Intramurals tip off
fall semester
By Eric Thomas
Assistant Editor
ewtll2@psu.edu
The fall semester means a
full slate of intramural sports
goes into effect. The events
are coed, and Recreations
Coordinator Bud Smitley has
been busy piecing together a
softball schedule, as well as
a racquet ball tournament
and a table tennis league.
One of the interesting notes
this semester is the alumni
softball team that is compet-
“We usually have get good
participation, and it is pre-
dominately students who are
on campus,” Smitley said.
Another sport that will begin
in a few weeks is touch foot
9/11 cont.
from pg. 5
a clash between Central
Dauphin and Gettysburg.
Seeing old teachers,
friends, many who came
home from college for the
same exact reason.
To heal, to think, to be sur
rounded by people they felt
comfortable with, who they
wouldn’t mind crying
around, cracking a joke
with, even be over patriotic
if just for a few seconds.
Some people have always
questioned my love for
sports, why I enjoy it so
much, how come I know so
much about it, and why I
want to write about it.
I always tell them its
because there is always
something more than just a
game there. There is
always a story of triumph
and failure, but its in that
struggle between the two
sides we find something
much more powerful to
scribe about.
Listening to stories from
teachers about what they
did with their students, or
how friends found out about
it on a different campus was
far more entertaining and
meaningful than a 41-7 foot
ball game.
It’s the only time I can
remember a football game
just being background
noise. No one cared, peo
ple still cheered, but there
were bigger issues to deal
with.
People who usually never
talked in the halls of high
school bonded, it was the
perfect remedy for the worst
time in our nation’s history.
Whoever doubts the power
or healing ability of sports
just doesn’t understand
them. It goes back to father
and sons sharing some of
their most cherished
moments over a Baltimore
Colts game. It extended
right up to sharing moments
during our darkest hour.
The only reason I even
remember the score is
because I looked it up.
The bigger issue is that we
had the chance to be
around people we wanted
and needed to be with. We
all healed a little, we all got
a little closer.
We all found some com
mon ground. Whoever says
sports have no value never
sees the big picture, and
just doesn’t understand how
powerful they are.
ball. Smitley expects
between six and eight teams
competing in that event.
There is no fee to partici
pate, and teams are allowed
an unlimited amount of stu
dents on their roster, but
generally team keep around
15.
All equipment is provided by
the University.
Participation is open to all
students, staff, faculty, and
alumni.
Anyone interested in start-
ing an intarmurals sport at
PSH should get information
from Bud Smitley. Smitley
said the campus will wel-
come any new intarmural
sports as long as there is
field space and time for the
events to take place
Are Community colleges
keeping up with trends in
Colleges look to gov
ernment to rethink
funding, governance
of system
By MARTHA RAF
FA6&&'
AP Education Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa. -
Pennsylvania’s community
colleges have long prided
themselves on their ability to
educate anyone at a minimal
cost, within a relatively short
time.
But as the state’s first com
munity college marks its 40th
anniversary this year, the col
leges stand at a crossroads.
They face enormous pres
sures brought on by the fail
ure of state aid increases to
keep pace with enrollment
growth, an unreliable stream
of funding for construction
projects, increasing requests
for new courses in emerging
fields and an overload of
applicants in the high-
demand field of nursing
Photo courtsey of Harrisburg Area Community Colege
College leaders fear their lim
ited resources will eventually
be stretched to the breaking
point, jeopardizing their mis
sion of providing open access
to everyone.
They hope Gov. Ed Rendell
and state lawmakers will work
with them in the coming
months to tackle two major
challenges to their long-term
health: funding and gover
nance.
“I think the governor is taking
FALL INTRAMURAL SPORTS
Softball
Touch Football
Racquet Ball Tournament
Table Tennis Tournament
*For information or a complete
sports, contact Bud Smitley at
Pennsylvania?
notice,” said Stephen Curtis,
president of both the
Community College of
Philadelphia and the
Pennsylvania Commission for
Community Colleges. “Our
issues are much more on the
table now. The difficulty is
that those issues are on the
table at a time when the state
is experiencing a true eco-
nomic crunch ... and that has
made the conversation a
complex one.”
The colleges stress that while
money is important, it’s not
the only problem. The locally
grown and governed schools
have complained for years
that they lack a voice within
state government on both
funding and policy decisions,
and they are supporting legis
lation that would create a
statewide governing board as
a remedy.
State Sen. Robert C
Wonderling, a Montgomery
County Republican whose
district is served by five of the
state’s 14 community col
leges, is among lawmakers
who favor the idea of an inde
pendent governing board.
“In many respects, they are
governed through the state in
what I like to call old-school
thinking,” Wonderling said.
“We’re trying to create a 21st
century model for higher edu
cation.
But the Rendell administra
tion is concentrating on how
to provide community col-
leges with a more reliable
funding system that maxi
mizes the state’s investment,
integrating all colleges and
universities with K-12 educa
tion, and making that system
more responsive to the needs
of business and industry.
While creating an independ
ent board might have served
community colleges’ political
needs under previous admin
istrations, it works against the
governor’s broader “K-16”
education agenda and its
focus on making some form
of higher education the next
step for all high school gradu
ates, said Donna Cooper,
Rendell’s policy director.
“We’re trying to bring things
closer together,” Cooper said.
“We don’t see (the communi
ty colleges) as a stepchild.”
The Department of Education
has hired David R. Pierce, a
former president of the
American Association of
Community Colleges, to
study the funding system and
“We’ll be working very, very
hard to try to position com
munity colleges better to
make the contribution that
they’re capable of making,”
Larkin said.
In some states, such as
Nevada and Indiana, the gov
ernment’s share of funding
comes from the state exclu
sively, without any iocal taxes
being levied, said Dennis
Jones, president of the
National Center for Higher
Education Management
Systems in Denver.
Florida, which operates a
statewide community college
system, has one of the best
approaches because it allo-
Photo courtsey of Reading Area Community College
cates money for both general
operating costs and vocation
al education programs, Jones
said.
Without a statewide system
of its own in place, it might be
difficult for Pennsylvania to
emulate that approach, he
added.
“Pennsylvania is one of those
states in which the whole
state is not covered by a
community-college district,”
he said.
At the same time, the state
Labor and Industry
Department is examining the
colleges’ role in workforce
development. Among other
things, there is strong evi
dence that more worker
retraining programs are criti
cally needed _ the state has
lost 160,300 manufacturing
jobs since January 2001,
which account for about one
third of all jobs lost in the
United States during that
period, said Sandi Vito,
deputy secretary for work
force development.
What remains to be seen is
how to ensure that worker
Coming soon
October 27
November 9
schedule of
the CUB.
training and retraining pro
grams are available through
out Pennsylvania. Between
main campuses, branch cam
puses, and programs offered
at other sites, the community
colleges have a physical
presence in 48 of the state’s
67 counties.
One way to attack that prob
lem is to encourage the com-
munity colleges to form part
nerships with other institu
tions, such as vocational
schools and Penn State
University’s two-year branch
campuses, Vito said.
“We’re trying to promote col-
laboration,” she said