CAPITOL CAMPUS READER
Vol. 7 No. 10
FRIENDSHIP FORCE
By Randy Myers
Staff Writer
President Carter's far-reaching
Friendship Force will extend its
program to Harrisburg this year.
On February 20, 380 American
"ambassadors" selected from the
Harrisburg area will leave Harrisbrug
International Airport on a charter
flight bound for Mexico City. On that
same day, 380 Mexican ambassadors
from Mexico City will land at
Harrisburg International. Upon arrival
at their respective destinations, each
ambassador will meet the host with
whom he or she will stay for the first
four days of the scheduled ten-day
visit.
In addition to the ambassadors,
Harrisburg will also be sending a
basketball team, a jazz band, and an
opera singer to Mexico City. A similar
group will come to Harrisburg with the
group from Mexico.
This mass exchange of people has
its roots in the Friendship Force
program initiated by Jimmy Carter
while he was governor of Georgia. The
first exchange between citizens of
Atlanta and a . group from New
Castle-on-the-Tyne proved successful,
and following his election to the
presidency, Carter expanded the
program to a national level, with office
headquarters still located in Atlanta.
The purpose of the Friendship
Force is to promote international
friendship and understanding on a
person-to-person basis. To that goal,
the program plans to select a city from
each state in the union to participate in
an exchange similar to the one
currently planned for Harrisburg and
EVICTED
By Jeff Stout
and Neil Landes
Staff Writers
Residents of Church and Wrisberg
Halls were forced to evacuate their
dorms on Friday when a leak in the hot
water pipe from the power plant left
them without heat or hot water.
The students were gathered in the
dining hall for a meeting with Dean of
Student Affairs Jerry South, who
informed them they would have to be
out of the buildings by 9:00 p.m.
Friday. The general atmosphere of the
meeting was one of turmoil. Some of
the students complained of a breach on
their housing contracts while others
sneered at the idea of sleeping in the
provided army cots in the Multi-
Purpose Building.
The students left the dorms and
went to stay with friends in Meade
Heights, or off campus. Approximately
30 students stayed in the Multi Purpose
Building. Meals continued to be served
in the student dining hall.
The leak was found and repaired by
Sunday morning and students were
admitted back into the halls. The
students returned tto the dorms but
still expressed discontent with the
possibility that staff negligence caused
the incident.
Capitol Campus Penn State University
Mexico City. The office in Atlanta is
responsible for selecting the specific
cities that will participate in the
Friendship Force each year.
Selection of each city's hosts and
ambassadors, meanwhile, is conducted
at a local level by a Mayors Task Force.
Roberta McLeod, Student Activities
Coordinator, and Reuben "Bud"
Smitley, Athletic Director, both from
Capitol Campus were among the group
selected by the Task Force to act as
interviewers. It was their job to find
and select the necessary number of
hosts and ambassadors from the
Harrisburg area. The selection process
was conducted in such a way as to
include a good cross section of the total
cont. p. 4
By Alan Merkel
On January 16 and 17, members of
the student chapter of the Institute of
Transportation Engineers (ITE) went
to Washington D.C. Those students,
whose majors are Transportation
Technology here at Capitol Campus,
experienced more then they planned.
The purpose of the trip was to attend
the Transportation Research Board
meeting at the Sheraton Park and
Shoreham American Hotels. It took
two hours to host 150 technical sessions
dealing with problems or new ideas in
land, air and river transportation. The
two days were filled with: 1) a tour of
the United States Geological Survey
(USGS); 2) a brief presentation and a
ride on Washington's five billion dollar
mass transit system called the Metro;
3) a stop off at a totally preplanned
city, Columbia, Maryland.
The unexpected happened when the
students were caught in the
Washington rush hour and the adverse
weather conditions on the return trip.
The first stop was the U.S.G.S.
They are responsible for mapping the
eastern U.S. Here we saw what we
learned in school and realized how
much work goes into producing an
accurate replica of the earth's surface
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so that engineers can build highways,
bridges, railroads, dams, etc. Yes, it
even helps the weekend hiker or
outdoor sportsman directly or indi
rectly.
The Metro is another engineering
solution to traffic jams, time consuming
delays, drive-free worry and inexpen
sive transportation. It is the engineers
code of ethics to use his skills for the
betterment of mankind. Surely, mass
transit is one of those goals. The Metro
is clean and efficient, with minimum
waiting and modern fare collecting.
Escalators moved people to the various
levels to catch the right train. The
routes were color-coded and were
displayed at entrances and in the
railroad cars. The stops were
announced via a public address system
in the car. Ironically after leaving the
Metro we got caught in bumper to
bumper traffic. It took one hour to go
five miles where the Metro averages 35
miles per hour.
The students were on their own at
the convention. They listened to
experts talk, picked up topic related
literature, discussed job opportunities
in the many careers of transportation,
and learned about the many related
areas of research being done in the
career fields.
ure on t
e metro
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Jan. 26,1978
Dr. Sabir Dahir, a teacher in the
transportation program at Capitol
Campus, gave a talk on microscopic
examination of rock minerals used in
highways and their resistance to wear.
On the return trip we heard traffic
reports of accidents due to freezing
rain and they told us there was seven
inches of snow in Harrisburg. The last
stop was Columbia, Maryland. The
importance of this stop was to see a
city designed for working and living in
harmony. The main concerns were the
environment and architecture. Their
slogan was "people live in the
community not in their houses." By this
time the rain was turning into slush
and darkness had fallen on the party of
students and their instructor (who was
also our driver). The weather
conditions gradually became worse the
further north we traveled. As
temperatures dropped the slush froze
and formed a slippery surface between
tire and road. Slow speeds and
hazardous conditions made the journey
exciting and quite different than it had
begun.
Our many thanks go to Ted
Galuschik, president of the student
chapter of ITE, and Professor John
Harmon, a teacher in the transporta
tion program at Capitol Campus. If it
wasn't for their planning, personal
contacts, and their efforts, the trip
would not have been as educational,
informative, and pleasurable.
Weekend
Weather
The National Weather Bureau has
no forecast for the weekend but keep
your eyes to the skies. A Soviet nuclear
satellite shower is expected.