Support Grows Among Students,
Administrative Response Weak
First, we would like to thank everyone for their support for this issue. The resurrection
issue really came together and we have learned a few things about where we would like
to take The Capital Times over the coming months.
With some consistently contributing writers in our ranks, staffing has become our next
priority. Co-editor Deborah Mallek has resigned for medical reasons and the paper is
now guided by myself and the Business Manager, Christine Downs. However, we
expect to begin assigning some leadership roles to our regular contributors, but are still
looking for able hands to assist in photography and paper design. Those of you who have
already volunteered (and you know who you are) will be contacted soon.
That was the good news. The bad news is college administration has still failed to
show any interest in the survival of this paper. In funding, The Capital Times ranks dead
last in comparison to other local colleges like Millersville, Elizabethtown College, and
Harrisburg Area Community College. True, advertising is really our bread and butter,
but after years of neglect, many of our regular advertisers have turned to other campus'
publications for exposure in a more consistently supported newspaper. For good or evil,
a school administration's interest in a campus publication is obvious from cover to
cover. If you get a chance, pick up a Millersville Snapper or E-townian for a quick point
of reference, it is clear that a college's priorities and goals for both its campus and
communications department are well represented on the pages of such publications.
Below you will find reproductions of memos sent to the office of the provost regarding
the future of The Capital Times and the communications program on this campus. We
welcome dialog from our readers regarding this important issue.
Thank you again for your support.
PENN STATE CAPITAL COLLEGE
Harrisburg Campus
luler•Offlre Mem m
3 October 1997
John G. Bruhn, Provost and Dian
Wayne D. Laramie, Campus Executive Officer. Schuylkill Campus
Michael I. Cardamons, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs
FROM: Louise E. Hoffman. Associate Professor of Humanities and
History. told f Iry advisor to the Capital Times
RE 2 •
The D student amespa and oar Communications program
After 12 yews on the Miamisburg faculty. h° years as advisor to journal
ism majors. and 2 1/2 years as advisor to the newspaper. I believe that
the current crisis of the student newspaper reinforces the importance of
the Communications
,prossant to the College. Strengthening that ptogram
would support the existence and quality of a college-wide student
newspaper. which in awn represents the college both on and off campus.
Now more than ever, suck a college-wide student voice is essential. ❑'s
needed to create ft sense of community between the two campuses; to
inform studenu at all loFetions of issues, events, and opportunities of
possible importance or benefit to them; and to printide pre-professional
experience for students in a range of majors, most notably Communicw
tioos. It's always been hard to sustain such an enterprise at a feed«.
mainly commuter campus; but previous editors have partly concealed the
problems by publishing less often or writing short of the articles them- •
selves. These editors bare chosen shock tactics to motivate participants.
The turnover of print journalism faculty over the past 4 years hai purely
contributed to the current situation; our next hire must be someone who
will stay and will have the commitment and skills to strengthen the paper.
All communication funky members have a special role to play in
sustaining the paper. and this year, with only one continuing faculty
member, the program is especially at • disadvantage. no moo of the
Communications student body and their unique contributions to the
student newspaper and to area media outlets, argue for a strengthened
program, for she sake of all students and the College as a whole.
cc: f•tnp Times editors
William 1. Mahar
Letters
Dear Editor
I empathize with your plight at The Capital
Times. As an editor and publisher I, too, have
been faced with the potential necessity to
close a beloved publication. But our college
newspaper is in a special position reserved
only for student publications: The Capital
Times does not appear to be in danger of
closing for lack of financial support. In fact,
your only mention of money in the last
heartfelt issue was simply your concern that
taking on the protection of a particular divi
sion or college agency would compromise
the paper's Constitutionally-guaranteed right
of free expression.
The last time I taught media law, the
general judicial consensus in place was that
student publications which accept space,
materials and other forms of support from
their colleges are not guaranteed quite the
same rights as totally independent presses.
Their colleges could most definitely rescind
all support, including the opportunity to
distribute on college property, for any rea
son at all, including administrative disagree
ment with editorial policy. There is, then, no
guaranteed right for a publication to exist, a
fact independent presses face every day.
In a way, those independent presses earn
their right to sound off by paying their own
way. Does The Capital Times? The office in
Olmsted indicates it does not, at least not
totally. Should the college administration
OPINION/EDITORIAL
PENNSTATE
Deo: October 7,134
From: John Brute,
T 9 Louise Ho
&Mali Communications Program
Thank you for your letter, dated October 5,1997, addressing the Oft of the student newspaper
and the need,for a print joarnaltem faculty peeves
I, like you, expect the ee your School and the College discusses the direction of the
Communications program In the coming weeks end months, coupled with the sesiltaxwe s
profeneionel survey research agency. we will be able to better serve ow seldom and the region in
the years ahead.
You, the cunent steff of the atudent nevapaper, faculty of the Wesel of Mummifies, alumni nod
students will be very instrummind in forging the proper direction for this minim in the future. I
am sure Mat the survey agency will mks inns considentkin all your conceals in making their
recommendations. I know I
M. Cud mono
W. Lammie
B. MaM
Rdiwn. Capital Tann,'"
wish for any reason to stop supporting the
newspaper, could the paper move and set up
again on its own? And if not, what's the big
problem with becoming affiliated with a
division or agency, or several, which may be
able to help guide the publication toward a
future? If the goal of a student publication is
at least in part to provide experience akin to
that which is needed in the real world and
workplace, why not put as a primary priority
the simple continuing existence of the op
portunity? Negotiate the terms as you go;
stand up for your rights to free speech then.
As a student publication already receiving
college support, The Capital Times' inde
pendent voice has already been compro
mised, but to a reasonably acceptable extent
considering the realities of publication op
erations.
Every commercial newspaper staff makes
some decisions based on the publication's
financial survival. If the survival of The
Capital Times is your priority, get all the
help you can, take it graciously and get on
with the good work. And hang on to your
fear of being hobbled by the diverse and
often conflicting concerns of a potentially
supportive college community; a little fear
keeps a good journalist's work clean and
substantive.
Bim Harrison
Adjunct, English
Cqiisi Cotbri
°fits. .1 . Anon ea Dem.
State Government And Aids Policies:
AIDS is not in the headlines as much as it
used to be. But this disease has not yet
finished exacting its toll on Americans.
Recent reports do indicate that progress con
tinues in developing drugs that slow the
course of the disease—but these procedures
are not cures. In fact, recent reports from
Canada indicate that, for many afflicted
with AIDS, the potent new three drug cock
tails including protease inhibitors cease
working after a period of time and the virus
returns. Thus, the medical fix that we thought
might be around the corner may not yet be
here. What other options have we to combat
the spread of AIDS?
To this point, one of the most effective
weapons against the spread of AIDS has
been policy choices made by governments,
especially the state governments that have
been on the front lines in the war against
AIDS. Little is knowri, though, about the
effectiveness of state AIDS policies.
Recently, a colleague of mine from North
ern Illinois University, Dr. James Schubert,
and I carried out a study to determine the
effects of state AIDS policies. The results
are extremely interesting, because they sug
gest strongly that conscious choices made
by the states have had an effect on the trends
in AIDS cases within state boundaries.
First, though, a word on definitions. Two
basic choices exist in public health efforts—
"inclusion" policy and "containment" policy.
Inclusion policy does what it says—includes
a variety of people' and groups in policy
making. AIDS policy is based on
vohintarism: One example would be public
education campaigns designed in part by at
risk groups on how to change behavior in
such a way as to reduce the odds of infection.
Another example is voluntary testing and
counseling programs, where people are coun
seled during the process of testing for the
HIV virus. The privacy of infected individu
als is closely protected under this approach.
Containment is the classical public health
model. For instance, locate carriers of the
virus and isolate them (quarantine them or
criminalize transmission of the virus and
lock them away); develop a list of all those
who are infected and aggressively notify and
test sexual partners. In this manner, the
spread of the disease would be halted.
At any rate, Schubert and I gathered infor
mation on laws passed by the fifty states
Know the Facts.
Competition is heating up for local phone service. •
This can mean more choices, better services and lower prices
Are all phone companies the same?
Get the facts by calling the
Telecommunications Consumer Information Center:
1-800-646-9999
01997 Telecommunications Consumer Information Center
, J .
ic4o
4 itad runes Jeffrey C. Warren
Editor
The Capital Times is published by the students of Penn State Capital College. Opinions expressed are
solely those of the author and are not representative of the college administration, faculty or student body.
Concerns regarding the content of any issue should be directed to the co-editors.
The Capital Times welcomes signed letters from readers. No unsigned submission will be reprinted,
however a writer's name may be withheld upon request and by approval of the co-editors.
You may reach The Capital Times at Penn State Harrisburg Campus, Olmsted Building, W-341,
777 W. Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057, phone at (717) 948-6440, or via e-mail at
captimes@hotrnail.com.
All materials articles, photographs and artwork are property of The Capital Times. No parts of this
paper may be reproduced without expressed written permission.
The Capital Times does not endorse its advertisers.
THE CAPITAL TIMES Monday, October 27, 1997-
What Works
with respect to AIDS. We calculated what
the incidence of AIDS would have been
expected to be in the middle 1990 s if the
trends from the 1980 s continued in each
state. And we found the following:
"Inclusive" tactics in legislation work—
old-fashioned "containment" policies do not.
Again, recall, inclusion stresses voluntarism
in trying to get HIV+ people or People with
AIDS (PWAs) (and other at-risk groups as
well) involved in slowing the spread of
transmission. States emphasizing inclusion
policies had a lower level of AIDS cases in
the 1990 s than would have been expected.
Spending by states on treatment of PWAs
reduces incidence. That is, states spending
more money on treatment have a slower
growth in the number of AIDS cases than
those states spending less.
States that reacted the quickest early on,
that passed AIDS laws fairly soon after the
epidemic began, have lower incidence rates
in the 1990 s than one would expect. Thus,
early action appears to have had a positive
effect on the course of the epidemic.
One key lesson: the punitive containment
approach advocated by some "hard-nosed"
political actors is not effective, at least ac
cording to our results. Jesse Helms says that
we ought to cut spending and punish people
engaging in disgusting behavior. Many
people would say that it is common sense to
use mandatory testing and aggressive mea
sures to isolate those with the virus to pre
vent the spread of AIDS.
But more voluntaristic methods appear to
_work better; if you want to contain AIDS,
you won't be as successful using punitive
policies. Ours is one of the first rigorous
studies to indicate that state government
decisions have had an effect on slowing the
,spread of AIDS. Those states that have
carried out inclusion policies (rather than
containment policies) and responded more
rapidly to the virus have AIDS incidence
levels below what one would have expected.
Of course, states that made other choices—
including doing nothing—ended up with
higher incidence levels of AIDS.
Steven A. Peterson
Director, School of Public Affairs
Professor of Politics and Public Affairs
Christine M. Downs
Business Manager