-PAAIE FOUR
. "For A Better Penn State" • ,
. -Established 1940. • Successor to the Penn State Collegian,. established 1904, and
the Free Lance, established 1887.
Published every Friday during the .regular College year -by the staff - of the
Daily Collegian of The Pnnsylvania State College. Entered as second class. matter
Jilly 5,1934 'at the' Post Office at State College;• Pa. under tre act of March 8, 1879.„
Suscriptions by. mail only at •$l.OO a semester. . •
... . .
Editor-in-Chief • • • Business Manager •
• Jane H. Murphy , t Philip -P. Mitchell,.
• 10 111 0 ' .
• Managing Editor • ' Advertising Manager:
Larry T. Chervenak.. Richard- E. , Marsh- - •
Ex' litorial and Business Office
Carnegie Hall
Phone 711
"Managing Editor, _
Assistant Managing Editor __
News Ed:tor
Assistant Advertising Manager
These Are Revision Days
Campaigning strains tighten this week for the last time
of the semester as primaries for frosh elections close and they
throw their last bait before the finals.
• The frosh have proved one big thing with their action
in the primaries held yesterday. The fellows who wear the
and the coeds who tie their hair in green are still, even during
wartime program, the ones who have the enthusiasm. That
should be gratifying to those who felt that it might have
waned or who.'imagined a great laxity in the spirit of the Col
lege newcomers.
Mit theif balloting, as well as the votes that were cast
at the beginning of the semester for upperclass offices, point
out a bigger thing. The elections code, as it stands for the du
ration, needs a bit of a revision.
- Problems have shown themselves, difficulties have aris
en which could not be foreseen. Since- they have been found,
now is the time for action to change parts of the set-up which
will make for more, efficient elections and which will elimi
es should be defined further: It should be made clear just' who
has the capacity to electioneer, and in what boundaries such
-person can be active.
Provisions are needed concerning the reasons for penal
ties, and further power should be given the elections commit
tee to act on tAose mistakes made by candidates.
Too few errors were listed and in many cases, the corn
mittee had to overlook things that they felt should have been
punishable. If they are to inflict punishment, they must first
have the wrong-doings classified.
The code says nothing about candidates having, repre
sentatives present at candidate meetings with the committee
if the runners themselves are not available. It doesn't indicate
whether or not nominees may be present at the vote counting.
It leaves too much open for committee decision in these
cases and limits their activities on other questions which
would ordinarily be at their disposal.
The code does not set a limit on the number of candidates
which can participate in the elections of one class, thereby
making it possible for ridiculous numbers to run. In so doing,
the code allows the one polling a plurality to win unless spe
cial arrangements are made for primaries as they were in this
past week.
It would seem wise for Cabinet or the Elections Commit
tee to call in those persons who participated - in the last two
Aections and through a round table discussion find flaws in
the code from the two points of view represented. Ln that
way, new ideas can be chanced upon and old gripes can be
hashed over. A meeting of the two groups most involved
should result in a code proving satisfactory to everyone con
cerned.
Short-Cut To Success
• We'd like to offer a tip to any Penn Stater who might
want to spend less time at his studies and still get even high-
er grades
A unique combination? . . . Yes. But unique is a pretty
exact description of the pioneer course being offered by the
department of education and psychology for the first time
this semester.
Officially earmarked "Ethication 100 L-Reading Clinic,"
the experimental course sets out to diagnose and correct read
ing, study, and spelling faults. Basically, it teaches college
students to read.
The reading clinic course is a notable milestone in the
career of Dr .Emmett Betts, reading clinic head, who has
spent years in 'proving his theory that learning to read pro
perly is at least as important to success as learning to speak
and to write well, and that the incorrect reading habits owned
by most college students are serious impediments to their
scholastic efficiency.
•To prove that theory, Dr. Betts has studied hundreds•of
THE COLLEGIAN
Staff Thin Issue
Friday, August 13, 1943
Downtown Office
199-121 South Frazier St
Phone 4372
Rita. M. Belfonti
Serene Rosenberg
Alice R. Fox
Rosalind Becker
THE COLLEGIAN
test cases. With the 'help 'of graduate assistants,
he has devised scores of special• tests—and .spe
cial testing: maehinek when trcessary:—to . break
down the "simple" , process of :reading into its
component parts, in order to find ekactiy. what
phases of seeing _or reading: • wee slowing•. down.or
muddling up the' works: He worked out specializ
'ed practic&plans aimed at • the 'correction of each
specific . haw, and he tested and re-tested On ac= •
tual "test cases" until• he found the • most effec
tive procedures.
The most successful of the testing devices have
been embodied in the pioneer course now under
way, and the outstanding corrective machines and
methods have been adapted to meet the personal
ized needs of each of the 22 course enrollees.
"Early returns" from every one of the course's
members we've talked to sound like excerpts from
the case histories recorded earlier by Dr. Betts—
already paragraph comprehension is increastig,
words are assuming more meaning, key ideas are
sticking' longer, and speeded-up reading ability is
cutting down on study time.
Dr. Betts has made a contribution we predict
will be of widespread and major importance; the
students lucky enough to be taking advantage of
it now agree wholeheartedly.
Other Penn Staters who might feel the need of
a scholastic' boost might do well next semester to
take advantage of an important home-front dis
covery. Try learing to read. L.T.C.
It's Your Tomorrow
The College is fast realizing that it nears the
end of its second wartime Summer semester as
Summer school students have left the campus,
post session people start to pack up their things,
and the class of what was once '44 begins to plan
for its future this Fall.
The administration has done a remarkable job
in changing this institution into a camp for ser
vicemen and in still maintaining a high stan
dard for its regular civilian curricula. The stud
ent body, in the large part, has played its role well;
it has registered in large numbers for . summer
semesters when the time would ordinarily have
gone for money making, vacation, and experience.
Days of reckoning come about this ;time each
year when the involved persons stop and eval
uate•• the results of their job. Students, are you
satisfied ,with the. wartime arrangement? Doi you
feel that you have definitely missed some es
sential thing? Are you eager to see the whole
set-up continued in the post-war world or do you
feel it should be destroyed as soon as possible?
It should be thought about. Even if you are not
sure• what your idea of the program is or how
much it has benefited you, it is necessary for you
to consider the situation.
Do all this, State students .of today, realizing
that you will build colleges as foundations for
tomorrow. Plan to spend as much time prepar
ing and perfecting a peace as you have in mus
tering and fighting a war.
"Think now and forever hold your peace."
A Penn State Tradition
The Corner
unusual
FRIDAY,. AUGUST 13, 1943
LiettetTo' , :'.:;E:ditoi . -'' ,
..Prtol 4 .'Comiiient:Oli,..Edit
•M'Etgaging 'Editor,. Collegian:
Youi• .editorial "For Profs 'Only"' is incomplete
without ;raising the ,equally - important 'question:
"How can you. make the proverbial horse, drink
after you led it to the fountain of knowledge?"
Do you know the answer?
Hans Neuberger
Geophysical Laboratory
(The answer to that question, we feel, is large-
ly in meeting the standards. Dr. Lerner outlined,
for it is our opinion - that "drinking from the
fountain of knowledge" is largely a process which
would come automatically in classes whose. teach-
ers "measured up." Student attitude in any coll-
ege, we feel, is largely a reflection of the work of
the professors of that college; we cannot see how
outstanding teachers can produce anything less
than increased interest and learning. We feel cer
tain of that stand because we've met a' few such
professors in Penn State, professors who met and
overcame conditions of student indifference 'at its
worst—who were -able• to take •an apathetic -class
in a required course and win 'from , that class a
high. degree of -interest and original .thought.
We ladmit that there will always be a few "stu
dents" _ whose - background• or- interests . would
keep them from responding to the -very•beit ir
struction.:With*those,- however,- the"question of
"forcing them to drink" would'be — tiiiimportant,
for the teachers' great task is in "providing the
means for • acquiring -knowledge;,,belief,,arad ac-
tion. That's what most 'students .pay4or,:und what
they expect to-get; •
Whether he is providing the •student !with: that
chance is what we wanted each' professor to' test
for himself. . . . L. T. C.)
DU, she Ilamen
No Time For Isolation
. Tradition has long dictated thae this col
umn be devoted exclusively to the ,immediate
problems, prides, and peeves of we the women on
this campus. But that tradition was begun in the
days when groups could isolate their thoughts
and their actions without harming either them
selves or the community.
At a time like this, it is more than a little out
of place for any group 'to feel that their 'own
small problems merit so much attention. We live
in too small a world as it is, from reality as we
are in State College.
There is no excuse for us to accentuate this iso
lation by devoting column after column to fresh
man customs, the lack - of dates, and coeds' lack
of interest in college elections.
This, then, is a double-barreled plea. It is a
request that coeds wake up to the fact that news
papers and the radio are still accessible in State
College, and that the things that they tell of are
well-worth more than a fleeting glance. •
And it is a request that coeds wake up to the
fact that there are more things happening on,
campus than are dreamed of in their philoso
phies of dates and frosh-Judicial allercations.
It is a request that Coeds take advantage of the
all tco infrequent visits of men who can fell of
what's happening in that other world to which
we pay so little regard.
Every week at Chapel a visitor discusses a
message that we could well afford to hear—but
of course that would involve getting up early on
Sunday mornings. •
Several weeks ago Max Lerner spoke here—
and the majority of the 1800 coeds were conspi
cuous by their absence.
Last night, at an open meeting of .the reading
seminar, Dr. S. T. Hayakawa, professor of English
at the Illinois Institute of Technology, discussed
the importance of language as a science—but
probably so few coeds knew of Dr. Hayakawa's
visit, despite wide publicity, that it's hardly fair
to pass judgment on their lack of attendance. .
Sunday afternoon, Dr. Maurice SamuelS; noted
author and travelar, will discuss "The Jew and the
World of Tomorrow." It is a topic of no little
significance to all of us despite, or maybe be
cause of, our isolation. A fair showing of coeds at
that discussion would make us happy to eat every
_word of this jeremiad.. • •