Penn State adds artificial intelligence major, with a focus on ethics; WPSU, April 28, 2025

Abigail Chachoute, WPSU; Penn State adds artificial intelligence major, with a focus on ethics

"Starting this fall, Penn State students will be able to major in artificial intelligence, focusing on the development, application and ethical considerations of AI.

Vasant Honavar, a professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, said with the wider applications of AI across industries, it is important for students to understand the societal implications of the technology...

Another goal in the college is to make AI education available to students across majors. Last fall, Honavar taught the first introductory AI course to more than 30 students. The class did not have any prerequisite requirements as a general elective and was open to students across class standings.

Honavar said this class focused on giving students a broad view of how to apply AI as a tool in their lives and in different contexts.

“This is really about becoming an informed citizen, about AI in a world that they are going to be in,” Honavar said. “It is being transformed by it and everybody has to know something about it, all the way from someone that may be sitting in a position in a company making some decision about ethical use of AI within that organization to someone that is on the staff of a legislature or advising them about some regulation around AI.”"

Penn State librarians support freedom to read, unite against book bans; Penn State, October 17, 2024

 Penn State; Penn State librarians support freedom to read, unite against book bans

"Saturday, Oct. 19, is the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action, a national event designated by the American Library Association (ALA) and United Against Book Bans to celebrate America’s libraries, safeguard the freedom to read and encourage civic participation.

According to Russell Hall, reference and instruction librarian at Penn State University Libraries’ John M. Lilley Library and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, his is one voice among many with strong feelings about book banning and censorship.

“Our core values as librarians are found in the Library Bill of Rights, which holds that libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment,” said Hall, a past chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee for the Pennsylvania Library Association, which serves to advocate for freedom of selection of materials for all libraries and oppose any infringement of intellectual freedom upon libraries. “We believe people are free to choose what they want to read, and to determine what their own children can and should read, but do not have the right to impose their will upon others who are free to make that choice for themselves.”

There’s nothing new about book bans. For centuries, published works ranging from religious texts to classic literature to contemporary novels deemed too controversial for young readers have been targeted for removal from library shelves across the United States...

Joel Burkholder, reference and instruction librarian at Lee R. Glatfelter Library at Penn State York, agreed. “Ban advocates try to frame their efforts as objective policy rather than an ideological agenda,” he said. “It’s the same basic tactic as citing peer-reviewed research to support the predetermined conclusion that pornography is a public health crisis or that being trans is a choice.”

For more information on the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action and events planned across the country, visit the United Against Book Bans website."

PSU again deficient in leadership; ESPN.com, 11/11/11

Mechelle Voepel, ESPN.com; PSU again deficient in leadership:

"Unfortunately, many universities -- if they're being honest -- need to look at themselves and say, "Do we do all we can to ensure that everyone's compass is directed toward doing what's right, even if that might initially cause some bad publicity for the university or mean sparring with a powerful coach? Do we look out for the powerless? Is our moral code as strong as it needs to be? Where are our true priorities? Who are we most concerned about protecting?"

Those can seem like pie-in-the-sky ideals, and maybe they are. Certainly, they're much easier to commit to in theory than in practice. But if there are lessons to be gained from what's occurred at Penn State, the most important need to be learned by those in the most powerful positions at schools and their athletic departments...

But, again, it speaks to the fact that the vigilance to make sure everyone is doing the right thing by young people isn't something a university and athletic department should leave up to an "every once in a while" maintenance check. It needs constant care."