Barnes and Nobles: Help or Hindrance?
by Janice D. Hayes
Students wish for very little, for ex
ample just being able to have a book for class.
That is not too much to ask since the whole
purpose of being a student here at Penn State
is to get an education.
There are over 100 days from the time
students leave for summer until they return for
the next semester, but when students return
what do they find? The answer is a bookstore
that has ordered the wrong books or doesn’t
have their books at all.
Does Barnes and Nobles really care
about the inconvenience that they have caused
students? Are they suggesting ways to save
Penn State Students Need
by Janice D. Hayes
We get tuition increases without even
a notice. We get billed for damages in the
residence halls that were there when we first
set foot in the door. We get hours placed on
what times we can use our meal cards and what
times we can’t. We get professors that wish to
cancel class when their roads at home are bad.
We get parking lots that are only half-way
Shoveled. We get a maintenance staff that
consists of five people, broken tools, and a two
million dollar shed. We get a bookstore that
omments to the Editor
Dear Editor,
This letter is to inform admin
istrators as well as concerned students about
the current situation of money cuts in the
Student affairs departments of the various
commonwealth and the effects that they are
having. I see the damage that the ‘ ‘ Old Main’ ’
administrators are doing to the individual Com
monwealth Campuses.
The commonwealth campuses are in
dividual, we are not on huge conglomerate as
the central administrators think we are. We
have different concerns and are in need of
different things. We cater to different people
in each region of Pennsylvania. We, unlike
University Park, are truly diverse in our ap
proach to education as well as recruitment.
Therefore, it is essential that the central admin
istration treats us a such. Unfortunately, that
is not the case.
The “Old Main Administrators”
choose to treat us as on huge entity that is the
same everywhere at all times. Unfortunately,
they neglect the fact that what is good for
Hazleton is not necessarily good for New
Kensington. Each campus has to recruit the
students to fill the campus classes each year
without overtly stepping on the toes of UP and
students money so the they won’t haveto write
ten different checks? Are they talking to your
professors telling them that since they don’t
havethe books in the bookstore they shouldn’t
assign over fifty pages of reading almost every
night.
• Yes, there have been many weather
delays. Yes, there is always room for error, but
sometimes the bookstore seems to think that
they can take their time and do whatever they
want just because their purchasers are only
students. This editor does not think so!
It is time for the new ownership of the
bookstore to remember one thing. They are
doesn’t even care if we get books or not
Most of all, we get an advising center
were half of the advisors don’t even know how
to spell your major, much less advise you in
one. This campus needs to think about where
their priorities lie, but students must remember
these problems are not just the fault of Penn
State.
In some ways it is the students fault. If
students keeping portraying the attitude of “I
the Central Administration. That alone makes
it extremely difficult to make the required
funds to keep the individual campus afloat.
With that in mind, I must now tell you that we
are Enrollment driven. Which translates into
the fact that if your enrollment decreases, so
does your funding, this leads into the problem
that every student organization and individual
campus administrator must face, Recruitment
and Retention. The university stresses the fact
that we must continually increase our enroll
ments to get greater funding and yet the univer
sity, in its omnipotents, will not provide a way
for the individual campus to retain the student
that it requires you to enroll. The current
funding for the campuses is terribly inadequate
to provide the insensitive for students to stay in
the Penn State system,
The University talks about higher en
rollments, but the fact remains that even when
a Commonwealth Campus does increase its
enrollment, it still suffers cuts in student pro
grams and services, recently renamed back to
Student Affairs.
What is the answer? It is not simple,
but the CES plan for the future and the “Old
Main Administrators” still haven’t gotten a
here for the students and should get their act
together because students will not sit and take
the run around from them anymore.
We have to think about this situation
carefully. When Penn State sold the bookstore
did they sell it to enhance student life or did
they sell it for a quick buck, allowing them to
be relieved of the responsibility of taking care
of their students.
Students who have problems, fight
back. Let the Student Government Associa
tion become aware of the problem. The tuition
that is paid every semester gives you the right
to speak out.
To Wake Up
don’t care” things will never change, things
will always be the same. As long as students let
their social lives be their main priority of their
college career then Penn State will always treat
them the way that they are doing now.
Students need to put down the bottles
of alcohol, chill on the pot smoking, stay home
and study one night and actually find out
what ’ s really going on around them. If students
do that then maybe this editor will gain some
confidence in the student body.
clue as to what to do. A step in the right
direction might be to treat the CES as a diverse
whole and actually listen to student leaders
instead of paying lip service to them. If admin
istration begin to listen to the students, maybe,
, all parties concerned can come to a agreement
on how to tackle this problem before it tackles
the CES.
Sincerely,
Joseph C. Spado 111
President, Hazleton Campus
Campus Chair, CCSG
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