I am delighted that you have joined me tonight to kick off what I hope will be a very important school year, perhaps the most memorable in all of your education. The beginning of college sets the tone and direction for much of what will follow for you at Penn State. We want you to get off to a perfect start.

So here we are. Your parents are gone. The residence hall is now home. You’ve got roommates. Most of you are hoping to make some new friends, perhaps even to get romantically involved. In a few days, you start classes. You’re probably excited and maybe a little anxious. Maybe relieved that you’re finally here.

We designed our new student programs to be a mix of orientation to Penn State, preparation for serious academic study, and a time for some fun. For the next few moments, however, I’d like to focus on the more serious part.

Let me say first how pleased I am that you are all part of the Penn State family. I hope you will come to love Penn State as I do, and I hope that I can become acquainted with many of you during the next few years. I start that process tonight, having today moved into the residence halls myself for the weekend, into supplemental housing. I’ve got five roommates. How many of you can top that?

And while I’m doing a survey, let me ask you just a few other questions:

• How many of you had your own bedroom while you were in high school?
• Most of you. Working hard at acceptance and compromise will be very important skills in the coming months while you are sharing a room. Work hard at it.
• How many of you were in the upper quarter of your high school class? Just about everybody, of course. This is Penn State. You’ll find that most everyone here is potentially an outstanding student. You will need to apply yourself in the classroom. The pace will be rapid; don’t let yourself fall behind.
• How many of you had parents who sometime during the last year were on your case about issues such as homework, your classes, your love life, or your behavior?

Well, these issues are on your shoulders now, but they aren’t really less important today than they were yesterday.

You are now part of one of the best universities in America, an institution that is known nationally and internationally for excellence in teaching, research, and public service. Wherever you go, if you say "I go to Penn State," you will find tremendous recognition and respect for the education you are receiving. You also are very likely to find proud Penn Staters, for our university family is large, loyal, and full of enthusiasm. One in 122 Americans with a college degree is a Penn State graduate, we are the most popular university in America (ranked by the overall submission of SAT scores) and we are highly ranked in everything from the quality of our academic programs to our athletic teams.

These facts should make you feel good about choosing Penn State. I’m delighted that you did so. I want you to know that I and the faculty and staff will make every effort to support the successful attainment of your educational goals.

But we also want you to know that your success here is ultimately up to you. I hope I don’t hear any of you, four years from now, complaining that you can’t graduate on time because someone in some office didn’t tell you something. This is college, and you must take responsibility for knowing what’s up. There are plenty of folks around to help you, but in the end, only you know all of the facts surrounding your situation, so stay on top of it. And it’s not too early to begin to get everything possible out of your Penn State experience.

I wish to give you some advice tonight. I promise you it’s good advice. It’s a lot like the story about a man who went to see his doctor after feeling poorly for several weeks. The doctor asked, "Have you been treated by anyone else?" "No," the man replied, "but I did go see a friend." The doctor scolded the man for seeking a non-physician’s opinion, "What kind of bad advice did he give you?" The man said, "He told me to come see you."

Well, you’ve come to the right person for advice tonight and there are five things I want to tell you to do to make your Penn State experience a happy, healthy, and productive one. They are:

• Plan ahead.
• Work hard.
• Get involved.
• Be a good citizen in the campus community.
• And get to know at least one faculty or staff member well this year.

Yogi Berra once said, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." That’s not the best approach in college. It’s better to make informed choices by planning ahead.

You’ve just arrived at Penn State and it may seem premature to talk about what you will be doing a year or two from now. I know many of you have not yet settled on a major and others will change your minds, perhaps more than once, on what you will study. That’s OK. College is a time for exploration, educationally, and personally.

But some of the decisions you make along the way about your courses and other activities will have an impact on opportunities available to you later on. For example, if you are interested in a particular program, have your heart set on studying abroad, or want to do an internship, find out now what you have to do to be ready. Educational planning early on can make things happen much more easily later. There are people at Penn State who can help you identify choices and requirements and advise you as to the consequences of certain alternatives. Talk to them. They are here to help you and they are eager to work with you.

One of the most important choices you can make at Penn State is to take your academic responsibilities seriously. Your primary purpose in attending the University is to learn. Go to every class, put effort into your assignments. Read. And ask a lot of questions.

Your college courses will probably be very different from high school. They will demand more work and require that you keep up with the material throughout the semester. They will often call for teamwork with other students, both in and out of the classroom. Many of them will make significant use of technology, teaching things that were beyond our students’ reach just a few years ago. This is the most intensive time for intellectual development you will have had thus far. Take full advantage of it, and enjoy it. Your entering class is one of the most talented in University history. You have the ability to do well at Penn State.

In today’s society, and most certainly in tomorrow’s, well-educated people will enjoy the greatest success by nearly every measure. Well-educated means skill in thinking creatively, solving problems, and communicating effectively. It means being acquainted with a broad range of perspectives, knowing how to get more information or another opinion when needed, and how to make sense out of it all. These are things you learn by doing. Your Penn State education will give you many opportunities to do these things but you must give these opportunities the attention and energy they need.

The difference between being an active and passive student reminds me of the story about three baseball umpires. The first one said, "I call them as I see them." The second one said, "I call them as they are." The third one said, "They’re nothing until I call them." That’s the right attitude toward college. Your education will not be all it can be until you make the call.

That active involvement extends beyond the context of course work and classrooms. Extracurricular activities enhance your education through the development of leadership, organizational, and social skills, recreational interests, and personal values. Our commitment to the education of the whole person includes the programs of the Eisenhower Chapel at University Park in support of all the different religions represented on campus. These opportunities are a wonderful source of friendships, a constructive way to have some fun, and a tremendous avenue of personal growth.

The University Park Campus is large. In fact, there are more than 400 different student organizations and literally hundreds of cutural and entertainment events of interest to students. Getting involved in extracurricular activities helps to make the size and scope of this campus manageable. It will give you a personal network to connect with, and a rewarding purpose for the use of your time. Yes, you will have spare time. Use it to broaden yourself; use it to get involved.

Getting involved in the campus community is also one of the best ways to come to appreciate the importance of the quality of life at Penn State and the impact you personally will have on that quality. Everyone at the university has a role to play in creating a strong and caring community at Penn State and in the local community we share. It is important for you to be good neighbors with other students on campus, and with the residents of the State College area as well.

As members of our university community, you will meet individuals of vastly different backgrounds, viewpoints, and personal characteristics. All of our students must learn to live and learn with each other so that the Penn State experience is supportive of all. Civility, understand-ing, and mutual respect are key qualities toward this end.

I want to say something especially important to you now, and it is a fairly serious matter. It’s about underage and binge drinking. For many students, few behaviors affect the ability to excel academically more than the excessive consumption of alcohol, something I wrote to you all about this summer. Such behavior has consequences for our communities, our learning environ-ment, and our students.

Our surveys show that many of you engaged in binge drinking in high school. Yet two-thirds of our entering freshmen have had limited or no involvement with alcohol. Unfortunately, data have shown that within their first week at Penn State, half of our students experience binge drinking. More than half of each class become heavy users of alcohol. As many as 7 percent drop out for reasons related to drinking.

I am very concerned about the impact of excessive drinking at Penn State. In the past two years, we have been raising the awareness of the issues involved and working with student leaders across the University system on educational and recreational programming to promote increased responsibility.

How many of you heard about the riot that occurred here over the summer? We don’t ever want to see anything like this happen again at Penn State. This is not what we are about, and the damage of such episodes to our reputation will cheapen the value of our degrees.

I need to tell you that underage drinking is taken seriously by the university and by the State College community. There is the potential for academic and even criminal consequences. Several hundred students last year--several hundred--found themselves in court, paying fines, or facing academic sanctions within the university for alcohol-related issues. And there were several hundred--several hundred--hospital emergency room admissions due to alcohol poisoning or alcohol-related medical problems. Don’t believe upperclassmen who tell you otherwise. Don’t undermine your own future.

Make wise decisions.

Be strong and do what you believe is right.

You’ll be glad to know we are doing more than just preaching about this problem. We have opened the HUB twenty-four hours a day with expanded late-night programming on the weekends. These activities, which reflect a variety of interests, have proven to be very popular among students. I encourage you to check them out. You’ll see lots of great programming in the residence halls. Check out the gym. Attend an athletic event in any of our 29 intercollegiate sports. No university in America offers you more to do than Penn State.

I have been challenging all of Penn State’s students to change the norm from high risk excessive consumption to a norm that encourages academic and social responsibility. In addition to the positive involvement of Penn State’s student government leaders, our Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils are providing outstanding leadership on alcohol issues. We are making important progress at Penn State in reducing excessive alcohol consumption and underage drinking. I am asking you tonight to join in this vital effort.

You can make a difference in creating a stronger, more caring community at Penn State. You hold the principal responsibility for your own educational success. The choices you make, starting right now, will determine your future.

But please remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. That brings me to my last piece of advice. If you need some help or just have a question, ask your resident assistant, your advisor, your professors, or a member of the staff. I especially want to urge all of you to get to know at least one faculty or staff member well this year. Some of your classes will be large, but I can assure you that most faculty, even if they teach large classes, are truly interested in the education and welfare of each of their students. Introduce yourself. Ask a question. Show some special interest. Or get to know a staff member in student affairs, your advisor, or a member of the campus clergy. Penn State may be large, but there is a real family feeling here, and I want you to take advantage of that.

If you see me on campus throughout the year, please stop me and say hello. You’ll see me around. Tell me how it’s going. Come to visit my office in Old Main on Friday afternoon, September 25, during my open house.

Your entrance into college is a step on a wonderful journey of personal growth. I wish you a great year and much success.

Thanks for choosing this great institution. We are... Penn State.