PAGE FOUR JPnblialied T««4ar thrt«tk Batvr<laf wnminfc Marine 1h« rni«#r»itv year. lit* Daily C«lt«Ki>n i« a stndent •p#rat/4 Bfnapipfr. m Mrcnd-rlau matter July 5, 1934 •( tti« State College. P** Post Office under the aet of March 1, 1879. MIKE FKINSILRER. Editor MIKE MILLER, A«*orUte Editor STAFF THIS ISSUE: Nigh' Editor, Rog Alexander; Copy Editors, Evie Onsa, Judy Harkinson; As sistants, Bob Franklin, Ginny Philips, Joe Boehret. Barbara Martino, Dave Bronstein, Pat Evans. TV Courses: Free the At least some r.tuder.w who were only able to grumble about it—will be able to talk back to television. This is welcome news for the growing num ber of students who each semester find them selves staring at a television receiver rather than a professor. They are the students who are being exposed to the University’s project in television for teaching, sponsored by the Ford Foundation’s Fund for the Advancement of Education. The installation of talk-back microphones in two classrooms in Sparks, allowing students to ask questions verbally to their instructors, will eliminate one of the chief and most frequent student complaints about the TV scheme. But it won't stop all the griping. As noted in a 102-page report on the first project, “An Investigation of Closed-Circuit Television for Teaching University Courses,” issued last summer, some students are totally unhappy with getting even a fraction of their educaiion via the flickering screen. One re action quoted in the report: "This is a crime.” But reactions taken from students after one semester of TV teaching show that most of them don’t care, one way or another, about it. A few are enthusiastic; a few damn the entire project. Critical students often fail to realize that the television project is research in a new field, research made necessary by a desperate need in the Commonwealth for more college facili ties and faculties. But the University must remember that sub jecting students to television against their wills is unfair as long as TV-in-lhe-classroom remains an experiment, not a proved and adopted prac tice. The report, in a footnote, glibly states: “Stu dents accept many educational practices, e.g., term papers, examinations, required class at tendance, towards which they may not have ‘favorable attitudes’.” This is hardly a defense of compulsory TV viewing, "1384" style. Students coming to col lege know they are going to have to lake tests and go to classes. They do not know they will be taught by a screen. And students who object to television should not be required lo become involuntary partici pants in a research project. Nor should it be made difficult for them lo avoid television. If the University finds that it must adopt television as a regular part of its program—an ultimately regrettable but coming decision, we feel—students should be told of this when they apply for admittance. But until then, they should not be subjected to it against their de sires. This, of course, means that the television researchers will not get a perfect cross-section 111. Culture’s Status: B This is the third in a series of editorials on the status of culture at the University. Now that we have given reasons why people believe the cultural level at the University is getting lower and explained, according to find ings of our study, why this is an erroneous belief we think the next step should be to form ulate some sort of pattern to broaden the scope of intellectual activities and enlarge the par ticipation in them. The first thing the University is expected to do is lo introduce students to culture. Be cause Penn State cannot afford to be very selec tive in its enrollment acceptances it must pre pare itself to meet the incoming student on his own level of pre-established aesthetic under standing. The student who starts his college education never having heard a symphony orchestra concert or never having seen a 'good' art exhibit does not always enjoy his first en counter with them. He must be taught lo ap preciate them. This the University has accom plished by requiring an art and a music ap preciation course for some undergraduates. To expand this type of general cuWure introduc tion. drama appreciation, similar to the Dra matics 61 course, might be made compulsory. Since it is important that the technical stu dent especially be exposed to these cultural subjects in as pleasing way as possible we cer tainly suggest that the utmost care be taken in organizing these introductory-offer courses. For instance, if the intent of the course is to make a student take an initial interest in philosophy, laborous accounts of Aristotles’ sub tle arguments with the other Greeks will do little to arouse the second semester chem eng major. Contemporary philosophy, which every one is aware of even though he doesn't think of it as such, would seem to be a much more appropriate starting point. Everyone knows something about religion and even the most | Sigma Tau Pledges jPlayers to Hold Shop Sigma Tau, engineering honor p or Advertising Crew societv, will have a pledge meet- . . . ing at 7 tonight in 209 Main En-! Students interested in working -jnpprinff ion die advertising crew for ‘An c _ * I Inspector Calls/’ the last Player’s . »*r*ii a< a. (show for the season which will Supreme Court Will Meet |t>e p resen ted May 10, 11, and 12 The Supreme Court will meet;in Schwab Auditorium, should at at 8 tonight in the Board Room tend a workshop at 7 p.m. today ia Old Main. 'or tomorrow in the Schwab loft OTljp Hally Collegian SoteoMor to THE FREE LANCE. cat. IM7 Uncaptivated Captives ut What Can Be Done? THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA ROGER VOGELSINGEE. Business Manatee of the student body in TV classes. But that is no unusual problem facing social researchers; it is one which must be contended with almost always. To make it possible for students who dis like TV courses lo avoid them, all television sections should be clearly indicated in the time table. This has not been done. Required courses offered on television should be offered live. too. This has been done. But unless the students know which sections are on the screen and which are person-to-person, they have to take a chance. Offering students the opportunity to switch sections after they find themselves in a class room-without-a-professor is not enough. Some times it is inconvenient, sometimes impossible for students to reshuffle their schedules to avoid TV. Nor is telling students at registration, when it is too late to conveniently rebuild schedules, enough. Exposing students to TV against their wishes is an unfortunate practice, 100, in that stu dents who don't like it are less likely to do well in TV classes. This was understood in the re port where it points out: "The "absence of dis traction' which some students called a virtue other nominated as a vice, saying that the limited center of attention, the television screen, induced boredom and sleep. Their inability lo participate in class discussion was also thought lo foster boredom." Other faults listed by students who had taken TV courses were: the lack of interaction be tween instructor and students; the lack of color; and the fact that the cameraman de cided for the student-viewer how long he would watch the blackboard and when his gaze would shift. These are serious shortcomings of the tele vision project and should be recognized as such. They are made more serious when the student doesn’t like TV learning in the first place. We realize the project is still in its elemen tary stages. But this argument hardly convinces the students who view television with dis pleasure and who find themselves in one. two, or three sections of it. Perhaps the answer is to offer a wider variety of courses via television so that the chance of a student finding himself in ‘more than one TV section is lessened. This would also have the effect, fa’vorable to research, of putting a truer cross-section of students behind the flickering screen. Television may become necessary, but we doubt if it will ever become a completely satis factory substitute for face-to-face learning. As long as it remains an experiment, it should not be forced on students who want no part of it. —The Editor literary have some inkling of scientific con cepts, so it seems more plausible to use this sharp ground breaker in the field of philosophy than the contrastly dull obscurities the an cients dwell upon. We still can't understand why the administra tion turned down student requests channeled through AU-Universily Cabinet last year fo schedule a series of big-name personalities in Rec Hall. With only 50 cents per semester per student at least four well-known people could be brought here for students lo go to see with out having to worry about the expense of a ticket. Even more prominent people than the fading Community Concert Series -is able to get would certainly be available with such large sums of money. Gazette ASSOCIATION FOR CHILDHOOD EDUCATION. 1 p.m.. Alhcrton Lounjre DAILY COLLEGIAN Circulation Staff Junior and Inter- mediate Board. 6:30 p.m.. Colleician Office MARKETING CLUB. 7:30 p.m.. Phi Kappa Pai NEWMAN CLUB Choir “Practice, 7 p.m.. Church RIDING CLUB. 7 p.m., 217 Willard SIGMA TAU Pledge Meeting. 7 p.m., 209 Main Engineering WORLD AGRICULTURAL SERVICE SOCIETY, 7:30 p.m., 209 Hetre) Union WDFM Music Library Staff Candidates. 7 p.m., 307 Sparks Student Employment HULETTS ON THE LAKE GEORGE. New York—Apr. 14 CRADLE BEACH CAMP. New York—April 14 CAMP CONRAD WEISKR. Pennsylvania— April 18-19 TRAIL BLAZER CAMPS. New Jersey—April 21 University Hospital Harold Albrecht, Jean Bodman, Robert Bohninj?, Ralph Brower, George Carrick, Louise Chaplinsky. Mary Claar. George Dishorn:, Eleanor Duffan, Frederick Clreenleaf, Morton Kaplan, Charles Larson, Andrew Maretr.ki. Robert Mover. Mary Murphy, David Patterson Phyllis Rubenstein, James Sahlin, James Strucher, Frank Woodrow, and Roy Vollmer. Ag Ec Club Will Meet Friday The Agricultural Economics Club will meet at 8 p.m. Friday at Alpha Zeta fraternity. The club will hold a bowling party in Recreation Hall after the meeting. Marketing Club Will Meet The Marketing Club will meet at 7:30 tonight at Phi Kappa Psi. Editorials represent the viewpoints of the writers, not necessarily the policy of the paper, the student body, or the University. —Jackie Hudgins Little Man on Campus (3^ £ Cf "And on the Psych. 17 blue book no exira credit will be given for practical experience, Worthal!" UN Police Action . . . To Calm Situation In Middle East? By J. M. Roberts Associated Press News Analyst The possibility that the United Nations w.ill organize' another police action in the Middle East—a contingency which seems for the moment to be the principle base for consideration of use of American troops there—is very remote at this time. Nobody, and least of all the non-involved nations in the area, such as Greece, Turkey and Italy, wants to get involved in another Korea If force is required io keep the Israelis and the Arabs from lighing a fuse which could lead to world war, the odds are very great it will have to be Anglo- American force. France would ' throw in political weight which, because of her involve ment in subduing African reb els, she would not have the men to back up. But this idea of bilateral action by the United States and Britain has been very carefully skirted by President Eisenhower's policy statement Monday and appar ently, also, by Secretary Dulles in his briefing of' congressional leaders Tuesday. Indeed, the effect if not the in tent of the President's statement seems to be more in the nature of a reassurance to the British of partnership than a notice to the disturbers of the peace that war will not be tolerated. It does sound, however, like a promise of firmer policy in the future if the parlies lo the dispute pay no heed to the rep resentations of Secretary Gen eral Hammarskjold of the UN and others who are bringing pressure for reinstatement of the 1949 truce. That’s something Britain has desperately wanted. But in addition to their com mitments to the UN, if the UN were disposed to act, Britain, France and the United States have a commitment, a corollary of the UN truce, to guarantee the borders between the Jews and the Arabs. The borders imposed by Is raeli military force at the close of the 1948 war. however, ra ther than by UN action, have never been accepted by the Arabs, and this whole business has remained up in the air. Events in the Middle East are moving so fast that the “maybes” of American policy today may be come the urgencies of tomorrow. That is obvious from the briefing given the congressional leaders by Dulles. Through this, the na tion is informed that the situation is fluid and moving toward a pos sible climax. There may be time for Congress and public to figure out what to do with the ball if they have to carry it. The Presi dent’s statement serves as a sort of first step toward that. - WEDNESDAY. APRIL 11. 1956 Bv Bibier m*gg£e**»* Violin-Piano Duo To Appear Tonight In Schwab Concert A violin-piano concert will be presented by James de la Fuente and Herbert Stessen at 8:30 to night in Schwab Auditorium. The violinist, de la Fuente stud ied at the Julliard School of Mu sic with the late Albert Spalding, and held a six-year fellowship for graduate work there. His violin, a Montagnana dated 1723, was willed to him by Spalding. Stessen, a native of New York, is a graduate of City College of New York. He studied with the noted concert pianist, Sascha Go rodnitzki, and in 1950 made his debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall. .The concert, sponsored by the State College Community Con cert Association, is the third of the series for this season! Elena Nikolaidi, contralto, originally screduled for a concert Feb. 29, will close the season with a con cert April 23 . Graduates to Sign For Caps, Gowns Seniors and graduate students who expect to graduate in June* should sign up for caps and gowns at the Athletic Store. Seniors in education may sign up today. Seniors in engineering are to sign up tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. Seniors must give their hat size when ordering the cap, and make a deposit of $5 on- the cap and gown. The cap, gown, and hood for graduate students requires a $lO deposit. Invitations and announcements may be ordered at the Hetzel Un ion desk on the day students sign up. Tonight on WDFM *l.l MEGACYCLES 7:13 7:20 j New* 7:25 7:30 _ 8:00 _ 8:50 9:00 9:15 Sport* Marquee Memories Open to Question Music of the People BBC Weekly News Virtuoso - Sign o lt 9:30 I_ 10:30 Siffn On
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers