PAGE 2 EDITORIALS On Voting To Cast or Not To Cast Greetings again from the Editor's Desk in the Collegian of fice. It's been a hectic week, but well worth the time spent to put out eight pages instead.of four. It's been sort of a "dream come true" to be able to consistently put out an issue double the size that we were accustomed to. But we seem to be pulling through, and we anxiously await any student feedback we could possibly receive. After all, it's your ideas that make us . tick. Stop in and see us sometime. Believe me, we are always here. On to a more pressing issue ... I voted the other day, and I was just wondering how many others exercised their right to vote on Tuesday. I realin that many of you are away from home, but a whole lot of you aren't. I don't mean to assume that none of you voted, because that would offend those of you who did. But for those of you who did not, maybe it's time to do some serious introspection. If it is the only say we have, we should, by all means, exercise that right. I often wonder why so many people are apathetic on election. day. If you were running for office, wouldn't you get the im pression that nobody really cared either way what you did if, in fact, you did happen to win? The politicians themselves are not solely responsible for the corruption and exploitation of the peo ple. It is a combined effort with the uncaring attitude of the peo ple that make it so easy to get away with just about anything. Saying nothing at all often implies agreement and by not even bothering to vote, you say nothing at all. If, as I said, you did vote, then maybe this is a case that should be presented to those you know who don't vote. I feel it is valid and I welcome criticism or opposing views on the issue. The reason I do vote . is simple. I have this little tiny grand mother who lives next door to me. She is eighty-three this year, and ever since she came to the United States, which is some sixty years ago, she has never missed an election. I fmd that in teresting. I guess that is the way she exercises her citizenship in her adopted country and I fmd that something to be proud of. She is a real fireball she even knows all of 'the candidates and what they are running for. I can't believe she always understands their platforms, but she can tell you whether or not they are honest just by looking at their faces, I think. Most likely, she knew their parents. Whatever the reason, she is there on every election day and I can honestly say, I'm very proud of her. She is one of the reasons I vote consistently. The other is the argument I presented earlier in the issue. Both are worth the trip to the polls. And so it goes, until next week ... Behrend Collegian Editor: Claire DeSantis Assistant Editor: Risa Glick Business Manager: Rod Luery Sports Editor: Joel Campbell Advisor: Robert DiNiCola Staff Justin Panson Lisa Pavadore Ken Sonnenberg Cynthia Stipancic Sarah Tamilin Marge Tomczak Ann Weunski William Whitney Jeff Bedford Elizabeth Gillian Dave Harrington • Mary Hickin Michael Kitchen Edward J. - McCloskey Thomas Miller . Steve Nesbit Mailing Address-Behrend College, Station Road, Erie, Pa. 16510 Office-Student Offices, Reed Building Office Phone: 898-1511 Ext. 221 Opinions expressed by the Editors and staff of the Behrend Collegian are not necessarily those of the University Administration, faculty, or the stu dent body. By Claire DeSantis BEHREND COLLEGIAN Letters To The Editor To the Editor: I'm feeling thoughtful about Collegian reporter Michael Kit chen's letter to the editor in the October 28 issue. I refer to both "feeling" and "thought" here because few other social issues evoke such impassioned mixtures of mind and heart, and those that do are usually concerned with the boundaries between life and death: euthanasia, suicide, and capital punishment. Michael Kitchen's standpoint on the abortion issue is opposite to mine. I am a pro-choice feminist, deeply concerned about abortion for reasons both moral and political. I am .glad that young women on this campus have access to information and services that can aid them if they feel they must make the enor mously painful decision to seek an abortion. I strongly disagree with Mr. Kitchen's implication that such organizations as the one that advertises in the Collegian are staffed by profit-hungry cynics, "preying" on innocents abroad. Very often, the doctors who ser vice such organ' Rtions do so for minimal fees, and the never-well paid support staffs of women's health care centers are, for the most part, very caring and com mitted people. The implied analogy with Nazis and the Klan is inflammatory and inappropriate. More importantly, I disagree with Mr. Kitchen's implication that the Collegian should avoid running ads that "may be offen sive to many;" it's not a newspaper's job to make sure that nothing between its covers pro: Semester System Woes by lima Glick Last year at this time, I was completing my first term as a college student. We were under the trimester system at the time, beginning to prepare ourselves for the change over to semesters. I am now a sophomore awaiting the completion of my third semester as a college student. I wonder if this semester will ever end. It has been a long ten weeks and the thought of having five more weeks until winter break is not very appetizing. It would be nice to be able to abolish this semester system and bring back trimesters. I have pondered quite a bit about the pros and cons of the present system. Allow me to share these thoughts with you. The semester system allows for a longer winter vacation at one time, however, trimesters allow two weeks vacation at Thanksgiving and an additional two weeks over New Year's. While on trimesters, I had to endure only ten weeks of my least favorable class, but the semester system is forcing me to put up with 15 weeks of a class that I have very little likeness for. lain becoming bored with some of my classes. My schedule is so routine that monotony is setting in. I have noticed that a large number of students have been skipping their classes quite frequently. Maybe this is their way of breaking up their same old everyday schedule. Instructors are teaching the same material that they taught last year, however, this year they have an ad ditional five weeks to teach it. I will chalk this one up as an advantage to the semester system. I have heard that some instructors are having difficulties in slowing down their teaching speed. We have completed a "trimester" already and some professors have completed their entire course outline too soon. What will they do for the next four weeks? Luckily, I have not had this problem. The professors I have have made the adjustment from trimesters to semesters. I am currently enrolled in six classes. I took an average of four courses during a trimester. Having to take two additional classes during a semester is understandable, considering we have five more weeks of classes than we did last year. One would tend to think that the amount of work to do for four classes would be relatively the same as for six classes, due to the additional five weeks. I do not find this to be. true. I have twice as much work to do now. At first, I blamed it on the fact that my classes are more dif ficult now than they have been in the past, but this is not the reason: The reason is that the work is not spread out. Instead of having two tests one week and two the next, I have four in one week. I am having the same amount of exams in a course under the semester system as I did under trimesters. Obviously the exams are much more comprehensive. • Due to the failure of many instructors to spread out their lecture material, I for one, am not getting as much out of some of my classes now as I did under the trimester system. There is so much more material to know at one time. Maybe instructors are not aware of their own faults. Maybe we as students are not making them aware. I do not view this as'a problem. I view it as an adjustment that has to be made:Adjustments take time to make. Eleven weeks should be sufficient, if it isn't, there is still four weeks remaining. Believe me, that is a long time. - . yokes offense or controversy. The fact that the Collegian does not run alternative ads does not make the acceptance of this one "tanta mount to an endorsement." The rejection of submitted ad copy of fering services to a readership would indeed constitute a moral stand, but the acceptance merely makes the readers aware of ser vices they may or may not wish to investigate. As far as I know, the Collegian has not turned down ads from "alternative" agencies. In fact, I know that you would accept such ads eagerly, in the interests of pro moting diversity. I join Mr. Kit chen in the hope that alternative agencies will run ads, in response to this healthy controversy. And the healthiness of this con troversy is the real reason for my letter.. Michael Kitchen's letter made me do some hard thinking on this issue. Because he cared enough to write, because he is a person of deep convictions, he has roused me from a sleepy com placency, and caused me to ex amine my positions on a number of important issues, only one of which is abortion. The opinions I present sum marily above, are not one I came to immediately. Mr. Kitchen's thoughtfulness provoked my own on subjects such as freedom of the press, the purpose of college newspapers, and the implications of advertising. If my conclusions are finally predictable for a per son of my general political outlook, I had at least to wrestle with some noisy demons in the process of reaching them. For that, I can thank Michael Kitchen. (Continued on page 3) NOVEMBER 11,1983 Role Taking Advocated In a recent issue of the Behrend Collegian, I read an article in which a young lady asked the question, "Why is this teacher taking roll at all?" She argued that being in college, "on her own," gave her the choice of whether to go to class or not. She also argued that she should only be graded on her exam results, not her class attendance. I degree. College is the first step in becoming an adult. We are sud denly given free rein to_ do •as we choose, to accept the responsibili ty for our actions. Attending class is part of that resporsibility. Pro fessors who. take attendance and use that as part of your grade are only being fair to those students who do show up for class. These students, who may or may not find the class interesting ; educa tional, or fun, deserve to be rewarded for their attendance, their effort, and their responsibili ty. Grades are not lowered for absence, but raised for atten dance. Effort should be rewarded. I'm not trying to say that you should never miss a single class. I am saying that if you decide to miss a class, you should be responsible enough to accept the consequences. Part of being an "adult" and living on your own is taking the responsibility to accept the outcome of your own deci sions. Our whole society is based on a system of task and rewards and the sooner one accepts responsibilities that life gives him her, the sooner one receives life's rewards. C.F. Lupine
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