PAGE FOUR
Published Tuesday through
Saturday mornings during
the University year, the
Dally Collegian is a student
operated newspaper.
Entered as ieeond-elasa aiatter July ft, 1984 at tha State College, Pa. Poet Office under the act of March ft, 187 ft.
MIKE FEINSILBER, Editor
M.nagin, Editor. Mike Miller: Clt, Editor. Do. Shoo- Ad^Hur.fj^
maker; Copy Editor, Dotty Stpne: Sports Editor, Roy WU- Fried: Co-Circulation Mgrs., Milt Llnlal, Christine Kauffman:
Hams; Editorial Director, Jackie Hudgins: Society Editor, Promotion Mgr., Dellte Hoopes; Co-Personnel Mgrs., AletU
ln« Althoosei A.si.tant Sport. Editor. Roser B.idl.r: Photo,- M«ba«k. Mgr.
raphr Editor Eon Walker. and Reeorda Mgr., Virginia Latshaw.
STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, Judy Harkison; Copy Editors: Mike Moyle, Fran Fanucci; As
sistants: Ned Frear, Cynthia Bell, Becky Zahm, Pat Tomlinson, Harry Kitzinger, Jane Hartzell.
The Hangman’s Noose: It’s Out of Date
How do you punish the student who cheats?
Is all cheating equally wrong? Should Eli
cheaters be dealt with equally?
Or is there a degree oi wrongness? Should
cheaters be penalized according to the serious*
ness of the offense?
The questions concerned the many commit
tees and groups whose efforts restulted in the
University’s new academic honesty policy.
The solution classifies cheating into three
types and establishes three graded penalties for
each type of cheating. Spur of the moment un
premeditated cheating draws a penalty of send
ing probationary memorandum to the office of
the dean of the student’s college, the dean of
men or women, the student’s advisor, and noti
fying the student’s parents.
Planned, premeditated cheating, such as using
crib notes, results in disciplinary probation for
a year and notification of parents. Disciplinary
probation goes on the student’s records and
bars him from holding office in activities and
from representing the University in any offi
cial capacity, such as on a team.
The most severe type of cheating, cooperative
premeditated cheating involving collusion, such
as stealing or buying a final, draws the most
severe penalty: suspension for the rest of the
semester or for the next semester.
Outside of removing a student from the cam
pus, there are few measures the University is
able to take to discipline students who break
its rules. It cannot fine them or jail them as
civil authorities can—and it is obvious that it
should not even if it could.
The University’s disciplinary actions are both
warnings to violators and humiliating experi
ences for them. By informing parents and Uni
versity officials of probationary actions, and by
putting these on the student’s permanent rec
ords, the University is making the student feel
discomfort. How great this discomfort is de
pends, of course, on the individual.
Far more important than merely punishing
Scholastic Difficulty?
Every year the registrar releases figures on
the number of students who have flunked out,
and every year students complain about the
unsympathetic administration.
But we feel this accusation is unfounded.
Since 1949, when the Division of Intermediate
Registration was set up, the administration has
been campaigning actively to help solve the
students' academic problems.
In the nearly six years DIR has been in
existence, hundreds of students who might
otherwise have left school have been graduated
because of their work in DIR.
When a sttrdent applies for help at the DIR
office in Old Main, he is given counseling by a
trained personnel worker. If he is not sure just
what he wants to • study he is given tests to
determine his interests and abilities.
The student is placed in DIR as his official
curriculum until he decides what he wants to
major in or until his average is sufficiently
high for him to be accepted in another cur
riculum.
Seventeen per cent of the students who were
enrolled for the fall semester were accorded
some sort of disciplinary action. Most of them
were placed on scholastic probation, a few were
entered into DIR, and some were dropped from
the University enrollment.
If these seventeen per cent had gotten help
early in the semester, fewer of them would
have been given scholastic probation and the
number leaving school would have been cut
considerably.
One big problem confronting workers in
DIR is that students put off seeking counseling
until they have ‘wasted’ a semester, so to speak.
It is a mistake to think of DIR as the last
chance to avoid being tossed out of school.
If students would seek guidance when they
first recognize their scholastic difficulties, more
effective programs of rehabilitation could be
carried out. ,
The administration is willing to help, but the
students must first be able to recognize their
need for help
Gazette •..
Today
NEWMAN CLUIL Daily Hot*ary, 4:30 p.m., Church; party,
8 p.m., stmU-nt center
UNIVERSITY
SU*vi-n Hwman, Francis Markltmd, llonry Krause, Henry
Wm*!ma:i. Comhl Ferro, llenjnmin Woiu. Fhilip Smith. Kdna
l> ut <j , ; ~; - e-r 'r' }*at.v*i s i Kratz, Marilyn Ward,
Marsha '• y ' in. Kh da Hcwor, Suuanne Spencer, Joyce
Vox, hutii iiahlemuiif Joau Aelcerman, Carol Jamiaoo.
Qttp lailg Collegian
Saeeeeeor ta THE ERE! LANCE, eat. 188 T
—Jackie Hudgins
HOSPITAL
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
JACK ALBRECHT. Business Manager
students is the University's attempt to rehabili
tate them—to show them their errors and to
aid them to correct their mistakes.
It is unfortunate that to get individual coun
seling and attention a student at Penn State
must first do wrong. Academic advisers are
generally seen for a few minutes once a semes
ter. The University lacks a sound counseling
program.
Steps to alleviate this situation are being
taken. A counseling program, aimed particu
larly at freshmen, is under study.
The Student who is accused of cheating will
be given a hearing under a system that promis
es to be fair to the student. 1 First offenses of
unpremeditated cheating and premeditated
cheating—but not premeditated cheating involv
ing collusion —will be heard by boards in each
college composed of three faculty members
and two students.
We assume that in all cases the burden, of
proof will be the responsibility of the accuser—
in this case, the professor—and not the ac
cused, the student. The student must be held
innocent until proven guilty, as in any fair
judicial system.
Second offenses and first offenses of the most
severe type of cases will go directly to the Sen
ate Committee on Student Affairs subcommit
tee on discipline. This body will also function
as an appeal board for students found guilty
by the Committees on Academic Honesty in the
colleges. . , ,
Considered against the haphazardness of the
former system, the University's new program is
fairer to students because it is consistent, be
cause it recognises that students subject to
stresses greater than they can bear sometimes
' cheat against their better judgment or original
intentions,' and because'it attempts^not merely
to punish the cheater but to help him.
Given the Support of the faculty and the stu
dents, the new system will work in their best
interests.
Safety
What Is
TO THE EDITOR: As of late, several have
either been suspended from the University or
placed on office probation for “conduct detri
mental to the good name of the University.”
This blanket indictment for all unapproved
acts of conduct whether within or without the
confines of the University’s immediate juris
diction, could have some very serious overtones.
. . . Before we fry to determine whether those
persons who have been punished for seemingly
acting in a manner "detrimental to the good
name of the University" were guilty of such a
nebulous charge, let us ask ourselves just what
does constitute the statement "good name of
the University."
Universities are judged by their academic
standards and the maturity of their students
as a whole, not by a random misdemeanor on
the part of individual students . . . When every
minor incident is treated as if it were a crime
directed at society, how are students to learn to
act for themselves?
Moreover, who could believe lhal these strong
penalties are going to "make those young snips
behave?" Getting drunk now and then, or caus
ing some property damage are common to all
universities, but other schools have been able
to keep these incidents to a minimum without
using such severe punishments and condoning
their disciplinary actions with such abstract
phrases.
Lastly, suppose someone should ever attempt
to analyze “conduct detrimental to the good
name of the University” and carry it to its
logical conclusion. Wielding such a catch-all
phrase for a weapon, a less sympathetic ad
ministration could strangle any student criti
cism in your paper and lampooning in Froth
and possibly muzzle some members of the fac
ulty. It is very doubtful that this would come
to pass in the near future, but disciplinary
action condoned by purely arbitrary judgments
imply much more serious consequences.
If we are to further the good name of the
University, let us quit throwing it around when
ever we cannot tnink of any other reason for
punishing a student who has already paid his
penalty to the civil authorities.
If the persons who are so concerned with the
good name of the University would stop and
think about it, they would find some better
excuse that would apply to each individual case
instead of using a blanket to cover their own
failures.
• Letter Cut
Editorials represent the
viewpoint* of the writers,
not necessarily the policy
of the psper, the student
body, or the University.
—The Editor
Valve —
Detrimental?
—Byro« FUding
Little Man on Campus
"Oh, it's your desk—th' former teacher didn't
lake time to empty his desk."
look Who's Talking .. i
About Singing
It won’t be long ;
about a month ’till graduation—:
and so much to do . . . deposits to '
jet back . . . keys to turn ,in . , ,
jills to pay . . . finals to take . . .
and words to learn, ' I
Seniors are notoriously “famous
for fumbling through the three j
verses of the “Alma Mater” on 1
graduation day.
“For the glory of old State’
usually comes out fine, “For “her
da-da strong and great” is less
audible. And then “For the da-da
da we wait” could' be almost any
thing. "...
“Raise the song, Raise the song’,
rings out loud and clear—because
everyone knows it’s ‘the end.,of
the verse.
* But “Dear old State, Dear 'old
State” is also a verse ending. .Ask
anybody. Some of them even
think it’s the ending of all three
verses. After they mumble two or
three lines they feel pretty safe
to bellow “Dear old State, Dear
old State.”
The second verse, admittedly a
bit sentimental, will' probably
evoke tears.
“When we stood at boyhood’s
gate (like Farmef’S/ High School
days—without women) “Shape
less in the hands of fate” en
courages smirks. “Thou didst
mould us, Dear old State” (the
old English accent). ..
“Into men, Into men,.(again in-
Center Elects
5 Professors
Five faculty members have
been elected to three-year terms
on the governing board of the So
cial Science Research Center.
They are Dr. William _T. Butz,
assistant professor of agricultural
economics; Dr. Ernest H. Freund,
associate professor and acting
head of the department of philos
ophy; Dr. James W. Markham, as
sociate professor of journalism;
Dr. Harold E. Nelson, associate
professor of speech; and Dr. John
H. Reedy Jr., assistant professor
of economics.
Retiring from the board are Dr.
George E. Brandow, professor of
agricultural economics; Dr. M.
Nelson McGeary, professor of pol
itical sciencfe; Dr. E. William Mil
ler, professor and head of the de
partment of geography; Dr. Maur
ice A. Mook, professor of anthro
pology; and Dr. Roger B. Saylor,
associate professor of business
statistics.
Correction »
The Freshman Class Mixer will
be held from 2 to 5 p.m. tomor
row in the Hetzel Union Building
instead of today as was incor
rectly reported ia yesterdays
Daily Collegian.
FRIDAY. MAY 13, 1955
Bv Bibl'
7 By JACKIE HUDGINS *
| justice to tiie home ec majors and
other woiheti).;
Everyone, knows the third verse
is to be sung softly. Sometimes
they, forget—but so there-will be
that desired contrast the last
verse is started with a blasting
i“May no act of ours bring shame.'
'Arid after a pause for breath To
ione da-da loves thy name.
Da-da-da-da-da-da (the least
■known' of all the lines). And then
With another bellow of confi
dence, “Dear old State, Dear old
■State. .
Wliy don’t we know the words
tp „ the., “Abna Mater”? Is it be
cause, we’ve never learned them
or because we have forgotten
them? /
It coudn’t be either —
We should all have been in
doctrinated by hat men and wom
en at . one time or another. We
should all have risen to sing the
“Alma Mater” at football games
! during one season or another.
There is just no excuse.
| If you can’t fight ’em, join ’em.
If you can’t learn ,the words,
jchange them,
I ... a suggestion—
-1 “For the words that we dont
i know. ,
I For the profs who’ve got to go
For the school of liberal woe.
Here’s the song. Here’s the
song.”
Only a suggestioh.
Van Duyne Elected
Head of Ag Club
Daniel Van Duyne, junior m
agricultural engineering,, from
Towaco, N.J., has been* elected
president of the Ag Eng club.
Other officers elected are Don
ald Daum, vice president; George
Ridge, secretary-treasurer; Wil
liam 1 Fecke, scribe; Kenneth
Sacks, Ag Student Council Rep
resentative; and James Greiner,
Engineering and Architecture Stu
dent Council representative.
The elected class representa
tives for Engineering and Archi
tecture Student Council are Wil-r
liam Straub, senior; Roland Geh
man, junior; and Paul Knowbel,
sophomore.
AIM, Leonides Picnit
Tickets for the Association of
Independent Men-Leonides-West
Halls Council picnic to be held at
2 p.m. tomorrow at Holmes-Fos
ter Park are available at the Het
zel Union desk.
Pricojs 50 cents.
Tonight on WDFM
•1.1 HBGACTCLBS
7:W Sign 0»
T:M Starlight Serenade
81 00 Weekly New* Houndoß
8 ISO gcenerta
l«iM Theughi ler the 0«g