The daily collegian. (University Park, Pa.) 1940-current, April 07, 1961, Image 4
PAGE FOUR ditorial O. info Have Chances Changed? It's official now The voluminous report by the governor's special education committee advocating a wholesale overhaul that should shake the very foundations of the education system in this state has been presented to the governor and-the legislature. The obvious questions of everyone at University Park now are just what will this mean for Penn State in the long run? How much will it increase the chances of Penn State getting its full appropriation request this year? ft is a little easier to decipher answers to the first question than the last. The committee's recommendation concerning the role of Penn State was a virtual endorsement of the long-range plans the University drew up as long ago as 1957. This is certainly a vote of confidence for the University and its attempts to handle its share of the higher education load in this state. No other• university in the state can match the ad vance of Penn State in educating the youth of ,Pennsyl- vania In addition to accepting and endorsing Penn State's long-range plan to enroll 25,000 students on main campus and 10,000 on commonwealth campuses and centers by 1970, the governor's committee published reams of evi dence supporting the need for Penn State to expand. Expansion of Penn State's facilities was listed as the first of three definite requirements for meeting the minimal higher education requirements of the next decade. Second was the expansion and transformation of the present system of state colleges (formerly state teachers colleges) into liberal arts schools, Third was the establishment of a system of commun ity colleges or junior colleges concentrating on the first two years of collegiate level study. Penn State has already started working on its ex pansion, but to do so it needs $6 million more from the state than it got last year. Now, by elementary logic, it would seem incompre hensible that the state would in one breath expect Penn State to fulfill the expanded demand and in the next refuse it the money needed for the job. But the governor and the legislature have not yet acknowledged this need for Penn State in the higher education system of the state. Only the committee's report has pointed it out. The governor and legislature have only heard this report but not yet acted upon it. There wire reports that action may be delayed by sending thevport to a joint committee for further study. However, this idea has been nixed by officials. Senator Jo Hays, a member of the governor's com mittee. said last night that he definitely expects some action arising from the report to be initiated during this session of the Assembly in Harrisburg. Hays said the report was received by legislators with cautious enthusiasm because of the price tag (increased taxation.) But the support of the administration is also needed for bills on education to get through this session. Gover nor Lawrence's feelings may be revealed 'when he ad dresses a joint session of the house and senate Monday. If the governor and legislature accept the education committee's report, they have no alternative but to grant Penn State's full budget request as the first step in carrying out the committee's recommendations. A Student -Operated Newspaper alt 4 Daily (11111 Irvin Successor to The Free Lance, est 188? Published Thesday through Saturday morning during the University yent tip Daily Collegian Is a student.operated newspaper. Entered as ■econd•elaas matter July 6. 1931 at the State College Pa. Poet Office under the art of March S. 11379. Mail Fitibirriptinn Pricer MOO pet semester 15.00 per year. Moiling Address Bog 261. State College, JOHN BLACK Editor HEY, MANAGER „WERE AFRAID - TO PUT OUR HANDS IN OUR GLOVES BECAUSE THERE MI6HT BE A SPIDER CR A Due IN THERE! INMENIIO I4 _ , _ _ AA UGH o fi Ak.l; Pi CHESTER LUCIDO Business Manager OH, GOOD GRIEF: MO DO THESE THINGS EVER GET STARTED?I HERE...LET ME PUT MY HAND IN FIR6T JUST TO 5HOtO StO THAT,. A THANK QOO, BU6! MANA6GR: SPc(a • P;;; F:41%,7 0 1, . _ C. ‘l% "77 ..570"0r THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA Letters Soph Objects To System Of Grading TO THE EDITOR: Your final average' for X-ology 200 was 69.4. You receive your tran script with a 1 beside the course. You came within 6/10 of a point from getting a 2 from the course. Naturally, you com plain. Do you have reason to? You certainly do. Presently we are on a 4 point grading system. This means whether your average for a particular course is- a 60 or a 69, you receive a 1; 70 or 79 a 2; and so on. This means student X may earn a 69.4 and student Y may earn a 60 and both will receive the arbitrary 1 on their transcript. This system in no way can benefit the student but can only serve as a detriment to show an accurate description of his academic knowledge. It is argued that this system evens itself out. This is true in some cases, but certainly not in all. Many schools base their grad ing on a 5 point system. That is to say if you have a 79, you receive a 2.9; a 75 a 2.5; a 70 a 2.0, It is certainly evident this system shows a more accurate description of knowledge. In this wonderful age of IBM cards and matriculation num. bers and four term plans, I doubt if there would be too much difficulty in changing the present obsolete and absurd system the University is now using. Gazette "Africa," 7:39 p.m., 124 Sparks Chemistry Program, 7:50 p.m., HUB assembly room Chemisirg Program, 9 p.m., 218 HUB Information Table, 7 p.m., HUB let floor Interbendia, 7:30 p.m., HUB ballroom IVCF. 12 :45 p.m., 213 HUB Lacrosse Team, 5 :15 p.m., HUB ball. room M.l. Colloquium, :12 p.m., 211 'Mineral Science Placement, 84 p.m., 202, 212 111JB WDFM Schedule FRIDAY 3 :25 Financial Tidbit. 3 :30 Stock Market Reports 4:00 Critic's Choice 5 :00 Music at Five 8:00 Studio X 6:35 Weatherscope 7 :00 Marquee Memories 8:00 Starlight Review 9:00 Light Classical Jukebox . 9 :15 News, Weather, Sports 10:00 Ballet Theatre 12:00 Midnight Mood 1:00 Sign Off A Contemporary Masterpiece By STEPHEN B. BLUM Contributing Writer The college campus is a place where cynicism fer ments and often nihilism is brewed. Contorted values are spawned out of a maze of relationships which reach heights of superficiality and depths of decadence. The intellectual is cynical to the point of being overbearing on any subject that is even partially social—from the cur rent political scene to the val ues, or lack thereof, of the fra ternity system. The student who is not "classed" as an in tellectual is usually referred to (by the intellectuals) as a "bore" who is going to lead this country to ruin. For many students the uni versity environment, far from being a decent collection of books, is an island of books. Never have so many people read scantily so much in so little time as they do for courses in literature, humani ties, and others which require 10 or so works to be read in a 16 week period. Quantity rather than thoroughness is often the goal that the student sees. This is so because even the most slow-witted of students has found out there are many sub stitutes for qualify in order to accomplish The Goal: "getting through" the course. Because of illose existing ten- —Richard Leadea '63 Inter Problem Behind Budget Crisis By MAX 'HARRELSON Chief AP United Nations Correspondent Stripped of diplomatic trappings, the current UN financial crisis boils down to a single basic problem: Some member nations won't pay their assessments on costly undertakings such as those in the Middle East and the Congo. So far the General Assembly has concentrated on stopgap measures to meet day to-day bills. It has not come to grips with the broad question of how to collect from reluc tant members. As a result, the organization continues year after year to spend more money than it collects. It has been getting along by some fancy juggling the judicious transfer of money from one fund to another or by use of reserve funds Since 1956 the United Na tions has been running a defi cit of $4 million to $5 million a year on . the UN Emergency Force in the Middle East. This is caused by the refusal of the Soviet bloc, the Arab countries and some others to pay assess ments. On this operation alone, the deficit has mounted to more than $2l million not counting this year's expected arrears. A major crisis came with the UN entry into the Congo last July. To date, the United Na tions has collected less than half the $4B million which members were assessed for 1960. Of the 99 countries only six have paid anything at all. The Congo costs are contin uing at about $lO million a month. The assembly likely will approve a pending pro posal for assessments to raise the 1961 budget of $l2O mil lion. but the prospects for col lecting all that money is dim. The Soviet bloc and France already have ruled out any Lefters Serenade Protest TO THE EDITOR: Since when do coeds need protection against a beautiful serenade? Sunday night a serenade for a girl in Atherton Hall was inter rupted by two campus patrol men efficiently doing their dencies it is therefore not at all surprising that most stu dents do not get a chance— that is make the time—to do any "outside" reading that is not required. This sort of per son is missing something. It seems the "best-seller" lists in the New York Times and elsewhere usually exem plify the sad fact that Ameri cans don't like to think when they read. They like to be put into a little bubble and then entertained, carried far away from the daily worries .the world of political and economic contingencies urges upon us. Ordinarily, I think the best seller list is merely a good example of the best junk in America. But there are several books on the current lists that do not show' the trend toward illusion seeking. Andre Schwartz-Bert's novel, "The Last of the Just," is now at the top of the list, and I think that it belongs there. This story is what Leon Uris's "Exodus" could have been had the latter been well written, rather than just a compassion ate documentary. "The Last of the Just" deals with much of the same ma terial as did "Exodus"—it traces a fictional family in Eu rope and discusses this Jewish family in the light of thg con tinual political, religious, and economic sanctions that have been placed upon it, especially dealing with the Nazis "final FRIDAY, APRIL 7. 1961 payments whatsoever. Other countries are expected to fol. low their lead. UN officials hope that a sub stantial part of the deficit will be liquidated by voluntary contributions, but member countries have shown no great enthusiasm for such contribu tions. The United States is the only country which volunteered a cash contribution i 1960 Con go costs, although some others, including the Soviet Union, wrote off the cost of services such as the airlifting of troops. Up to now, the United States is the only one which has of fered a voluntary contribution toward 1961 costs. Now and then a delegate raises the possibility of invok ing penalties against• d.lin quent members. But there is virtually no chance of action at this time. The only penalty provided in the UN Charter is the denial of voting privileges under cer tain circumstances. IMportant 'coal issues are :_.•.olved in special assessments like these. Apart from this, many coun tries would have serious res ervations about taking harsh action • against any of the big powers. The United Nations seems able to avert bankruptcy for a while but eventually it will have to find a way to bail it self out. duty by keeping gentlemen out of the Atherton courtyard, Everything was in order both in the dorm and in the fra ternity group, so I ask: Where do they want serenaders to stand . . . on the HUB lawn? —Kay Mills, '63 solution," genocide. This novel, winner of France's highest literary award in 1960, is written with a magnificent flowing prose, a prose that has the character perception that we find in Dostoyevsky and the irony that is present in Camas works. The tracing of the Levy fam ily from 1185 AD . to the Nazi extermination camps over 750 years later is interwoven with the Talmudic legend of the 36 Just Men who are born into the world to bear all of the suffering of the masses. This book is one of the most beau tifully horrid tales that I have seen to come out of the cur rent literary pre-occupation with the Jewish character of the 1930'5. This is a book that will not chase away nihilisms. It is not a book, like "Exodus,' that might be called Zionist propa ganda by some: "The Last of the Just" transcends any liter ary name-calling. It is a con temporary masterpiece, plain and simple, powerful and beau tiful, ironic and poetic. If the intellectuals would dain to read a best-seller and the "ordinary people" would make the time to read a book that is not required for any course, a great many people could find a literary work of art and widen our horridly col legiate perspective. "The Last of the Just" is to be felt and experienced for what it is:. a fine contemporary novel.