This aid, according to Spanier, will be an investment in the State College and Centre County area by bringing more people into town on game weekends.

While this may be a good and worthy cause in the eyes of some people (i.e. football fans), it does serve to reflect negative attitudes that are propagated here at Penn State. Most notably, this university has become obsessed with itself as a consumer product more than an institution of higher learning.

The underlying reason for stadium expansion is not congruous with being a community benefactor. It is just another ploy by the university at getting bigger and so-called "better," thus luring more students (read: money) to the school.

In fact, an $85 million investment that is going to be used to expand our already gargantuan 98,000-seat Beaver Stadium could be used in so many constructive ways. A couple simple suggestions: more professors to get smaller classes or more and cheaper dorms.

But when will Penn State be big enough? When will we have enough students? Why does Penn State insist on running itself like a corporation and not a publicly funded university?

This school seems to have to continually build on an exponential rate in order to remain "competitive." I can understand building a new HUB. I can understand expanding the library. But adding 10,000 seats to Beaver Stadium is borderline chauvinism and self-glorification.

While we're at it, why don't we ask for another couple mil to pave the entire grass fields around Beaver Stadium so that tailgaters won't have to deal with mud (heaven forbid) while they swill their beer and eat their burgers?

We need to re-evaluate what we are as a university. If indeed we are supposed to be churning out thousands of drones for the corporate world, then we should just say so. Don't hide from the fact. Don't disguise this school under a mask of learning when we're not being taught anything but how to write a résumé and what majors have the greatest job-market potentials.

In America, we are obsessed with consumerism -- and the almighty dollar. This materialistic mantra has stretched its roots into the lives of our institutions of learning and made those schools sell us out. Need I mention the glutinous corporate sponsorship Penn State has enslaved itself to regardless of what those companies bring to the school?

Money clouds learning. When profit is the focus, the learning experience cannot be unbiased. Financial or prestige gains become the focus, diverting attention from gaining the knowledge that can be imparted from the wealth of minds that have been collected in our faculty body.

This can be reflected, as well, in the pragmatism that Penn State seems to have grasped with both hands. A Penn State degree no longer means "I have learned the ways of the world, have become a better person because of it and can now go out into the world and make a positive difference." Rather, Penn State wants us (and prospective students and their parents) to believe that owning a Penn State degree means "I can function in the world ruled and run by money and business, and I can earn money with the best of them."

That kind of mindset is not emphasizing the positive aspects of life by any means. In fact, it only serves to uphold the money-grubbing greed that has become as "American" as any other defining factor.

We need to speak up as students. We need to tell the administration how we feel. We need to let the world know we are not going to buy into their outright, blatant materialism.

And for those of you who will be around when the stadium expansion gets finished (around 2056, probably), I hope you enjoy every last penny of it.