Page 4 Wish to be recognized The Multi Cultural Council (MCC) is trying to show Penn State that its eight organizations want to be recognized. MCC is trying to open the eyes of this campus. Instead of concentrating on programs sponsored by non-minority organizations, the Multi Cultural Council is concentrating more on it, own programs and interests. MCC is trying to concentrate on creating unity and diversity through programming and cooperation. The eight organizations under the Multi Cultural Council are: Association of Black Collegians, Asian Student Organization, Human Relations Programming Council, National Society of Black Engineers, Women Today, Organization of Latin American Students, Trigon, and Returning Adult Students. The organization wants to see diversity practiced through cooperative programming with not only MCC but with all 65 organizations, staff, faculty and administration. This is one reason the organizations did not participate in the Cultural Fiesta. Some members of the organization wondered why all the burden falls only on the multi cultural organizations. So it is true that only the Multi Cultural Council has culture. The council was asked to help fund and participate in an activity sponsored and funded by student affairs. However, some felt that input and planning should have been done in conjunction with the MCC associates and all 65 organizations could have given good input and helped out as well in order to show the true diversity on campus. According to Alexis Pratt, co president of the Association of Black Collegians, "The eight organizations under MCC did not participate in the Cultural Fiesta but there are about 62 other organizations that could have participated. Just because some of the organizations have our ethnic background or the exact word culture in its name does not mean we are the only organizations on this campus with culture." --The Cultural Fiesta is a time for Behrend to the display different cultures of its campus, not just minority cultures. --MCC also took a second step towards addressing issues that have to be addressed. A letter was written to the faculty, staff, and advisors, addressing concerns that members of the eight organizations considered important. --Members of MCC do not feel that there are quality diversity focused programs on campus . Some of the concerns addressed were programming, communication, the need to hire minority faculty and staff in addition to scheduling more diverse classes and times. The faculty and staff agreed to have a meeting to discuss these concerns and to help settle the problems. --The purpose of the MCC is to be an advocate speaker for underrepresented students. MCC is and will continue to advocate for those students who are becoming a majority on campus and are underrepresented. According to Nicole Buther, President of MCC, "We hope this is a positive approach. We've had our meeting and hope to see progress and bring the campus back to our students and to see better cooperation between all 65 organizations and staff, faculty and administration." She also added that "students should be more accountable for the organizations and should utilize the campus, their talents, and resources." by Joneatra D. Henry Collegian Writer HAP AGAMBLING PaceLEM Op/Ed Golf, and It's a gloriously sunny day in Miami, and I'm standing in a semicircle of maybe 500 people on a carpet of lush, sweet smelling, green-glinting grass, the kind that makes you want to get naked and roll around on your back like a dog. But the people around me are not doing that. They're silent and solemn, like a church congregation, except that a lot of them are smoking cigars. They're staring intently at some tiny figures way off in the distance. I'm staring, too, but I can't quite make out what the figures are doing. Suddenly the crowd murmurs, and 500 heads jerk skyward in unison. I still can't see anything. The crowd holds its breath, waiting, waiting, and then suddenly ... PLOP ... a little white ball falls from the sky, lands in the middle of the semicircle and starts rolling. Immediately the crowd members are shouting at it angrily. "Bite!" they shout, spewing saliva and cigar flecks. "BITE!" This is how they tell the ball they want it to stop rolling. The ball, apparently fearing for its life, stops. The crowd members applaud and cheer wildly. They're acting as though the arrival of this ball is the highlight of their lives. Which maybe it is. These are, after all, golf fans. And this ball was personally hit by - prepare to experience a heart seizure - JACK NICKLAUS. This exciting moment in sports occurred at the Doral-Ryder Open golf tournament, an event on the professional golf tour, wherein the top golfers from all over the world gather together to see who can take the longest amount of time to actually hit the ball. I don't know about you, but when I play golf - which I have done a total of three times in my life - I don't waste a lot of time. I just grab a club, stride briskly to the ball, take a hearty swing, then check to see if the ball has moved from its original location. If it hasn't, I take another hearty swing, repeating this process as necessary until the ball is gone, which is my cue to get out another ball, because I know from harsh experience that I will never in a million years find the first one. I keep this up until there are no balls left, which is my cue to locate the part of the golfing facility where they sell beer. In other words, I play an exciting, nonstop-action brand of golf that would be ideal for spectators, except for the fact that Thursday, April 20, 1995 cigars Dave most of them would be killed within minutes. Your professional golfer, on the other hand, does not even THINK about hitting a ball until he has conducted a complete geological and meteorological survey of the situation - circling the ball warily, as though it were a terrorist device, checking it out from every possible angle; squatting and squinting; checking the wind; taking soil samples; analyzing satellite photographs; testing the area for traces of O.J. Simpson's DNA, etc. Your professional golfer takes longer to line up a six-foot putt than the. oyota corporation takes to turn raw iron ore into a Corolla. I know that it may sound boring to watch grown men squat for minutes on end, but when you see a pro tournament in person - when you're actually watching these world-class golfers line up their shots - it is in fact UNBELIEVABLY boring. At least it was for me. I would rank it, as a spectator sport, with transmission repair. "HIT THE BALL, ALREADY!" is what I wanted to shout at Jack Nicklaus, but I did not, because the crowd would have turned on me, and my lifeless body would have been found later buried in a sand trap, covered with cigar burns. Because these fans worship the golfers, and they seem to be truly fascinated by the squatting and squinting process. The more time that passed with virtually nothing happening, the more excited the golf fans became, until finally, when Jack got ready to take the extreme step of actually hitting the ball, everybody was nearly crazy with anticipation, although nobody was making a peep, because putting is an extremely difficult and highly technical activity that - unlike, for example, brain surgery - must be performed in absolute silence. And so, amid an atmosphere of tension comparable to that of a Space Shuttle launch, Jack finally bent over the ball, drew back his putter and gently tapped the ball. "GET IN THE HOLE!" the crowd screamed at the ball. "GET IN THE HOLE!" The ball, of course, did not go in the hole. Your world-class golfers miss a surprising number of short putts. Too much squatting, if you ask me. "NO!" shouted the crowd, when the ball stopped, maybe an inch from the hole. Some men seemed to be near tears; some were cursing openly. These people were FURIOUS at the ball. They did not blame Jack. Jack worked HARD to line up this putt, and here this idiot ball LET HIM DOWN. But Jack was magnanimous. He tapped the ball in, and the fans applauded wildly, as well they should have, because it is not every day that you see a person cause a little ball to roll six feet. When Jack had acknowledged the applause, the next famous world-class golfer in his group, John Daly, began considering the many, many complex factors involved in his putt, which he will probably be ready to attempt no later than June. Let me know if he makes it. I'll be in the grass just beyond the refreshment area, rolling around like a dog. by Dave Barry Syndicated Columnist
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