Editorial opinion
Best bet
The administration will make its
decision on the University calen
dar pretty soon.
Faculty, students and ad
ministrators have been hassling
over calendar options for quite a
while now and ' obody seems to
get anywhere.
Students overwhelmingly sup
port the current term system with
ten week classes, three or four
courses on the average and a May
end to Spring Term. ;•
Some officials, however, say a
semester system might be more
economical. They say the two
week Christmas break which in
terrupts Winter Term costs a lot of
money money that would be
saved under a semester system
Some say the two-week in-
To and from the Editor
Is the Collegian universe
fact, fiction or rumor?
TO THE EDITOR: I agree with Mr.
Salvatmi s letter of IJ-4-75. It would
■ndeed seem that the Daily Collegian is
impotent content to deal only in the
emotional outbursts of feuding factions
vuch as student-organizations, students
■ s administration, and students vs. the
ownspeople If. as you say. the
University is not your financial backer,
men wnat in Happy Valley are you afraid
n
Jerry Schwartz should reread his
edi'orial of the Collegian Orientation
issue (9-3-75) In it he states " .We
cover the universe of the University
were going to try harder to put things
intr better perspective, so you will Know
no
an administration decision or a
student government controversy will
affect you We want to cover everything
'hat happens on this campus and in
towr at least everything that is in
'eresting or important
Well Jerry where is it? Where is the
universe of the University' s
Where is the story about how our
tuition money is What is the
documented truth about Dr Oswald’s
S 5 000 dog house, his private, jet tha'
gets him Fla oranges in winter, or the
1000 doorknobs, only one of which was
used for his mansion?
Where is the story about why our room
and board costs went up while our maid
and janitor service went down?
Or how about probing the double
standard of justice on campus, wherein
students are accountable to Dr. Suit for
'ule infractions but faculty and ad
ministration can (and do) flaunt the rules,
because no one holds a stick over them?
The obligation of a free press is to
preseni the truth. The short supply of it
in these pages gives me doubt as to the
freedom of the Collegian, and causes me
to wonder if- 1 am reading the Collegian
newspaper or Collegian comics I and
others I'm sure, would like to know why
such concerns as I've listed above are
terruption is bad for classes, that
the break prevents normal
classwork flow.
But nobody has seen any
figures. Maybe it’s logical that cut
ting off heat and lights for fall
break, then revving maintenance
up again for two weeks of Winter
Term and cutting it off again for
two weeks is impractical. But just
how impractical is it? Nobody
knows or else whoever knows
isn’t telling.
And if the extra cost r isn’t that
threatening, the University should
bend to student will on this “issue.
Sure, students want the term
system because that’s what
they’re used to. But that’s not so
bad. Students like having a chance
at greater course variety under
not more fully explored But I foresee no
editorial reply power, even of the
press, corrupts
TO MR. SHARPE: Prove it
Prove that Oswald has a $5,000 dog
house, that he uses a University plane to
pick up Florida oranges, that he ordered
1.000 doorknobs and used only one in
the president's mansion.
Prove that there was something shifty
in the rise in room and board costs, or
that the University approves of
lawbreaking by the faculty and ad
ministration.
Prove it. We've been checking out
rumors and allegations such as these for
years, and we've never found any
grounds for vour charges.
You seem to think that the reason you
haven't seen your suspicions in front
page headlines is that we are either too
lazy or too much a part of the University
power structure. Could it be that either
(a) your rumors aren’t true, or (b) con
ditions in (he University community
make it impossible to track down the
truth' 5
Let's face it, David. This community
thrives on secrecy. Both the ad
ministration and student groups meet
behind closed doors, deciding in the
darkness of a room lit by fluorescent
lights how to put their best foot forward.
If there are a lot of Deepthroats behind
those doors. David. I've yet to encounter
them
As for this newspaper, well, all I can
say is that the staff of the Collegian has
been asking your questions as long as
I've been here The apochryphal story
about Oswald's doghouse was mumbled
about when I first joined the staff;
people here still mumble about it.
And yet, the story didn't hit the pages
of the Collegian until this summer, when
columnist Nicholas von Hoffman sent
the story of Disraeli’s doghouse across
'Like a bird with a broken wing'
term system. And they like having
a chance three times a year in
stead of two at getting into
required courses.
Perhaps the University could
arrange the term calendar to get
around the “expensive” two-week
Christmas break. After all, the ad
ministrators who will decide what
the calendar should be aren’t the
group most affected by it. But stu
dents and faculty have to live
with the calendar.
Until the University comes forth
with figures showing how much
money a semester system will
save, we can only assume that the
amount isn't that significant. So for
now, leaving the calendar alone is
the University’s best bet.
the country. Although we sometimes
slip up, it is our policy not to print
allegations without some proof to back
them up. And it’s for that reason that we
never printed the doghouse story:
although we tried, we never could fihd
any proof to back it up. Even von Hoff
man offered no proof that the story was
true.
David Sharpe
7th-theater arts
Take your letter, for instance. You do
not know the people on the Collegian
staff. You probably have no conception
of the conditions they work under. Yet
you accuse us of corruption, of
cowardice and of laziness. If we covered
all our stories with the amount of
research you showed in your letter, you
bet Oswald's doghouse would be in the
headlines. You bet you’d hear the "inside
story" on why there was a tuition hike..
But it wouldn't be fair. It wouldn’t be
responsible journalism. We've made the
mistake of printing things like that; in
fact.-we’ve done it quite recently. And
every time it happens, we become more
frightened by the consequences. We
have it within our hands to hurt people
very badly with lies, innuendoes and
half-truths. Every time we do something
like that, it’s not “chalk one up for ex
perience" time; it’s a tragedy.
This is not to say that we are perfect,
that we follow up every lead or do
everything we can to uncover a story. If
you'd quoted farther down in my
editorial, your letter would have included
the fact that I said, "If we fail in some
cases, please understand just like
humans, newspapers often have dif
ficulty living up to their goals."
I can tell you that the Collegian staff
does try. We spend, a lot of hours each
week working to put out a good
newspaper. We often fail in reaching the
standards we set for ourselves.
But we do try, and it upsets us to hear
anyone say otherwise.
“Hear me, people: We have now to
deal with another race small and
feeble when our fathers first met them,
but now great and overbearing.
Strangely enough they have a mind to till
the .soil and the love of possession is a
disease with them. These people have
made many rule§ that the rich may break
but the poor may not. They take their
tithes from the poor and weak to support
the rich and those who rule.”
In 1961, my hometown celebrated its
one-hundredth birthday. The usual
shenanigans prevailed. Each man had to
wear a mustache. If he couldn’t grow a
'stache, he had to buy one. The penalty
for a man without hair between his nose
and upper-lip was jail. The jail was a
structure with wooden bars, much like a
primitive animal cage. You could find
such jails all .over town in front of
bars, grocery stores and the like. Day in
and day out, clean-shaven men were
thrown in jail for hours at a time.
During those days of my past, I had a
warm and lovable neighbor. Let's call her
Jenny. Jenny was half-Indian* and very
proud of it. She was a loner at heart, with
children as her only close friends. I was
one of those friends.
One day in 1961, as, I strolled by
Jenny’s house to gaze in awe at her fine
craftwork and beads, and to watch her
mother cat feed its newborn children, I
glanced across the street curiously to
Jerry Schwartz
Editor
By GARY MURACA
Collegian Staff Writer
Chief Sitting Bull, speaking
at the Powder River Conference
in 1877
|ji
8^
USG corner
On University meetings
There were meetings of two very important University
groups this past weekend, the Board of Trustees and
the Alumni Council and Executive Board.
The three standing committees of the Board of
Trustees smet last Friday to discuss a wide range of
topics. There was an adoption, by the University, of
Guidelines for Resident Status for Purposes of
Determining Tuition. This task was previously ac
complished by the Commonwealth’s Auditor General,
who recently revoked the guidelines.
There was also a report on housing at University Park.
University President John W. Oswald informed the
board that there is work being done by a special
committee composed of students, faculty and ad
ministrators in this area.
There was discussion about the committee meetings
being closed to the public. There was some concern as
to the personal liability of the individual board members
against legal suit. A couple of people stated that they
were unclear as to the legality of the closed meetings,
but the University's legal opinion stands that it is legal.
The second very important University group that met
was the Alumni Council. Among the normal everyday
things they supply like thousands of dollars for un
dergraduate scholarships, job placement activities,
alumni fellows program, graduation information,
reunion activities the list goes on and on and on
they recommended to Oswald that certain words of the
alma mater be changed as stated by Fred Lewis Pattee
several years ago.
The Alumni Association is a very interesting and
interested organization. I would like to extend my
appreciation for welcoming the involvement of the USG.
I would also encourage all undergraduates and
graduates to learn more about the Alumni Association
now and participate in their very fun and worthwhile
activities after graduation.
At a meeting with the University Student Advisory
Board last Wednesday, Oswald announced that he
would make a decision on the assignment procedures
for on campus housing after all the proposals made by
Letter policy
The Daily Cbllegian encourages
comments on news coverage, editorial
policy and campus and off-campus
affairs. Letters should be typewritten,
double spaced, signed by no more than
two persons and no longer than 30 lines.
Students’ letters should include the
name, term and major of the writer.
Letters should be brought to the
Collegian office, 126 Carnegie, in person
so proper identification of the writer can
be made, although names will be
withheld on request. If letters are
received by mail, the Collegian will
* contact the signer for verification before
publication. Letters cannot be returned.
see what unlucky soul was imprisoned in
that mustacheod-loving animal cage.
And indeed, the person in jail did
resemble a wild animal kicking and
clawing at the men around the cage, who
seemed quite amused by such a lively
prisoner. j
The intensity with 'which fhe jailed
person rocked the loosely-bound
structure drew me closer to it, like a
gigantic magnet.
As I poked my head through the
throng of jeering mustaches, I began to
cry for this caged animal, this enraged
creature. i
To this day, I can still hear myself cry
out to this lonely soul ... “Jenny,
Jenny!" 5
Every time I think of Jenny~t think of
the Indian population as a whole. These
noble people, caged-in on reservations,
are ripping and clawing at the society
around them. I,
It seecns I think of Jenny and her
people more than ever thed£ days, with
our bicentennial drawing near, hoping
my country doesn’t behave in the same
manner as my hometown did, more than
12 years ago.
For years America has been sweeping
the Indians into a nice, neat little pile.
A pile so small that it couidj be easily
swept under a rug to be forgotten.
And what about these corruptible
white men of the past and present? Do
they show any indication of letting up on
the redman? Let us hear the words of the
redman, as he spoke of his white brother
so long ago:
“...We saw that the white man did not
ByJOESEUFER
USG president
JERRY SCHWART2
Editor
BOARD OF EDITORS: EDITORIAL EDITOR, Sheila McCauley. EDITORIAL 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 Morns, PHOTO EDITOR, Eric Felack. ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS, Ira Jof
fe. Tom Peters. EDITORIAL CARTOONIST, Tom Gibb. WEATHER REPORTER, Tom Ross
take his religion any more seriously than
he did his laws, and that he kept both of
them just behind him, like helpers, to
use when they might do him good in his
dealings with strangers. We have never
been able to understand the white man,
who fools nobody but himself.”
What did the Indians want from the
white man? Indian Chief Joseph, in an
address to cabinet members,
congressmen, and President Hayes in
1879 said, "Let me be a free man free
to travel, free to stop, free to work, free
to trade where I choose, free to follow
the religion of my fathers, free to think
and act for myself and I will obey
every law or submit to the penalty."
During the 1972 Republican Con
vention in Miami, a group of Indians
from many tribes throughout the country
brought a message for President Nixon.
Unfortunately for the Indians, the
message ended up in the hands of Pat
and Julie Nixon, who were signing
autographs in the lobby of the Fon
tainbleau Hotel. It seems Nixon’s
daughters were the only dignitaries the
Indians were allowed to get near. The
message said, in part:
"Attn.: Richard M. Nixon, President
U.S.A. We come today in such a manner
that must shame God himself. For a
country which allows a complete body of
people to exist in conditions which are at
variance with the ideals of this country,
conditions which daily commit in
justices and inhumanity, must surely be
student groups are reviewed; either by the end of this
term or before the Christmas term break.
The Student Advisory Board recommended to Oswald
that the University not charge students for taking over
13 credits per term, but that a per credit charge be levied
on those that register for over 15 credits, thereby not
penalizing the majority of those intelligent, highly
motivated students who want to learn everything
possible or who want to graduate earlier.-
The six-day exam period which is to become effective
next Fall Term has resulted in many questions and
much confusion as to exactly what it will entail.. One of
the more confusing aspects is that many students and
faculty believe that comprehensive finals must be given
in all courses during the six-day period. This is not so.
it is only required that any course gives a
comprehensive final exam must do so during the six
day final exam period. Another confusing aspect is that
many people think that all finals must be given during
the six-day period and this is also not so. Exemptions
may be given to those faculty members who do not wish
to give a non-comprehensive final on one of the six-day
periods by receiving permission from a department
head who must also notify the dean of the college. The
major bad points of the six-day exam period
requirement is that students will have to pay more in
increased room and board costs and that they will have
to register for school before Labor Day, thereby
decreasing summer earnings and vacation time.
During a meeting on Oct. 7, 1 asked Director of Police
Services David Stormer to look into the possibility of a
storage area for guns. Last week the project was
completed. The gun racks will accommodate ap
proximately 75 firearms.
Remember, term break is coming up, which means
taking new courses next term Books are very expensive
and students are very poor. Most residence
associations conduct book sales around the day after
registration. A schedule of the book sales will appear in
the Collegian in the next couple of days.
USG is the official voice of the students: Be aware
and become involved.
Good luck on finals and have a great term break
-Collegian
Mailing Address Box 467, State College, Pa 16801
Office 126 Carnegie
Plenty-Coups, Chief of the Crow
Nation, in an extract from his
autobiography.
WMeonfeOiSictf
AtateTbHTO
SsHLeSNSeRUND
CSHfGANNeP,,,,/
ROBERT A. MOFFETT
Business Manager
filled with hate, greed and unconcern."
Yes, as our bicentennial approaches. I
think of Jenny and her people. I think of
their reservations, their government-run
schools, about the fact that, among
other things, _ their water rights were
stolen, their fciabies still die regularly of
diseases, and of the unbelievable fact
that the average life expectancy of an
Indian is only 46 years.
I agree with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. when
he said, “I would call the robbing and
killing of American Indians'genocide."
Genocide means the extermination of a
racial group. It means sweeping them,
under the. rug and caging them on'*
reservations.
The Indians are a proud and patient
people. The redman deserves something,;
in return for his land and his honored-*
dead. If nothing else, our 200th
gift to the redman should be
patience and understanding of his pain*
and suffering over these past centuries. *
Today’s Indian does not want to.'
wander on the praires until he dies.£
Rather, he wants to grasp the
breath of his forefathers and to call the 2
soil underneath his feet his very own”
again, to call it home.
As 1976 approaches, I am thankful
that my friend Jenny is not alive, for the »
future of her race is surely a bleak one.
“We are like birds with a broken wing. ;*
My heart is cold within me. My eyes are ■«
growing dim I am 01d...” 2
Chief Plenty-Coups, in a farewell ”
address in 1909 at the Little '*
Bighorn Council grounds In “
Montana.