October 14, 1970
To Meade Heights
Residents: Our Little
Corner of the Earth
Many Meade Heights residents
might like to know how they can do
their part for ecology. Here are
some practical tips.
Compiled by Libby Marsh
The reason to be careful about the
kind of soap or detergent you use is
that the high-phosphate kinds do
over-fertilize the river and the ocean.
Worse in the long run is that all the
phosphorous is lost forever to the
ocean and some day our kids rhight
wish we’d left them some to fertilize
food.
It is the familiar brands of deter
gents which are the highest in phos
phorous, Tide, Cheer, and the rest.
However your friendly neighborhood
Food Fair now stocks a low-phos
phate brand called Ecology which
should be less harmful.
The chief advantage of the deter
gents has been that they function in
cold or hard water. However old
fashioned soap like Fels does a good
job, smells clean, and breaks down
naturally after it’s gone down the
drain. Soap like this must be dis
solved in advance in the machine or
it leaves lumps in your shirts.
However our water here on campus
comes through limestone caverns
and is full of calcium. This water is
good for you but in the laundry, with
soap, it just sits there like grey pota
toe soup. So you should add washing
soda, not Calgonite, to the wash
water.
Dishwashing detergent is useful
for dishes of course and also for min
or laundry. It’s low in phosphorous
and gets things clean in hard water
by cutting surface tension around
water and grease. The cheapest
kind of this stuff, and of other gro
ceries, is the house brand put out by
the grocery company. A drawback
to using dishwashing detergent is
that it comes in those plastic bottles
which are indestructible in nature.
Some day the whole Earth will be
paved with plastic bottles; if you
burn them they emit poisonous
fumes.
Because oar water is so hard, the
sink faucets and your glasses and
pots will soon get a dull layer of
calcium on them. Vinegar rubbed
on or cooked in the pot will shine
them up again. Vinegar will shine
your hair too, if you put it in the
last rinse and make you smell good
like a pickle.
As for other cleaning, ammonia
combines with grease and makes its
own soap. If you should ever clean
the oven put some ammonia in over
night and let the fumes make soap
of the grease. You can save money
and bottles by using ammonia for
other cleaning jobs, windows and
hairbrushes, but remember it’s hard
on your living flesh and on linoleum.
If you clean at all, the essential
place to do it is around food. Bacter
ia that can make you sick need the
same living conditions you do, mod
erate warmth, food, and water. So
clean up the counter, dishes, and
(continued in next column)
THE CAPITOLIST
Is The Board of
How long will the students of Penn
State Capitol Campus endure while
a system of student government pulls
them apart and encumbers on already
frail unity? How long will the stu
dents living in Meade Heights be
asked to acknowledge allegiance to
two student governing bodies? And
how long will dorm students tolerate
the “exclusiveness” of living in
Meade Heights? These are just three
of the questions left over from last
year. A year which saw little, if any,
progress in centralizing the student
government but did see a dividing of
the students between those living in
Meade Heights and those living in
the dorms.
Meade Heights is a wonderful, pro
gressive, challenging phenomena in
student housing, despite the many
problems that are arising out of such
a neighborhood type of environment.
All the students living in Meade
Heights, I am sure, are glad to be
part of this new endeavor. But let
us not forget that sometimes to take
two steps forward, we must take one
step backward. By this I mean that
if we find that we have chosen a mis
taken path, let us have the courage
to admit our mistake and change our
direction. The idea that we can split
into any conceivable factions several
hundred student residents is beyond
intelligence. How many parties and
spaghetti dinners will the governing
faction of Meade Heights hold this
year while excluding the dorm stu
dents or by making them pay some
type of admission fee? Meade
Heights, by no stretch of the imagin
ation, is hallowed ground. It is an
injustice to dorm students and other
parts of the whole student body to
dishcloth and let them dry before the
next batch of food gets on them. Be
especially tidy after handling raw
chicken; it usually has salmonella.
Put any damp, edible leftovers in the
refrigerator and take them out again
before too long.
Governors Valid?
Lewis
have money allotted and spent for
the enjoyment of a certain majority
who happens to live in a particular
place. This money should be spent
for the enjoyment of everyone. Talk
about discrimination of the highest
order, this is the case in point, and
what baffles me is how some people
tolerate it. What, baffles me even
more is how a student body can re
sign itself to a course of becoming
“clique-ish” realizing what a dead
sentence that comes with such a di
rection.
Are we resigning ourselves con
sciously or unconsciously to building
walls in a time when our survival
as persons, as a student body, as a
nation depends on those walls crum
bling into a better foundation of
understanding.
I would venture forth to ask each
and every individual to ponder the
question of whether the Board of
Governors is a valid student govern
ing body or whether it has become
a wrong answer to questions still
with us—how the students living in
Meade Heights should be represented
and speak for their particular prob
lems, while at the same time not di
vorcing them from their fellow stu
dents. I would also speak out for a
committee appointed by the student
government association whose pur
pose would be to investigate the pos
sibilities and suggest for open discus
sion the better ideas on how to bring
Meade Heights back into perspective
and foster unity among our student
body.
To delay would be error. Not so
much for us as for future students.
Let them not say about us that we
could not forsee the problems and al
leviate them.
Norval Reece!
OCTOBER 21, 1970
3-5 p.m., Auditorium