2 - The Highacres Collegian, Mar. 31, 1976
\ *
At long last, afire plan
has been established for the
Classroom Building. Congrat-
ulations, SGA - and shame on
Congratulations for in
vestigating the.fire hazards
report to determine what indeed
was Hazardous, and bugging the
administration until something
was done about the existing ha
zards (to refresh your memory:
the fire hazards report, writ
ten by a Speech 200 committee,
showed cases of possible fire
hazards on this campus).
Thumbs . down for carrying the
job one step too far by design
ing a fire plan for the Class
room Building, therefore doing
a job that the administration
should have taken care of years
ago.
SGA has fallen to
the old "Do it yourself" ploy,
which operates in the following
, >-■* “ geM
\(j\^
Do it yourself
OftUtfoH
V
l-gl
manner: A job is not being done
so someone complains to the re
sponsible party. Those respon
sible don't have the time to do
their job (or would rather not
do it) so they suggest in var
ious ways that the complaintant
do it himself. The complain
tant feels that if he doesn't
do the job, no one will, so he
ends up with the workload.
Yet when a child has been
scolded by his parents for not
doing the job of taking out the
garbage, does his mother turn
around and take out the garbage
for him? Hot if she wants him
to learn his lesson. In the
same respect, then, should SGA
do a job that is someone else's
responsibility?
Hopefully not. When the
administration is concerned,
SGA should be the student's
watchdog - not the administra
tion's workhorse.
The write thing
to do
More for your money, honey?
Bah, humbug!
The news from University
Park is that it's time once a
gain to play the tuition in
crease game. It seems that .
Governor Shapp's allocation to
Penn State falls $lO. million
short of the University's bud
get request. To make up for
this loss, tuition is schedulec
to increase |lBO next fall.
Funny thing about increases-'
we tend to accept them as a
fact of life. The reasoning
behind this is that because in-
flation has caused a decrease
in the worth of the American
dollar, an increase to meet the
cost of inflation is inevitable
But tuition at Penn State
has been increasing far beyond
the rate of inflation. In 1966'
67 tuition was $450 per year;
it is currently $1095. Using
the 1967 dollar as a base year,
today's dollar is worth 62
cents. If tuition increases
had been solely inflationary
since 19&7» tuition would now
be $750 per year.
Then why the increase? Mis
use of funds is a common accus
ation which has some merit.
The University's controyersial
"general expense" budget jumped
from $4.2 million in 1967-68
to $22 million in 1972-75*
Since then, the University has
refpserf to open its books for
a audit of this vague
budget.
It's been suggested that
students write a letter to thei:
state Representatives to pro
test the proposed tuition in
crease. This should be carried
one step further by also writ
ing to Penn State's Board of
Trustees. Trustee Stephen
Shiller has said, "Somehow or
other, we coiild find a way, if
we were told to go without a
tuition increase." Letters
from thousands of Penn State
students migfrt force the Board
to find that other way.