"Hi my name is Jen, and I am a Penn State student calling to talk with you about some things going on at Penn State ..."

Three nights each week I utter this phrase to hundreds of Penn State alumni on the phone in an attempt to inform them of changes and projects going on around the university and to stress the need for support for the academic colleges here.

Sounds simple enough, and for the most part, I do not encounter any opposition at all.

Most of the alumni with whom I speak are delighted to catch up on the happenings in Happy Valley.

However, every now and then I come across a disgruntled alumnus.

He or she likes to vent to me for 15 minutes about the most ridiculous reasons as to why they hate Penn State.

Believe me, I have heard them all: bad football seasons; student riots; speakers such as Michael Moore; conservative professors and the overabundance of on-campus construction.

To me, though, all of these complaints seem minute when compared to the positive nature of the university.

In the good old days before I came here, I could walk down the street with a Penn State shirt on in virtually any American town.

I would get stopped by at least one friendly alumnus who insisted on a 20-minute conversation about football, State College bars or life on campus.

But now I am more likely to get stopped by an alumnus who wants to chew me out about why they despise the school.

As I listen patiently to their gripes, I cannot help but wonder why I have been chosen to receive the brunt of this unnecessary anger.

Have I wronged them in some way? No.

Do I encompass absolutely everything bad about Penn State? No.

I cannot help but wonder if the tumble of the football team has taken over the past few years is at the unfortunate epicenter of these heinous events.

Winning records, bowl games and national championships seem to wipe away all the concerns of everyone associated with the university, including its over 450,000 alumni.

But without this gridiron success, the Nittany Lion faithful just aren't as faithful.

Attendance is significantly lower at each game, school spirit amongst students is almost non-existent, and interactions between alumni and current students are bitter.

I feel as if I am being held personally responsible for the struggles the team faces on the field, as if I can get on that field and make them any better.

"Zach, right here, I'm open!" Trust me, you wouldn't want me out there with the big kids, and if I were, we'd be a lot worse off than we are now.

It seems as though we attend the games in masses, sport the blue and white each day of the week and even goes as far as to road trip it to away games.

But still disgruntled alumni blame us for not bringing home a national championship each year.

I do not like to make sweeping generalizations, because often times they are wrong.

And in this case, I am not trying to make such a generalization because I do not think all alumni behave in this manner.

In fact, I think most alumni do not behave in this manner. However, those that do put a bad taste in my mouth.

Recently I have heard a lot of opposition to Penn State.

That is because of various political ideologies alumni associate with the university. Some conservatives now hate Penn State because of Moore's appearance here in the fall.

And some liberals now hate Penn State because of the apparent lack of racial diversity and intolerance for the LGBT on campus.

As students, I think most of us try to make Penn State what we want it to be for ourselves.

Most of us would like to see the campus become more racially and ethnically diverse.

And I am sure virtually all of us would like to see an end to the random and unwarranted acts of hate that have been reported on campus within the past few weeks.

For alumni to hold each individual student responsible for whatever unresolved issue they have with the university is absurd, as if we could really do anything about it anyway.

What is more absurd is those people who can do something to fix the problems alumni have with the school, officials specifically, are rarely called upon by these irate alumni.

I understand that I am a representative of the university.

And in some way or another we all are.

I understand that virtually all of our alumni are friendly, considerate and genuinely good people.

But the few that aren't make the school look really bad to outsiders just as students who riot and commit assaults on campus do.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Alumni don't have to hold grudges against the university and its students for decades after they've graduated and students don't have to do dumb things to make us all look terrible.

If we all just try to be a little more considerate to each other, then we can very easily change those 15-minute rants.

We can change them from unhappy graduates into the 20-minute pleasant conversations between Penn State's past and future graduates.