Russell Frank

  • Frank: What’s With All the Bear Sightings?

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    Russell Frank

    The reports have been pouring in from all over: Bear sighted in the Highlands. Bear in Holmes-Foster. In Park Hills and Park Forest. West College Heights. Boalsburg. Autumnwood. Pine Grove Mills.  On front porches! Destroying bird feeders! Going through garbage! Spooking ducks! About the only place a bear hasn’t been seen is on a barstool…

  • The Following Column Was Written by Russell Frank… Honest

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    Russell Frank

    During a strategy session about our fall classes – yes, the 2026-27 academic year is nearly upon us – one of my colleagues confessed to using AI to generate the feedback he gives students on their writing assignments.  I was aghast. He explained: You don’t just turn the grading over to AI. You train it,…

  • Frank: Something Fishy

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    Russell Frank

    I do not fish.  I wish I could say this was a principled stance – that I oppose the catching or killing of other sentient beings for my entertainment or nourishment.  The truth is, I’m the squeamish type. I don’t like handling earthworms. I especially don’t like impaling earthworms on fishhooks. Nor do I like…

  • Requiem for an Oak Tree

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    Russell Frank

    Let’s see: 10 times a week multiplied by 40 weeks multiplied by a dozen years. I’d say I walked past the big white oak on Allen Road by the Chambers Building roughly 5,000 times since I moved to East College Heights.  On the 5001st pass last week, I stopped in my tracks. The mighty oak…

  • Frank: AI Ain’t So Smart

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    Russell Frank

    Threatened as we are by The Machine, we love it when we can say, “Hah! The Machine is dumber than we are!” Case in point: I had some transcribing to do. I always have transcribing to do, because in my professional life I am often asking people questions and recording their answers.  My adventures in…

  • Frank: Welcome to the End of the World

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    Russell Frank

    Relax. This isn’t about the apocalypse. It’s about a place, specifically the southwest corner of Portugal, whence I have just returned.  There are several Ends of the World/ Land’s Ends/ Fim do Mundos/ Fin del Mundos/ Finisterres around the globe. Each is on a coast that juts into the sea. The ones in Europe reveal…

  • Frank: You Think You’re Frazzled? Listen to These Kids

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    Russell Frank

    As I’ve gone from being the same age as my students’ parents to being the same age as their grandparents, I’ve increasingly felt like undergrads and I live on different planets: They don’t know anything I know; I don’t know anything they know. This can complicate grading their work. When my journos-in-training drop names into…

  • Subu in Limbo: Seven Months and Counting

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    Russell Frank

    When Subu Vedam was seized by ICE last October, he thought he’d be released in a matter of weeks, if not days.  After all, his murder conviction had been overturned and he was still a legal permanent resident of the United States. Technically, he was deportable because of drug offenses he was charged with around…

  • Frank: TMI Re BPH

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    Russell Frank

    Meet my pal Foley. Foley and I met two weeks ago and we immediately became attached to each other. In fact, we became inseparable.  Though I did not realize it at the time, our bond was foretold a few days prior when I assumed the ritual position before the porcelain altar, as men do, and…

  • Students walk near Penn State's Old Main during the first day of fall semester classes on Aug. 22, 2022.

    Frank: The Luftmensch’s Guide to Educational Reform

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    Russell Frank

    My academic home at Penn State is the College of Communications, but at heart, I’m a humanities guy.  My bachelor’s degree was in Creative Writing, the English department’s home for would-be poets and novelists. My graduate degrees are in folklore studies. As anyone can plainly see, I was (and still am) a luftmensch, a Yiddish…