Editorial opinion
' University trustees will be
crossing the picket lines toda
get to their closed commi Y ttlit
meetings
The University Coalition is
picketing the closed meetings to
protest their secrecy, to ask for
greater student voting represen
tation on the board and to ask for
open University financial records.
It's debatable how effective the
picket will be. Other groups have
tried to sway the Trustees with
similar demonstrations. Last
spring, several hundred students
marched around campus to stop a
tuition hike and that didn't work
And then this fall, ,Students for
PennPIRG tried to crash the com
mittee meetings and that didn't
work
But the Coalition's cause is cer
tarty lust
Strong medicine
for melancholy
By KEVIN COTE
Collegian Columnist
Brought up in the traditional middle
class fashion. I have always been told
that as an American. I have a lot to be
thankful for It wasn't until last week,
when my father and I paid a short visit to
Turkey that I appreciated the profound
elements of truth in this frequently
challenged but seldom disputed
grade school philosophy
In Turkey, as in America, young
people have difficulty in finding a good
lob Being presumptuous for the sake of
illustration. I'll say that most kids in the
United States consider a good Job one
that pays at least $l5O weekly. Our guide
from Istanbul to Izmir told me that his
daughter works ten hours a day, five
Jays a week in a bank and gets $lOO a
month Contrary to my previous con
ceptions. $lOO in Turkey goes no
further than $lOO in the United States
and there is no apparent rationalization
for the disturbing wage. A $3O pair of
shoes in Istanbul is a $3O pair of shoes in
Philadelphia A bottle of Coke on the
r_ , l her side of the world is 35 dents and a
pack of Turkish cigarettes costs 50
cents
In the United States you can buy a
luxury car for $lO,OOO. In Turkey you can
Luy a 1965 Chevy Impala, with over
tt the Edt
The Dail
and
of the Daily
should rs Collegian
on
be
of
letters are major
encourages comments on news coverage, editorial policy and campus
and oft-ca m pus
s an
publication. Letters
affairs. Letters should be typewritten, double spaced, signed by no more
• than two
Pe
d ca n n o no lo t n b g e er re th tu a r n ne 3 d o . lines. Students' letters should include the name,
Le ers to term
the writer.
Letters
brought to the Collegian office, 126 Carnegie, in person so proper
identification
writer can be made, although names can be withheld on request. If
received
by mail, the Collegian will contact the signer for verification before
Cry baby
TO THE EDITOR: I am sick of PennPlßG's cr.y baby antics
about funding. If they do in fact have 24,000 avid sup
porters then why can't they collect dues like any other special
interest student organization on campus? The rg o l cowards are
not in the administration but in PennPIRG. Theust be afraid
that those 24,000 supporters will vaporize when asked to put
Their money where their mouths are. Assuming that all 24,000
f-lanatures are valid (which is one big assumption), I wonder
he w many signed lust to keep from being harassed or did not
realize that they would be asked to come up with $2. PennPIRG
Nould have a much better case for a negative check-off if they
first had 24,000 dues paying members.
Rhetoric
TO THE EDITOR: The five members of Students for PennPIRG
..vho offered Wednesday's column on alternative funding
mechanisms claim that the University Board of Trustees uses a
double standard" regarding voluntary versus involuntary
contribution by students to student organizations. They
support this contention by pointing out that the University
allocates fundS to student activities without the explicit in
dividual consent of each student, the inference being, I
c r ne4 , - e
1 !\ 1
i 6
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No excuses
If a governing body as in
fluential as the U.S. Senate can
open its committee meetings --
even when discussing money mat
ters the Board of Trustees
surely can.
All the secrecy does is arouse
suspicion. Not only for what goes
on behind those closed doors, but
for what actually happens at the
public trustee meetings. Because
everyone assumes, and some
trustees even admit, that the real
work is done in closed committee
sessions. What the public sees at
an open meeting is a rerun
Closed financial records create
the same suspicion. Any group
that is so adamant about keeping
some of its business hidden must
have something to fear from
scrutiny. So the public reasons,
100,000 miles on its engine. for lhe same
amount While I scream illegal profit
when the price of gas jumps to 60 cents
a gallon. a Turk thinks nothing of paying
one dollar
In America we are quick to criticize the
evils of corporate oligarchy. When I left
State College my American instincts of
justice were rattled because Bell of
Pennsylvania insisted do charging a $l5
installation fee" for a phone that was
already present in an apartment. In such
situations, frustration finds fertile soil in
the American psyche and manifests
itself in the contemporary idiom
They've got us by the balls." A strong
contrast is afforded by the initial costs
of phone installation in Turkey: $4OO
- depending on whom you know.
Invasion of the citizens right to privacy
is the persistent crime of the American
politico-administrative machinery. Daily
we are flooded with accounts of federal
monitoring and interference with the
private lives of individuals. I could never
condone this policy of regulation, but
now that I have been "outside" the
system I can at least appreciate some of
its latent consequences. The govern
ment here feels the pulse of its people,
though sometimes through illegitimate
means and is sensitive to its needs
limitations. Having some idea of where
the American public is going, the
Daved L. Wahrenberger
graduate-statistics
suppose, that students are somehow coerced into funding the
panoply of student groups on campus. They apparently fail to
recognize that those groups which receive monies from
Associated Student Activities must be registered with either
the Undergraduate Student Government or the Graduate
Student Association. Does PennPIRG intend to register with
one of these two organizations, thereby placing itself under
the same restrictions that University-funded groups operate
under? If not, their reasoning is faulty and their objection is a
pseudoissue. The proposed relation between PennPIRG and
PSU is quite different from any other student organization. It is
now months since the Board of Trustees voted down the
mandatory-refundable method. When will PIRG move into
other avenues of becoming an actuality and cut out the
rhetoric?
Disservice
TO THE EDITOR: Florynce Kennedy spoke on the problems of
women Monday night at Schwab and the Collegian covered it.
Kennedy said one of woman's problems was that if the attempt
by women to improve society or their role in it was covered by
the.media at all, it was treated with less care and seriousness
than coverage about, let's say, men.
She also mentioned that women don't usually try to do
anything about no coverage or less-than-fair coverage, and
" .- )1 GOLLY, THE \AN, 1((:‘,IRE FZ \ GAT .1
5Rkl - 1 51sTER5
many times correctly.
If the University is run efficiently
and honestly then the trustees
have nothing to fear from open
financial records. And have no
reason for not opening them.
Greater student voting
representation would also be nice.
After all, we are a majority here and
have only a token say in how the
University works. But there are un
derstandable Problems in increas
ing student trustees. Students
are transients, remember. It's
risky to let a student decide an
ongoing policy that he won't have
to live with in a year.
But there are no excuses for
closed committee meetings and
financial records. And we should
be very unwilling to accept any ex
cuses
government seeks to provide for it. The
word welfare or unemployment com
pensation simply does not appear in the
Turkish vocabulary. A Turk will never be
able to understand what a pension is
because he has absolutely nothing to
relate the concept to. The Turkish
government permits its people to
proceed without the invasions of privacy
that have become, so much a part of
contemporary American life plagued
by low wages and crippled by high
prices, the people of Turkey pay a steep
price.
We have all been told that our country
has one of the highest stanlards of
living Economic textbooks show us the
figures and politicians break their arms
patting themselves on the back for
creating it. For me, a high standard of
living has always been a nebulous
assertion and this trip to Turkey
crystalized its true meaning.
Yes, taxes are high in the United
States, but we must realize that we have
something to show for it. There are no
highways in Turkey, at least not the kind
we have come to take for granted. I saw
no firehouses or fire hydrants in the
heavily populated cities of Istanbul,
Bursa or Izmir. Although not everybody
can afford the luxury, the only drinkable
water by our standards is bottled.
From what little of the world that I
have seen, in comparison America is the
land of opportunity. As long as my
friends can collect more from the
American welfare system in one week
than most Turks can earn by the sweat of
their brows in one month, no one will be
able to convince me otherwise. And for
all those who are sick of the petty in
justices that confront us daily in
America, I suggest a brief stay in Turkey
it's a strong medicine for the
melancholy.
Deborah Griffiths
graduate-psychology
Violence coming home
Howard Cosell nearly bust a gut the morning after the Rams
trounced the Eagles. According to Howard, Eagles fans
shouted "obscenities of the foulest kind" at their team's owner
Leonard Tose. They jostled Tose's wife and tried to capsize his
car. Somebody even threatened to kill him.
Howard's worried about this outburst of violence. He thinks
it's evidence that the violence epidemic is spreading from its
traditional habitats shopping malls, classrooms, parks and
picnic areas to the tranquil world of sports. But couldn't it
be just the opposite? Violence could at last be coming home
home to our football stadiums, boxing rings and baseball
parks where it rightfully belongs.
So what if the Eagles owner gets a little roughed up? That's
the name of the game. As they say in English soccer: "You
win a few, you lose a few." Take Harry Catterick, former
manager of one of Britain's top soccer sides. One season
ended with champagne and championship medals, the next
his team came in second finished up with him being kicked
within an inch of his life by fans on his own doorstep. God
dammit, in Italy they shoot soccer failures.
Last Monday's happenings at Veterans Stadium are a healthy
sign. You see, for every foul word expended on Tose, a fan's
wife, kids and cat back home are spared a punch, slap and a
kick.
Americans, or at least Eagles fans, are beginning to realize
sport's potential as a laxative. No other single activity affords
fans the same opportunity to purge themselves of pressure,
tension and pent up nervous energy.
They've known all about this in Europe for quite a while now.
Every Saturday throughout England, young and old alike arise
and dress like fearless gladiators The purpose of this ritual?
To do Saturday afternoon battle with rival soccer fans.
Being a soccer yahoo is relatively cheap and easy and ex
traordinarily rewarding. There are of course, as in every hobby,
a few necessary prerequisites.
Size 12 feet or above is useful, though not essential, to
house the massive pair of steel toe-capped army boots. Boots
like this can be purchased at any army surplus store for a few
dollars.
A long expressive finger and a sense of gesture are essential
for pointing threateningly and in unison across the stadium at
rival fenced-off fans. Pointing is usually accompanied with
blood curdling chants, so here it's helpful to have a loud voice
that is one of the reasons there is really no women's movement
in this country, but only a stirring of recognition that perhaps
albs not really right with the woman's world.
Well, maybe she's right on both counts.
On the front page of the Collegian, the caption under the
picture says that Kennedy invited members of the audience on
stage to "recite a mock prayer." No one recited anything.
People were invited to sing and did sing,
In the page 5 story Kennedy's "Australian garrison hat and
other bizarre garb" is mentioned. Admittedly, that hat was
weird, but since bizarre means odd, eccentric, grotesque, to
call her navy blue jeans jacket and slacks "bizarre" is to ignore
the fact that except for the hat she was dressed about like half
the women in the audience.
It was mentioned she was not the "type you'd see squeezing
tomatoes" in the supermarket. Was there ever a male speaker
on this campus described as not the type you'd see kicking
tires in a used car lot?
"Dollar power' was described as the "power of women to
contribute to the feminist cause." Kennedy's emphasis was
actually on the effective use of purchasing power. Nothing in
the sense of "contribution" was even mentioned.
There were several mistakes in the quotes from the mock
prayer, which must be construed as carelessness since a
printed song sheet was available. The most interesting error
was in the last line which actually reads "For there is the power
and the glory and the money forever. The Collegian reported
"body" for "money."ls Florynce Kennedy a unique woman or
an odd broad? The words used to describe her and women in
general can influence how we think, and I think the media may
be doing women an unconscious disservice.
Progressive?
TO THE EDITOR: I have one good thing to say about the
University Concert Committee, they are progressive
progressively bad. Again they have put together a disheart
ening show. The current miscarriage is the All-University Day
concert, which boasts Jesse Colin Young and Cheech and
Chong.
Sure Cheech and Chong are good comedians and Jesse
Cohn Young is a good musician, but a concert is one thing
and a .comedy show another. The two cannot be one. An
audiophile wishing to hear one of his favorite musicians will
not be pacified sitting through a comedy act. Music is feeling,
for playing and listening. Proper considerations should be
taken in presenting a concert. Acts should be sequentially
arranged to provide for maximum enjoyment, not thrown
together without concern to audience mood. Concerts show
artists' genuine musical talents, no studio repertoire. So why
hinder the musicians attempt to capture the audience by
putting them in an apprehenshie mood with an opening act that
does not coincide with the other?
r3=l
Putting together two acts with different styles of music, i.e.,
John McLaughlin and Orleans, is bad enough, let alone two
By NICK BRETT
Collegian Columnist
Rosalie Kota
graduate-academic
curriculum and instruction
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and a cursory knowledge at least of timing and delivery. The
lyrics as in the old favorite "You're going to get your fucking
heads kicked in" to the tune of "Bless this House" and
addressed to rival fans are complex, so a good memory
helps.
The beauty of soccer violence is that it happens only once a
week. Rioting, looting, stabbing, bottling and train gutting are
restricted to Saturday afternoons in the vicinity of soccer
stadiums. For the rest of the week life in Britain is peaceful and
pleasantly devoid of muggers and street violence.
The attitude of Britain's politicians towards societal violence
is refreshingly progressive. They realize that it has become
institutionalized in soccer and that's where they want it to
remain. 9ne Member of Parliament even recommended that
clubs fire their players, open the stadiums free on Saturdays,
give the fans a ball and let them kill themselves.
So can we apply the lessons of British soccer violence to
Happy Valley'? Can we wipe out muggings, street crimes, wife
beating and battered babies in Centre County? I think we can if
we start thinking aggressively about Penn State football. Doing
this would require minimal changes in the fans' attitudes and
the rules of the game.
First off, those Nancys in frilly skirts and armed with fluffy
sticks must go. Fans have got to realize that this is war, not the
time "to oartv." Fighting spirit in the crowd could better be
aroused by showing pre-game movies of Rosie Casals shadow
boxing.
All softy comforts cushions, flasks of drinking chocolate,
cookies and blankets must be banned. The only way to
aggressively watch organized violence is to stand 100 deep in
the rain, crushed by 60,000 other fans. No self respecting
British soccer fan would have been caught dead throwing
paper cups at the Army game if there'd been any cans and
bottles around.
The chances of a crowd riot will be further helped if the game
itself is pepped up a little. This could easily be done by in
troducing studded boots and removing helmets. In Welsh
rugby, for instance at, lease one ear per season is bitten off to
encourage the crowd PSU fans are being ripped off.
Give up mugging and street crime, come to Beaver stadium
this Saturday and help the Lions tear North Carolina apart
literally. But should we by mischance lose, who do we get?
You got it, Joe Paterno.
Nick Brett is a graduate student in journalism from England
with different styles of entertainment. Come on UCC, get it
together, like the song says.
Underhanded
TO THE EDITOR: To whoever planned the International Dinner
menu;
I must take issue with your dish Palestinian rice. As far as I
know, (and I am considered a man of finer foods) the so-called
Palestinian people had no special rice dish unique from other
Arab nations. Why was it not called Arabic rice? I think I can
answer that question myself. This is another underhanded
attack on the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the political
ideology of Zionism. We have no choice but to listen to this
abhorrent rhetoric in such places as the United Nations,
International Women's Conference (Mexico) and the Arab
Conference (sic) in Rabat, Morocco.
Has this sickness seeped into American Universities such as
Penn State? Any historian of modero'e intelligence can easily
see that 1) there never was a truly so.ereign state of Palestine,
2) there's certainly no 'Palestinian nation now (with the
possible exception of Jordan) and-3) barring the occurrence of
a third world war, there is no chance of a Palestinian nation
arising. So, in conclusion, I would like to ask the leaders of the
International Students Union, to please not insult the in
telligencia of Penn State with this cheap propaganda. Stick to
the uneducated masses of Africa, Asia and the Third World.
They don't know differently there yet.
dzCollegian
JERRY SCHWARTZ
Editor
Editorial policy is determined by the Editor
Opinions expressed by the editors and staff of The Daily Collegian
are not necessarily those of the University administration, faculty or
students
BOARD OF EDITORS: EDITORIAL EDITOR, Sheila McCauley; EDI
TORIAL ASSISTANT, Karen Fischer: NEWS EDITOR, Robin Moore:
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR, Glenda Gephart; WIRE EDITOR, Paula
Gochnour; FEATURES EDITOR, Cathy Cipolla; COPY EDITORS, Jean
LaPenna, Diane Nottle, Leon Pollom; SPORTS EDITOR, Jeff Young,
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR, Dave Morris; PHOTO EDITOR, Eric
Felack: ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS, Ira Joffe, Tom Peters; EDI
TORIAL CARTOONIST, Tom Gibb; WEATHER REPORTER, Tom
Ross
~.
I
Domenic Laurenzi
7th-economics
B. David Schwartz
Ist-international politics
ROBERT A. MOFFETT
Business Manager