PAGE FOUR ditorial 0 • inion Political Party Platforms Collegian is today examining the platforms of the two recognized political parties and the platform supported by all independent candidates except Joan Cavanaugh, CAMPUS PARTY • A non-profit University Co-op Shop to be set up to give Penn State students the lowest possible prices on such items as textbooks, school supplies and possibly clothing. This has been tried and proved successful in many other universities. This is definitely a good proposal but the party will have to prove the feasibility of the idea to the Board of Trustees. The record of similar attempts in the past indi cates that much work must be done in drawing up any detailed proposal. • Voluntary ROTC program which will fulfill the provisions of the Morrill Act and which has been given the approval of the Department of Defense. The party has taken the stand which we always sup- port but as yet they have not detailed any plan for attempt ing to establish the voluntary ROTC. However, included in their platform is a pledge of action to carry out these planks which explains how they will draw up and support their proposals before SGA, the administration, and, if necessary, the legislature: • An investigation into the possibilities of setting up student-run, student-owned multi-level parking areas in order that' the parking problems can be alleviated, These lots could possibly pay for themselves by charging hourly rates which might eliminate the need for the bi-semester parking fees as now assessed. There is certainly nothing wrong with an investiga tion into possibilities of parking lots but we really think an investigation would show that a student-run and student-owned lot is entirely unfeasible. The lot would have to be owned by a continuing student organization such as SGA. The persOnnel is constantly changing. SGA would have to absorb all losses from such a venture. Who's going to initially finance these expensive lots anyway? e With the announced lack of facilities on the part of the College of Physical Education, the requirements for physical education should be changed to four credits in stead of two years as now stated in the Senate Regulations. This would let students under the four-term system corn plete their requirements for physical education in one year. The plank contains a good suggestion. It is also the only plank in any of the platforms which seems to look ahead to the coming four-term system. The rest of Campus party's platform outlines in detail their general plan of action and includes the much-dis cussed proposal to appeal to the governor, legislature and alumni if the administration fails to act on SGA legisla tioin. The idea is basically a gond one and if the work is carried out, it would probably be very effective. However, the party should include definite plans to give the Board of Trustees the students' viewpoint on controversial issues too. The party's platform is an ambitious one and differs from Campus party's in that three of its planks have a very wide scope. It deals with-generally large plans while Campus party's is more specific. • SGA coordinate all student governing organizations into a central group with SGA at its head, , including such groups as Leonides, Town Independent Men, campus men's organizations and community councils and area councils. We do not think this is at all feasible at the present time; but may be considered in the future. SGA cannot handle such a job now unless it would merely be a token plan in which members of these organizations report to SGA on what the groups are now doing. • SGA become a functioning student government by faking over judicial and disciplinary proceedings from the dean of men's and dean of women's offices. We feel this is an outgrowth of the first plank and again we do not think it is feasible right now. These planks outline actions which should take considerably more thought and planning than has been indicated by the party. • The transferral of power , to grant and retract charters to student organizations from the Senate Com mittee on Student Affairs to SGA. .50 4 4, is, a political body and as such should not have UNIVERSITY PARTY THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA Analyzed this kind of power. The party in control could easily block the formation of an opposing party, even though it might be soundly organized. Any group passing on charters would have to be completely non-political in nature. e Asking the Board of Trustees of the University to permit the,Book Exchange to sell FM radios at a discount to help increase the audience of WDFM. This was University Party's only attempt at a specific plank and we think it is their best plank. The preamble to their platform explains the nature of it by saying "We limit our proposals and our pledges to those areas in which SGA has the power to act." ► We propose that all organizations interested in bettering student welfare work for the establishment of a non-profit bookstore. We advocate the setting up of an SGA committee. to co-ordinate all present fractional ef forts towards this goal. The plank is similar to Campus Party's except it is Stated more generally. The setting up of an SGA commit tee to bring together the work done by these candidates, the freshman advisory board and Ted Simon is a good idea. e We propose that SGA set minimum standards for off-campus housing, so that students living off campus have better conditions under which to pursue their edu cational goals. This plan could be accomplished by elimi nating all housing which does not meet those standards from the list maintained by SGA. We believe that the Student Affairs Bureau, the establishment of which was requested by the State College Chamber of Commerce, woud be an effective means of carrying out this proposal. The University has dodged this issue for some time and the old All-University Cabinet found such action un feasible because members had no right to go into homes to examine conditions. SGA, which could just eliminate uncooperative landlords from their lists, could very easily establish this service for the students. e We propose that SGA better educate the new stu dents in the use of library facilities that already exist. To do this we recommend that a new and better library handbook be . passed out to all freshmen when they buy their dinks and customs books. We further propose that a more complete knowledge of the library system and its facilities be included in the freshman's customs program. This plank certainly merits consideration but we are sorry that none of the independents or parties went into some of the deeper problems faced by the library. • We propose to establish better communications be tween faculty and administration with students by hav ing student-faculty discussion groups and forums with administrators who make the policies which directly con cern students. Such forums would include policies in parking, housing, food service, etc. All students could at tend these forums and would be encouraged to ask direct questions of the administrators. This is a good plan in theory and if administrators had lots of time and students always had more sensible questions than "Why is the food so terrible?" it might work. However, conditions are not so ideal and we think students should go to SGA committees handling such problems. These committees should then separate legiti mate questions and complaints from the unfeasible and ridiculous and go to the administrator concerned. • We propose that SGA offer a centralized co-ordi nated list of all tutoring facilities to prevent duplication of effort and increase the opportunity for those offering tutoring service as well as for those desiring this tutoring service. An excellent proposal which we hope fares better than the SGA plan to offer a weekly list of good lectures based on the professors' estimation of the general interest in his lecture and the amount of available space in his classroom. Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. The Daily Collegian is a student-operated newspaper. Entered as second-class matter July 6. 1931 at the State College. Ps. Post Office under the act of March 5. 1811. STAFF THIS ISSUE: Headline Editor, Carol Kunkleman; Wire Editor, Dex Hutchins; Night Copy Editor, Polly Dranov; As sistants, 011ie Himes, Dot Drasher, Dick Leighton, Sue Robbins, Karen Wrem, Barb Baer, Joan Hartman, Margie Halprin, Linda Williams, Diane Ryesky, Jackie Russiano, Lillian Berger, Eve Bowers, Winnie Boyle, Rochelle Gould* and Bruce Henderson. INDEPENDENTS' PLATFORM A Student-Operated Newspaper 56 Years of Editorial Freedom gitt Daily Tatiggiatt Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887 Mill Subscription Price: $3.00 per sennester —• $5.00 per year. Member of The Associated Press and The Intercollegiate Press JOHN BLACK CHESTER LUCIDO Editor " 4615*1 Business Manages TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6. 1960 Controversy Clarifications Part of the blame for the whole controversy over party platforms being printed in a newspaper rat t ler than put on posters as prescribed by SGA can be placed upon the fact th a t Wlections Commission Chairman Robert Umstead did not receive the University Par ty platform until a couple days after Thanksgiving vacation, This, of course, was too late to be included on the candi dates' posters and, according to Umstead, also too late for the platforms to be printed on separate posters. However, we still feel that Umstead did not have the au,_ thority to circumvent the law, which said radio time and printed poster displays were the only commercial publicity allowed. Also deplorable is the fact that University candidates and party members had no part in forming the platform and did not even see it until after it was published. Nancy Williams, who is seek ing reelection on the Univer sity party ticket. had a hercu lean task at the Collegian press conference trying to defend a platform which she did not help draw up. Clarification is necessary on some other points affecting the elections today and tomorrow. Since there is officially no such organization as Liberal Party, it cannot buy or dis seminate publicity in the cam paign. Independent candidates; who elected not to have their pic tures put on the official SGA campaign posters, were allowed by a ruling of Umstead to per sonally disseminate mimeo graphed or hand-made posters. They are prohibited by law, however, from purchasing com mercial radio or newspaper space. As far as putting personal independent posters in the BX. Richard Snyder, a member of the unchartered Liberal Party which has endorsed the inde pendent candidates, said they were first told by Umstead that they could not put posters in the BX, then later told to see the BX mananger about it. Umstead said he first ques tioned whether there would be space for all the independent posters in the BX, then later told them to get the approval of the BX manager. One candidate was warned (Continued on page five) IF HE WAS SO GREAT, HOW CC AE THE RANKS CONI CLOSE El THER, OR THE RKT OFFICES OR THE LIBRARIESIHOW COME?
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