PAGE 10 People Will Be People Dear Life, We, the men of Ist floor Church Hall, commonly known as the No-Tell Motel, would like to expound upon the various perspicacious platitudes that we have perused in the most recent issue of the Capitol Campus Reader; i.e. Cathy Began, the Trekkies, poetry, High Acre Club, etc. Since we have solved the sexual drought solution with the distribution of saltpeter, we would like to go on to other self actual i zat ion concepts. Primarily, we are in complete concurrence with our fellow men from the 2nd floor Church. To tell you the truth, we did not think that they possessed such intellectual faculties, but after all, they are fellow Churchers. By the by, for those who haven't been enlightened, 119 Church is the home base for the Ist Floor Church Hall's biological necessities which is the basis of thought ex pressed by the High Acres Club. In regards to the literary pursuits of Susan W. who has engineered the greatest symbolistic poem of the century, we would like to include our inspiring retort to this verbose collection of unadulterated vitamin C. She created the following: Oranges! Lemons! Grapes! The resident poet of our sophisticates has been inspired to answer with the following, titled: A Smile in Middletown Sheets! Underwear! Mattress! Dirt! Que Sera Sera. As for Mr. Paul, we must leave this to a lower intelligence, for we do not partake in individualistic slander. Concerning Ms. Began's dissertation, the Ist floor would like to, at this time, express our total agreement with her outlook and female insight. May we remind the WOMEN of Capitol Campus of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The imperitive need of all human beings is that of physiological satisfaction. Included in this primary need is food, clothing, shelter, and sex. Although we are in total agreement with both Ms. Began and Maslow, we feel it necessary to state publically these basic needs. We therefore, take this op portunity to say that if the WOMEN of Capitol Campus wish to be treated as equal human beings, then they should realize that they are appreciated by the MEN of Ist floor Church Hall. In summary, since our initial correspondence in the C.C. Reader, our camaraderie has, and will in the future, in crease with simple harmonic motion. All we can say is that boys will be boys, girls will be girls but most importantly, PEOPLE WILL BE PEOPLE! TO OUR READERS: THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE READER IS BOUND TO BECOME A COLLECTORS ITEM. THE EDITORS HAVE PLANNED AN APRIL FOOLS ISSUE THAT WILL BE JAM PACKED WITH HUMOR, BITING SATIRE AND UNUSUAL PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH DEPICT THE PLACE WE CALL CAPITOL CAMPUS. LOOK FOR THE READER, WHICH WILL BE PUBLISHED APRIL 4TH. BY THE WAY- CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THIS SPECIAL ISSUE ARE WELCOMED. (4.rityttin tlittal,* "GUARANTSED FREE FROM DEFECTS Foft ZYz YEARS--OR ONE 1,1014114,11110ial- The Brown Eyes Ist Floor Church No-Tell Motel THE EDITORS MAIR C.C. READER What's Penn PIRG? You've probably been hearing a lot about Penn PIRG. But you're probably still not too sure what it is or if you should support it. So we'd like to take a few minutes to explain PIRG to you. Penn PIRG stands for Pennsylvania Public In terest Research Group. That means citizen action. All of us know about the problems facing us today-- pollution, consumer fraud and deception, discrimination in hiring and renting practices, tax laws that favor big business, and government agencies that seem to be working against the average citizen-you. But no one seems to be doing anything about these problems. Very few groups that now exist have the time and ability to tackle such huge scale problems. And that's where PIRG comes in. A professional staff of lawyers, accountants, chemists, and other researchers, along with students, work on these problems--and they do get results. To fund PI RG--$2.00 extra per term would be collected with your tuition. But it must be emphasized that this is a REFUNDABLE fee. You could get your money back if you wished. To show the Board of Trustees that students support the PIRG idea, it is necessary that a majority of all PSU students sign the PIRG petitions. But back to PIRG's for a minute. They're already organized on 135 college campuses in 21 states. Here are some of their ac complishments: ----Rolled back a telephone rate increase in Vermont. Utilities in Indiana and North Carolina that seek huge rate increases are also under fire by PIRG. ----Succeeded in stopping bottler's efforts in Oregon to repeal a law which made unreturnable bottlers illegal for economic and ecological reasons. ----Stopped construction of unnecessary superhighways in New Jersey where en vironmental issues were at stake. ----Exposed discriminatory practices against women in Oregon when they applied for credit loans. ----Succeeded in getting legislation through the Vermont legislature which provided for dental care for school age children after it was shown that 50 percent of children under the age of 15 had never seen a dentist. That's just a short list to give you an idea of the kind of work that a PIRG could do here. But it will only become a reality with your help. These problems can only be tackled if you want them to be. If you're at all concerned about the quality of your life, then you should be concerned about PIRG. Show your support by signing the Penn PIRG petition today. MORE ON PIRG As newspaper and television commentators were giving the last rites to the student movement a few years ago, concerned ac tivists were regrouping and returning to the campus scene in a new form. Modeled after the Ralph Nader organization in Washington and utilizing techniques of public interest protection developed by Nader himself, student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGS) began to appear on campuses across the country. Since 1971 PIRGs have successfully challenged the unresponsive seats of power in government and business through the courts and in the public arena. They have organized grassroots consumer, student and citizen activity, demanding corporate and govern mental responsiveness to the public interest. While many students still say, "What can I do?" the PIRGs have demonstrated that students, engaged in inter disciplinary public interest research with a full-time professional staff, can successfully overcome the weaknesses and transitory nature of past student movements. Through the PIRGs) students can assume truly decisive roles in the great changes that must take place in this country to close the gap between promise and performance. The concept is simple: A majority of students on various campuses in a state express their approval of the student Public Interest Research Group concept and their willingness to pay a fee each year to support such an organization's activities. Through the method of popular petitioning, the students request the use of the college's collection mechanism to collect this fee. A full refund is given to the minority who wish not to support the PIRG finan cially. With the money a democratically-elected student board hires a staff of full-time professional lawyers, scientists, engineers, journalists, health care specialists, etc., to represent students and to provide them with the wide breadth of expertise needed for effective public interest action. .Today, more than 500,000 students are par ticipating in PIRG, raising revenues of more than SI rillion annually. Some Questions and An swers about PIRG 1. Why is there a need for PIRGs? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that the interests of citizens in preserving their life support system, eliminating poverty and malnutrition, and en couraging fair practices in the marketplace have been frequently ignored by decision makers. These interests will continue to be neglected in decision making until: a. private economic MARCH 14, 1975 decisions which have an impact on the public welfare are thoroughly studied and discussed; b. government policy takes into consideration the views and needs of more groups in society; and c. new methods are developed to insure con sideration of the public interest in private economic decisions and government policy. The move to give voice and power to these long-range concerns of citizens is the purpose of the public interest research group. 2. How did the concept of student-funded PIRGs originate? In response to student queries as to how they might effectively work to solve problems facing all citizens, Ralph Nader suggested that student funded and' directed public interest research groups were one way in which students could focus their idealism, manpower and energy for effective change. The first PIRGs were organized in . Oregon and Minnesota where a majority of students on the major cam puses signed a petition to tax themselves each semester to support these groups, refun ding the fee to those not wishing to participate. Since then, PIRGs have been suc cessfully organized in 18 states and the District of Columbia and are currently being organized in 10 more states. 3. How does the PIRG contribute to institutions of higher education that agree to act as collecting agent for PIRG funds? Student PIRGs make five major contributions to the life and purposes of colleges and universities by: a. providing a real-life test of knowledge learned in the classroom--a "laboratory" situation hard to simulate on campus in many disciplines, i.e. political science, sociology, etc; b. assisting in the development of new curricula stressing both a clinical approach to education, learning by doing, and student par ticipation in the com munity; c. providing faculty members with a mechanism whereby they can engage in public in terest activities without "politicizing" the in stitution; d. enhancing the students' respect for higher education as a creator of socially valuable technical corn petence and as a con tributor to evaluative judgment; e. providing the tax payers, in publically supported schools, with visibly tangible benefits which may help to legitimize the heavy subsidizing of universities for their promised, but uncertainly delivered spin off of intangible public goods. Yours in good government, Russ Hogg Vice President S.G.A.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers