PAGE FOUR Editorial Opinion Parties' Platforms Good, But Students Must Challenge It is often hard to draw many conclusions about candidates for student goverri ment offices during campaigns. Some students know these candidates personally or through their own activities in student government. But for most other voters, the best deciding factors are: An examination of the candidates' records in student government. • A close look at the party platforms of the candidates. A candidate's experience is a matter of public record and has always been in cluded, in summary, along with the candidate's photograph on the campaign posters. The platform planks are important because they are written records of what the candidate intends to do in office, and the intelligent voter will take a close look at what should be solemn pledges made by the office seekers. This is The Daily Collegian's look at these platforms * * * Campus Party has proposed four plat foi in planks, in addition to support for a rem gamzed student government stated in it. platform preamble: • Parking meters shall be placed in convenient campus parking lois for student use. Revenues should be used for expansion of parking facilities. This plank looks good on the surface. But for it to mean much, the party will have to expand greatly on it during the campaign, for there are many problems involved which the party may or may not be aware of, and the party should have an answer to these practical problems. Just a few of these problems, according to Elwood F. Olver, director of the Division of Security, are: (1) the big expense in volved, which may or may not be taken care of by meter revenue; (2) the problem of enforcing the rules, which are different from present enforcement problems; and (3) the fact that installation of meters would challenge the present University policy of free parking on the campus. If the party has the answer to these problems and others involved, the students should be told them during the campaign. If the problems can be solved, the meters could prove to be a convenience for stu dents. • A Student Fire Hazard Committee shall be formed to work in conjunction with the Alpha Fire Co. The committee shall be responsible for inspecting town housing for students. Some question has been raised as to whether this is a new and original pro posal and whether it doesn't really over lap the functiohs of other Cabinet commit tees—the Cabinet Town Relations Commit tee and the Cabinet Safety Committee. All-Univerity President Jay Feldstein, however, said the Safety Committee is charged with campus safety and disaster problems only, and that the Town Rela tions Committee has never been charged specifically with the duty of inspecting town housing. This appears to be, then, a proposal for overdue and much needed work in an important student area. • We recommend the free selection of residence hall housing for women on seniority basis by class. An excellent idea, but a little checking by the party would have shown that such a pi actice already exists. Otto E. Mueller, head of the housing department, said that senior women do have first choice of un occupied rooms in any women's residence halls. The seniors draw numbers, the low est number having the choice of any un occupied rooms. • A Student Planning Commission shall be formed to work in conjunction with the vice president in charge of ex pansion. The Commission will provide students with a voice in future expansion of student facilities. Students have been consulted on many aspects of expansion, notably enlargement of the HUB, liaison with centers and the effects of a year-round calendar. But this proposal would make for a more sure stu dent voice in these and other expansion problems, mostly because under such a plan students could look toward their own interests without waiting for voluntary ad ministrative consultation. It is, therefore, a worthwhile plank, we feel. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA University Party has proposed three planks in its platform: • University Party shall continue actively to support student government reorganization and the principles upon which it is based. Reorganization will need the support of the parties for its success. The parties have much at stake in the new system and indeed owe their support to it. • Feeling that the present grading system insufficently demonstrates the true academic achievement of the students, we will initiate a study to revise - the present grading system. This proposal, according to Chairman Frank Pearson, would be a compromise between the present system and one pro posed at All-University Cabinet last se mester by the then Chemistry-Physics Student Council President, Donald Zepp. The trouble with the present grading sys tem, Zepp and most Cabinet members agreed, are the inequalities created by the wide range between grades. That is, a per son with a 79 average in a course gets the same letter grade as a person with a 70 average. The proposal by Zepp, which brought a Cabinet directive for further study, was for a 5.0 system under which students would be graded 5.0, 4.9, 4.8, and so on down. A 5.0 would be an "A", and 4.0 a "B", and so forth. This proposed system, although a much more fair one than the present system, would bring an administrative hardship upon instructors, especially thase grading on the basis of subjective bluebooks. University Party's proposal is a good compromise, since it calls for a grading system running 5.0, 4.5, 4.0, 3.5, and so on, according to Pearson. This would lessen some of the inequalities in the present sys tem and not cause nearly so many adminis trative hardships. • Realizing that the town living con ditions can be improved, we will work in conjunction with the Town Affairs Com mittee and the Borough Council to initiate a program for airing complaints from town students. This proposal, in its present form, would accomplish little. It is not a positive approach to the problem of improving town housing for students. Rather than proposing to sit back and hear and investigate student complaints, the party should propose a definite plan to make a thorough survey of town housing, which is sadly in need of improvement, both in quality and quantity, especially in the light of expected student body expan sion. Such a positive proposal should in clude a pledge to correct any specific deficiencies discovered. Little M non Campus by Dick Bible: "But—when I said 'pl someth Video Initiates 6:30 A.M. Class By ARTHUR EDSON WASHINGTON GP)— Promptly at 6:30 a.m., a plea sant, bespectacled 31-year-old teacher named Vladimir Tol stoy stepped in front of a tele vision camera and said: "Zdrastvuyti." And all over Washington area sleepy students bellowed back, "Z drast vuyti!"—or a somewhat butchered facsimile. With this greeting—f re el y translated, it means "Hi there!" —George Washington 'Univer sity, in cooperation with sta tion WTOP-TV, started its first full-time TV lesson in begin ning Russian. Tolstoy, a distant relative of the great novelist, turned out to be a personable, but no non sense, type. He plunged right Gazette TODAY Alpha Phi Omega Registration, 12-1 p.m , Ist Floor Lobby, HUB ASAE, Pennsylvania Section. HUB Assetribly Room 8 a.m. to noon. Ist Floor Lobby, HUB Christian Fellowship, 12:30 p.m., 213 HUB Hillel, Sabbath Eve Services, 3 pm. IFC•Panhel Sing, Schwab, 7:30 p m. Intercollegiate Flower Judging, 3 a m., HUB Cardroom ; 10 a.m., 203 HUB Interlandia Folk and Square Dance, 7 .70 p.m., 3 White Hall Newman Club, 8 p.m., Our Lady of Victory Church Hall Penn State Bible Fellowship, 7 :30 p.m., 21t lloucke Wesley Foundation Skating Party, 8 pan., Foundation U I'M NOT A CAVSE, WHAT IS f I EIELIEve it 4 THE CAUSE OF 6COD CL 'ME I THAT'S THE CAUSE I BELIEVE IN! Fifty-four Years of Student Editorial Freedom 4e Daily (110 Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1889 Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. The Daily Collegian M • etudent-operated newspaper. Entered as second-class matter July 1. 1931 at the State College. Pa. Post Office under the act of March S. 1979. Mall Subscription Priest 0.011 per sertmster MOS per gear. ROBERT FRANKLIN Editor 0610., STAFF THIS ISSUEt Night Editor, Diane Dieck; COPY Editor, Elaine IdleloS Wire Editor, Katie Davis: Assistants, Phyllis Pack, Judy Rosenblum, Jim Serril‘ Marilyn Teichholt4 Nancy Kling. Breads Desch, Jim Whalen, Jive Strothaim FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1959 ay ball with me tonight'—l h ing else in mind." into the alphabet, the double dealing Russian vowels and such necessities as how to say "I love you" in Russian. And when he asked mem bers of his class to rep ea t something after him, he would pause expectantly for the an swer. Possibly late sleepers don't realize it, but this sort of thing has been going on all over the country. Dr. Ralph Steetle of the Joint Committee on Educational TV, who keeps track of such things, says commercial sta tions often can't afford to use other time. And the early TV class has become so popular, he said, it has reached the place where it's known as the "learning hour." Regtitration 71406 NOT TRUE AVAIL! I 1 BELIEVE IN A CAVSE.I BELIEVE IN MEIN MY OWN CAUSE' - 1.1 I M THE OEST CAUSE Z KNOW. AND - Pi THAT CAC UM TUE... 6"44lticz, ROBERT MOORE Business Manager
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