Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
Are you directly involved with the scandal in some way? If not, I guess I don't quite understand what you're getting at the with sentences I've bolded. Why would some reprehensible crap pulled by a small number of the staff at your school invalidate your existence?
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Well, let's take a look from a different perspective.
If I disavow some connections to the Penn State community... I no longer attend football games because I associate the program with paedophilia & child abuse.
What happens on a large scale: private funding from alumni is cut, putting an additional burden on students to pay their way through college. Students currently enrolled can transfer (at an additional cost) or continue attending PSU (at an additional cost). The ones that DO transfer deplete intellectual and economic resources for the community. As a result, the academic programs suffer and their reputations fall short accordingly.
Even if I leave the school, I'm still tied by my identity as an engineer. The credibility of my work will likely establish whether I am a successful one years down the road, but getting there, getting a job, finding an entry-level position in an industry I can stomach, and growing there all while not having a credible background to come from. And what's the first question people ask?
"Where did you go to school?"
...and the next...
"When did you graduate?"
Granted, some of this will happen anyways and there will be backwards moralists out there who judge me from association despite it. Allowing those people to influence your perspective of me is absurd, and that's something you've certainly recognized. Which I am definitely happy to see.
