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Revision as of 06:54, 10 December 2007 by 146.186.44.217 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Graham Spanier, | |
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 | |
| 16th | |
| In office 1995–present | |
| Preceded by | Joab Thomas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 18, 1948 Capetown, South Africa |
| Spouse | Sandra Spanier |
| Children | Brian, Hadley |
| Website | Office of the President |
Graham B. Spanier is the 16th and current president of the Pennsylvania State University. He succeeded Joab Thomas on September 1, 1995. During his tenure the campus has expanded considerably, including the creation of the Schreyer Honors College, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Penn State World Campus. Spanier continues to hold leadership positions on national councils and boards related to higher education.
Education
Spanier graduated from Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois), and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State University where he was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Citation by the ISU Alumni Association in 2004. He earned his Ph.D.. in sociology from Northwestern University where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. While a researcher, he contributed to the publication of ten books and over 100 scholarly journal articles. As a family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and family therapist, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Family Issues.
Career in Higher Education
Early Career
Spanier served as chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Oregon State University, and vice provost for undergraduate studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was a faculty member and administrator from 1973-1982 in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. He and his wife, Sandra, have two children, Brian and Hadley, both of whom have attended Penn State University.
Modern Leadership
He has served on national boards such as: the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, deputy chair of the Worldwide Universities Network, the Board of Directors and a founding member of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, and chair of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities.
He has also held leadership roles in other organizations, such as: president of the National Council on Family Relations, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Christian Children's Fund, chair of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, and Board of Trustees of the National 4-H Council.
Spanier's annual salary, currently set at $545,016, is determined by a sub-committee of the University Board of Trustees. His compensation is ranked third among his peers at surveyed public universities nationwide.
Internet and Copyright Issues
Spanier has an expressed interest in internet technology: he was a founding member of the Internet2 board. In 1997, Spanier was recognized by Al Gore for his work on the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID). More recently, Spanier has become an outspoken critic of unmonitored online file sharing, and testified before Congress in 2002 about the issue. He was the first University president to collaborate with music companies in an effort to halt illegal file sharing among students when Penn State signed a contract with Napster that provided all students access to Napster's music catalog. In 2007 he signed a contract with Ruckus Network which provides ad-supported access to millions of songs and videos to Penn State Students. He currently serves as co-chair of the Committee on Higher Education and the Entertainment Industry.
Colleges and universities are collaborative communities. In that spirit, many different segments of academia have contributed their views and perspectives on how higher education should address the issues posed by illegal file-sharing. And we have some level of responsibility for the well being of millions of young men and women who, while in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, are massive consumers of entertainment products at the same time they are developing personal value systems.
— Graham Spanier, "Peer to Peer Piracy on University Campuses: An Update"
Miscellanea
Proven Facts There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Graham Spanier allows to live.
Graham Spanier does not sleep. He waits.
The chief export of Graham Spanier is Pain.
There is no chin under Graham Spanier' Beard. There is only another fist.
Graham Spanier has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.
The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Graham Spanier 3. Cancer
Graham Spanier drives an ice cream truck covered in humanskulls.
Graham Spanier is my Homeboy.
Graham Spanier doesn't go hunting.... GRAHAM SPANIER GOES KILLING
Widely Suspected Facts In Pamplona, Spain, the people may be running from the bulls, but the bulls are
running from Graham Spanier.
• Graham Spanier uses pepper spray to spice up his steaks. • Graham Spanier once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the
speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying
over the Pacific Ocean.
• Crop circles are Graham Spanier' way of telling the world that sometimes corn
needs to lie down.
• Graham Spanier is ten feet tall, weighs two-tons, breathes fire, and could eat a
hammer and take a shotgun blast standing.
• The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Graham Spanier out. It
failed miserably.
• Contrary to popular belief, Graham Spanier, not the box jellyfish of northern
Australia, is the most venomous creature on earth. Within 3 minutes of being
bitten, a human being experiences the following symptoms: fever, blurred vision,
beard rash, tightness of the jeans, and the feeling of being repeatedly kicked
through a car windshield.
• Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Graham Spanier has 72... and they're
all poisonous.
• If you ask Graham Spanier what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds 'til."
After you ask, "Two seconds 'til what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.
• Graham Spanier drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls. • When Graham Spanier sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a
picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Graham Spanier has not had to
pay taxes, ever.
• The quickest way to a man's heart is with Graham Spanier' fist. • Graham Spanier invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with
eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear.
• CNN was originally created as the "Graham Spanier Network" to update Americans
with on-the-spot ass kicking in real-time.
• Graham Spanier can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves. • There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Graham Spanier allows
to live.
• Graham Spanier once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45
minutes having sex with his waitress.
• What was going through the minds of all of Graham Spanier' victims before they
died? His shoe.
• Graham Spanier is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis. • Police label anyone attacking Graham Spanier as a Code 45-11.... a suicide. • Graham Spanier doesn't churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter
comes straight out.
• Graham Spanier doesn’t wash his clothes, he disembowels them. • A Handicapped parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped
people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Graham Spanier
and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
• Graham Spanier will attain statehood in 2009. His state flower will be the
Magnolia.
• Someone once videotaped Graham Spanier getting pissed off. It was called Walker:
Texas Chain Saw Masacre.
• If you spell Graham Spanier in Scrabble, you win. Forever. • Graham Spanier originally appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was
removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick.
When asked bout this "glitch," Spanier replied, "That's no glitch."
• Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Graham Spanier once and he will roundhouse you
in the face.
• The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of
dodgeball Graham Spanier played in second grade.
• Graham Spanier once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by
yelling, "Bang!"
• Graham Spanier once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On
July 19th, 1999, a naked Graham Spanier re-entered the earth's atmosphere,
streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An
embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.
• Graham Spanier has two speeds: Walk and Kill. • Someone once tried to tell Graham Spanier that roundhouse kicks aren't the best
way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake
anyone has ever made.
• Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Grahamtatorship. • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on a true story: Graham Spanier once
swallowed a turtle whole, and when he crapped it out, the turtle was six feet
tall and had learned karate.
• Graham Spanier is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Graham Spanier. • Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to
leap tall buildings in a single bound... yes, these are some of Graham Spanier's
warm-up exercises.
• Graham Spanier is the only human being to display the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle -- you can never know both exactly where and how quickly he will
roundhouse-kick you in the face.
• In the Bible, Jesus turned water into wine. But then Graham Spanier turned that
wine into beer.
• Graham Spanier can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA. Decades
from now your descendants will occasionally clutch their heads and yell "What The
Hell was That?"
• Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Graham Spanier. • Graham Spanier discovered a new theory of relativity involving multiple universes
in which Graham Spanier is even more badass than in this one. When it was
discovered by Albert Einstein and made public, Graham Spanier roundhouse-kicked
him in the face. We know Albert Einstein today as Stephen Hawking.
• Graham Spanier doesn't shower, he only takes blood baths. • The Graham Spanier military unit was not used in the game Civilization 4, because
a single Graham Spanier could defeat the entire combined nations of the world in
one turn.
• In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Graham Spanier could use to
kill you, including the room itself.
• According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Native American "Trail of Tears"
has been redefined as anywhere that Graham Spanier walks.
• Graham Spanier does not teabag the ladies. He potato-sacks them. • Pluto is actually an orbiting group of British soldiers from the American
Revolution who entered space after the Graham gave them a roundhouse kick to the
face.
• When Graham Spanier goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead
requests a hand gun and a bucket.
• There are no steroids in baseball. Just players Graham Spanier has breathed on. • Graham Spanier once challenged Lance Armstrong in a "Who has more testicles?"
contest. Graham Spanier won by 5.
• Graham Spanier was the fourth wise man, who gave baby Jesus the gift of beard,
which he carried with him until he died. The other three wise men were enraged by
the preference that Jesus showed to Graham's gift, and arranged to have him
written out of the bible. All three died soon after of mysterious roundhouse-kick
related injuries.
• Graham Spanier sheds his skin twice a year.
Hobbies and Community Service
Spanier is a washboard player for the jazz bands Deacons of Dixieland and Phyrst Family. Spanier is also a brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, an all-male music fraternity.
Spanier is of the Jewish faith. Every year, he gives a speech at the Penn State Hillel's Rosh Hashanah evening service. Spanier also hosts a National Public Radio show on WPSU-TV titled "To the Best of My Knowledge", where he hosts discussion of contemporary social issues.
Dr. Spanier has also appeared on the student radio station, The LION 90.7fm (WKPS), most recently on March 21, 2007 on the station's popular morning talk program, The Wake Up Call. The archived show can be heard here.
Spanier serves as adviser for the Penn State Performing Magicians, and holds a Commercial Pilot certificate. Spanier is defending champion of the University intramural racquetball tournament with partner Fredina Ingold, a World and U.S. racquetball champion.
References
- Anderson, John (2004-04-13). "Iowa State honors alumni and friends in new ceremony". Iowa State University. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- "Editorial Board". Journal of Family Issues. SAGE Publications. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- Smeltz, Adam (2006-11-21). "Spanier gets top dollar". Centre Daily Times. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- Wood, Greg (1997-10-01). "New national networking organization established by 112 U.S. research universities". Internet2. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- Spanier, Graham (2004-10-05). "Peer to Peer Piracy on University Campuses: An Update". Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property By the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities. Office of the President. Penn State University. Retrieved 2007-01-20.
- Hainer, Anne (2004-02-23). "Motivation provided by variety of local artists". The Daily Collegian.
- Lipowsky, Josh (2006-06-22). "Second time around". The Jewish Standard. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- "Exclusive Interview w/ PSU Pres Graham Spanier". The LION 90.7fm. 2006-06-22. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
- Lafferty, Tricia. "Spanier, Ingold take IM racquetball title". The Daily Collegian.
{{cite web}}: Text "2003-03-31" ignored (help)
External links
| Preceded byJoab Thomas | Pennsylvania State University President 1995–present |
Succeeded bycurrent |
| Presidents of the Pennsylvania State University | |
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