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Evacuation - without -penalization
On Thurs ; , October 18, there
was a meeting of the Provost's
Advisory Committee on Student
Welfare in the Gallery Lounge.
Discussion was focused on
whether or not there should be a
recognized, formal plan that
would allow members of the
campus community to leave the
area without being penalized ac
ademically or financially in the
event of further radiation emis
sions from TMI.
The idea of a formal plan was
originated and proposed to the
administration by students. For
40 minutes, student members of
the committee debated with the
administration on the need for a
formal plan. Provost/Dean Dr.
Gross said he saw no need for
such a plan. When questioned as
to why he felt a plan was
unnecessary, Gross said "Trust
me." Gross explained to the
students on the committee that
the campus community should
have faith in the decisions the
administration would make re
garding the campus community's
welfare in connection with TMI
and any other issues of campus
wide concern.
Student members of the com
mittee did not agree that trust
ing the administration was the
solution to the problem of penal
ization if the campus community
is faced with the decision of
leaving or staying.
When the Provost finally a
greed to the drafting of a plan, he
made it clear that the plan would
only be tentative and not bind
ing. And, still trying to man
euver his way out of any respon
sibility for the plan, he asked
that members of the Student
Just in case you
haven't heard
Hopefully, students have
noticed posters hanging all
over the place informing re
turning students that prere
gistration for the Winter
tern 1980 is until Nov. 14. The
Master Schedule for the
Winter Term outlines prere
gistration procedures on pg.
14 for grads, and pg. 16 for
under grads.
The one thing the Master
Schedule does not state is
what happens after the Re
cords Office receives the pre
registration material. Well,
what happens is: the green
cards listing the desired
courses are placed in boxes by
term and in the order in which
they are received. When pre
registration is over the
courses will be given out by
term (starting with term 12)
and in the order of earliest
received within the specific
terms, to the last green card
received.
With this system, prefer
ence is still given to those
with the highest term stand
ing and on a first come first
serve basis.
Government Association draft
the plan. The student members
of the committee responded neg
atively to the Provost's sugges
tion, and demanded in turn, that
the administration draft the plan.
With many smiles and several
long glances at Dr. Jerry South,
director of Student Affairs, (one
would assume that Gross was
indicating that South would
draft the plan), the Provost a
greed that the administration
would draft the plan and that it
would be submitted to the SGA
for approval. It was also decided
that Kathy Strakosch, a resident
student, be included on the draft
ing committee as a student ad
visor. The plan should be sub
mitted to the SGA in the immed
iate future.
It is no surprise, that Dr.
Gross does not believe it is
necessary to have a plan stipu
lating what will and will not be
guaranteed to the members of
the campus community, if they
fmd it necessary to leave during
possible future radiation emis
sions. After all, the TMI accident
has become an academic game
for Capitol Campus's Adminis
tration. It seems to be a matter
of who shall we pro mote this
month and who shall we turn
away.
Of course the administration
offers excellent reasons for their
decisions on who may or may not
speak on campus: we're only a
small campus (with very big
ideas of creating a university
presence in the Harrisburg
Area), and we have such little
physical space.
The administration also of
The one thing which has back to the initiators) are
been eliminated by this pre- those damnable long and
registration method (several tedious winding lines of frus
handshakes and pats on the trated students.
Inaccurate
word choices
The C.C. Reader would like to apologize to the Black
Students on campus for using the word ."fear" in last issue's
editorial. The Reader wrongly assumed that "fear" charac
terized the feelings of Black Students. Unfortunetly, the
Reader did not ask Black Students what it was they felt.
In the time since the last issue, the Reader has talked
with Ms. Earlette Slaughter, who was president of BSU at
the time of the proposed White Student Union. Ms.
Slaughter pointed out that the word "fear" has the negative
conotations of uneducated, black people huddled, shaking in
a corner refusing to defend themselves. This stereotypical
image is obviously not the case for Black Students on
campus. Ms. Slaughter said that a better and more accurate
word would be "anger."
Ms. Slaughter also pointed out that the paragraph about
the relationships between White Students and Black
Students was unclear in its meaning. She said that it is not
accurate to say that relationships between White and Black
Students are disatisfying, but that they are strained.
Again we apologize for our errors caused by our
insensitivities to Black Culture. We hope our word choice
has not greatly offended anyone.
C.C. READER OPINION
fered relevant and appropriate
reasons for rejecting the idea of
an evacuation-without
penalization plan in the event of
radioactive emissions. The rea
soning went like this: the cam
pus has no plans for floods,
earthquakes, tornadoes and the
like, so why should there be one
for a nuclear power plant disas
ter.
Of course this response does
not speak directly to the issue at
hand--plans of evacuation-with
out-penalization during radioac
tive emissions. Nevertheless, it
does raise a distrubing question:
ft,
/ ru st' of t•
penalization is necessary and
11114111‘. must become a binding agree
ment between the administration
// and all members of the campus
community. Any compromise is
unacceptable.
of the Pennsylvania State University at Capitol Campus
Office W-129 phone 944-4970
Co-editors Lyda Baker and Harry Moyer Buisness manager
Jeff Kale Advertising manager David Horn Copy editor
Alice Coon Sports editor Tony Gladfelter Cartoonists Joe
Horvath, Darryl Bielski and Jay Redman Type setters Rose
Dalton and Katie Photographers Mike Kondor, Darryl
Bielski and Bob Foster
Contributing staff Jeff Drinnan, Joan Klien, Adrienne L.
Zedaker, Bruce Burns, Robin Conner, Don Kramer, Mike
Daskalokis and The Hand
Advisors Dr. Elizabeth Winston and Dr. Donald Alexander
The opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily
those of the C.C. Reader staff.
This drawing is Trevor
Kondor's artistic impre:
of the actor portraying El
Allen Poe in the play '
Tale Poe," which was
formed last Saturday zu
Trevor is a six-year old
grader who lives in the
Area. He is the son of
Reader photographer ai
writer Mike Kondor.
, i --- r e 0 r
How can nuclear disasters be
compared to natural disasters? A
flood or tornado is visible, thus
individuals are more able to act
to protect themselves. Radiation
from a nuclear accident is invi
sible and its dispersion is unpre
dictable. Thus people must rely
on the authorities to warn them
of imminent danger and to deve
lop plans for protecting them
while mininizing the physical,
psychological and financial costs
as much as possible.
The Provost's analogy is flawed
in yet another way. The chances
of a flood or tornado occurring in
the next few months are low. But
the chances of the public being
exposed to another dangerous
release of radiation from TMI
within the same period are quite
high.
We hope that i the administra
tion will recognize the special
status of nuclear disasters and
give the TMI situation special
and prompt attention. The
Reader agrees with the idea Dr.
Gross has expressed so often--
that individuals should have an
opinion on nuclear energy. Per
haps, Dr. Gross could agree with
the position of the C.C. Reader
that the individuals in the cam
pus community should be given
the opportunity to act in accor
dance with their opinions, with
out penalization from a univer
sity which says it has no opinion
on nuclear energy.
Evacuation-without-
The C.C. Reader
Staff for this issue
c.c. reader