounds.

Over the last few weeks, Penn State fans have seen

coach Cael Sanderson switch between Cassar and No. 10 Shakur Rasheed for the starting spot.

Cassar hadn’t wrestled in Rec Hall since Dec. 17 when he got a major deci-sion against Spencer Irick of Indiana.

But Cassar knew what he would need to do to get the win against Ohio State.

Cassar stepped up to the mat on Fri-day with a much bigger task against No. 1 Kollin Moore of Ohio State and proved to Sanderson that he was the best person for the job. After having a scoreless first pe-riod, each wrestler scored in the second to keep it tied at two going into the final period.

After choosing to start down in the third period, Cassar escaped to a 3-2 lead early on. Another takedown by the Nittany Lion and a bonus point with 1:16 in riding time, gave Cassar the thrilling upset with a score of 6-3.

“I ran out there and just in my head tried to stay present and be my best,” Cassar said. “I knew if I did that that’s all the fans wanted and the team wanted, and it turned out in my favor because I felt I gave my best out there.”

Cassar knew earlier in the week that he

was going to wrestle against Ohio State, but it’s always a surprise to fans as to who is going to step out on the mat at 197.

There has been an unspoken competi-tion for the starting spot at 197 ever since the Southern Scuffle at the beginning of January, where Rasheed proved he could keep up with the best when he earned a first-place finish.

When asked about what would be the eventual determining factor for the coach-ing staff, Sanderson gave no clear indi-cation of when that decision will even be made.

“Cassar just beat the No. 1 ranked guy in the country, so he did an awesome job,” Sanderson said. “We’ve got a lot of confi-dence in Anthony so I don’t think we were really shocked by that.”

The sophomore’s performance on Fri-day night in front of a sold-out Rec Hall crowd of 6,699 — in what was being called the dual of the century — should help the coaching staff in their decision.

Being unranked and taking down the No. 1 wrestler in his weight class should be enough to give Cassar the edge against Rasheed. Moore was the Big Ten Champi-on at 197 last season and finished in third place at NCAAs later that year, and was taken down by Cassar who hasn’t even been a consistent starter this year.

Cassar stepped up against the Buck-eyes at a time when his team really need-ed it, and should ultimately be rewarded for his successful bout.


Follow her on Twiiter at @saraperlz.

Edward Fan/Collegian

Penn State’s Anthony Cassar celebrates after defeating Ohio State’s Kollin Moore during

the wrestling match at Rec Hall on Saturday, Feb. 3.

WRESTLING

SPoRTSThe Daily Collegian Feb. 5-7, 2018 |

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Penn State fencers find their passionBy Fontaine Glenn

THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

In the United States, fencing is an afterthought.

So the 52 Americans on Penn State’s ros-ter have a wide array of origin stories when it

comes to their introduction to the sport.

Fencing wasn’t junior Nicolette Vigna’s first passion as a young girl.

She started out in karate and when she was going for her black belt, her mother saw other stu-dents testing for the different levels of a black belt, and Vigna’s mother didn’t think her daughter should be doing that type of ka-rate anymore because it seemed too intense.

Once Vigna earned her black belt at 12 years old, her father looked into other sports for his daughter. After watching an older cousin fence, Vigna’s father was intrigued.

“My dad thought it was a cool thing and said why not try that out, and I said okay,” Vigna said, laughing. “Like do you want me to build a fence for you, I had no idea what it was and at my first lesson

I walked into the fencing gym and the coach was waiting for me and that was it.”

It didn’t come easy for Vigna at first because of the mental as-pects of the game, but once she fully understood how to beat her opponent mentally and physically, it all clicked.

Fencing is a mental and physi-cal sport, and having both those

components really drew Vigna in. That’s what kept her improving on the strip that eventually led her to Penn State.

For freshman Carlee Beaty, it was a family affair. The fresh-man sabreur watched her older brother, Chad, fence and decided to follow in his footsteps. Both Chad and Carlee are now at Penn State, fencing as sabreurs.

Beatty is originally from outside of Atlanta but moved to State Col-lege because of her dad’s job. The move to Pennsylvania made a big impact on her decision to come to Penn State.

“I think the fencing and know-ing [Penn State] was a reputable school is what drew me here,” Carlee said.

When Inti Farfan-Bayerl, a Colorado native, took a season off from his original sport of soccer at 10 years old, his passion was altered to fencing. It started with his mom seeing an ad for fencing in the newspaper.

“My coach was actually a stu-dent of Coach [Wes] Glon’s who was in the 1996 Olympics in At-lanta so I thought I should try it out,” Bayerl said.

At first, Bayerl wasn’t fond of the sport, but after a few tourna-ments, it became a part of his life. The familiarity with Glon, know-ing him since he was about 13 years old, was the main reason he chose to fence at Penn State.

One of the top female sabreurs on the team, Zara Moss is a na-tive of Cranberry, Pa., about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. She credited her home schooling as the big reason for her success in fencing.

Before being homeschool, Moss went to private elementary school in first grade where she was exposed to a fencing demon-stration in gym class. From there, she joined a fencing club and, at first, it was just for fun. At the age of 14, that changed for Moss.

“After watching the 2012 Olym-pics, and I watched the fencing competition,” Moss said, “it made me want to get into it more and see what I can do with this. That’s when I really committed to it.”

Pittsburgh turned out not to be the place to improve on her fencing abilities, so she traveled to New Jersey for one week out of each month to practice and compete. The bonus of being home schooled was she was able to travel regularly and take her school work with her.

Penn State runs through the veins of Moss and her family. Her mother is a Penn State alum and a lot of her family members were Penn Staters.

“I knew the fight song before my ABCs,” Moss said with a laugh.

Having a stand out fencing pro-gram only made her dream of go-ing to Penn State even better.

To read full story, visit collegian.psu.edu

Camille Stefani/Collegian

Zara Moss fences sabre against her opponent from Columbia University

in the White Building on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018.

FENCING

The Daily CollegianSPoRTS | Feb. 5-7, 2018

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Someone wake Bill Murray and Penn State men’s hock-

ey up because they both seem to be trapped in the cycle of

Groundhog Day. The Nittany Lions lost Friday night and

dropped a shootout to Notre Dame on Saturday to remain

winless in their last seven games. Penn State proved third

time’s a harm as it continued its trend of final period woes

on Friday, allowing two goals to the Irish. Junior Andrew

Sturtz appeared to finally have a shot at ending the team’s

winless streak with a penalty shot attempt in Saturday’s

overtime session but was ultimately denied. Phil did see his

shadow on Friday, but at this point it may be a tall task for

the Nittany Lions to be playing for another six weeks.

Nevills say never. Needing to avoid a pin or major decision in the final bout of the night to preserve the win for Penn State, the heavy weight of this task fell on heavyweight Nick Nevills against Ohio State’s No. 1 ranked and Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder. Snyder picked up a 15-10 decision which was not enough to propel the Buckeyes past Penn State. For Snyder, it’s “not too late to say sorry” for the pair of tweets he released earlier in the week trolling Penn State. With the team win, Penn State guarantees a share of the Big Ten Dual Meet title and can continue its collaboration with DJ Khaled on “I’m the One.”

The Avengers

The full cast of characters was on hand in the Bryce Jor-

dan Center for men’s basketball’s dominating 82-58 win

over Iowa, preventing an avenging victory for the Hawk-

eyes after a loss to the Nittany Lions earlier this season.

Josh Reaves dropped a hammer of a dunk that Thor would

have been proud of and landed the junior a No. 5 spot on

Sunday morning’s SportsCenter Top Plays. Mike Watkins

embraced his inner Hawkeye, known for his deadly accu-

racy with the bow and arrow. Watkins hit all of his first

eight shots to finish with 19 points. Lamar Stevens dis-

played the aerial tactics of Iron Man, sending home a 360

slam dunk. But the team’s greatest hero may just be Tony

Carr and his ability to save Pat Chambers’ job. Does the

next sequel of this franchise end in March?

The theories are endless for what ended the dinosaurs. Was it an asteroid, a volcano or perhaps climate change? One thing for sure, however, is what ended the Mastodons. Jalen Penrose’s team-high 15 kills led Penn State men’s volley-ball past the No. 15 Fort Wayne Mastodons in four sets. The Mastodons missed the warning to take shelter from this force as Penrose preceded the Mastodon extinction by leading the Nittany Lions with 16 kills on Friday night against Ball State, at one point being responsible for six-straight points in the fifth set.

Jalen’s Comet

J. BIEBS

SCHLARPERLATIVESBy Thomas Schlarp

THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

With 16 athletic events around campus

this weekend, Penn State fans had plenty

of opportunities to snack on sports before

Sunday’s Super Bowl feast.


Follow him on Twitter at @TSchlarp.

Pucks-utawny Phil

Falcons Faux Pas

Check back next week

for another set of

SCHLARPeRLAT

IVES

In a classy nod to Super Bowl weekend and former Penn State

lacrosse player Chris Hogan playing for the Patriots, Penn State

men’s lacrosse did its best impression of the Atlanta Falcons from

Super Bowl LI. The Falcons notoriously blew a 28-3 lead against

New England before falling in overtime to hand Tom Brady his fifth

Super Bowl ring. The Nittany Lions held a 14-9 advantage head-

ing into the final quarter of its season opener against Villanova. A

stretch of five-straight goals gave the Wildcats the lead before Penn

State was able to tie things back up at 16 and force overtime. Villa-

nova needed just 50 seconds and the collapse of Super Bowl propor-

tion was intact.

What’s next for football recruiting?By Ben JenkinsTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

While the early signing period created some new wrinkles and changes in the world of football recruiting, some things will al-ways stay the same:

Coaches will always be looking towards the future.

Finalizing 2018As national signing day ap-

proaches this week, James Franklin and his staff have two more spots to fill in the 2018 re-cruiting class, assuming that Shaquon Anderson-Butts, who committed to joining the Nittany Lions in July, signs with the team as planned.

It’s no surprise to anyone that final two spots are being pushed to legacy wide receiver recruit Solomon Enis, and offensive tack-le Rasheed Walker.

Enis is listed as a four-star wide receiver, and the third-best player in the state of Arizona according to 247Sports. In their crystal ball projection, Enis is a 75 percent Penn State lean. Many Penn State fans will recognize the Enis name, as Solomon’s father Curtis shined for the Nittany Lions be-fore playing in the NFL.

While it’s likely that Solomon

will suit up in the blue and white just like his father, it’s interest-ing to note that Utah is making a slight push as of late. Since Au-gust, the Nittany Lions have been a 100 percent lock on 247Sports’ Crystal Ball predictions.

In mid-January, two projec-tions were made for Solomon to join Utah. Although it’s doubtful Enis will play for the Utes, it’s something to keep an eye on as the last few days of the recruiting period wind down.

Arizona State and new head coach Herm Edwards are also making a late push for Enis. With less than a week before signing day, the Sun Devils now have a 12 percent chance to grab the second-best player in their home state.

For Rasheed Walker, things are much more up in the air. The four-star offensive tackle is rated as the sixth-best tackle in the coun-try, and the fourth-best player in Maryland.

In 247Sports’ Crystal Ball, Walker had been a 100 percent lock to join Penn State’s class since last spring. However, as of late, Ohio State has been closing the gap on Walker.

While the gap was as low as 69 percent at one point, a visit

from Franklin this past week has

bumped Penn State back to an

84 percent chance to land Walk-

er, but a few factors do help the

Buckeyes.

When Clemson flipped Jackson

Carman, the No. 1 ranked offen-

sive tackle in the country, away

from Ohio State during the early

signing period, the loss forced the

Buckeyes to turn their attention

towards Walker in order to fill the

hole left in their class.

Also, as Ohio State continues to

add commitments, it continues to

look like a better and better place

to play. In January, Tyler Friday

joined Urban Meyer’s 2018 class,

closing the gap between OSU and

Georgia for the No. 1 recruiting

class in the country.

With the race for Walker’s com-

mitment so close, it’ll be inter-esting to see if Franklin and his staff can keep Walker away from Columbus, and land him in State College.

Turning toward 2019Along with finalizing the 2018

class, Penn State is also working to improve the 2019 class. With the new signing period in Decem-ber, we are roughly 10 months from the early signing period for another group of high school se-niors.

Currently, Penn State has two commitments in the class of 2019. The first to commit to the class was Keaton Ellis, a three-star cornerback in Penn State’s back-yard.

Ellis, who plays for State Col-lege Area, is currently ranked as the 36th best cornerback in the country, and the 6th best player in Pennsylvania.

Joining Ellis is three-star quar-terback Ta’Quan Roberson. Rob-erson, who plays his high school ball at Depaul Catholic in New Jersey, is ranked as the 11th-best dual-threat quarterback in the country, and the ninth-best player in New Jersey.


Erin O’Neill/The Daily Collegian

Head coach James Franklin addresses the media at Penn State’s media

day at the JW Marriot Camelback Inn on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017.

vol. 118, no. 85 feb. 5-7, 2018 one year later

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