Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in AlumnInsider, the Penn State Alumni Association's monthly member e-newsletter. You can click here for information on becoming a member and can follow the Alumni Association on Facebook and Twitter for more stories and updates on events.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For more than the last decade, visitors to the Hintz Family Alumni Center have marveled at the rotating University exhibits displayed inside Robb Hall, adjacent to the interior entrance.
The visually bold prints that comprise the 32-frame design rotate between three Penn State-themed categories: student life in the fall, faculty and/or research in the spring and alumni in the summer.
This last point makes sense, University Archivist Jackie Esposito said, since alumni visit the center during reunions and events such as the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
Esposito oversees the six-person committee that selects each theme and said the group will plan exhibits two years in advance; next summer’s theme will revolve around the 50th anniversary of Arts Festival, and next fall will feature Penn State Olympians to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
A familiar face spearheaded this collaboration between the Penn State Alumni Association and Penn State Libraries: former Penn State Alumni Association Executive Director Roger Williams, who retired June 30 after leading the Alumni Association for 12 years.
Williams said that Ed and Helen Hintz — for whose family the Alumni Center is named — originally suggested incorporating an educational and interesting project with the three-wall panel as a building feature. “We thought that a focus on Penn State history, heritage and academic excellence would make for compelling exhibits,” Williams explained, “and that has proven to be the case.”To read the entire story — including a link to the collection's Flickr site, where you can view all the digital images from the exhibits over the years — visit the Alumni Association's website.