PAGE FOUR
ditorial 0 • inio
Policy Redefined
The letter criticizing The Daily Collegian read by SGA
President Richard Haber before Assembly Thursday night
has caused us to feel that perhaps a redefinition of our
policy for editorial comment is necessary.
The letter criticized Collegian for its "negative"
editorial comment on the secretive actions of the SGA
Reorganization Committee and its chairman. It said that
our wanting to present the news when it happened meant
that we were jealous of SGA. It accused us of sarcasm in
our presentation and biased editorial policy.
We cannot quite understand why a letter criticizing
Collegian would be sent to the SGA president. Certainly
he could do nothing to correct the situation that the letter
criticized.
Had the letter been sent to Collegian, however, it
would have been published in the Letters to the Editor
column which is maintained specifically for criticism of
Collegian or any other group by the readers.
Also the criticism could have been heard by all the
students on campus rather than just the select 40 or 50
in the assembly room. Had we then considered the criti
cism valid, we would have attempted to correct the
situation.
But, according to Haber the letter was not signed.
This indicates a lack of conviction in the writing or lack
of courage to stand up for it on the part of the author.
Sbme further actions cause us to question whether
the letter was in fact written by an anonymous author
or by Haber himself.
Haber at first said that the Collegian could have the
letter. However, he changed his mind after reading it to
the Assembly and said he would "give a copy of the letter
to NO ONE." He further requested that the reading of
the letter be stricken from the minutes of the Assembly
meeting.
If the President had justification for reading the
letter, we 'see no reason why it should be stricken from the
minutes. We wonder what prompted his change of heart?
Was this a testimonial to thoughtless leadership that
has characterized the SGA executive branch most of the
year?
Moreover, the major part of the Assembly meeting
devoted to consideration of reorganization seemed to bear
up our impression that this case of secrecy and delay com
bined to prove almost fatal to any intelligent discussion.
In our work on Collegian we acquire a certain callous—
ness to the various pleas we receive for "good publicity."
Collegian is not a publicity organ.
The criteria for what we print is newsworthiness and
truth. We are out, not to do favors for anyone, but to
utilize to the fullest the concepts of a free press, interpre
tation and the right of the people to be informed.
Certainly our editorial on the reorganization fumble
was biased to the degree that it reflected only our think
ing. But it was clearly headed "Editorial Opinion." We
did not try to disguise it, but stood behind it as our con
sidered judgement. Many persons have told us that they
share our judgement.
Regardless of what any "anonymous letter writer"
thinks, we still feel it was the tardiness of the reorgani
zation report that precipitated a lengthy and senseless
discussion on possible extension of the present SGA char
ter because there is not enough time this spring to revamp
the election system.
This loss of face for SGA merely became fuel for those
who would rather get rid of student government entirely.
It could have been avoided had the Reorganization Com
mittee submitted its report some weeks earlier, or kept
the Assembly informed of its progress.
All actions of government bodies come under the
scrutiny of the press. Morally, constitutionally, and ethi
cally we feel we have not the right but the duty to
comment. freely on these matters.
We shall continue to analyze and criticize the actions
of SCA, a task which it seems to have completely neglect
ed ,itself.
Mir Batty Tolirgian
Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887
Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University feat the
Daily Collegian Is a student-operated newspaper. Entered as second-class matter
July 6. 1934 at the Stets College. Pa. Poet Office under the act of March 3. 18T9.
Mail Subscription Petrel $3.00 per semester 15.00 Per year.
Mailing Address Bog 281, State College. Pa.
JOHN BLACK
Editor
STAFF THIS ISSUE: Headline Editor, Sandy Yaggi; Wire Editor,
Meg Teichholtz, Assistant Copy Editor, Pat Dyer; Assistants,
Sandie Wall, Susie Robbins, Maxine Fine; Sue Hooley, Ginger
Signor, Faith Popkin, Toni Baurnes, Susie Cobrin, Joanne Phil
lippi, Todd Lehman, Sandy Reabuck and Ken Kestle.
Business Manager
$616141 " CHESTER LUCIDO
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
Letters
Frosh Queries
SGA Action
On New Plan
TO THE EDITOR: Is a tailor
made plan of reorganization
being forced down the throats
of SGA Assemblymen? In view
of the rather questionable pro
cedures being followed and the
general lay of .the plan itself,
I would say yes.
First, a campaign of pub
licity was launched to the tune
that the present student gov
ernment system will complete
ly shatter with the introduc
tion of the four term plan.
Action must be taken now,
within the next three weeks or
all is lost; the campaign states.
And with the complete accept
ance of this concept the assem
blymen and the student body
are to panic to the extent
where any plan will be snapped
up.
At this point the SGA Re
organization Committee steps
in waving a magic wand in the
form of a nicely mimeographed
sheet of paper outlining a
totally different and in many
respects undesirable structure
of student government
To remove any taint from the
name of the committee, an
anonymous letter is read to the
assembly discrediting the Col
legian for stating that the
clandestine measures used in
preparing the plan leave much
to be desired.
Why is this need for total
reorganization so urgent? Why
should the job of organizing as
a political party before the up
coming Spring Elections be
hurled at AWS, TIM. MRC, and
IFC?
Certainly it will be several
years before the class system
at Penn State is made obsolete
by the four term plan. Could
not this coming year be taken
to smooth out a plan based on
community living, at the same
time giving the organizations
involved a chance to adjust
their structures to the new role
they will be playing?
I believe that this would be
the most feasible way of in
suring an effective student
government in future years
and the only way of preventing
a form of government that
rests in the hands of a few
power groups and special in
terests.
Gazette
Camp Interviews, 9 s.m., 212 11U13
Chess ream TN. Princeton, 1 p.m., HUB
lounge
Club Hubans, 8 :30 to 12 p.m., HUB
ba 11 room
Eastern Arts Research Committee, 9
to 12 and 2 to 5 p.m., 213 HUH
Inter American Club, 8 p.m., Conference
Center
FEMME!!
Sigma Alpha Mu. A to t p.m., 214 HUB
Studetn Movie, 7!30 p.m., HUB nssem•
lily room
University Christian Association Collo.
quium, 1:45 p.m., Eisenhower Chapel
ToAtoßßow
Artists Series. g p.m., Ree Hall
AWN. 6:30 p.m
Campo» Party, 6:30 p.m., 212 HUB
Chapel Service, 10:55 a.m., Schwab
Chem; Club, 2 to 6 p.m., HUB card
room
DARE, 3 p.m., Faith Church. second
floor lounge
Emerson Society. 7 p.m., Eisenhower
Chapel
Grad Student Bridge Club. 7 to 10
p.m., itUtt card room
Liberal Party, 6:30 p.m., 121 Sparks
Mt. Nittany Stamp Society, 2 p.m., 217
DUlt
Navy Discipline Committee, 2 to 4 p.m
216 HUB
Newman Club, 7 p.m., 214 HUB
Spring Week, 3 p.ni., 216 HUB
Student Movie 6:30 p.m., HUB assent-
hty l'oolll
Swedenborgian, 10:45 A.M., 212 HUB
Thespians, 0 to 8:30 p.m., 217 HUB
University Party, 0:30 p.m., 119 Os
mond Lab
Ag Econ. 3 to r, 2I HUB
Alpha Colony, 630 p.m., 213 HUB
Alpha Phi Omega, Exee meetings. 7
pan., 212 HUH
Angel Flight, 7 to 9:30 p.m., 214 and
215 HUB
Bridge Club, 7 to 10 p.m., HUB card
TOM
Circa. 7 p.m., 107 Boucke
College of Education. 4:16 p.m., HUB
nagen‘hly room
Faculty Luncheon Club, 12 noon, HUB
A dining room
IFC, 7 :30 p.m.. HUB assembly room
ISA, 7 n.m., 203 lIUU
Naval Reserve Research Company 4-4,
I p.m.. 303 Wegner
Placement, B to 6 p.m., 208 HUB
State College Color Slide Club, 7:30
to.m., MI auditorium
—Dale Harris. '64
TODAY
212 HUB
200 HUH
MONDAY
Smoke Screen
The present and past actions of the SGA Reorganiza
tion Committee and its chairman in particular have left
SGA, political parties, and probably AWS, MRC and TIM
confused about their future roles.
A new constitution was brought before Assembly for
the first time Thursday and
there is little time to discuss
or change it before spring elec
tions.
The situation arose because
of the committee's procrastin
ation in drawing up a new
constitution or perhaps because
of a plan to railroad through
the Assembly a constitution
drawn up by a select few or
a combination of both.
The Daily Collegian had
been asking that the activities
of the committee, headed by
Duane Alexander, be made
public so that Assemblymen
and other students could dis
cuss it before voting time.
At the Assembly meeting
Thursday, an anonymous let
ter sharply criticizing the Col
legian stand was read to the
members preceding the dis
cussion of Alexander's report.
Richard Haber, town crier
for the occasion, read the let
ter which he said criticized
other aspects of campus life
and contained very abusive
language. Haber only read the
parts of the letter which per
tained to the Daily Collegian
and first promised to turn the
letter over to the Collegian and
then refused.
Attacking the editorial board
of the Daily Collegian in an
attempt to throw a smoke
screen around the reorganiza
tion committee's incompetence
is not only obvious, it is stupid,
Yet Mr. Haber chose to read
the letter, which he said came
from the Pollock area, and
thereby lend support to the un-
Letters
ADS Head Answers Aberg
TO THE EDITOR: The recent
criticism of "those boxed testi
monials" by Mr. Gilbert Aberg
urged me to look up Mr.
Aberg's position in the Univer
sity.
I find that he is in radio and
television production and is
also employed by the Public
Information Office.
Without going into a tirade
on the obvious relationship of
advertising to television and
radio, (although there is no
advertising in educational tele
vision, which is the field I as
sume Mr. Aberg is employed in,
such television wouldn't have
been possible without first
having the groundwork laid by
commercial TV), I would like
More Comment on Ad
TO THE EDITOR: I am certain
the American people will be
properly grateful to the fear
less Professor Byers who has
exposed a dastardly conspiracy
of the Schlesinger gang (those
so-called intellectuals), to abol
ish all advertising, bring back
a "pie-in-the-sky', city-state
arrangement," and increase the
price of toothpaste in State
College.
Fortunately, as the cham
pion of our liberties has noted,
"the intelligence of the Ameri
can people is increasing in
every generation," perhaps it
self a tribute to better educa-
Book Purchases Criticized
TO THE EDITOR: In the Tues
day Collegian article concern
ing the recent purchases by the
Pattee Library of 17th and 18th
Century English Literature
books, the Librarian Ralph J.
McComb cited the purchases as
being significant because they
will greatly strengthen this
area of research at the Univer
sity.
I agree with Mr. McComb
that their purchases are sig
nificant, but I question wheth
er the library can afford a first
edition of "Gulliver's Travels"
when it can provide but one
copy of "Economics and Intro
ductory Analysis" (3rd edition)
and "Man, the State and War."
Perhaps these books are in
significant to the scholar, but
they are of great significance to
SATURDAY. MARCH 18. 1961
named writer's remarks which
suggested that fhe editorials in
the Daily Collegian were "bi
ased" (of course they are,
that's what the editorial page
is for) and that the Collegian
was just upset because it had
been scooped.
A newspaper can be "scoop
ed" only by a competing news
paper and we do not believe
that the borough paper sent a
reporter or is even concerned
about SGA affairs.
As for our "biased" editor
ials, the Daily Collegian has
the right (see the United States
Constitution) to express its
own views on the editorial
page whether or not those
views agree with anyone
else's.
The letter writer, if he dis
agreed with Collegian opinion,
should have written a letter to
the editor and signed his name
and not hidden like a coward
and given Haber Inc. the op
portunity to use it as a smoke
screen to hide their own short
comings.
In reading this letter, Mr.
Haber revealed that he hadn't
the vaguest idea of what a
newspaper is and allowed him
self to be dragged down be
low the level of the letter
writer.
Haber Inc.'s handling of the
whole issue accurately reflects
the type of people which 80
per cent of the student body
elected by staying away from
the polls.
-NICK! WOLFORD
to take a suggestion to Mr.
Aberg the Public Information
man.
I suggest that he purchase
a horse similar to that of Paul
Revere's and ride through
every village and hamlet in
Pennsylvania shouting th e
press releases which are usual
ly sent out by the Public In
formation Office to newspapers
supported by advertising.
You might even include your
"copper commercial" but I
doubt if the jingle would catch
on in a country where the ma
jority of commercial jingles
are good, not drab.
—Donald P. Bellisario,
President.
Alpha Delta Sigma
tion through advertising.
As for me, I won't pay one
cent more for toothpaste or
listen to any criticism of one
of our oldest professions.
Furthermore, if I were an
advertising agency; I would not
hire out at election time to
unethical persons who sully
my honor and try to destroy
the American way of life.
Next thing you know they
start telling us folk we can't
spell good "enuf." With men
who know their eggheads best
it's treason, two to one.
—Kenneth Inniss
Instructor of English
the hundreds of students en
rolled in Econ. 2 and 14 and
Pl. Sc. 14 who must wait an
hour or more in rooms 107 and
105 of the library in order to
check them out for a mere two
hours.
I realize that the scholar's
needs must be fulfilled, but in
doing so must the student's
needs be sacrificed? Perhaps
the Administration of the Pat-
tee Library should reexamine
its purposes in order to decide
where its primary responsibil
ity lies.
Should its limited budget be
used for the purchase of texts
which are required daily by
thousands of undergraduates
or for the purchase of rare
books to be hidden away in
the dark recesses of the stacks?
—Craig L. Bartholomew '63