rAGE F.OUR
Published Tuesday through I Editorials represent the
Saturday mornings during Xlll4 Elatig Collegian ! viewpoints of the writers,
the University year, the I not necessarily the polies
Daily Collegian is a student• I of the paper. the student
operated newspaper. Successor be TALE Mgr LANCE. set. ISM body. or the University.
MIKE FEINSILBER. Editor
Managing Editor. Mike Miller; City Editor, Don Shoo- Co-Asat. ens. Mgrs.. Roger Vogeteinger, Dorothea "Cold's;
Local Ad,. Mgr., Faye Goldstein; National Adv. Mgr., Jerry
maker; Copy Editor, Dotty Stone; Sports Editor, Roy Wil- Fried; Co-Circulation Mgrs., Milt Linial, Christine Kauffman;
Hams; Editorial Directok, Jackie Hudgins: Society Editor. Promotion Mgr.. Delite Hoopes; Co-Personnel Mgrs., Aletta
Ines Althouse; Assistant Sports Editor, Roger Seidler; Photos, Manbeck, Connie Anderson; Office Mgr., Ann Ramey; Classi
raphy Editor Ron Walker. fied Adv. M. Peggy Davis; Secretary. Lil Meiko; Research
and Record. Mgr., Virginia Latch.lr.
STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, John Lawrence: Copy Editors, Ron Leik and Ron Gatehouse: As•
sisiants, Marian Beatty, Ginger Hance, Jack Williams. and Gene Reeder.
Cabinet: Is It Really Useless?
A "just plain student" got up before All
niversity Cabinet Thursday night and bawled
it out.
The student, James Clokey, freshman in phy
sics from Allison Park, admitted he had never
seen Cabinet in action before, but he felt the
highest student body on campus wasn't doing
its job. He emphatically said as much.
Clokey directed his criticism at Cabinet's
seemingly endless spiels about parliamentary
procedure. Cabinet has a tendency to lean on
Roberts' Rules of Order a bit too much at times
and to put aside issues before it in order to
debate whether Roberts means what he says.
• But, eventually, Cabinet, does return to is
iles. And generally it takes its work seriously.
Clokey also didn't like what Cabinet was
doing and he was unhappy about what it was
not doing. It wasn't serving the students,
he said.
This charge, too, is partially true. Cabinet
often gets so tied up in changing internal struc
ture it barely has time or energy to legislate.
This has been the case too often this year. The
new Cabinet constitution, which was approved
yesterday by the Senate subcommittee on or
ganization control, engaged Cabinet's talents
for a big part of the year.
But dabblet also tackles constructive pro
jects, efforts from which every student bene
fits. Spring Week, the Penn State Student
Scholarship Fund, the student judicial sys
tem, student radio station WDFM, the new
grading plan—all came into being through
Cabinet encouragement.
Students must remember when evaluating
Cabinet that, in matters affecting the Univer
sity, Cabinet has power only to recommend. As
such, its main function must be one of a sound
ing board for student opinion. It can and does
bring the desires of students to the attention
of the powers that be—the University.
Thursday, for example. Cabinet recom-
Positions vs Pals
Wonder who's going to encampment.
In previous years students to attend the prc
semester seminar were chosen arbitrarily, some
on the basis of their positions in student activi
ties but many just because they had friends on
the selections committee.
In an effort to improve upon the haphazard
method of selecting encampment participants,
All-University Cabinet voted last fall that the
main criterion for selection be participation in
campus activities. The Cabinet rule provided
that about 80 per cent of the enrollment be
students who had made a name for themselves
in extra curricular activities. But the actual
wording stipulated that delegates chosen by
virtue of position were "not to exceed 80 per
cent" of those chosen.
Thursday night, after the technical error
was discovered in Cabinet's ruling, the Uni
versity's highest student government body
voted to change the clause to say "between
78 and 82 per cent" of the invited students
were to be chosen on the basis of their posi
tions; however, this provision will not go into
effect until the fall of 1956.
Apparently the selections committee took ad
vantage of this faulty wording. At Cabinet
Thursday evening Encampment Chairman, Pet
er Kiefer, said 40 per cent of the 90 student
invitations would go to outstanding workers in
activities and the remaining 60 per cent would
be selected on the basis of interviews by his
committee.
Perhaps some of the students who have been
interviewed will be chosen because of their
activities, but there is still quite a bit of lee
way for the committee to select personal
friends with no background in student work.
Spmeone suggested it was good not to limit
encampment privileges to a set select group,
because there are many students who have vir
tually no positions activity-wise who still are
interested in working with student problems.
We are not acquainted with many such peo
ple; however, we are sure they exist. Right now
it looks like there will be quite a few of them
at Mont Alto in September.
Important problems are discussed at en
campment. Important people should discuss
them.
Gazette •••
►.S.C.E. PICNIC
2:30 p.m., VFW Memorial Park, Howard
JON PARTY STEERINU COMMITTEE, 2:00 p.m., 217
Willard
—Jackie Hudgins
Tomorrow
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
.was JACK ALBRECHT. Business Manages
mended to the University Board of Trustees
the creation of a new cultural program
through which every student might gain.
By so doing, it formally brought to the trus
tees' attention what is presumably the desire
of the student body. If students do not want
the Penn State Series—and the accompanying
$1 assessment—Clokey's charges are correct. In
that case, Cabinet wasn't doing its job.
In that case, the students weren't doing
their job either. It is Cabinet's function to
find the opinions of students and express
them. It is the students' job to let their rep
resentatives on Cabinet—and each student
has several—know their opinions. •
Expressing popular will is only one of the
ways in which Cabinet serves students. It can,
should, and sometimes does lead as well as
fellow student opinion. But this is risky busi
ness, indeed.
When legislating or recommending, Cabinet
must be sure it is working in the interests of
students. Although Cabinet members are stu
dents, the interests of the two groups are not
necessarily synonymous.
Students who shrug and express their
opinions only to their roommates yield their
right to effectively criticize Cabinet's actions
or inactions. They silence their voice in stu
dent government. They lose. Student govern
ment loses.
Clokey went further than most critical stu
dents—he came to a Cabinet meeting to see
for himself. Then he spoke. He would have been
wiser to have held his tongue. Observation of
one meeting is slim basis for an intelligent
critique of an organization.
But if more students would make the effort
to at least know what they're criticizing, Cabi
net would be more capable of following the
dictates of its public and transferring them into
recommendations to the University and. ulti
-tqtely, into action.
Safety Valve ...
Better Training Needed
1
• TO THE EDITOR: I would like to make a
few comments about the Air Science cadets
and the cadet officers who took part in the
Armed Forces Day parade. Being in Air Science
myself, I was required to take part in the
parade, but I am ashamed to admit it.
To me the attitude taken by most of the
cadets was disgraceful. The marching was the
worst I have ever seen, or ever hope to see, and
neither the cadets nor the cadet officers showed
much anxiety toward correcting it.
According to popular opinion, the school band
from a local elementary school "out-shined", the
cadets all around.
The cadet officers will have to take most of
the blame—they are continually harping on
discipline and taking advantage of their rank
to get it, but during the parade, just when the
cadets were all but crying for discipline and
guidance, the officers forgot their function and
were gawking about, laughing, and goofing off
in general.
It seems to me that the Department of Air
Science had better plan their leadership labs
to give more drill, with less emphasis on in
spection; for what happened in that parade is,
to me, far more disgraceful than a speck of
mud on a man's shoes, or two or three whiskers
on his chin.
Hats off to those cadets who did good in spite
of their training and not because of it!
A Place for the Cars
TO THE EDITOR: The parking on campus is a
local branch of the traffic problem which is
confronting our nation today. There are more
automobiles on the highways and in the park
ing lots today than ever before in history.
The cities and the nation are beginning many
long-range building projects to alleviate the
present congestion. This is our solution to the
problem.
Another would be to prohibit young people
from owning automobiles or manufacturers
from producing so many. This is an improbable
solution since it is contrary to our way of life.
The recent action to prohibit freshmen from
driving automobiles on the campus is a solu
tion. Is it the correct solution?
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION SOCIETY, Annual Picnic,
1:00 p.m. Greenwood Furnace
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Ruth Eshleman, Jeannette Johnson, Lloyd Krull, Robert
Pairosky. Jonathan Plant. Charles Roth. Erwin Weiss.
—The Editor
—William F. Smith
—Earl J. Mills
Little Man on Campus
1. ,
111W WAirAray
w.
401"
/,;' , ;Cc
Ktrzrzi oRtS AS
"When he hands back your blue book,
out for the congratulatory little pat.'
Centennial Lore
College "as Easier
Tr . ay Back when
Probably the most unusual collegiate curriculum in the country
greeted the handful of students who reported to the University in
1869, a few months after its new president, Thomas Henry Burrowes
took over.
Declaring that "this institution makes no parade of the long list
of 'ologies, 'onomies, and 'ogra
phies which grace s some cata
logues," Burrowes introduced a
simplified program by which a
student could earn three degrees
in five years.
Under President Burrowes' plan,
the preparatory department for
those not ready for college work
became the freshman class. The
title "sophomore" was dropped as
"not being significant" and that
of "junior" substituted as "com
mon to all students before diverg
ing into special study."
At the end of the third year
students would receive the de
gree of bachelor of scientific ag
riculture, at the end of the fourth,
the degree of bachelor of science,
and at the end of the fifth, the
degree of bachelor of arts.
Losing Students
President Burrowes came to the
University when its fortunes were
at their lowest ebb. Burdened
with debts and uncertain of its
policies and goals, the University
had been steadily losing students
and esteem since the Civil War.
But the Board of Trustees found
in President Burrowes a well
known and popular figure they
thought could save the situation.
Though he had never been a
teacher and, as a matter of fact,
had never been a regularly en
rolled student in college, he never
theless was a foremost leader in
education in the state.
President Burrowes was born
Nov. 16, 1805, at Strasburg. Most,
of his early schooling was under
a private tutor. At Lancaster he
began the study of law in 1826
and two years later attended the'':
Yale law school for one year.
Served in House
President Burrowes was elected
to the lower house of the state
legislature in 1831 and 1832.
Because of his work in educa
tion, he is often called the founder
of the free school system of the
state.
Optimism Misplaced
President Burrowes' optimism
about the possibility of a doubled
and quadrupled enrollment
proved to be misplaced. The en
rollment was 49 in 1869, the first
year of . his administration, and
grew to 59 the next. But he did
succeed in halting the decline
that had started after the Civil
War.
President Burrowes died of
pneumonia in 1871. His contribu
tions to the University and to
education in Pennsylvania were
SATURDAY. MAY 21. 1955
By Bibl
OFFIC E
PROF
SNARE'
watch
recognized by the naming of the
College of Education building
after him in 1939. One of the
streets in State College also bears
his name.
Grad Students Get
Four Free-Grant
Chem Fellowships
Four free-grant fellowships have
been awarded in the department
of chemistry, providing complete
support for the graduate students
during their final year of work
for their doctorate degrees.
The fellowships and their re
cipients are•
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and
Co., awarded to William Bella
han, Mont Clair, N.J.
Union Carbide and Carbon
Corp., awarded to Harold Loris
dale, Bound Brook, N:J.
Allied Chemical and Dye Corp.,
awarded to Merle Umstead, New
Bethlehem.
Shell Chemical Co., awarded to
Sydney Smith, Santa Rosa, Calif.
The du Pont fellowship is
awarded to a student who is plan
ning to teach chemistry at the col
lege level. It is awarded on the
basis of teaching ability as, well
as professional accomplishment
and is titled the du Pont Post
graduate Teaching Assistantship
in Chemistry.
lAD Meeting Scheduled
lota Alpha Delta, guidance fra
ternity, will hold its last meet
ing of the spring semester at 7:45
p.m. Monday in Pollock 8.
This Weekend
On WDFM
91.1 MEGACYCLES
Today
7:21 Sign On
7:25 AP News
7:30 Phil Wein
8:15 Top Drawer
8:30 Progressions in Rhythm
9:00 _ BBC Weekly
9:16_ News
9:30
Symphonic Notebook
10:36 Sign Off
Tomorrow
7:20 - - —-- Sign On
7:90 Knitter's Last Stand
8:15 BBC Feature
8:45 Just for Two
9:30 111-F1 Open House
10:35 ' Sign Off
Mondsy
ENIMMENiEM
-- Shin On