OT- Favorite class @ PSU

[GregInPitt]

My favorite OT class at PSU would likely be the 2018 class, with Rasheed Walker and Nana Asiedu, both being high 4 star players. It's unfortunate for Nana and PSU football that his medical issue prevents him from playing football, but fortunate for Nana that the doctors found the issue before his health or life was comprimised.

 

[nits74]

Cell Biology, Professor Gaffney. Also liked the Physics and Chemistry classes I took.

 

[LionJim]

I had an American Lit course in Fall Term 1974, my first term. My reading list, all of which were new to me:

• The Sound and the Fury
• The Sun Also Rises
• Dos Passos' The 42nd Parallel
• O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night

That was probably my most valuable class at PSU.

 

[Dr. Evel]

Wine Technology and Appreciation. It wasn't an easy class, despite what some might have expected. Great learning experience, and instilled a life-long love. So much so that one of my children is in the business.

 

[BostonNit]

Finance 101 with Dr. Bradley and B-LOG with Dr. John Coyle. Can only recall a few professors and these two stood out to me. Also enjoyed the film class in Schwab Auditorium where we saw The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Guess the professor had the same attraction as I did (and still do) to Katherine Ross.

It was called FIN 301 when I had it. Easy A. HUGE bank of old exams floating around where he'd literally just change a few numbers in the problems.

Dr. Bradley once brought a $100,000 Coupon Bond in to class and taped it to the chalkboard. Anyone who wanted to touch $100K was allowed to do so after class. (This was '85ish so $100K was a shit ton of money then).

 

[Monty2007]

Finance 101 with Dr. Bradley and B-LOG with Dr. John Coyle. Can only recall a few professors and these two stood out to me. Also enjoyed the film class in Schwab Auditorium where we saw The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Guess the professor had the same attraction as I did (and still do) to Katherine Ross.

If that was Intro to Cinema, I took it maybe the spring '78. I still remember that after we screened Day of the Locust, Conrad Hall the Cinematographer was there for a Q&A session. And he was married to Katherine Ross at one time. Does tie to together.

 

[PS4814]

Soc 5 with Frank Clemente. I learned more in that class that I use to this day than every other class I took combined.

Agreed with Soc 5, took it in my final semester and was really impactful. Remember the buffalo.

 

[olelion]

Geology of oil and gas. I forget the number

 

[psu_83_drummer]

Finance 101 with Dr. Bradley and B-LOG with Dr. John Coyle. Can only recall a few professors and these two stood out to me. Also enjoyed the film class in Schwab Auditorium where we saw The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Guess the professor had the same attraction as I did (and still do) to Katherine Ross.

Dr Bradley, "there will be five questions on the next exam from today's lecture. How do I know? Because I'm holding that exam right here in my hand. Well, not the real McCoy, but a copy of the real McCoy."

 

[MacNit07]

Could be most interesting
Could be easiest
Could be hottest prof

Your call?

1. Quantum Physics - Dr. Fette...he would watch re-reruns of WKRP in Cincinnati (w/ear phones) while class was taking exams. Also learned that time travel was not only theoretically possible but already a proven concept.

2. Astronomy - Dr. Zinc...looked like Uncle Fester...class was crazy interesting...saw moons of Jupiter with PSU telescope.

3. American History (Reconstruction thru Vietnam) - Dr. Stebbins...fantastic professor who could challenge students and disagree without biasing his grading or his demeanor...could use much more of this approach today!

 

[fairgambit]

I had two Civil War history classes with Professor Warren W. Hassler and loved every minute of both. Professor Hassler also wrote a recommendation letter for me to get into law school and for that I will be forever grateful. He passed away in 2012. May he Rest in Peace.

 

[Thomas1945]

World Geography, to this day I can still name virtually every mountain range and river in the World. It has won me scores of free drinks in trivia sessions.

 

[81b&w]

My favorite was a Fly fishing class with Joe Humphreys in '80. We've remained friends since and have worked on projects together, an awesome man. I also had a great elective golf class during a summer term. The instructors name was Dick Klima and he was a good teacher and just a fun guy. He was small, skinny and strong and he could really hit a ball

 

[Lemmus]

Poetry writing with Bruce Weigl, a Vietnam vet who was awarded a Bronze Star. The year I had him, 1989, he had just been nominated for a Pulitzer for his collection, Song of Napalm. He had the knack for drawing the truth from people--a rare trait.

 

[paulrandythomas]

I had a comparative literature class, CLit 101. Harder than it sounds, but I kept trying and eventually figured it out.

 

[mrtailgate]

I had a Theater Arts Class and I thought it was TA 109 if memory served me correctly. It was taught by an older guy who had a long career on stage and was good friends with Mary Martin, mother of Larry Hagman if I have it right. At some point every class, he would go off on what a no talent hack Larry Hagman was. Said his mom got him every job and he had zero talent. This guy no doubt had to stroke out because little did he know that within a year, Larry Hagman would land the job that would make him a TV icon. I always wondered if that poor guy jumped off a building when JR Ewing ruled the roost.

 

[dougt24]

Favorite class might have been Business Logistics by Dr. John Coyle

Same here

 

[CVLion]

I echo the film class - the guy who taught it looked exactly like the animated character The Critic (voiced by Jon Lovitz).

Was that Pat Trimble? I had Art 50 with him — popular media arts. It went into film history, but also TV, vaudeville, pulp magazines, comic books, and other such areas. Loved that class.

I also enjoyed Theater 100. While we undergrads were reading plays, there was a small troupe of grad students in theater who would stage small productions of portions of those shows each class session. I would have loved to have been enrolled in that class when Ty Burrell and Keegan-Michael Key were among the performers!

Another fav was Intro to Psychology... a huge class in Schwab Auditorium. I forget the course number and the professor’s name... an older geeky-looking guy who would play rock and roll at the beginning of each class and then talk about the psychological concepts suggested by the songs. For example, after playing Meatloaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” he discussed why the female singer in the song was resistant to going all the way until the guy was willing to commit (because women are typically investing/risking more by engaging in sex due to the risk of pregnancy and the long-term implications thereof, etc...)

Finally, while Econ 5 (i think it was) wasn’t really a favorite class, I did appreciate the professor’s attempts to make a dry subject more interesting and relatable. This was another huge lecture class in Schwab. One time he was presenting the topic of complementary goods. He said he had seen a movie where a cowboy took out his pouch of tobacco and a rolling paper and rolled a cigarette. “A perfect example of complementary goods!” he had thought. “I’ll have a grad student research yearly sales of each and graph them, and they should trend closely together.” But in fact, the student’s graph clearly showed sales of loose tobacco trending down over the years, while rolling paper sales trended steadily upward. “I guess my theory went to pot!” lamented the prof.

 

[Zenophile]

History 143 with Dr. Jackson Spielvogel was a pretty fascinating course.

 

[Zenophile]

Basketball with Coach Mike Morse in my last semester. Probably one of the few classes in my four years that I didn't skip once. He taught basketball mixed in with life lessons. Great memories.

+1

 

[LionJim]

What a great way to start my morning.

 

[BLSLion]

CerSci81 was interesting and easy....had a tour of a picture tube manufacturer....early 80s.

Favorite class might have been Business Logistics by Dr. John Coyle

Seriously considered changing majors after taking Dr. Coyle's Business Logistics class..

 

[Sviatoslav]

American Civil War & Reconstruction, with Gary Gallagher. I want to say History 444? 445? (whatever it takes). He's teaching at UVA now. Hands down my favorite class and professor during my time at dear old state.

 

[Lionguy32]

Another fav was Intro to Psychology... a huge class in Schwab Auditorium. I forget the course number and the professor’s name... an older geeky-looking guy who would play rock and roll at the beginning of each class and then talk about the psychological concepts suggested by the songs. For example, after playing Meatloaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” he discussed why the female singer in the song was resistant to going all the way until the guy was willing to commit (because women are typically investing/risking more by engaging in sex due to the risk of pregnancy and the long-term implications thereof, etc...)

The professor was Paul Cornwell and the class was Psychology 2. This was my first class ever at Penn State.

 

[CVLion]

The professor was Paul Cornwell and the class was Psychology 2. The was my first class ever at Penn State.

Yes indeed, that’s right — thanks for refreshing my memory!

 

[Parkland Fan]

G Sci 20 with Larry Lattman

also History and Appreciation of Motion Pictures held in the Forum. I did a paper on Bonnie and Clyde.

I also had Larry Latman for G Sci 20 the term that we (1,100 students) had to take the final exam on the Old Main lawn. Some idiot called in a bomb threat for Schwab Auditorium. Another idiot in Old Main thought it was a large demonstration and called the police. Great class. I still remember some of the concepts that he covered.

 

[Zenophile]

The professor was Paul Cornwell and the class was Psychology 2. This was my first class ever at Penn State.

Dr. Cornwell was a good man. Ever see him "barking" at a football game?

(Update) Here's a collegian article written just after his passing.

 

[mrtailgate]

Two other notables that everyone will remember if you’re an old fart. Who else had the supersized intro Management and Marketing classes in either Schwab or Eisenhower? The best thing was the fact that I took one of those was in Winter term and for those who sat Row 1 in the balcony with their shoes over the railing, the melting snow would create a steady drip on everyone on the main level. It got worse. The people upstairs would coordinate a mass launching of paper airplanes on the masses below at some point each class.

The management class was taught in modules, each being two weeks with a different teacher. The last one was taught by either Richards or Young who were the authors of the book. Whichever one it was, he was a miserable SOB. He talked nonstop about his dog and one class people started yelling obscenities about his dog. You couldn’t tell who was yelling it since it was an auditorium setting. Guy went nuts when people were defaming his precious pooch.

It’s crazy the things you remember.

I’m sure @nittanyziggy was in the middle of all the aforementioned chaos.

 

[BrewLion]

History 143 with Dr. Jackson Spielvogel was a pretty fascinating course.

I was going to post this one as well. I was a work-study student assistant for him when he was working on his
Western Civilization texts. This class was one of the best I've taken. A great primer on the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany.

 

[Zenophile]

I was going to post this one as well. I was a work-study student assistant for him when he was working on his
Western Civilization texts. This class was one of the best I've taken. A great primer on the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany.

Dude had a gift for educating.

(Update) Likely still has it because he is alive just retired from his teaching gig.

 

[BOSCO2]

Clit 101 sounds interesting.

I had a comparative literature class, CLit 101. Harder than it sounds, but I kept trying and eventually figured it out.

 

[Woodpecker]

Clit 101 sounds interesting.

Classes held in the "tent of consent"

 

[BOSCO2]

Classes held in the "tent of consent"

Couldn't remember the name of the class, but it was on the tip of my tongue.

 

[psu1969a]

My favorite was Comp Sci 404 - Information Structures (1968 or 69)taught by Dr. Penti Honkaken was brilliant computer scientist and great teacher. Taught me a great deal about how data is stored and taught me data access principles that I used for my entire career as an Analyst/Programmer.

My most enjoyable, a Theater Arts class - Appreciation of the Movies. Remember see Citizen Kane, The Red Balloon, and a student film about a PSU coed Daydreaming on a warm spring day.

 

[CVLion]

Clit 101 sounds interesting.

I never took one of the Comparative Literature classes, but I remember looking through the course catalog at the time and thinking, “They couldn’t come up with a better abbreviation to put out there in front of horny-minded college students?”

And yes, I was there at the tail end of the days when you needed you pick up a printed course catalog at the student bookstore. The web browser was just being invented during my last year or two at PSU.

And we registered for classes using a touch tone phone in those days. I remember the frustration of the line being busy near the registration cutoff date, or of plugging in those long course codes again and again only to find out that all the sections you wanted were full.

 

[Lion84]

It was called FIN 301 when I had it. Easy A. HUGE bank of old exams floating around where he'd literally just change a few numbers in the problems.

Dr. Bradley once brought a $100,000 Coupon Bond in to class and taped it to the chalkboard. Anyone who wanted to touch $100K was allowed to do so after class. (This was '85ish so $100K was a shit ton of money then).

Ha Ha - I had the same class. My brother had it a few years before me and gave me his old test. Dr. Bradlley would write down several test questions on the board every class to make sure you came and he doubled your highest test grade - I would read the first few words on the tests and knew the answer - I think I needed a 50 on the final to get an A as a Science Major it was a nice break from Physics and other "tougher" for me at least classes. I also had the Film Class which I liked as well and PNG 20 in Schwab (easy A) but I found that class interesting and Linguistics 10 which was self taught so you only had to show up for tests.

 

[LionJim]

Wine Technology and Appreciation. It wasn't an easy class, despite what some might have expected. Great learning experience, and instilled a life-long love. So much so that one of my children is in the business.

Damn, that’s really something.

 

[GP360]

G Sci 20 with Dr. Larry Lattman. Highlights included his lecture on the best brands of booze to buy as well as why he donated to the Salvation Army and not the Red Cross. He was also passionate about the geosciences for any of the thousand plus students who may have been interested in the field.

 

[bkmtnittany1]

Summer of 1982...a meteorology class with a prof named Chelius. Had a lab period as well. Cool dude, made us all create our own tornados. Learned alot from him.

 

[nitlion93]

Was that Pat Trimble? I had Art 50 with him — popular media arts. It went into film history, but also TV, vaudeville, pulp magazines, comic books, and other such areas. Loved that class.

I hated professor Trimble. My roommate and I were serious about our GPAs being a finance and engineering major respectively. We studied for the final together so when we found that Trimble incorrectly scored our final exams by marking some right answers wrong, we appealed to him. He agreed that he made a mistake but refused to change the grade. It cost us a letter grade. We couldn’t believe that this douche of a theater professor would be such a bully and prick.