OF TWELVE
Editorial Opinion
Past Lessons Can Teach
Students of the Future
From the moment they stepped off railroad trains in
Spruce Creek or Lewistown, higher education was a de
manding task for the 69 students who on Feb. 17, 1859,
began the educational program of the Farmer’s High
School.
They jounced ovei rough roads in springless wagons;
they were forced to live in one half-completed building;
they were required to perform three hours of farm labor
eveiy weekday, often in unfavorable weather; they lived
without social life under a multitude of restrictions which
dictated their smallest daily habits.
A century later, the more than 15.(100 undergraduate
students at the main campus of the Pennsylvania State
University are accustomed to almost every comfort read
ily available to modern man.
Students now can study any of 60 cumculums taught
iu nine colleges using the facilities of more than 150
buildings and a plant valued at approximately $95 million.
But the tremendous changes which dedicated indi
viduals have wrought in the University over the last
century only serve to emphasize the almost unbelievable
advances it can make in the next few years.
For the University will come close to doubling its
scope in less than a quarter of the time it took to accumu
late its existing facilities.
The lessons learned by students over the past century
can instruct future student bodies in ihe ways of progress.
Opportunities for a liberal education, students' rela
tions with others and the Penn State spirit are the three
areas which should be of most interest to University stu
dent bodies in the future. These are the areas which have
become the most lacking over the last century and so
offer the most opportunity for advancement.
The University has developed a myriad of opportuni
ties for more liberal education ever since it was char
tered “to promote liberal and practical education in the
several pursuits and professions of life.”
The student body, using its own student government
as an instrument, has been influential in this develop
ment. It must continue to exert its influence to insure
that the University bypasses no opportunity to enrich
in knowledge and culture the minds of its students; that
the University does not succumb to the universal tempta
tion to mass-produce educationally narrow minds instead
of the broad thinkers needed to solve this world's prob
lems in human relations.
Human relations already are of vital importance to
the students. Perhaps at college as nowhere else do they
learn to live with one another.
Students learn to live with their fellow man only so
well as they are taught by their fellows and by the
members of the community surrounding them. It is signi
ficant that the 100th anniversary of the student body
should fall in Brotherhood Week.
Perhaps no characteristic of the student body has de
clined over the past century so much as the Penn State
spirit. This decline is partly natural, considering the pre
sent size of the University. Students are more refined,
less boisterous.
But the University's history leaches that one of a
college's most valuable assets is her spirit—to seek her
advancement in every way as an undergraduate; to
remember her help as an alumnus.
These are the lessons offered by a century of student
history. They offer guidance to students for Penn State’s
next stormy century, which begins today. ‘
Fifty-four Years of Student Editorial Freedom
Uatly (Mrgian
Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887
Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. Tha
Daily Collegian S« a student-operated newspaper. Entered aa eecond-cUaa matter
duty S, 1921 at the State College, Pa. Post Office under the act of March S, 1871*
Mall Subscription Prices $3.01 per semester $5.00 per year.
ROBERT FRANKLIN
Editor
City Editor, David Fintman: Managing Editor, Richard Draynet SporU Editor,
Lou Prato; Associate Sports Editor. Matt Mathewa; Personnel and Public Relatione
Director, Patricio Evans: Copy Editor, Lynn Ward; Assistant Copy Editor. Dick
Fisher; Photography Editor. Robert Thompson.
STAFF THIS ISSUE: Copy Editor, Sandy Padwe; Wire Editor, Lianne Cordero;
• Assistant*. Jeff Pollack, Susie- P.Uerly,' So* Pohland, (iretchea ItiVrisoa^.Nancg
* -Elios,'Olive HtmevMaxyhe Lundy, Mat git'Coif**. *
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
ROBERT PICCONE
Business Manager
Cooperation
Town-Gown
By Dr. Eric A. Walker
President of the University
There wasn’t any town of State College when tha
first students arrived for classes at the Farmers’ High
School one hundred years ago.
The newcomers—they numbered
but 119 before the first term ended 10
eled alone, first by train and then by
their bags and trunks across
a hazardous catwalk and
then up four flights of stairs
to their new living quarters
on the fifth floor of the still
unfinished old Old Main.
On hand to greet them was
the entire faculty of four pro
fessors. After the students had
met the faculty and each other,
they were herded into-shack
like buildings, left by the con
tractor at the rear of Old Main,
for their evening meal,
facilities of the community, over
flowing hotels, motels and res-
The economy of the Borough
Today, the arrival of new
students on a Sunday in Sep
tember is an __
ixercise :
town-gown ci
operation. No<
they come ’
automobile,
ten accompa
ied by fathe’
mothers, si
ters and brot
ers. They nui
ber in t h
thousands; ar
on hand, e a gl
and willing to
help, are rep- walker
resentatives of the University,
the State College Junior Cham
ber of Commerce, the Campus
Patrol nnd the student govern
ment. They go not only to Old
Main but to the Hetzel Union
Building, the Pattee Library,
Beaver Field and. sooner or la
ter, to hotel dining rooms and
restaurants throughout the town.
Not many years ago this in
flux of new students taxed the
facilities of the community, ov
erflowing hotels, mtels and res
taurants and creating a traffic
snarl even worse than that on
the day of a football game. But
that was before the State and
Borough Police joined hands
with town and gown agencies
well in advance of the event to
work out the format for an un
believably smooth and efficient
operation.
Happily* there has come over
the years the recognition that
the University is a joint respon
sibility of town and gown—a
partnership, in other words, to
Which -each side ©!- the street-
Courlesf Mo. Springfield Newspapers
Marks
Story
69 on that first day,
months later—trav
stage. They dragged
owes its firm loyalty ami sup*
port.
Taka housing, for example.
The community now accommo
dates (and always has accom
modated) more students than
are accommodated on the cam
pus. The fraternity section alona
represents “a community with
in a community" of some 2000
residents who pay taxes, buy
food and services and make all
the contributions expected of a
member of the community.
The ecenomy of the Borough
depends, to a surprising degree,
on the patronage of these stu
dents and their teachers.
But the end is not yet in sight.
If the long range plans now on
paper materialize in the next 10
years, the number of students
will climb from 15,000 to some
25,000, wages and salaries will
increase significantly and tha
educational offerings of the Uni
versity will match the best there
are in the country.
..It’s a large order, of course,
and will call for the best effort
of everybody involved, including
students, faculty, alumni and
friends. Perhaps most important
of all, it will call for a growing
understanding and co-operation
on the part of the people on
both sides of the street.
PI AM IS |
r IT'S DISGUSTING
JHATS ujhat IT IS'
TUESDAY. fEBRUARY 17. 1959
Looking Ahead
Students, Town
Can Get Along
As Neighbors
“Neighbors across the street”
is perhaps the most a ecu rata
term which could be used to
describe relations between tha
Borough of State College and
the University’s student body
■ —relations which began 100
years ago yesterday.
A few houses composed tha
town when the first 69 students
arrived on Feb. 16, 1959.
The beginnings of the town
owed their existence to the estab
lishment of the Farmer's High
School.
But the town ha 3 long sinca
outgrown its original function as
■mgmgg tow J n * it°i l s eg l
thriving business
fflw • And - by and
« large, we feel
‘f that it has been
a good neighbor
t '' s t u d e n t
i jMrafeiSw The st u dents
•; >, and the town
l fi * meet each other
“ on the common
franklin grounds of com
munity projects, housing, indi
vidual business transactions and
governmental operations.
Tha student-town record of co
operation in community project*
has been outstanding. Of particu
lar benefit has been work per
formed by fraternities during
Greek Week, when fraternity
men pitch in and do manual labor
to benefit a host of public-spirited
undertakings.
The record on housing is for
the most part only fair, partly
because for most of the last cen
tury the town has housed mora
students than has the University.
But much of the town housing
can be improved.
Students have a tendency t«
complain about “downtown mer
chants” taking unfair advantage
of them. We feel that a careful
examination of the fapts will
show that while this undoubtedly
happens in isolated instances, it
it not the predominant situation.
Perhaps governmental regula
tions have been the biggest snaa
in student-town "neighborliness,
particularly in the area of tha
automobile.
State College has been rela
tively lenient toward routine po
lice offenders, often preferring a
lesser charge where student*
might he more severely penalized.
But the parking problem, which
has caused untold hardship on
both the University and the town,
remains a major unsolved prob
lem to the student body.
A greater knowledge and un
derstanding of each other’s view*
on this and all aspects of neigh
borly living can only be beneficial
to both the students and the town.
1 >-&»■■■*:
DID YOU EVER STOP TO
CONSIDER All .THE 6CPMS KXJ
) WHAT’S
OfSSUSTINS?
MfAiu
By 808 FRANKLIN
St&toa.
“ jENRANDW