The WPSU Board of Representatives is an advisory board of community members that gather on a regular basis to advise the station on programming and other activities. In this blog post series, WPSU Board Member Spotlight, we sit down with these individuals and discuss their love of public broadcasting and its impact in the communities throughout the viewing area.
Clarence Lang lives in State College, where he has served as Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, and professor of African American Studies, since 2019. His training is in history, and he specializes in African American urban and social movement history with an emphasis on the Midwest. Clarence was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and until moving to State College, he had lived his entire life in the Midwest. Like most of his friends and family born in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he watched Sesame Street as a child, and it was a huge part of his upbringing. Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and the rest of the Sesame Street gang not only helped Clarence learn to count, spell, appreciate music, and cultivate his imagination, but they also helped teach him to value opportunities to be part of something bigger than himself as an individual.
What inspired you to begin volunteering at WPSU?
I began my time on the WPSU Board of Representatives in 2023. My hope was to be a tribune of public programming and its importance in advancing critical thinking and cultivating an educated citizenry, empathy, and respect for the diversity and complexity of local and global communities. I also wanted to be engaged with neighbors and colleagues in the region who share the same high regard for the mission of public radio and television. As a product of public higher education, and an academic leader at a major land-grant university, I support the idea of the “public commons” as the cornerstone of any democratic society.
What WPSU programming do you connect with the most?
I’m a big fan of the NPR Tiny Desk concert series, American Experience, All Things Considered, Democracy Now, PBS News Hour, and any program featuring the work of my college’s Humanities Institute.
How do you see WPSU positively impacting the communities throughout Central Pennsylvania?
At its best, WPSU holds up a mirror for us to see ourselves in our fullness — beauty, warts, and all. It knits together the people of this region through a common set of values and aspirations, allowing us to address the major challenges of the past and the pressing questions of our own time.
As a board member, what would you like to share with the public about why they should support WPSU?
Over the last several decades, we have witnessed an accelerating retreat from the idea of the “public” in terms of funding and general respect. In its place, we have instead seen a steady shift toward an overreliance on private solutions to large problems of national — that is, public — significance. This shift has less to do with the fact that government solutions do not work than it has to do with the reality that our political polarization has created a great deal of distrust in public bodies, as well as dysfunction in our governing bodies. We won’t be able to address this sea change easily or overnight. But we can begin to change the flow of discussion by putting time, talent, and treasure behind public resources like WPSU.
What do you wish people knew about WPSU?
WPSU is more than news programs and British period dramas, as vital as those are to many audiences. The programming cuts across a number of demographics and interests.