Penn State Traditions 101 Did you know the Penn State Alma Mater made its debut at the June 1901 alumni dinner during Commencement Week? After it was sung, Gov. James Beaver, president of the Board of Trustees, stood and proclaimed it “the official song of Penn State.” That year, Fred Lewis Pattee, then a professor at the college, had recognized the institution’s lack of a “distinctly State College song,” stating that, “Without a college song there can be no real nucleus for sentiment, there can