PAGE FOUR Editorial Opinion Eliminate Special Elections The recommendations to revise the elections code made Wednesday night by Elections Commission Chair man George Jackson are weak and need expansion before the USG Congress considers them. The proposal to eliminate special elections for vacated Congressional seats seems practical. Mid-term elections are costly and do not arouse enough interest to make them worthwhile. Some Congressmen are liable to resign or lose the re quired academic average to participate, however, and pro vision must be made to fill their seats. There are several means by which this could be ac complished. After considering them, we feel the. most democratic method other than holding a special election would be to install the candidate who received the next highest number of voles in the area. This person would already have shown interest by running in the election. If this were the Election Commission’s policy, the runner-up in an election could begin preparing himself for LTSG service in case his congressman was forced to relinquish his seat. Should a case arise.where there were no “excess” candidates running for a USG seat, we feel the head of the congressman’s area government should appoint an interim member. Chances are that the area president best knows the interested persons from-the area. Jackson's next proposal, which would eliminaie run off elections in the event of a tie between candidates, shows lack of political feeling. No solution is as democratic as another election. Appointing a winner Is unfair. No person or group of persons could choose between the candidates without some honest bias existing in the back of their minds. Drawing straws or another “luck” system for deciding the tie is also wrong. Most area elections ask students to vote for more than one congressman. With fewer choices in a run-off election, students may have a definite prefer ence for one candidate even though they may have sup ported both in the first balloting. Adoption of Jackson’s remaining proposal to require all candidates to submit petitions of nomination, regard less of whether he is running on a political party slate, would weaken the already shaky party system. If parties were to hold their nominations after the petitions had been submitted to the Elections Commission, their choice of candidates would be seriously limited... If the petitions were due after the nominations, a party’s candidate, especially if he were new to campus politics, might not get the necessary number of signatures. This would leave the party without a candidate for that office. . • Finally, our campus political system has always been modeled as closely as possible to a state or national one to give students practical experience in politics. Adoption of this proposal would break the relationship at its base. SatUj (Mlwmrn Successor to The Free Lance, est, 1887 Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during tlu University year. Tha Dally Collegian I* a student-operated newspaper. Entered as second-elass matter July 5, 1831 at the State College, Pa. Post Office under the act of March 8, 1879,- Mail Subscription Price i $6.00 a year Mailing Address' Box 261. Stnte College. Pa. ANN PALMER HERBERT WITMER Editor - Business Manager t/oii CAN \ I'M NOT 601N6 70 TALK TO j stop worrVins, you anv more about marriage || MV AUNT MARIAN MARRIED A UIIpPAV FfiD TRUMPET PLAYER AND SHE • .£X * i SAVfTONE MUSICIAN IN THE A( )MT MAP ANN FAMILY IS SNOI/GK! AUIS I /MAlNlniS. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. UNIVERSITY PARK. PENNSYLVANIA Letters Dirty Tactics Blasted By Rush Chairman TO THE EDITOR: I want to com mend Miss Palmer on her column concerning underhanded tactics of sororities during rush. It is un fortunate that this article did not appear earlier, for if some soror ities could see themselves as oth ers see them, their actions might be quite different. Sorority rush, due to the size and numbers of sororities and rushees, has become a mammoth operation. The Rush Code, set up by sorority rush chairmen and the Panhellenic Council, is meant to keep any one sorority from taking an unfair advantage. From this point, it is up to in dividual sororities and iheir mem bers to stay within the Code. Pan hellenic cannot be a police force. For any code to be effective, so rorities must have the maturity to act as they would want others fo act and fo repori violafions. I am proud of many of our sororities for the way they con ducted their rush programs. Un fortunately, there are several groups of which I am not pyoud, for their actions reflect on Pan hellenic as a whole. The heartbreak of disappointed rushees is something cruel and unfair for any girl. Men, non affiliated members and Inde pendent women who go against our silence regulations to rush for a sorority only add to the misery for a girl who is promised a bid, then doesn’t get it. Panhellenic Council can only do so much. The judicial cannot function unless Infractions are re ported. Sororities which complain about other groups behind closed doors to save the embarrassment of reporting violations are doing no justice to the rushees or to the violating sorority. In retrospect, we are trying to find better ways to handle tha overall rush program. At the same time, I wish sororities would do a little reflecting on their own conduct and campus image during rush. Getting one particular rushee for a chapter is not worth the “dirty rushing” and heartbreak for the other rushees. The under handed actions of a few sorori ties are not worth the bad reflec tion on the sororities which do uphold the Panhellenic Council Rush Code. —Marjorie Zelko „ Panhellenic Council Rush Chairman Carnegie Called 'Testing Ground' TO THE EDITOR: Sharing with my colleagues the journalism graduate assistants’ office ad jacent to a-row of music practice rooms, I have been obligated to listen daily for a term and more to the squeaks, toots, gasps, rasps, plinks, twangs, etc., put forth by the “musicians” and “vocalists” who practice (?) in the Carnegie Building. Therefore, I would sug gest this solution to the problem of too few practice rooms as out lined by musician-pianist Richard Althouse in a letter appearing in The Daily Collegian Jan. 12. Instead of removing journalists from the building to free more rooms for the musicians’ practice, why not simply eliminate those music students who use the cur rent practice rooms endlessly and yet have failed to benefit from the practice despite their valiant ef forts? Such action, I am certain, would cut • the number of "mu sicians” by at least 50 per cent. This would happily give more space to those truly good music students who desire to practice and would greatly improve the general quality of the music at the same time. . If there is any question as to which persons might be elimi nated, a few minutes in our office would give any • listener a good idea as to where to find them. Currently Carnegie is not a practice building it Is-a testing ground. —Philip Currlo Grad Student 2 cents worth The Wednesday is a rather calm, peaceful day full of nice peaceful classes for me., USG meets on Wednesday.' Nothing out of the ordinary ever- happens on Wednesday. But, the Wednesday of this week was different. A pleasant surprise was in my mailbox when' I returned from a morning on ca- I '-'>ved a copy of 11 most interests most informati and most free, written little pul lication on ca”: pus—my copy The Town Crii published by tl Town Indef)dni ent Men’s Coun. To those unfi tunates, in tl case, those who „ reason of sex, Uni- versity decree or choice are not town independent men and thus not on TlM’s select mailing list I will attempt to commute some of the freedom of style and the information of this little publi cation. In a seciion entitled "And Now. a Word From Our Sponsor," I found this entertaining para graph; "There are supposed to be 26 men on TIM, There never are. Someone is always quitting because he's scared to be seen with the others. So if you've got a reasonable average (2.0 and up) and are not unduly sensitive, you might try joining. Petitions are available at the HUB desk." This was followed by perhaps the best statement of the duties of a public official I have ever read: “If you do become a TIM man, you will find that one of Letters Berns Tells Views on Greeks In Answer to Foote Challenge TO THE EDITOR: The letter from James A. Foote in The Daily Collegian of Jan! 23, replying to my letter of Jan. 22, challenges my comments on the schismatic cus toms followed by fraternities and sororities and'the cleavages within the student and nation groups as a whole that are ultimately pro duced by these customs. The let ter also requests that I -explain various incidentals relating to fraternity life. - This challenge and request obli gates me to reply, and I do so eagerly, for I feel that my com ments on consensus building and nation building lie at the heart and are the essence of harmonious living with your fellow man within fraternities, among frater nities, in the University, in the nation and in the world. In his letter Foote did not under stand how a closely knit group as a fraternity could exist without harmony, unity accord and con sensus. I believe that Mr. Foote missed my point entirely. It was clear from my letter, objecting to bloc groupings of several so rorities into ethnic groups, that I meant consensus with a frater nity or any close-knit group or "team." I would like to see this same type of consensus or broad common denominator applied among fraternities as well as within one. We have come a long way from the artificial social barriers that retarded the development of our elders, and we do at the present, have a fundamental and broad consensus among people. I desire a stronger consensus so that we can continue building a nation rather than an agglomeration of nationalities. I believe it_ is the duty of every generation to strike against these artificial ■ barriers until they no longer exist. '. To be objective, it is my opinion, as stated in my previous letter, that social barriers desired by the individual such as private-clubs are sacred . and are. desireable. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25. 1963 Town Crier by dave runkel your main duties is to ‘communi cate.’ In other words you’re sup posed to find out all the things, that town men want, cross out the immoral ones, and see what you can do about the others.”. Another feature in the “Crier” was a story on how town men felt about. Penn State coeds. It was full of caustic comments on coeds with sorority women re ceiving the worst cuts. Also, a new definition of a buddy was offered: “A buddy is one who knows more girls than you do.” T have been promised that- the next issue of the publication will carry a story on what. sorority women think of town men. I can hardly wait. • - The vital information seciion is highlighted by an article on the State College Housing Code which was passed .by the Borough Council last month. The sheet also contained a story quoting Dr. Glenn •of the infirmary say ing he expects a flu epidemic on' campus this spring arid that stu dents should get shots at the in firmary - now. RUNKEL A social calendar for TIMs was published along with, some vital information on the opening and plosing hours of certain vital services to students. These were under headings such as “Have Scalpel, Will Cut,” for the in firmary and “Hours for the Egg head” for the hours of every library on campus. It is an unusually lively publi cation depicting ah obviously lively organization and an ob viously lively group on campus, or rather off campus. Other cam pus organizations and publications could learn a lot from the TIM Council and its publication “The Town Crier.” Only; when these barriers are artificial do, they impinge upon the, rights of others beyond the scope of the prganization. Foote then misquotes me by saying that “lack of school spirit and pride stems from this~sys tem” (fraternity-sorority system), I did not state that lack of school spirit and pride stems from this system. I stated, and I quote, “The s problem of school spirit and pride and national spirit and pride can both be seen stemming from this source," Foote then questions my right to comment on fraternities'. It is his “considered opinion" that my “type of informative, is of-the gossip, variety,” and also that my “arguments' are based not upon fact but upon emotion.” I have*' been acquainted in various degrees with the frater nity system since 1955. I . believe eight years, should quplify me io comment on it without emotion. I don’t "believe much time over two or three hours is needed to see that ethnic consierations are given priority over qualities of a individual in choosing new mem bers and-that these considerations lead to cleavages within the stu dent group as a whole and ulti mately to' clevages within- the American nation as a whole. —H. L. Berns, '63 • Lettef Cut WDFM Schedule FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 196 S 4:15 “The Philadelphia’* Corelli: Concerto Grosso in G . Bach:-Air on'the GE String Strauss : . Emperor ..Waltz Lehar: Merry Widow Waltz 6:00 Dinner Date ' 6:00 Washington Reports 6;15 Weatherscope -6:20 Ballet Theater: Stravinsky: The. Fairy’s Kiss Offenbach: Gaite Parisienne 7:30 Highlight: Sports: Earl Hoffman interviewed by' Jim Bukata 7:40 Album of ‘the Week: “Girl From Greece Sings" (Nana Mouskouri) 8:00 Marquee'Memories: “Kiss Me Kate** 9:00 Send Off: Pop, jazz, folk and com* ment 12:00 Night Sound: Big sounds in music till 2:00
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers