Editorial opinion
Long-teem payments
Two years ago Joe Student began two long
term payments one on,a car and one on an
education. i •
Before Joe bought the car, he looked at
many different models and makes. He checked
out the big, gas gobbling cadillacs and the lit
tle, cheap Vegas. He test-drove a fast, power
ful Jaguar and a puttering, powerless VW.
Before he enrolled at Penn State he looked
at many different sizes and styles of higher
education institutions. He checked ,out ter
rifying Temple in downtown Philadelphia and
little Lock Haven in upstate nowhere. He visited
liberal arts colleges in which free electives
abound and technical engineering colleges in
which practicump are required for graduation.",
When Joe finally hose a, Corvette, he based
the selection on several factors. He wantede
sports car, but he did not want it to be small. He
wanted to get an American car rather than a
foreign one: And he liked the lighter fiberglas
body He also chose it because he was able to
get it in avocado, a color he liked and knew not
many other cars came in.
Wheh Joe chose PSU, he based the selec
tion on several factors, too. Joe wants to be a
Letters to the Editor of the C•llegian
Unfair grading
TO THE EDITOR: This letter is one of reaction to unfair and invalid
grading policies by the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps unit at
Penn State
".It has been.my experience that a substantial percentage pf the final
grade is based on subjective material and not objective examinations of
the students ability It is a common practice in the Army Military Science
Department to have students enrolled in the same class as other
students, grade their peers from criteria that can only be based upon
their own views and. feelings This could never be considered valid
Criteria for a grade and should be stopped Factors like; hair length, ap
pearance, bearing, and attitude, to name few are used for the grade
The final grade received by a student in a ROTC class is placed on the
student's academic transcript and is tabulated into his all university
average
It is our responsibility therefore to plea to this University to re
evaluate the Army Military Science courses at this University arid to end
the accreditation of these courses if this unjust policy is continued.
Michael Gaffney
11th-psychology
Illegal records
TO THE EDITOR: I sat aghast as I read the letter to the editor from Ms
Bentzel in Tuesday Collegian Therein she describes the filing of
her letter Pre editor into her permanent Medical Record at the Riten
our Health Crier by a Dr Hargleroad. As a Computer Science Gradu
ate Student and Research Assistant who is deeply involved with a large
Medical Record Data Base, I could not believe the ignorance shown by
Mr Hargleroad, the Director of the Ritenour Health Center, in placing a
non-medical document into an•official medical record. What the Doctor
did was both against the intent of the Hippocratic Oath and also on the
verge of being illegal, setting a horrible precedent.
The Hippocratic Oath states in part: "Whatever houses I may
visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all in
tentional inlustVe• of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations."
' What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside
of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one
must spread abroad. I will keep to myself holding such things shameful
to be spoken about" •
As for the laic there are two aspects bearing. Breach of the right to
"due, process" in that a government official has made note of an in-'
dividuats statement and, with that action, has shown that he wishes to
puntSh that individual at some time, without the due process of law,'
even to the possible extent that he and his staff would deprive that in
dividual of her rights for proper medical treatment or just cause her un
necessary anguish as has,,already occurred.
v ._ taa t c,,,, , 77,0. - PDX 7705 'WC peo.s4ely Div 771E/R My To 414RIGT.
USG:
.'Let's not fake a giant step backwards'
A GEORGE CERNUSCA
Undergrad`date Student Government President
Once again the USG was thrust into turmoil Was it
because for once it was considenng student interests
rather than selfish self-perpetuation? Or perhaps it was
because.lhe sehate was debating a piece of legislation
which directly affected all of the undergrads at Univer
sity Park' Of cot he not' That would be in direct violation
of the USG traditidn
As a matter of fact. the catalyst of the controversy was
an issue which the self-professed liberals of the USG
and press could hot and w... not understand. Under
CoilegiOn forum
direct and venomous attack was the right of an individual
not to be discriminated against because of sex, 'skin
color. religous beliefs and age.
The vice president of the USG had resigned, and the
president had the gall to consider as a replacement a 56-
year-old third term student. Even though this person had
students' interests at heart and was dedicated to
strengthening the student voice in the University, his
age was too much for even a liberal liberal to take. ERA,
racial equality. academic freedom? Certainly! But trust
anyone over 30? It seems that it's not "cool."
doctor, but he did not want to go to school
forever to get his stethoscope. And Penn State
offers a five-year medical program. Joe liked
the big-college advantages in the small-town
setting. And he liked the wide variety of cour
ses and facilities Penn State offers. He also
chose Penn State because it has a term calen
dar, a system he liked and knew not many other
colleges operate under.
Joe has paid almost half of both his long-term
payments now.
By now he could have traded in his car if he
discovered he really did not like avocado, and
he could pave transferred to another college if
he had fd'und out he really did not like the term
system.
But then, Joe may not have switched
colleges - or cars because he realizes that the
color of a car does not make it "intrinsically
superior" to any other car, just as one calendar
system is not "intrinsically superior" to any
other, according to the PSU Calendar Com
mission Chairman Ma Berlin.
It would cost Joe some money to switch
cars, as it would cost some money for Penn
State to switch calendar systems. Joe may be
And malfeasance in that a data-bank controller has inserted into a
government data-bank, information totally irrelevant to the purpose of
that data-bank, even to the point that the person involved knew nothing
of the action.
Both of these aspects are equivalent to what the FBI in Media, Pa. did
to war activists and others, what the Army did to civilians, and what
Nixon did with his enemies list, but, even in those situations, the Hip
pocratic Oath was not involved.
Please call for the removal of all such immaterial documents from the
Medical Reocrds in question and aid in establishing a policy against all
such collections. A University is not the place for such actions in any
case.
Flaherty and skybus
TO THE EDITOR: That newspapers endorse candidates is the rule, that
they do it justly is the exception. This is true of The Daily Collegian.
I realize that the Collegian's choice for United States Senate, Richard
Schweiker, was a qualified and capable individual. Mayor Flaherty was
also an outstanding candidate.
In my opinion, the editorial staff of the Collegian, or specifically the
author of the article endorsing Schweiker, should have done some
research before making statements which I will prove invalid in the
following paragraphs. •
lea direct quote from the article "The Democrats, it is said, are run
ning Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty, who was able to cut taxes there,
because they want to get him out of Pittsburgh."
One year ago Peter Flaherty sought reelection as Mayor of Pitts
burgh. His number one opponent, Richard Calaguri, had served on
city council and was a popular man in Allegheny County He was
defeated by Flaherty, who had hardly campaigned.
In another quote from the article, "When Flaherty cut the budget in
Pittsburgh, maybe no vital services,Were lost, but no new, innovative
programs were gained either. That is why the Democrats want to get rid
of him so they can get rapid transit and other necessities in Pittsburgh
before inflation makes them more expensive."
Skybus is the rapid transit system proposed by Pittsburgh's
Democratic-political-machine-controlled city council. The independent
mayors office has been, and will continue to, fight skybus for what I, and
many other residents of Allegheny County, feel are valid reasons
The easiest way to describe this form of transportation, engineered
Fortunately, 56-year-old Albert Mische spared his
hypocritical opponents the painful process of publicly
admitting - their bigotry.. He did this by removing himself
from the list of prospective vice-presidents.,However, by
removing himself from thii Mische could not, un
fortunately, remove the impediment to progress which
has kept the USG in impotency for the last several years.
This removal is difficult to achieve because the im
pediment is firmly ingrained in the membership of the
Undergraduate Student Government.
it became readily evident that the problems facing
The University administration has been strongly student government cannot be solved in a two-hour "rap
session." The convention reinforced my fears that in our
organized for decades and the University faculty is in the haste to flee from a period of minimum activity in student
process of unifying their ranks through unionization. The government, we may be jumping from the proverbial
students, however, have all their eggs in the USG basket f Ing pan into the fire. Certainly there are many areas of
which, admittedly, is not, and ties not been, in the best of present system which cry out for improvement, but
shape.
r that does not mean that we must procedb with the un-
What to do? Well, a few of our more myopic comrades / certainty of a sleep walker in the rectification of those
have decided that the reason fcr USG's ineffectiveness . short comings.
can be traced to the semantler structure of, the con- As a suggestion may I propose that the dilemma be
stitution. Others feel that if we_ perhaps inverted Article approached in a more realistic fashion. Let us first deter-
One, section b with Article Three, section d, USG will mine exactly what is expected from a student govern
suddenly metamorphose into a viable and effective voice ment. Certainly it would be foolish to start construction
of thirty thousand students. And perhaps if we sacrificed of a building if we did not know what was expected of the
our democratic structure for an oligarchy of student building and hbw the building was to be used. It would be
"leaders" we might trade our current sterility for dic- even more foolish if we failed to consider the reasons for
tatorial fertility. These interest groups would have us which the old structure was inadequate. Possibly with a--
against that switch of color or calendar
because he will not be getting a superior
product for his money.
General Motors ould never think of in
forming Joe that heill have to paint his Vet
orange in ,1976 because GM managers had
decided they no longer liked avocado and did
not wa4it their make of cars running around in
that mar.
Similarly, Penn State administrators should
not inform Joe that he will have to attend
school under a semester system rather than
the term system because PSU administrators
decided they no longer like the term system
and do not want their school running under it. ;
If Joe Student agreed to the change ip either
case,,' it would be all right. If the Academic
Assembly poll shows that students prefer the
semester system, the change is justified.
The results of the Academic Assembly poll
are not in yet and may not tle in until next term.
But whatever the result,, it is the students'
choice as consumers and therefore must be a
serious factor ih University President John W.
Oswald's decision whether to switch calendar
systems.
Dennis A. Van Dusen
Chief Consultant and Programmer
for the Hershey Medical Center
Computerlied Medical Record
Storage and Retrieval System
and Research Assistant, Dept. of
Computer Science, PSU
believe that the root of our problems is purely structural
Bull!
An organization is only as effective as the sum of its
component parts. No more, no less. The person who
would have us believe that some bureaucratical realign
ment will cure all ills is more of a fool than he takes us to
be. People make an organization tick and people have to
bear the responsibility when it doesn't.
At the Nov. 7 meeting of the Constitutional Convention
by the Westinghouse Corporation, is as a remote controlled monorail
system Of course under this system there is the obvious advantage of
never having to pay drivers, but how efficiently can a remote controlled
form of mass transit be expected to operate?
The overwhelming argument against skybus is the cost --a million
dollars a mile. Granted Pittsburgh needs some form of mass transit, but
skybus is not the answer. The concept is new, and Pittsburgh would
become a showcase If s k ybus were built, but the city's taxpayers can
not afford to spend millions of dollars on a novelty.
I hope in the future, members of the Collegian's editorial staff will
realize their responsibility as Journalists, and write accordingly.
Short discrimination
TO THE EDITOR: In their response to my previous letter concerning my
experience in the Blue Band, tvis_Nowlin and Ms Sweitzer have shown
that they missed my point. There are many bands which only recently
were forced to go co-ed by law, and there are also many bands which
were co-ed way before equality was strictly enforced. The-fact that
Penn State belongs to the first group hasdefinite significance •'
I do not contest the seniority b'asis of uniform distribution -- it is done
that way in most bands. But there is usually a certain amount of *Way
so that no member is completely forced out because of the lack of a
uniform. Compromises can be worked out.
I was never specifically told that if they could not fit me with the
uniforms left to the alternates, I would be removed. I guess the directors
assumed that I would come to that conclusion on my own, and I didn't
The fact remains that there is a definite lad* of small uniforms which
limits the amount of small' people in the band. The situation was not
remedied by any small new uniforms this year. I think that small uniforms
should be ordered in a quantity that would seriously increase the chan
ces that what' happened to me would not happen again to anyone
Small people would not be at such a disadvantage That is not an
unreasonable request. Enough Women have already missed out on the
marching band experience for a long time There is no need to prolong
it.
From a fellow student
TO THEEDITOR: I am, a student at the University of Thessaloniki in
Greece. My country has just been freed from a military dictatorship and
for the first time after eight years we, the students, will elect our
representatives.
We feel very strongly against the United States Government because
Life goes on for GOP
By PATRICK SOKAS
of the Collegian Staff
One facet of the results of last Tuesday's•
elections could have been predicted without
the aid of a computer: the Democrats did bet
ter than some people thought they would and
not as well as some expected.
As the night grew late, it began to seem as if
CBS's Walter Cronkite and ABC's Howard K.
Smith were talking about different elections.
Howard was speaking of "contained defeat"
for the Republicans; Walter made it sound as
though it was time to make room in the
elephant graveyard for the Grand Old Party. The GOP has survived worse, though. At
Things do look bad for the Republicans. Th times during' the New Deal, Republicans
Democrats hive won about two-thirds of the became far scarcer than they are today. And
seats in the House of t ßepresentatives and the Republicans do far better in campaigns for
close to three-quarters of the statehouses. the White House than for the Capitol. In the last
These are undeniably impressive figures. 25 years, 13 have been under Republican rule.
It was often mentioned that the party in the It might be wise to keep a closer eye on the
White House is expected to lose seats in an Democrats in the near future than on the
off-year election, which would indicate that _ Republicans. The Democrats have a habit of
Republican losses are not surprising. This view helping the GOP out of trouble. When they
fails to take into account the reasons behind start feeling confident, Democrats often start to
the results. Victorious Presidential candidates feel their differences more strongly. Landslides
traditionally carry with them many members of tend to produce fratricide. The fact that there is
Therese Ambrosi
Ist-forest science
Anita Weissman
Ist-agronomy
their party. Two years later, many of these
seats are returned to the party out of power.
In 1972, however, the Nixon landslide did
'not produce the usual generalization. Partly
because he deliberately isolated himself from
the Republican party, partly because he was
never a truly inspirational figure, Richard Nixon
did not produce much of a coattail effect. The
Republicans did not make substantial gains in
either House.
Thus the off-year election effect should not
be strong this year. The Republican losses are
very real.
minimum of resource addition the old structure could be
converted into maximum usefulness.
Student government is in trouble in every area of the
nation' Penn State is not unique in this regard and even
those ,showcases of student involvement such as
Berkeley and the University of Michigan are not exempt
from a need for self-examination and repair. The solution
lies in the examination of the concept of "student gov
ernment" rather than in the arbitrary relocations of stu
dent government appendages.
The educational process has been completely trans
formed from the days in which Plato or Aristotle would
share their knowlddge with a few select individuals who
would travel great distances in the -hope to learn.
Aristotle was• not subjected to an ever burgeoning ad
ministration, and I'm sure that he never once thought of
faculty.unioniza - tion. Neither he nor any of his associates
received defense grants or had direct ties with the local
merchants. Of course the educational scene has
changed a great deal since then, and unfortunately
Henry Ford's blueprint for mass production doesn't only
apply to automobiles. In the last several decades many
institutions of higher education have begun to churn out
graduates in the same manner that Buick Specials are
produced.
Student interests and desires would be lost' for the
sake of administrative efficiency if some form of student
it has
, collaborated closely with the dictators and now supports Turkey
in destroying Cyprus The Turkish army (a NATO army) equipped with
American arms has invaded Cyprus, killed over 5.000 people and left
250,000 people homeless with no food and no place to sleep These
people are desperate and so are we The real reason of this tragedy is
that Henry:Kissinger and the American CIA do not tolerate a nonaligned
nation, like Cyprus, in the Mediterranean
I 'know the ideals that prevail in the American Universities Freedom
and self-determination are undeniable rights for human beings and
nations. Therefore, I would like to ask you to raise your voice as a
student representative for the application of these ideals in the case of
Cyprus Write a letter to your Congressman. Senator, the Secretary of
State or President Ford in support of .
1. the condemnation of the Turkish aggression
2 the return of the refugees to their homes
3 the removal of all foreign military personnel from Cyprus
4 the territorial integrity of the Cypriot nation
Thank you yew much
dta;Collegian
DIANE M. NOTTLE
Editor
Successor to the Free Lance. est 1887
Member of the Associated Press
Charter member of the Pennsylvania
Collegiate Media Association
Editorial Staff: 865-1828
Sports Staff:4s6s-1820
Business - Statf: 865-2531
BOARD OF MANAGERS: ADVERTISING MANAGER, David Lang;
ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGERS, Susan Voytovich, Kim
Batey; NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER, Bob Rosner;
ASSISTANT BOOKKEEPER, Heather Walden; BILLING, Sandy
Pollock, Michele Reilly; DELIVERY, Steve Straley, Jorene Proper:
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES, Rob Moffet, Jeff Berney, Tom
Tull, Ellen Clair, Steve Wallach.
Menelaos Paiiapoulidis
Student of Chemical Engineering
4 Naousis Street
Evosmos
Thessaloniki, Greece
a presidential nomination up for grabs adds to
the likelihood of bloody warfare in the party
Perhaps even more important than the party
statistics is the number of new people who will
be coming to Washington According to The
Philadelphia Inquirer, even before the election
73 senators and congressmen were leaving
With the defeated incumbents added in, the
figure could be much higher It will be a fresher
Congress
Although President Ford's veto-proof
Congress was merely an ineffective scare tac
tic, he can expect tougher going in the next
session, and, yes, a greater number of
overrides for his vetoes The Democratic
majority in the Senate is too small to ensure
overrides, but with friends like _ Richard
Schweiker, Charles Mathias, Charles Percy.
Jacob Javitz and Lowell Welker, Gerald Ford
doesn't need any enemies The U S Senate
seems to be the last resting place for Republi
can liberalism
Congress will be different next term, but in
the past, the more things changed the more
they stayed the same. As usual, even after a
decidedly unusual election: life simply goes on
voice were not included in the dynamics of the present
educational system. Many members of the faculty feel
that the academic cxmtrols are found almost exclusively
in the administration building and they feel that faculty
unionization will hap achieve a more balanced balance
of power. However, to create a most real structure of the
checks and balances system it is imperative for the
student community to have a say.
An organization which effectively portrays the student
point of view will give us a more powerful voice in the
decisions of academic?.affairs, and it is surely every
student's responsibility to insure that that organization
does so in a real way and not only in a theoretical man
ner.
It is here that we find ourselves when we speak of a
constitutional convention. We must recognize that the
present Undergraduate Student government is not the
most efficient and effective voice of the student body,
and we must react to guarantee ourselves that voice.
Let us not, however, in our haste for reform, trade bad
for worse. Let us be careful noj to underemphasize the
importance of the quality of membership. And let us not
be hypnotized into thinking that the full answer can be
found in structural relationships.
If we do, then we might deny ourselves the very
strong voice which we desperately need. Let's not take
a giant step backwards.
CYNTHIA A. ASHEAR
Biisiness Manager
Business Office Hours
Monday through Friday
9.30 a m.to 4 p m