The curtain is going up this weekend, and the audience has arrived. Fifty thousand students. Parents and alumni. Visitors from every corner of the globe. Sidewalks pulse, cranes stretch the skyline, and Saturday’s kick off bar crawl starts at noon will hum with thousands wearing the same Line Leap t-shirt. This is the kickoff to fall in Happy Valley — our in-season.
But here’s the twist: the huge influx is not the cast. They are the audience and consumers. They arrive hungry for the spectacle, the experience, the memories. They buy the tickets — tuition, donations, hotel rooms, meals, merch.
We, the locals — faculty, staff, business owners, construction crews, service workers, even borough government — are the cast and crew. We sing for our supper. We build the set, keep the lights on, serve the meals, and bring the show to life. Without us, there is no production.
The performance? Football weekends, THON, campus life, dining, nightlife, research breakthroughs, the full lived experience.
The currency? Tuition, donations, rent, beer money, hotel bookings, parking fees. And deeper still — belonging, identity, and love.
Unlike a Broadway show, this stage never goes dark. Every day, every night, we perform.
ChatGPT Changes the Script
ChatGPT has already reshaped education. The “head and hands” work — memorization, writing, problem-solving — is being automated. As The Atlantic noted this August, today’s seniors have never known a semester without ChatGPT. Many assignments can now be completed in seconds by a chatbot.
Which raises the big question: why pay $150,000 for four years if the academic “deliverables” can be machine-made? Why not stay home, study online, or skip college altogether and get after a trade?
The answer isn’t in the syllabus — it’s in the experience.
Following the Money
Look at where Penn State invests: stadium expansions, athletic facilities to win championships, upgraded dorms, fitness centers, dining halls, entertainment spaces, and larger classrooms. These aren’t extras — they are the business model.
As Paying for the Party (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013) revealed, flagship universities long ago learned that social infrastructure drives demand. Greek life, easy majors, coordinated schedules, and upgraded amenities became selling points to parents and students, especially the affluent.
That truth hasn’t changed. The cranes in Happy Valley are still building classrooms and they’re building the lifestyle that attracts the audience and the athletic facilities.
The Real ROI: The NACE 8
So, what’s the return on investment? It’s not the lecture notes — it’s the NACE 8 Career Readiness Competencies that employers demand:
- Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving
- Oral & Written Communication
- Teamwork & Collaboration
- Digital Technology
- Leadership
- Professionalism & Work Ethic
- Career & Self-Development
- Equity & Inclusion
These aren’t mastered in a blue book exam. They’re learned managing a THON committee, navigating a 100,000-person White Out Tailgate, juggling a downtown job with an 8 a.m. lab, or living with roommates from five states and two countries.
These are the skills employers pay for. They’re also the ones ChatGPT cannot replace.
What Donors Remember
And here’s another truth: alumni don’t look back and say their calculus class was what shaped them most. Research from Gallup, CASE, and McKinsey shows that graduates give back because of the friendships, leadership opportunities, and sense of belonging they experienced outside the classroom. The Gallup–Purdue Index found that graduates who were engaged in extracurriculars or had strong mentors were twice as likely to thrive later in life. Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has shown for decades that alumni with deep social and community ties give at higher rates. In other words: the memories that fuel philanthropy is forged in stadiums, clubs, service projects, and residence halls — not in blue books and lecture halls.
That’s why Penn State’s investment in experience isn’t indulgence. It’s strategy. It keeps demand hot, fills dorms and stadiums, and sustains the loyalty that turns into donor checks years later.
Why Happy Valley Wins
Walk through campus in the fall and you see what tuition really buys:
- Belonging. A sense of community that online universities and ChatGPT can’t replicate.
- Extracurricular immersion. Clubs, sports, service projects — real-world leadership and emotional intelligence in action.
- Place. Stadium lights, downtown energy, mountain trails, lifelong friendships.
This is Penn State’s edge. Online degrees are cheaper, ChatGPT can do homework, but the lived experience still makes the difference. The classroom may be disrupted, but the stage outside it — food, shelter, community, love — is irreplaceable. Yet. And that ‘yet’ is the hinge. When the lived experience no longer carries the ROI, the whole model collapses. That’s why this fall is the test, the inflection point.
Showtime
Yes, ChatGPT has forever changed how students complete their work. But it has also clarified the enduring value of the Penn State experience. When every essay can be machine-written, the differentiator becomes the human story: how you lead, how you collaborate, how you grow.
The audience has taken their seats. The locals are the cast. The show is on.
The Love Boat is boarding. This fall in Happy Valley; everyone has a part to play. Are you Julie the Cruise Director, rallying the fun? Paul the Prof, guiding the plot? Isaac the Bartender, keeping the conversations flowing? Doc, offering advice and perspective? Or maybe you’re Captain Stubing himself — steering the ship through chaos with a steady hand.
The season is underway, the cast is set, and the show is live. So, tell us: what role are you playing on the Love Boat of Fall 2025? Drop your answer — we’d love to see the crew assemble.
One Response
“….graduates who were engaged in extracurriculars or had strong mentors were twice as likely to thrive later in life.” I agree AI/ChatGPT hasn’t replaced this (yet). But don’t overlook those Blue Book exams. Taking those tests also developed a unity among students that will be shared for. years to come. Yes I detested those exams but I’ve share many stories about those irritating blue book torture exam periods.
It’s all part of the Love Boat experience. I didn’t realize it at the time since the Love Boat hadn’t been produced yet!!