With frequent commendation and hearty applause, Suzie McConnell -- one of the gold medal winners of the U.S. women's basketball team -- has certainly had her "day in the sun."

For President Bryce Jordan at Penn State's January commencement to single her for extraordinary achievement is beyond the pale! It is indeed, indicative of the emphasis Penn State, in particular and the United States, in general place upon sports. In this era the athlete is omnipotent and omniscient!

Isn't it time that we, as a University and a modern, mature society reassess our priorities? If individual excellence is the game:

What about those students with no financial assistance, who work too many hours a day, burn the midnight oil into the early morning and graduate in a high-powered discipline with a 3.5 to 4.0 grade point? What about the incapacitated student, who frantically wheels his chair about campus to arrive in class on time? What about the deaf student, who strives amidst the extraneous activity of any classroom to read the professor's lips; the blind student who courageously faces the impediments of sightless living? What about the average students, who plod their way through four years of a demanding discipline to help ameliorate the desperate plight of the illiterate, the malnourished, the sick at heart?

Where were these young people during that period of praise for excellence so cherished at Penn State? ! !