Page 6 No allowance for greed This letter will address the accusations and gross misconceptions presented in Eric Pine's letter "No allowance for profit" in last week's issue of The Collegian. The items regarding Mr. Pine's selfish proposal are true as printed. However, SGA does incur some risk in that if the chartered bus were not filled, SGA would have to pay the difference for the empty seats, possibly taking on a loss. I am personally insulted by Mr. Pine's comment about the lack of volunteers on SGA. I am the chairperson of the SGA Elections Committee. My committee is very responsible and hard-working. I had no problem finding dedicated people from the senate to help me. A good 80% of the senate is on one or more committees. I am on two. If Mr. Pine is not going to take the initiative to find people for his committee, he should not complain about a lack of help. On to stipends. The President, Treasurer, and Secretary of SGA do much more work than any of the other committees. They deserve every cent they get. Steve Binder, one of our treasurers, took work home during winter break for which he was not paid. Hmmm, sure sounds a lot like volunteer work. I and my committee have already put in as many - if not more - hours as Mr. Pine, and will have put in many more by the end of the semester. No one on my committee or on any other committee has asked for any kind of compensation. Many of us don't even get recognition. Mr. Pine is already receiving a free trip from Travel Associates - the company co- sponsoring the trip. This trip is valued at approximately $l5O. Yet Mr. Pine wants more. If he had succeeded with this fiasco, Mr. Pine would have received nearly $5OO. This is more than the president's per semester stipend that Mr. Pine challenged. Makes sense, huh? Greed, Mr. Pine, is something you seem to know very much about: The profit you would have made would have gone right into, your own pocket. Now, however, that $960 you quoted will go into SGA and be returned to the students. That's right. SURPRISE! Almost all of the money SGA makes, does, as promised, go back to the students in one way or another. Yup, SGA sure is Letters to the editor greedy. How dare we want to use money for programming. Heaven forbid we should actually accomplish something for Behrend. Right, Eric? Mr. Pine, you have some nerve trying to pin blame on SGA because your asinine, money-making scheme didn't work. You should be more than happy that you're getting anything at all considering the other chairpeople aren't getting any compensation. As far as food parties are concerned, we have had one pizza party and one night out to Eat-N-Park. I beg to differ with you on the senate's not being deserving of these rare treats. I think these are thoughtful, fair rewards for the work we each put in. I think we do deserve this, but we are satisfied with just this! For someone who gets all worked up over The Collegian's lack of facts, you sure didn't make a good example of what's right to do. Eric, The Collegian may have been wrong for not getting all of the facts before printing, but you've managed to do exactly the same thing. The only difference being that The Collegian's article was rushed; yours was biased and juvenile. Why don't you mention the fact that you were at each of these food parties yourself, Mr. Pine? By the way, wasn't it you who accrued THE highest bill that night at Eat-N-Park. Makes sense, huh? Julian S. Hing SCA Resident Senator 6th Semester Management Major Curses to Collegian As an interested student and informed writer, I look forward to reading the new edition of The Collegian each week. However, I was quite disappointed by this past week's edition due to some of the terminologies used in it. I understand that because The Collegian is a college newspaper, the usage of vulgar and rude language is legally permitted. But I think that I speak for many of Behrend's intelligent readers that one does not appreciate opening a newspaper and being confronted with such statements as "...a masterpiece of sh*s", and "I fu*S...that's what I do." I do not claim to never use these words in my free time., but would never consider using theta in an academic environment, much lea in a Opinion widely read newspaper that is supposed to display the journalistic talents of Behrend's student writers. I think that the usage of these words greatly affected the paper's entire format, making it seem unprofessional and ill-advised. I am the last person on earth to advocate infringement upon anyone else's right to complete freedom of speech or expression. I an merely voicing my disappointment in this past week's paper, and suggesting that a more cognizant choice of words in the future may help to uphold The Collegian's reputa tion as that of a professionally written, high quality publication. As a fellow writer, I understand your desire to display and take full advantage of your gift of freedom of the press. But there is a fine line between a carefully weighed use of necessary words, and a blatant abuse of the privilege. Mary Kay Twargowski 4th Semester Biology celebration ignored Every Thursday for the past six semesters that I've been at Behrend, I've picked up The Collegian like clockwork. Every Thursday of these six semesters, if something of interest or of importance to the students took place at Behrend, The Collegian covered it. Fact: Every Thursday after the celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.('s) birthday, Black students have become very upset. The Editors do you know the reason why? The reason is because for the past three years, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has had three birthdays and never to my recollection, has there been an article covering the festivities that take place at Behrend in celebration of this great Black leader. Why is that editixs? Is it because perhaps you didn't know about it? That can't be the reason because everyone knows that from 4:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m. classes are canceled in remembrance of this great Black man. Is it because there wasn't a reporter to cover the story? Nah, I'm wrong again because a reporter on your staff that is Black requested to write about the celebration (but y9u said that it was ;ciliate _windier the fact that dk- celebration . had shady taken placbr 4 Was it not covered because MLK there wasn't anything going on? Damn, that's three strikes because I was in the celebration in 1991, I watched the celebration from the audience in 1992, and I sang in the choir for the celebration in 1993. Also, if I can recall correctly, I believe that all of the celebrations took place in Erie Hall. So, you definitely knew about it and where it was taking place. I'm trying to understand why this great Black man has never seen any page much less the front page of The Collegian. Why editors? Why? Do you now more clearly understand the anger of some of the Black students on campus as well as those off-campus? The only reason I used the word some is because I'm not the voice of every Black student. In expression of my own anger towards The Collegian; for the past three years this Black Hero has been neglected by The Collegian. I've taken more than can be absorbed. Since the Editors for some reason did not cover the celebration, I'll tell my readers what happened. There was a beautiful celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Erie Hall on January 18, 1993. This event was coordinated by Ms. Jacquie Wades. The celebration opened with "Precious Lord", a song sang by a choir directed by Jennifer Grimmage and Angela Johnson in which we worked long and hard to perform. The song was followed by an excerpt of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther TOP TEN SCARIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH 10. Prune-eating Sumo wrestler. 9. High-rise window cleaner with bladder problem. 8. Near sighted knife juggler. 7. Megalomaniac Third World Dictators. 6. Grown men named "Siff." 5. Heavily armed hot dog vendors. 4. Carsick brother in the seat next to you. 3. Brain surgeon with hiccups. 2. Anyone with a cranky disposition and a chainsaw. I . People who offer you drugs. ACIIIM~AI4.IIIIFA ' 4 • Thursday, January 28, 1993 King Jr.('s) speech, "I Have a Dream". The speech was then interrupted with students of various ethnic backgrounds saying different sections of the speech, which led back to the speech of Martin Luther King Jr. as seen on a big video screen with him saying his famous words "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty I'm Free at last!" After which the choir sang "Lift Every Voice" followed by words of wisdom by Mr. Tucker and then ended with the choir upliftingly singing a hyped "0' Lord We Praise You!" Afterwards, there were refreshments for everyone and a candlelight vigil at 6:30 p.m., coordinated by Samuel Epps. Thus ending the first day of the week-long list of activities in celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One Last time Editors, why wasn't the celebration covered by The Collegian? Maybe because it was too late to write about it. No, once again I'm wrong because the Erie papers, as well as Channel 24 News, covered the celebration; Why couldn't "OUR" Collegian Jamele M. Adams President of A. 8.0 What's on your mind? Write to The Collegian and tell us what you're thinking.
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