University Park Campus
University Park Campus
There is little that matches the roar that greets the Penn State football team as Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions take the field before almost 100,000 fans in Beaver Stadium, one of the nation's largest university-owned arenas. There also is little to match the quiet in which you could've studied the images of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis caught in Andy Warhol's Sixteen Jackies while they were on display at Penn State's newly remodeled Palmer Museum of Art.
Arts & Entertainment
Poetry readings, the Muslim World Fair, an Ingmar Bergman film festival or Big Ten basketball played in the new 16,000-seat Bryce Jordan Center —you can find them all and more at University Park campus.
The Department of Theatre Arts and the Center for the Performing Arts provide a rich variety of plays, concerts and other performances. Revisit Broadway for a revival of Guys and Dolls , enjoy a classic portrayal of Macbeth or attend a premier performance of plays such as Father Joe by award-winning local playwright, Cliff Young. Les Miserables recently sold out the Eisenhower Auditorium. In only half of one typical season, the Center for the Performing Arts presented Oklahoma , Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers , Grimm's Fairy Tales , Crossing the Broken Bridge , City of Angels and The Nutcracker , the Canadian Brass, Itzhak Perlman, the Muir String Quartet, the Yellowjackets , Orchestre Symphonique Francais, Tom Chapin, Les Ballets Africains, George Shearing and Joe Williams, and Tim Miller.
Shows and permanent displays at the Palmer Museum of Art are equally diverse: the etchings of Rembrandt, Australian aboriginal art, Willem de Kooning, Peruvian ceramics, Jasper Johns, Japanese woodblock prints, Robert Rauschenberg, 18th-century American portraiture, engravings and lithos of a developing Pennsylvania and Robert Mapplethorpe. Bringing works shown at the Palmer Museum to even greater life are lectures on the artists, guided tours, films and other special programs.
Sports & Recreation
The University also offers outstanding sports and recreational facilities . The Recreation Building, Intramural Building and White Building have handball/racquetball courts and squash courts, gymnasiums for basketball and volleyball, indoor jogging tracks, weight and gymnastic rooms, and golf driving nets. The Penn State swimming pool complex, located in McCoy Natatorium , features three indoor pools and one Olympic-size outdoor pool. The Penn State Ice Pavilion has an ice-skating rink that is available to students year-round. Golfers may play the University's Blue Golf Course , a difficult par-72 course or its par-69 White Golf Course. There are some 70+ tennis courts located throughout campus.
Penn State is a member of the NCAA Big Ten Conference and participates in more than 20 intercollegiate varsity sports and, in addition, it sponsors an extensive intramural sports program. Each year, graduate students from the Smeal College of Business form several intramural teams to compete against teams from other graduate programs at the University Park campus.
Other Items of Interest
The University Park campus is also home to The University Creamery , which has been making ice cream and other dairy products since 1896! This is a favorite spot for students and its popularity can also be proven by the long lines that form on any football game day as returning alumni seek out their favorite flavor or sample the latest creation from this renown facility.
Keep in touch with local, national and world news each day by reading The Daily Collegian , one of the premier student-run collegiate newspapers in the country. The Daily Collegian provides news, editorials and event information relevant to the student body of Penn State University and is distributed on the University Park campus. It is published Monday through Friday during the semester and every weekday except Wednesday during the summer. The Weekly Collegian is mailed to Commonwealth Campus students, parents, alumni and other subscribers who want to keep current with University news.
The university maintains an online Visitors' Guide where you can find out how to get to University Park, where you can park, where you can find a map of the campus, where you can stay and what you can do in the area, and more!
