Reader Spotlights Bitching at courses Many students have looked at the course selection for the spring term. The reaction is a groan and a sigh of boredom. It seems that students are very unhappy with the courses offered at Capitol Campus. More often then not, a student finds fault with the course material in every course he takes in a term. If students want to change the courses that they can take, they should have a voice in the formation of future courses. An ambitious student can do just that. There are several faculty committees that welcome student interest and opinions. The faculty have asked students many times to their meetings-but no one seems interested enough to attend. Students should seek out the means to change their choice of courses. There are many ways. One just has to search for them. Next time a student bitches about course selection, maybe he should think of what he did to change the courses. If he did nothing, then he should not bitch about it. The following is an example of an experimental course started up at University Park. The same can be done at Capitol, if the students want it. Students have to show the administration what they want - it is as simple as that. So. quit bitching. ** * * Course in Death Media - V 7 hen students in the beginning psychology course are assigned an open choice term paper, nearly half choose to research and write about suicide. Because of this apparent fascination with death among college students in their classes, two instructors at the Delaware County Campus of The Pennsylvania State University here have developed a new experimental course to be taught at the campus in the Spring Term. The course is entitled “The Meanings of Death.” The course will be team-taught by the two professors and will study death in all its forms from both the individual and societal aspects. Some of the topics to be covered are the preparation for and attitudes toward death among elderly people; violent death, especially suicide and murder; death as treated in literature and art; euthanasia; death in the family; and the institution of the funeral. A comparison of death in the United States as compared to how death is viewed in “death-oriented” cultures will also be included. “The course is not meant to be therapeutic in terms of assuring people that death is nothing to worry about,” Kinman said. “Rather, we hope that by taking the course, students will be able to face more realistically the idea of mortality and will recognize that death is part of living.” Kinman also noted a growing interest in thanatology, the study of death, among sociologists and increased emphasis on the subject in psychology and sociology classes on the college level. Davis pointed out that in one branch of psychiatry, the existential therapist treats patients with the viewpoint that the basic fear of death is at the core of most of man s anxieties. «* * * by Bob Hetzel There are approximately 15 positions to be filled in the upcoming Spring Term S.G.A. elections. Capitol Campus students will be voting for President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary Treasurer, Senior Senators and the Dr. James A. Jordan Award for teaching. These elections are tentatively slated for April 4 with swearing in of the new S.G.A. Vol. II No. 4 February 21, 1974 c.c. reader notfonol engineers week • f By Joseph C. Davis, National Bureau of Standards How many times have most of us noticed how hot the water in a garden hose gets when we leave the hose sprawled all over the lawn on a hot summer afternoon? And we tell ourselves how uneconomical it is to waste this hot water. There must be some practical way to harness this heat from the sun and save on our hot water heating bill or heat our house, we say. This great surge of interest was not always with us. In the 1950’5, technical people were indifferent about our future energy needs. Little was said about the shortgage of fossil fuels while a good deal was said about nuclear energy and almost nothing about solar energy. There were exceptions to this lack of interest. As always, there were pioneers, like Dr. Maria Telkes, an outstanding engineer who toured the university circuit and establishments like the Bureau of Standards espousing the cause of solar energy. Dr. Telkes specialized particularly in exotic types of liquids and solids for storing heat for use on days when the level of sunlight was low. And then there was the American Society for Solar Heating, an Arizona-based organization that furnished speakers and published books about the new way of harnessing energy the society knew would be popular and practical some day. One never knows in which direction the development of a new concept in our technological society will eventually take; solar houses may not be the houses of the future. Their asymmetrical, one-sided, and sloping roofs do not have the beauty of the more symmetrical asphalt or slate-shingled roofs. The average housewife probably would have nothing to do with such designs” Perhaps the solar powered home of the future will SGA Presidential Elections members to take place at the third S.G.A. meeting of Spring term. All candidates are required to submit a petition of 25 signatures to the Election / Screening Committee by March 1 and must maintain a 2.0 GPA. The petitions are available in the S.G.A. room W-104 and should be returned to Bob Hetzel’s mail box in W-104. Any full-time undergraduate may run for the offices of b 17-23 be operated by electricity generated by solar energy at a station many miles removed from the home. to find ways to power a generated station by energy from the sun. One of the most promising and interesting methods was conceived by Dr. and Mrs. Aden B. Meinel of the University of Arizona. They envisioned a large horizontal grill-work of steel pipes coated with silicon and silver, covering many square miles in arid and semi-arid areas, which would trap the sun’s heat. Nitrogen, flowing through the pipes would capture the heat and transport it to tanks of molten salts that would store the heat. As power was needed, it could be used in a conventional turbine generator system making electricity. The large grid could be placed high enough that if it were used on grazing land, cattle and sheep could walk freely underneath it. Another possible method for future conversion involves a satellite which could receive a much higher level of solar energy than is available on any terrestrial spot in the United States. On ths satellite, solar cells would convert the powerful supply of energy to microwave energy, which in turn would be directed by an antenna and beamed to a receiving station on earth. This radio energy would then be converted to electricity and transported by wire to homes, office buildings, and factories for use with conventional heating and cooling systems. This concept captures the imagination, but at the present level of technology it poses many problems. Widespread use of the sun’s energy depends not only on the results of all the research that is taking place but on acceptance by the building industry and their willingness to put the results into mass production. There’s no telling when this (Continued on Page 4) President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary or Treasurer. The Senior Senate seats are restricted to undergraduates who will have senior standing for the 1974-75 academic year. Senatorial candidates must run for the Senate seat allocated to their academic division. There are six academic divisions; Social Science, Humanities, Engineering, Education, Math / DANCE MARATHON Starts 9:00 FRIDAY, rEBRUkRV 22 PRESENTED BYWZAP i SOCIAL COMMITTEE "Get in and win" $200.00 first place 100.00 $50.00 3rd place a bottle cold duck for 4th, sth, & 6th places SI6N UP OUTSIDE STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND DOWN IN VENDONVIUE MIDNIGHT SURPRISE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Marathon Dance SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 Marathon Dance Cont'd MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Old Movies TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 Ice Cream Social WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Movie - "The Devils' THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28 Day of Rest FRIDAY, MARCH 1 "Greaser Keggar" Calendar of Events THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 21 12:00 and 8:00 Appalachian Movies - "Music Fair," "In the Old-Fashioned Way," "Tomorrow's 8:00 Yearbook meeting at 833 B Nelson. 9:00 Young Democrats at 845 A Kirtland Ski Club Bake Sale in Vendorville. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 9:00 Dance Marathon NOSTALGIA WEEK -- FEBRUARY 22- MARCH 1 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25 4:30 SGA meeting in the Gallery Lounge 7:30 Head Shop meeting in the Coffee House. Martial Arts Class. - Capitol vs. Stevens Trade School at the Main St. Gym 8:00 Photo Club in E-247. Basketball TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 1:30 and 8:00 Henrietta Hock in the auditorium 7:00 Meade Heights Board of Governors in the Coffee House. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 12:00 Chess Club 1:00 Judo 8:00 Movie "The Devils" admission is 70 cents at the Student Center. THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 28 12 :00 and 8:00 Appalachian Film Series Movie "From Folk to Jazz and Pop" Science, and Business. The voting for the Senior Senate seats will be by academic division with the candidates receiving the highest number of votes in each division being accorded that Senior Senate seat. The remaining Senatorial candidates will then be ranked according to the number of votes received and the highest 3 will be designated Senior Senator at-large. One Senior at-large seat is provided for every 200 senior undergraduates. Nostalgia Week ** * * 2nd place 500 admission free if greased Film Serie Good
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers