Oct. 23, 1975 Push For “Common Time” Do you know what a “common time” is? We have one at Capitol though you would never know it. A “common time” is a period when no classes are scheduled so that students may participate in club meetings and cultural events. Capitol’s “common time” is all day Wednesday. That really doesn’t make much sense to The Reader when some students do have class on Wednesday and most others do not. And those that do not are certainly not wandering around the Main Building looking for those club meetings and cultural events which, for the most part, he or she will not find being held on a Wednesday. If anything, Wednesday is the most “uncommon day” at Capitol. Capitol is the only commonwealth campus that has designated a “common time” as all day. All other campuses have set aside one period of the day whether it be two or five days a week. The Delware Campus, by the way, is the only commonwealth campus that does not have a “common time.” Berks Campus named fourth period Monday through Friday as their “common time” after a majority of the student body voted for it last spring. According to the editor of the Berks Voice, the student newspaper at Berks Campus, this “common time” is working well and well it should when their entire student body is commuter. The Reader believes students at Capitol ought to have the chance to vote for a truly “common time” and calls for SGA to look into the matter and put the question to the student body to vote upon. With a 70 per cent commuter student body, a “common time” might be just the thing for greater involvement in clubs and cultural events. The Reader thinks it’s worth finding out. Letter To The Editor A recent concern has already gone into effect, and arisen in the Residence it would be to your Halls, and consequently, an advantage to familiarize appeal is being made to the .yourself with it: Capitol Campus student Any person or persons body for its support. involved in the discharging of fire extinguishers for any Fire extinguishers have reason other than for been discharged for reasons protection against fire will other than for protection be subject to: against fire. These unauth- i)Payment of an estimated orized acts not only cause a cost of $25 for refilling and financial loss by necessitat- recharging the fire extin ing that the fire extinguish- guisher. ers be refilled and recharged, 2) The termination of his or but they also show a lack of her Housing Contract (dis consideration for resident charging a fire extinguisher students and a disregard will be considered a “major for their safety In the event violation”-see “Hilltopper”). that there would be a fire. 3) Disciplinary action as per As Capitol students, we the Policies and Rules for are requesting your help in Students discouraging students to use the fire extinguishers inappropriately. The following rule has The Capitol Campus Reader The Pennsylvania State University The Capitol Campus Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 ph. 717 • 944-4970 The C.C. Reader is published by the students at Capitol Campus every two weeks during the fall, winter and spring terms. Printing is done at the Middletown Press and Journal. The Reader office is located in W-129, Main Building. The opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily represent the views of the students, faculty or staff of Capitol Campus or The Pennsylvania State University EdHorJflCMal AmocMi Editor Photography Editor.. Baatoaa* Manager.... Ad«orti*ing Manager. Stott Hot Lion Coordinator. Technical Adviaor. Faculty adviaar. Typaaattara Off lea Hour* Fall Term: 4th-6th parted* 12:15 P.M. to 4:20 P.M. Hobart Bannatt OarryAchanbach, Joan Beatty, Rick Hainbach, Sherry Lukoaki, Itabaoca Rabok, Kaitha Kaaalar, Virginia Lahamn, Deborah Young, William Kane, Vam Martin, John - laiarrapt.Mika Bamatt, Frank Dateialo, Clitt Eahbach, John Stonchak, Patti* Stonchak, Mauraan Griffin, Rabbi Platt .... Paul BaHl*, Social Committee Chairman Jama* Farrier Dr. Makryn Habar Deborah Young, Mika Bamatt, Garry Achanbach, Rick Hainbach Terry Tumbaugh Residence Living Coordinator Phyllla Schaeffer Mark Sari tzar ....Mark Feldman Tom Qtogan C.C. Reader Profit vs, Preservati By Theodora R. Graham It is October, 1975, in Lancaster County, a Thurs day afternoon. The first chill of Fall is in the air and the streams and rivers of Central Pennsylvania are receding outside a falling-down “stone-end” barn. For sale are two parcels of land separated by a creek, the old barn, and a magazine-cover cornshed with the date “1885” carved on one board. In 1970 the first auction of this parcel and additional adjacent land was held by the owner-speculator who spared no expense on fanfare: newspaper ads, circulars with aerial views, exhortations and signs with elaborate surveyor’s dia grams. The Pennsylvania Dutch stone farmhouse built in 1812 and ten acres which had been part of his original package deal were not being sold, for somehow Bob Graham and I with no little effort had wrested them from the owner-speculator. We were thinking in 1969 of preserving something beau tiful. The parcel at auction that day was not sold. Oh, the speculators were out, hop ing to become owner-spec ulator number two. But a ritual was being enacted in which the first owner-spec ulator ferreted out the interested parties in order to up the ante in a warm, comfortable lawyer’s office. And so he did. Time passed and the new possessor, by buying the parcel, had enabled the first owner-speculator to make a 100 % profit in one year without having spent a cent of his own except for interest paid to a friendly banker. To him it didn’t matter that the barn doors had begun to fall off, that water rushed from rotten spouting onto rotting wood, that the slate roofs of barn and shed were disapp- earing. Then it was October 1975 and the second owner-spec ulator was trying to get his 10C%profit. But the day was colder, the crowd smaller and unfriendly, looking for a steal. So the barn, shed and 17 acres beyond it did not sell to the highest bidder-- Bob and I —that day either. The auction was terminated no sale today. There might be a call to that warm, comfortable office soon. On the other hand, perhaps I’d drive home and the bull-doz er will be doing its job. The stone house wasn’t entirely dilapidates when we bought it, but as a neighboring farmer put it, “the place needed a friend.” i/Ve didn’t even try to get the barn and acreage beyond, which the first owner-spec ulator, a delightful advertis ing man from Lancaster who dresses up on a farmer’s outfit for local affairs (like the opening of a shoppimg center), had wrested from a widow and our neighboring farmer. He needed to preserve that profit; there fore, his asking price for barn and adjacent land was six times his initil purchase price. While in the mean time, another parcel he owned across the road turns over twice more. .. di&v tut with some of the members of the Lan caster County Conservancy. On that plot stand homes like all the other little and big boxes, built so fast that daylight and water stream in around window frames, plaster board shrinks from baseboards, and in the first wind storm after they were completed, half of some roofs blew off because they hadn’t been stapled on correctly. Skip two weeks ahead to October 12th. An Indian summer Sunday raises our hopes that some things can be delayed, frustated, sub verted. “The Lancaster County Conservancy,” a group of people hoping to preserve some land for open space, farms and parks is sponsor ing a walk today to raise funds in order to buy a tract of land along the Susque hanna River between Colum bia and Marietta. A beautiful summit, the hill is named Chickies Rock and was used a sighting point by the Indians. The walkers, trot ting past the old barn and corn shed, are using our house as a registration point, stopping for apples, cookies and juice. Perhaps they will save Chickies Rock from some well-meaning speculator who just wants to bull-doze the sight to put up homes or townhouses for nice folks to live in. You can be sure they will have daylight streaming in around their window frames, too. Well, big deal, the cynics retort. Your husband walked five miles and raised $lO for a cause. And big deal, that You don’t. 1812 house of yours is an The argument for free investment; just look how enterprise serves many its value had appreciated in purposes. You keep walking six years. Indeed, we’re not and undermining the econ innocents. We can count and omic vultures as often as we know how much it takes you can bear it. to buy a house or rock. It rained the say of the last That we might sell this Conservancy walk in Spring; house and land to the but this October Sunday highest bidder, if living here afternoon is a lot sunnier were to become aestheticalit and a lot warmer than it was intolerable, could be evi- the afternoon of the auction dence to destroy my Editor’s Note: We encour argument. However, that we a g e faculty members to would rather preserve house, subm it material for publics barn, shed and land for tion in this regular READER aesthetic and ethical reas- column. Articles should not ons makes the thought of exceed 750 words (3 typed giving in to the economic pages) and may address any vultures abhorrent topic, however, campus- But the failure if township oriented-subjects are espe- supervisors and all people with even a modicum of principle, not to enforce zoning laws (which may 'after all be unconstitutional), Dut to acknowledge that history and natural beauty have in certain circumstances prior ity over monied interest; the rampant cynicism of specul ators and other unprincipled people who have thrown up for them (like the painting of duchess for duke) housing units, minit markets, even children’s play areas which exhibit no human values, no regard for aesthetic sens ibility or ecological systems these may, yes may, drive Bob and me out. And who is to say how shoddy and impermanent our ideal of preservation is when (through our con scious choice or, more likely, through someone's backdoor manipulation) the old house becomes another gift shop for plastic flower arrangements and maudlin “Penn. Dutch” trinkets made in piece-work factories and tucked into the Pennsylvania hills? How do you convince the best farmer in the area to hang on to that rich corn field and those towering silos for posterity, when the stakes are so high? More likely, how do you convince his children who may like nothing better than to divide the spoils, live in new bi-level homes, and buy as many plastic flower arrange ments and “Penn. Dutch” trinkets as their farm-children hearts have been made to desire?
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