PAGE FOUR ditorial 0 . inio Back to Basics Let's get bark to the basics of democratic govern mental theory. For four nights the SGA committee of the whole has tossed the ideas of representation back and forth going off iu-st on one tangent, then on another. As all these viewpoints are aired and evaluated the committee must not lose sight of its target. It is trying to structure a government that will have complete and final responsibility to all those governed. The. elec ion of representatives from the living areas is the fundamental method which would bring student government as close as possible to each student on campus. Critics of this method of representation say that Assembly members will not be "close" to their constitu encies. ASsemblymen will be living with their constitu encies. How much closer can you get? To those critics of the plan who contend that it doesn't give a definite or varied constituency, we might point out that the responsibility for meeting and talking with the voters best with Assemblymen. With residence area representation, an SGA member could set a definite weekly meeting time to meet with his fellow residents for discussion and suggestion. Another loud objection that has been raised to this system of representation is "will the best qualified and most interested people be elected." These objections are referring naturally to persons who have taken an active part in other activities on cam pus and are interested in student government. The best way to insure that the talents of the persons who have a background in government and have been elected as leaders of various important groups on campus is to put them on Cabinet. This would include the college council presidents and heads of such organizations as Panhel, Leonides, ISA and AWS. Cabinet then could be a storehouse of ideas for pro grams and action that SGA could take. Cabinet should be able to introduce such ideas or programs on the floor of Assembly, but all programs must have Assembly ap proval. This system would utilize the people who are sup posedly the most interested or best qualified without allowing any special interest groups to control student government. 56 Years of Editorial Freedom A Student-Operated Newspaper o . llr Datill Tatlrvin, Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887 Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. The Daily Collegian is a taudent-operated newspaper. Entered as second-class matter July 6. 1934 at the State College Pa. Post Office under the act of March 3. 1871. Mail Subscription Prices $3.00 per gamester $5.00 per year. Mailing Address Box 261, State College, Pa. JOHN BLACK Edifor City Editor and Personnel Director, Susan Linkroum; Asolotant Editor, Glori• Wolford; Snorts Editor, Sandy Pads'e; Assistant City Editor, Joel Myers; Copy and Features Editor, Elaine Miele; Photography Editor, Frederic Bower. Loral Ad 51gr., Brad Davis; National Ad Mgr., Hal Deisher; Credit Mgr., Mary Ann Crawl; Assistant Credit Mgr., Neal Reitz; Classified Ad Mgr., Constance Rif,el; ('o-Circulation Mgrs., Barbara Nutt, Richard Kitgingert Promotion Mgr., Elaino ;Wolin!: Personnel Mgr., Becky Kohudic; Office Secretary, Joanne Huyett. STAFF THIS ISSUE: Headline Editor, Susie Eberly; Wire Editor, Joan Mehan; Assistant Copy Editor, Polly Dranov; Assistants.: Phyllis Hutton, Sandie Wall, Arlene Lantzman, Catherine Hall, Jeanne Yeagle, Toni Baurnes, Myra Harris, Tucker Merrill, Joanne Phillippi and Wren Wheeler. 1- WYN l I I 'S ONE DOER ,VANG A FASI . BALL AND TWO FINDERS MEAN A CURVE., ,• . • mmmt 441 'DON'T (00Ri? ABOUT 11,..WE ONLY NAVE , 316NAL5 TO FOOL THE OTHER TEAM INTO TkiNKINC, 1 A) CAN THR:XO FertAETRING 5E50E5 A 6TRAIG4T BALI,! CHESTER LUCIDO Snainess Manager THREE FINGERS MEAN r GHAT A DROP AND FOUR IF I ANGERS MEAN A PITCH-OvT.„ FOR6E' AEU/blik. /irk r 175 ALWAYS Nice 70 MK WITH A CATCHER WHO HAG REAL CONFIDENCE IN YOU! , THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA Letters Complaints On System Of Grading TO THE EDITOR; The concep tion that general knowledge. is the main "goal of the univer sity student was not challenged in the letter of April 7 concern ing the five point grading sys tem. But, has Miss Gluskin, in her letter of April 11, considered the basic arbitrary nature of the present grading system? Many of the students here at the University desire to fur ther their education by attend ing some form of graduate school. These graduate schools are highly competitive and most difficult to get into. When the grad school sees the present arbitrary grade, they have no idea whether it falls in the low, medium, or high category. Let us be realistic. A 79 point grade would receive many more times weight than a 71. An 89 would receive more weigth than an 81. The grad uate school would be able to give the student applying for admission a fairer break than under the present system. To quote Miss Gluskin: . . notice that the superior students simply work hard and don't find it necessary to bicker with their professors for every extra available point." Let us correct this assumption. The superior student has his diffi culties in obtaining admission to a grad school. We wish to provide a more accurate repre sentation so' that these schools can objectively evaluate stu dents. Also, we have never claimed that this would be a system which would benefit "goof offs," nor did we wish to use it as a bickering point for grades. All we want to do is give the Penn State student a "fair shake" grade-wise. We wish to eliminate an OUTMODED, AR BITRARY GRADING SYS TEM. It is about time that the ease of programming an IBM com puter is subordinated to the welfare of the student body. Walking on Grass TO THE EDITOR: Some people call Penn State a "country club" and some people would like to see our lawns look like a country club golf course; but, even on golf courses people are permitted to walk on the grass. —Linda Fenner, '64 Gazette Accounting Club, 7:15 p.m., PI Kappa Alpha, 417 E. Prospect Ave. AIM. 8 :00 p.m., 203 HUB A WS. 6:30 p.m., 203 HUH Career Day. 8 a.m.•11 p.m., ground floor RUB Chem Club, 7 p.m., HUB card room Eng• Arch student Council, 6 :45 p.m., 103 Osmond English Colloquium, 7 :30 p.m.,. Nit- tarty Lion Inn Freshman Class Advisory Board, 6:30 p.m., 2133 HUB Investment Club, 8 p.m., 214 HUB Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, 12:46 p.m., 213 HUB Phi Epsilon Kappa, 9 p.m., 214 HUB Placement, B a.m., 203, 212 HUB Priestley Lecture Series, 8 p.m., 119 Dymond Prof. Snarf, 9.5, 1 at floor HUB Psychology Colloquium, 12 noon, HUB dining morn A Riding Club, 7 p.m., 212 HUB Senior Class Advisory Board, 8:15 215 HUB Slavic Club Film, 7 p.m., HUB ball- room Special Orientation Committee, 9 p.m., 215 HUB Sparta Car Club. 7:30 p.m.. 107 Uoucke Sociology Club, 9.p.m., 216 HUB Jean Arnold, George Blerins, Francis Carey, Judith Ceccoli, Nancy Crane, Charles Drum, Barbara Eiger, Mary Lynn Englerth, Ruth Feldstein, Bar bara Ann Fritz, Ronald Goldstein, Elizabeth Guibord, Thomas Holland, Edward Keifer, Mohammed Khan, In grid Leunis, Nancy Little, Gaeton Lon go, Ramachandra Mohanty, Suzanne Myers, Harry Mumma, Richard Myers, Susan Newby, Lawrence Parsons, Lin da Raup, Diane Richard, Frank Risch, Barbara Sacks, Beverly Schane, George Soheuchenzuber, Neal Sincov, Darlan Smith, Frederick Werner, Robert Wil• SOU . —Richard Leedes '63 —Richard Goldberg '6l TODAY HOSPITAL X' now t id all to Arms If the United States and the free world are to ulti triately survive the onward march of Communism, they must enter the Laotian conflict at once. The time of warning is past, the time to fight is now. Eleven years ago Red China took a chance on cap turing Southeast Asia, but lost the gamble when we entered the war in Korea. Being the most powerful nation on earth and possessing a huge lead in nuclear arms at that time, we could have subdued Red China without fear of Russian in tervention But one of our-closest allies— Eng land pro - tested so ve hemently that President Truman back ed down from the strong positionhe had taken MYERS earlier and we fought the long, drawn-out and inconclusive Korean conflict. Since World War 11, our allies—France and England— have become more squeamish. They have drifted closer to an isolationist position typified by this nation prior to World War As they use their restraining influence on our foreign policy, the Communists continue to ad vance. The time has come to act, not only in Laos but with re spect to France and England, the has-been powers that are exerting too much influence Letters Lobby Committee's Report TO THE EDITOR: This report is being presented in hope that it will arouse the students so that they will write to the gov ernor and the Hon. William Green, House Office Building, Washington 25, D.C., in regard to the full appropriation for Penn State. The governor in his address to the Joint Session of the Leg islature on Monday revealed what has long been noticed the lack of firm executive lead- ership in Harrisburg. When the radar bill, fair housing, etc., came up for floor action, David Lawrence left town each time. He has re peatedly washed his hands of the educational problem on the grounds that he didn't wish to influence the Gover nor's Educational Committee's report. Now the committee has made its report. His speech was an attempt to make. it appear to the public that he was doing something and in his speech he shifted the blame onto the Legislature. He also announced that he will set up a committee to see what parts of the report can be car ried out by executive action. This is truly irresponsible. Dr. Robert Christie and Lieu tenant-Governor John Morgan Davis both served on the com mittee and know this already. It is apparent that this is an other tactic to put off any de cision on education. It is a great illusion to think that special committee studies can solve or even expedite the answers to serious public ques tions. The governor has repeatedly said that he is hopeful that the heavy tax load confront ing the State for educatidnal purposes would be eased by federal help. From this it is apparent that he did not read the report of the committee. Pennsylvania citizens must pay $1.68 in federal taxes for each dollar in federal aid that we will receive. Hi Andrews, speaker of the House, has repeatedly said that he doesn't believe that the people or the legislature will be willing to sacrifice for edu cation. "Education is the sac rifice of things, of time, of money, and of enjoyment," he said, Andrews stated that it was WEDNESDAY. APRIL 12. 1961 by joel myers on our foreign policy. We must not sacrifice the Southeast Asian countries just to pre serve the deteriorating NATO alliance a little longer. If the Communists are not stopped, they will overwhelm Southeast Asia and all its peo ples, resources and territory will go with it. But, perhaps , more important than these tre mendous tangilile gains, will be the furthering of the Red psychological philosophy that Communism will eventually overspread the globe. The fall of Southeast Asia could stampede some of the politically unstable countries of South America, Africa and the Middle East into the. Red stable. In short, the survival of freedom would look darker than it has for 200 years. Without further delay the United States must sieze the initiative and with the support of Thailand, Philippines, For mosa, South Vietnam and Aus tralia, we must push the Com munist back to the North Viet nam border. The sun has set on the Brit ish Empire and the once-pow erful empire of France has disintegrated into rebellious colonies. The United States is by far the strongest of the wi.st ern democracies, so it's up to us to lead the cause of freedom, for if we don't, no one will. unfortunate that the governor's committee didn't set up prior ities for action in its report to the Legislature. Andrews said, "Why, this report is a hodge podge that is impossible to ap proach without more study. The Legislature should know what it can do now without new taxes or money and what must be put off until later. To drop something like this into the legislature's lap is almost unthinkable." On new taxes Andrews add ed, "If they're (the legislators) are so scared of their constitu ents they can't act sanely on tax matters they ought to ad journ sine die (without date) and all resign." Andrews pro posed a 3 per cent tax on ev erything that is sold at retail, but doubted that it would pass because, "it is so sensible it probably won't get anywhere." It seems very ridiculous to us that a committee must be set up to study another commit tee's report (which cost us $300,000). Our legislature is also con tinuing its game of dodging the big issue. How long can they run? They gave the responsi bility for education to a com- mittee which studied the needs of education. Studies were made and led to nothing but more studies each of which was promptly pigeonholed. The legislators have the choice of raising taxes or turn ing away from the largest problem which faces Pennsyl vania. If they turn away from this problem, then they should take Speaker Andrews' advice • and resign. It is clearly apparent that the State has just about reach ed the end of its financial rope under the present tax struc ture. The constitutional way must be cleared for a graduat ed income fax. The only alter native is for the local commu nities to pay for the ever-in creasing bill with higher wage and real estate taxes. If sufficient pressure is put on the Governor and the Gen eral Assembly they will act. Write today and save yourself from an increase in tuition and save Pennsylvania from a horse and buggy educational system. —Lobby Investigating Committee
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