PAGE fOUR Editorial Opinion The Fischer Method In a lecture Thursday night, John Fischer, editor of Harper's that university students take action to improve the quality of the education by promoting better instruction. His ideas are worthy of consideration. The Daily Collegian suggested last year that college student councils undertake evaluations of the. professors in their colleges as a service to other students. Such an action could bring attention to substandard instruction and provide an incentive for improvement. Fischer also recommended that students “raise a little hell” to end poor instruction. We would like to see students, use the power of numbers to achieve results in this direc tion. However, without substantial organization, this plan would have no effect. Outside examiners, by which a professor unassociated with the course makes up the exam, are another pos sibility. Fischer pointed out that this system provides .an incentive for a professor to teach the course he is -best capable of as well as promoting better relations between student and professor; who are united against the outside examiner. * We realize that substandard instruction exists at this University as well as at other universities. We do not condone it. E However, we 'think the student has a responsibility to bis professors similar to that which a professor has to his student.' It is: at least up to’the individual student to find out what the professor is -capable of teaming If challenged to go beycnd the required minimum. Stimulating discus sion is one of the test.methods of;improving a class and bringing out the best in professors! Education is a two-way process! Unfortunately, knowl edge cannot be implanted in studenis’ brains solely through the efforts of the professor. Students have an obligation to make the first step to improve instruction through their classroom attitude. If they are still dissatisfied, their next resort is to the Fischer method. 1 OSGA-A Link? The Organization of Student Government Associations! of this University convened its fall meeting last night. • In the last two years since, this organization was formed, most of the items discussed at meetings have been related to such subjects, as regulating activities, setting up athletic leagues "and evaluating past meet-,- ings. ' While W. feel that these topics be discussed, we also would suggest that the OSGA delegates concen-j trate more timfe on “main" issues. These issues deserve awareness on the part of University students on all 14 campuses. Main issues which could be conceritrated upon are the student dritfefor more state appropriations, the cam paign lo eliminate the 4 per cent state sales jtax on text? Jbooks and the student government’s membership in the Student Association. Last year OSGA supported our campus student gov ernment's drive for a Thanksgiving vacation. We believe piore collective group stands should be taken, since these “main’’ issues affect students at every campus. We urge the delegates to consider* seriously the im portance ahd 'value of their organization in making it a more, vital link between all university students. A Student-Operated Newspaper St Years of Editorial 1 Freedom ®tjpoatUj (EnUwttmt Successor to The free Lance, est ItB7 I«W4 Taaaiy' tbianrt Satariay ai»rala» iarias tb* Unlmally roar. T%< EetrMj »>twi«~ciu> uite Jalr A IMI at tb* Slat* Call***, Pa. Pate Office aaier tb* act «f March I. UTS. Mail Sabantetlaa Price: ! JAM a yiar MalUac Attraaa Box Xfl.Stato OUxra. Pa. Member of The Associated Press Wffl PALMER t Editor g*? ■*•»« »Sth»« aite Oarte Idkacki .Km ate Warii Affair* ESitar. •tap Mina: EIIMiI Kilter. Carte Kaaklriaaa: Bpert* Uttar. M* Mantel AaMteaat Spacta Ulbr, Kea DeaUnprr; Pbatacrapby O-riltacm. Tta Buna •M !>»■ Calaaaaai Paraannal Director. Strain Orton; Km ite Fralarta Bitter, Daanaa liaana. tttMal AArartUlae Ca-Maeasan: Jaw Baht Jaaa SUrermtaU: NtUaaal ii Mar. Barbara Inn; Cnttt Mar. Balpb Mteau: AaaUtaat CratUt Her, Harry Raacb: Praaiatiaa tecr. Bant Laritet Claaalftai Ai MfT., Cathrrte* Baaairr: Cirnriatiaa Mpr. Phil Carat Aaabteat Cirralatiaa Me*, DaaU Spirt: Par. M..:««! IK*-, 4- . t,. 0 « f I . q . HERBERT WITHER Business Misigt: *^3o*** THE DAtCY COLLEGIAN. UNIVERSITY PARK. PENNSYLVANIA * ' I ; The Undergraduate IStudpnt Government, supposedly the voice 'and “governing body's 0 f Penn State students, terminated its! use fulness 'to anybor' Wednesday night abolished immr ately. ? Already, stand' ing on the edg" nothingness t result of .past decisiveness, completely at gated its dutir the student when it refused ; act swiftly \ firmly on ami / that would condemned the plete disregard for student rights ministration's action op Froth. In the Froth case. 1 USG Congressmen should not If USG Congressmen were even >be figureheads, but sfcjoifld act in so much as mere pawns of student • accordance with their role ats rep- option, they would! have con ; resentatives of a specific group of . doomed the administration's dic : students. j talari al action without hesitation. 1 True governmental representa- , USG “Congressmen” did not :■ lives are duty bound t<j investigate even have the initiative or energy ’■ all issues confronting them, to to consult their own constituency ? hear witnesses and tp study all on Frothj but instead decided to : aspects of the issues ;|n great de- await an overall poll of student ■ tail. ; opinion. ; , Letters Penn Case TO THE EDITOR: Your Froth 'situation interests me chiefly, I must admit, because we] on the Penn camjlus are a beautiful ex ample of what happens once humor and satire diss at] college. A few years ago had one of the best.humor magazines in the nation, and now we hive The Satyr—published bil-annually, if it’s lucky, and purchased by somebody, if it’s lucky, j’ Tba magazine Ii dull—take offs on a fraternity, party, a few pointless ad parodies, a (page of smutty jokes that: never quite come out and say the words. Long- ego it stopped making fun of sacred' cowi and pouring wa ter over the clay ifeet of idols, but it wasn’t because of any great furor among the student body and administration. We slopped car ing; no one wanted to expend the time, sweat and, talent neces sary to turn the really important campus issues i 'into ■ j palatable humor. We let our w’jils grow stag nant with disuse, and so we found ourselves left with a humorless humor magazine. : a j satireless Satyr. -j£;> i You’d be surprised wlhat a dif ference it makes. We don*t haye a forum for free ejiprefsion any more, and it shows. Because now that there isn’t a .ready oppor tunity to be crude and; offensive angry and biting, crusading and witty all rolled into one, we’ve lost the crude, angry and witty part of our personality, and you no longer find us ijffehding, bit ing and crusading,i Your school spirit is the first to go; and’after that you forget the cajises. Take a look at the Penn cam pus and get sick to yovir stomach, what are we? A bunch of passive pseudo-intellectuals without the capacity to enjoy n good smutty joke now and then. We have a women’s weekly which has as its sole purpose berating the men’s daily.; We have a Student Gov ernment Association jthat oper ates straight jout of the Deari of Men’s office.,we haveja fraternity system that S’ ‘rapidly deterio rating mid no workable -dorm council to take its place. We have a Dean of Women who. goes through the women's dorms to make sure every girl makes her bed before II o’clock,’ We; have a literary magazine -that can’t sell 500 copies on a‘campus of 5,000. Fight for your Froth. If* more than just a msgatine. It's your right to say what you think in the aranf, tradition and administration bu (hanged. If ▼Mt* too squeamish jto taka your independence with a;biioftilih. than by all means don’t buy tha magasina. But if : it's tha spirit and opportunity behind tha Froth that you admire, then by. all means eupoort il fat every wav snowed — ? The Stiident Cites of Dull Humor Hollow Men From the eridence and tasti many so gathered, true represen tatives make use of their reason* tag powers to reach a conclusion. Since few members of, the USG Congress demonstrated either the interest or ability to!follow the course of true representatives Wednesday night, USG is obvious ly not composed of representatives of the students. But they are not figureheads either! | Figureheads act in: accordance with the will of th’e majority of their constituency. j _ Polls conducted by the Daily Collegian and private; sources in dicated students are strongly op posed to the administration's com- you can—with money and with word*. Nothing is so sacred, not even God, that we can’t laugh at it once in a while. And once you lose your ability to laugh, life becomes too long and the daily problems of living too oppressive. •Letter cut L —A University of Pennsylvania - Student, '65 More Theft Seen As Campus Trend TO THE EDITOBs “Theft" and “Penn State”—these two words seem to be developing a greater association with each other. Penn Staters will, it seems, steal any thing: books from -the library, bicycles, articles of clothing, etc. For one indication of the occur rence of theft here, just i check the Collegian classifieds ■ from time to time. In the Pollock residence halls some sorority suites are adjacent to the main entrance and lobby, fhus facilitating easy entry from the lobby and greater opportunity for anyone to, enter and remove objects from these, suites. ! .Three weeks ago, two wooden figurines brought back from Eu rope last summer were removed from the Alpha Phi suite. The ‘‘Optimist” and “Pessimist," as they are called, have little mone tary value as they only cost about $lO. But that is ;not the point, They are not easily replacable, and they do not belong to any one other than this sorority, i I do not feel that this is a petty issue, jn this particular case and in principle. That] University stu dents—by definitionj an elite of each generation-pcan’t be ex pected to conduct themselves in an above-averagej. more mature and responsible manner seems to me to be a sad; fact for Penn State and our society to have to admit. I f —Phyllis Hutton, '63 Some of the bulletin boards out side dining ' halls are sporting more signs than space these days. It makes one want to add just one more - poster: “Please stop the signs” or ‘You're drowning us with gobd advice." —Prof Wayne WDFM Schedule SATURDAY 1:M Open 1 l:M Chaator Halt T:H m n OpcafaMM , »:•* SprtßsM ; *:•* OflWit : „ Sn'i Shmt SUNDAY IrM Stale Unit : I :*• PttbT ial Had*. l:W Ckapd Btgalta «:♦* Ihm fahnadi (Ml «:*» Ctaakr IfnSc T:M Ttw TUii.rntna j - I*:M Bi«a. OU| | SATURDAY. OCTOBER 27.1962 by /oftf myers This poll will not divulge the individual-feelings of students.in each of the different governing areas, but will represent a mass of statistics characterized : by means, standard deviations and correla tion coefficients Jtorithe Univer sity as a whole. ! ' In refusing to accept the chal lenge presented by this controver sial issue and acting’- swiftly on the students’ bejiafi, ; USG de stroyed its' last -vestige of useful ness. , . . j...;., ■ In refusing to legislate before a statistical summary, of < student opinion could be compiled, the Congress abrogated its' powers as a governing body. For these rea sons, USG should abolish itself at once and turn over its few re maining functions to a team of poll-takers. It should.not -reappear on the University'scene!until a group of students can be found thatjunder stand the functiohirig ofa govern ing body, are familiar‘with the Constitution of die United* States and are capable of exercising the powers granted to them as Con gressmen. | Fros/i Propose New System For Pattee TO THE EDITOR:;We noticed In the Oct. 20 issue of the Collegian that the editorial staff was quick to point out to returning alumni that Penn State, has been predicted to be in the top ten. universities in the nation; within the next decade. If it can be truly said that a university can be, judged partial ly by the quality : of its library,' we find it hard to believe that Penn State isj destined to be a leading institution. The Inade quacy of the. Pattee Library is, somewhat astonishing. We went to the library, last night with great Expectations of finding, reference material for a term paper. We were not'so fool hardy as to request but one or two books. (We know better than that.) We requested seven. Still, ,we were astonished to learn that the wherabouts of all seven books are unknown. -V As you have already pointed out, there isj a great amount of thievery on ibis-campus; and we cannot expect to : raise the moral standards of iour f ellow student*, but perhaps j a system ' might bo established to remove temptation.' We feel that the present circular tion system is.not only time-con suming and. bothersome, but in fact serves as a stimulation .for theft. The students adhere to the old adage, "A book .in the hand is worth two in the stacks." Now, we propose that the pres ent circulation system be done away with and in its place, & new system be set up whereby stu dents be allowed;to find the books ,in the stacks themselves. We feel that this action will place ;a far greater respohsibility on thie stu dents and they will appreciate the expression of confidence on toe part of the library staff.' - We also consider that ithe sys tem < will be beneficial ’ to too . library staff itself because it will require toe employment of fewer personnel. Instead of six or seven' assistants who ; are required to operate the- present system, the new system will require but one librarian stationed at each ofthe exits of the stack rooms. - W* further suggest the removal of temptation by prohibiting the student from taking his books into the stack* 'with , him. In tM» way, any attempt - at pilfering will be easily recognised. We hope 1 to; remain at Perin State for toe next four years; fear our main purpose in coming here was to obtain an education. We do not see ;how this is possible, however, when'such, an important facility as toe library is of such poor quality. Something must b* dime. 1 —Bob Newman. ‘6S —Bruce Yoskin, *#•—
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers