Seniors Grapple With Penn State’s ‘Botched’ Decision-Making Amid COVID-19
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For as long as he can remember, Nick Perricone has been a Penn State fan. He grew up traveling to State College with his family for football games, waiting for the day he’d be able to call Happy Valley home, too.
But now, as a senior just days away from graduation, he’s finding it difficult to root for the Nittany Lions as he did before. Perricone and other soon-to-be-graduates believe a hectic year amid the coronavirus pandemic has led to major disagreements with Dear Old State.
“Some decisions [Penn State] made this year never made sense to me,” said Perricone, a marketing major. “Sometimes, it’s felt like they didn’t care about students, especially those of us who won’t be here anymore in a few months or weeks at this point. We’re leaving soon, but that doesn’t mean we don’t matter.”
Those decisions, Perricone said, notably included sporting events, which were once a reason he specifically came to Penn State. He said he was frustrated by the university’s back-and-forth decision-making on an in-person event that would bring seniors to Beaver Stadium for a football practice on Friday, April 23.
Penn State initially invited only seniors taking at least one in-person class this spring to the event — a “dumb” decision, Perricone said, because students have no say in how their classes are taught. The university eventually walked back on that stance and made all University Park seniors eligible to attend.
“First, they did one practice with just freshmen [on Saturday, April 17], which was so wrong,” he said. “Then, maybe because they felt guilty, they said, ‘Seniors can come to a different one!’ But they still botched that, too.”
Although the desired result came to fruition, back-and-forth decision-making didn’t ease Perricone’s mind.
“It’s hard to back Penn State’s teams when the school doesn’t have our back to begin with,” he said. “I spent my whole life waiting to go to these games and come to Penn State, but I don’t think Penn State cared.”
While sports are a sore subject, Perricone said he’s excited to soon head to Beaver Stadium for a different reason: spring commencement. On Saturday, May 8, he’ll join the Class of 2021 in the socially distanced bleachers to receive a proper in-person send-off as he graduates from Penn State.
Perricone’s classmate, Julia Keyte, said she feels lucky to receive a proper goodbye to Penn State after watching friends in the Class of 2020 celebrate virtually from home last May.
“They got the short end of the stick for sure,” said Keyte, a fellow marketing major. “But I’m happy we’ll at least get something, especially after missing football season. That way, my parents can get the pictures they want, and I’ll have a good memory to leave Penn State with. It might not be what we always dreamed of, but it’s something.”
Both Keyte’s mother and father are Penn State graduates. She said it means the world to carry on that tradition in person and gave some credit to the university for pulling it off.
Penn State President Eric Barron had hinted at plans for in-person graduation all year long but shied away from committing to them in the fall when the pandemic presented too many uncertainties. He cited rising vaccination rates and declining case numbers as major factors behind approved in-person plans.
Still, Keyte believes Penn State needs to do more to honor last year’s seniors who ended their Penn State journeys “watching their name pop up on a computer screen.”
“How can Penn State not feel guilty treating [current seniors] well while forgetting about thousands of last year’s grads?” Keyte said. “They shouldn’t be swept under the rug like that. They deserve better, and Penn State should rise to that occasion.”
Katelyn Moats, a senior studying English at Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College, says the university has struggled “across the board” to meet expectations. From COVID-19 care to communication with students, she says Penn State isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.
For example, Moats tested positive for COVID-19 last October and isolated in her off-campus apartment. After seeing friends of hers at the University of Illinois receive daily check-ins and mandatory saliva tests twice weekly, she expected Penn State to take swift action and provide some sense of comfort, mostly through regular communication.
However, Moats said the university was largely nowhere to be found.
“They called me five days after I tested positive and said contact tracing [staffers] would call me back, but I never heard a thing,” Moats said. “I really felt like a statistic, like they just want me for my money and don’t care if I’m sick or hurting. They don’t really care.”
Frustrated by her experience, Moats said she filed a complaint with the university’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center after recovering last semester. Perhaps fittingly, she never heard back.
Moats also took issue with Penn State’s “COVID-19 Compact” — a mandatory agreement all students needed to sign before coming to campus last August. In short, it said the university would take no responsibility for COVID-19-related risks when students returned.
“I assume any and all risk of exposure to COVID-19 that may result from attending Penn State, or participating in Penn State activities, and I acknowledge that exposure or infection may result in personal injury, illness, permanent disability, or death,” the compact originally read.
Although the agreement was later revised to say Penn State takes some responsibility for potential COVID-19 exposure, Moats felt that shoddy decision-making, even before the semester began, left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Poor communication with seniors continues in a physical sense, too, Moats said. Seniors felt as if Penn State had finally cut them some slack by announcing plans to bring the Class of 2024 to Beaver Stadium for a football practice and commencement ceremony. But Moats said some of her roommates missed the chance to get seats when ticket information from the university got sent to their junk mail.
“It’s probably the most ironic way for this to end up,” she said.
Despite frustrations, Perricone, Keyte, and Moats all said they’re still proud to be Penn Staters. But until communication and decision-making from the university improve, administrators shouldn’t expect any soon-to-be-alumni checks in their mailboxes.
“Penn State used to be my dream school. But now, I’m not so sure,” Moats said.
Both Penn State’s Office of Strategic Communications and athletics department did not respond to requests for comments on concerns raised by students in this story.
