PAGE FOUR
Editorial Opinion
Spotlight on ROTC
The ROTC question is in the spotlight again.
The question of compulsory vs. voluntary ROTC,
which raised a furor last year before it was dumped by
All-University Cabinet, was brought before Cabinet again
last night And the issue seems sure to receive much more
thorough consideration this time than it did the last.
Cabinet last night committed for further study a mo
tion to go on record as opposing voluntary ROTC. Donald
Zepp, president of the Inter• College Council Board,
brought up the motion.
Zepp used an argument against compulsory ROTC
winch is brilliant in its simplicity and obvious in its rela
tion to ROTC. He quoted a Cabinet recommendation that
the Inter-College Council Board "investigate and seek to
impiove or abolish courses which are not sufficiently
challenging to the average student," and said he felt the
recommendation applied to ROTC.
Zepp explained that he brought the qurstion to Cabi
net because ROTC does not belong to any college and
therefore does not come under the jurisdiction of the
ICCB.
It is easy to see Zepp's point. Many ROTC courses are
certainly no intellectual challenge; many are, in fact, aca
demic nonentities. The purpose of a University is to teach
students to think, not drill.
Eleven pertinent points concerning the purposes and
future of ROTC were brought up last night—points which
had been overlooked in last year's committee r epor t,
which was a triumph of incompleteness. Cabinet members
apparently wanted more information on these and other
points, and so it seems they will be answered in a new
committee report. .
Some of the pertinent questions included faculty
opinion on the question, the feasibility of voluntary ROTC,
the opinion of members of the Board of Trustees, the pos
sible effect of money coming from Washington and Har
risburg, the effect on the University's building program.
Now it appears the ROTC question will get a thor
ough going-over by Cabinet before any decision is reached.
And with good reason. Compulsory ROTC seems to
have been wasting many students' good time for too many
years—it's time it proved its worth or disappeared.
TIM Triumph
Town independents received some long-overdue rec
ognition last night as All-University Cabinet voted to in
clude a Town Independent Students' Lounge in the pro
posed Hetzel Union Building expansion plans.
The proposed lounge, favored by an 18-5 vote, would
be for both men and women town indepeAdents.
These facilities for town independents have been
needed for a long time. Now, with Cabinet strongly be
hind it, the lounge may have a good chance for success.
Under the plans presented for the lounge, it will be
available to all University students when not in use by
town students. Thus it could prove a benefit to the whole
student body.
Cabinet should do everything in its power to push
the lounge plans. There are more than 4000 town students
who deserve recreational facilities—Cabinet owes it to
them to see that the plans receive every chance for suc
cess.
Fifty-fotir Years of Student Editorial Freedom
011 r Battu Toilrgiatt
Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887
Puhlfelled Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. The
Daily Collegian is a atudent-operated neviepaper. Entered as seconthelasa matter
hay 0, 1931 at the State College, Pa. Poet Office under the act of March 3, 1879.
Mall Sul/scriplion Price: $3.00 per semester .13.00 pei rear.
ROBERT FRANKLIN
Editor "
City Editor. David Fineman: Managing Editor. Richard Drayne; Sports Editor,
Lou Prato: Associate Sports Editor, Matt Mathews; Personnel and Public Relations
Director. Patricia Evans: Copy Editor, L)nn Ward: Assistant Copy Editor. Dick
Fisher: Photography Editor. Robert Thompson.
Credit Mgr.. Janice Smith; Local Ad Mgr., Tom Rucker: Asst. Local Ad Mgr.,
Robert Pirrone: National Ad Mgr.. Betsy Bracl.bill: Promotion Mgr.. Kitty Bur
irert; Personnel Mgr., Mickey Nash; Classified Ad Mgr., Rae Waters: Co-
Circultion Mgrs., Mary Anne First and Murray Simon; Research and Records
Mgr.. Mary Herbein: Office Secretary, Myla Johnson.
EiTAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, Lolli Neuharth; Copy Editor, Sandy Padwn:
Wire Editor, Linda Sonar: Assistants, Susie Linkioum, Nicki WnWrit, Dave An
thony, Day(' ftladick, Rona Nathanson, Pack. Judi Robertson. Gretchen
Hermon. Susie Eberly, Eddie Chun, 4anet_Brahan.
THE DAILY .COLLEGIAN STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
FRANK VOJTASEK
Business Manager
Letters
Coeds Question
Centers Report
TO THE EDITOR: How many
years has it been since the article
on the University Centers has
been revised?
While reading your recent ar
ticle on centers, I kept looking
for at least a mention of the Al
toona Center's new million dol
lar building containing many
classrooms, administrative offices,
labs, library, and lounge. Seem
ingly, this University doesn't even
know it exists yet. The article
said that Dußois has a new build
ing built eight years ago and
Ogontz has one completed three
years ago.- The Altoona Center
building, dedicated onl v last
month, will probably deserve
mention about five years from
now when The Daily Collegian
realizes it's there.
F,iithermore, Dr. Eric A. Walk
er broke ground for the new
building, laid the cornerstone, and
dedicated it in October.
It seems to me that since the
Altoona Center is only an hour's
drive from here, the new build
ing (the Smith Building) should
play some importance in The
Daily Collegian article and have
some influence on this campus.
Also, the article said that the
Altoona Center, among others,
has a May Queen and May Day
celebration. In our two years
there as undergraduates, we don't
remember anything about May
Day celebrations. Things like that
aren't missed at that center either.
The Collegian should realize that
the center's activities are im
portant to some oeople.
—Barbara Foster '6O
Donna Adams '6O
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Colle-
gian carried a front page story
and picture when the Altoona
Center was dedicated earlier in
the semester.
Textbook Store Is
Asked for Campus
TO THE EDITOR: We believe
(Professor Carl Faith's) proposal
for a campus bookstore supplying
"intellectual" books is a valid
one. However, we doubt that this
is the main objective behind the
Campus party plank.
The Campus party and the rest
of us poor students operating
on a limited budget are interested
in a bookstore selling textbooks
at reduced prices. Let's be rea
sonable—none of the Big Three
are presently fulfilling our needs!
In our experience with much
smaller schools, (the Universities
of Georgia, South Carolina, and
Toledo) we had the benefit of a
university-operated, non-p rof it
bookstore. This was the case even
at the tiny (approximately 400
students) University of Georgia
Augusta Center.
It is our opinion and the opin
ion of a full 100 per cent of stu
dents here with whom we have
discussed this situation that Penn
State would do well to follow the
example of almost any school you
can name and establish a non
profit bookstore to sell textbooks.
—Bill Barley, '59
—Russ Kiker. Grad Student
—Don Paley, '59
Gazette
TODAY
Alpha Phi Mu, 5:30 p.m., 217 HUli
Bridge Club, 7 p.m., HUB card-
room
Bryan Green's Thursday Lecture,
"Dra• if ng the Line," 9 p.m.,
Chapel lounge
Christian Fellowship, 12:45 p.m.,
218 HUB
Hillel. Sabbath Eve Services,
8 p.m., Foundation
Hubx-a-poppin. 7:30 p.m., HU B
assembly room
Interlandia Folk Dance, 7:30 p.m.,
3 White
Lutheran Student Association.
"Gobble Gathering," 7:30 p.m.
Scarab. 5 p.m., 212 HUB
Wesley Foundation, "Olympics—
Pe n n State Style," 8 p.m.,
Foundation.
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Lawrence Dull. Robert Fee. Marcia Cor.
In. Carrie Karat, Richard Lucas. Ronald
Martin. Arthur Nagel. James Pringle,
Robert Rees:„ Wallace Weigel, Ruth Wrig.
, ..141. . •.. - - . _ „ . .
Little Man on Campus by Dick eiblee
"Prof Snarf is up to his old tricks—making an assignment
and putting only one reference book on reserve."
Washington Beat
Iroquois Inebriates
Really Ran Riot
WASHINGTON (/P)—To the early Iroquois Indians,
drunkenness wasn't a vice, but a virtue.
They even had a word for it, "gannontiouaratonseri."
And when an Iroquois went on a gannontiouaratonseri,
that means he was really loaded.
The early Indian guzzling
habits were up for discussion
Tuesday at the 6th annual
American Indian Ethnohistoric
Conference at the Smithsonian
Institution.
Edmund Carpenter of the
University of Toronto had a
look at Indian drinking, in
some ways as puzzling to us
now as it was shocking to the
Jesuits who first reported on
it.
"Unlike the Jesuits," Car
penter said, "the Iroquois did
not regard the temporary loss
of mental control as sacrilegi
ious—but, on the contrary, be
lieved that by getting outside
the ordinary human order,
they could get inside a higher
spiritual order, and !thereby
more intimately in touch with
reality."
To these Indians, simple so
cial drinking was a horrible
waste of firewater.
Their religious rites called
for ecstasy and frenzy. And
when the good fathers tried to
ration their brandy, the red
skins nobly pooled their shares
so that at least one among
them could have a glorious
binge,-
Since the Indians deliberate
ly courted drunkenness the re.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER'2I. 1958
By Arthur Edson
sults still are frightening after
all these years.
Here's the way Francois Va
chon de Belmont, a missionary
who worked near Montreal,
described the scene:
"Once inebriated, they throw
off their clothing, or let it drop,
and running about the town
naked, beat one another. They
bite each other's noses and
ears so that there are few
whole, entire visages remain
ing"
Well, eventually soberer
times came for the Iroquois.
In 1800, their prophet, Hand
some Lake, preached a new
doctrine. Alcohol, he said, was
the work of the devil.