Letters: Advocacy continues 2 years after Osagie tragedy; Penn State’s research programs deserve attention

Advocacy continues 2 years after Osagie tragedy

The words “you can’t associate every incident” with hate from state police Sgt. William Slaton have been ringing in my ears since he said them the night after Osaze Osagie was killed, before any interviews were completed, before any investigation had properly begun. Approaching March 20, I find it important to remember what we have been told from the beginning, and why we, the 3-20 Coalition, must continue our advocacy. The word “tragedy” has been used as a smokescreen for two years, and Osaze’s death is a tragedy. It is also a systemic failure to provide proper care to a Black man in a mental health crisis, and further failure to deliver accountability addressing that injustice. When we are told, “Don’t connect this” by people in power, it’s a reminder that our connections are powerful — between facts, between cause and effect, between each other. The more we learn about the circumstances around Osaze’s killing, the more we must question the motivation behind keeping things disconnected and less “complicated.” The more we learn painful truths, the more we must realize our responsibility to demand better as a community. Our first task is deciding as a Centre Region that we are not OK with a justice system that terms the death of a man whom police contacted for the sole purpose of helping him and making him safer, as “justified.” Join us as we continue our advocacy, our questioning, and our connecting with one another in pursuit of a better community.

Penn State’s research programs deserve attention

Once again, the most important local news story of the year has gone unnoticed and unsung.

As was the case last year, Penn State again ranks No. 1 nationally, tied with Johns Hopkins University, in the breadth and depth of its research programs.

Released in late January, this news comes courtesy of the latest National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey for FY 2019, which measures research expenditures in key science and engineering fields and subfields.

Both Penn State and Hopkins had 16 research fields ranked in the top 10. In second place were MIT and Michigan, each with 13 fields.

Here are Penn State’s 16 top-10 fields.

First: materials sciences

Second: materials engineering; mechanical engineering; psychology; mathematics; statistics

Fourth: sociology; industrial/manufacturing engineering; electrical engineering

Fifth: engineering as a whole

Sixth: anthropology

Seventh: computer and information sciences; aeronautical and astronautical engineering

Eighth: chemical engineering; atmospheric sciences/meteorology

Ninth: geological and earth sciences; astronomy

This magnificent research program — more than any other factor — is what builds Penn State’s reputation. And reputation attracts resources, be they world-class faculty, talented graduate and undergraduate students, grants and philanthropic dollars, and so on. These resources, in turn, strengthen Penn State’s capacity for making life better and the economy stronger for Centre County, the commonwealth, nation and world.

Some years ago, the late President Emeritus Bryce Jordan said, “This is a university worth loving.” In view of its extraordinary academic prowess, it’s a university worth paying attention to as well.