Editorial opinion
The dorm experience. It
frightened us, shocked us,
educated us. It broadened our
viewpoints and increased our
friendships.
And, it opened our eyes.
Since it may have been a few
terms since you had the pleasure
of dorm life, it’s now time for
another lesson.
Last May, a South Halls resident
assistant informed his area coor
dinator that he was a homosexual; ,
three days later, the RA was told
he would not be rehired after
Spring Term ended.
The Residential Life staff
manual requires that any
dismissed RA be given 30 days
notice and that he or she receive
written reason for the action. The
RA who made his sexual prefer
ence public received neither until
Ellis Island marks state of 'land of opportunity
Most of the passengers were elderly, speaking many
languages. One old woman said to another, “Are you Italian?"
and was answered in that rapid-fire tongue. Something about
the Milanese. , ,
The creaky ferry, its surface lumpy from untold layers of
paint, circled .around Ellis Island, a few hundred yards from the
derelict piers of New Jersey. After several tries, the boat
bumped against the landing and a ranger reached out to secure
it. Straddling the dock and the listing ferry, the ranger grasped
the elbows of the old women as they lumbered off the boat.
"Careful now, Ma’am," he,said, tp,each respectfully. “We*
haven't had time to build a proper docVyeti" l r
We gathered at the end of the pier, amidst the overgrown
bushes and the piles of lumber. The youngest and the fastest
walkers stood at the front of the group, the few children
dancing around, staring at the ranger’s Smokey Bear hat. The
old men and women straggled in behind, breathing heavily and
fanning themselves in the July heat. One woman had draped a
handkerchief over her head.
"Hello, my name is Wysh’inskl,” the young man said. “I’m a
National Park Service ranger for the Department of the Interior.
I’d like to welcome you to'Ellis Island, which s served as an'
immigration station between the years 1900 and 1954. You
have landed here at the Island’s former coaling station because
the original ferry slip where the immigrants landed has been
condemned. You’ll see It later on the New York side of the
island. I must ask you to stay to the .designated areas of the
tour because only these have been made safe. I would also like
to remind you that the immigrants who arrived here did not get
From the editor
'Official' word often meaningless
“Put it in writing. Ask your
questions, type them out and
. then we’ll respond to them
in writing. That way you’ll get
real answers and they’ll be accurate.
There will be no room for editorializing.”
Bud Goehring, director of
transportation at Penn State.
Nor will there be room for any real questions nor a
chance for any true answers. What you will get, if you’re
lucky,-is the official word". What you will probably end
up with is an unanswered question.-; ' . . <
The Collegian found this out. After ten days, Charles
Shilke, University Airport manager, called to say he
completed the answers to Collegian questions con
cerning the University Park airport.
Shilke had told the, Collegian that he, Bud Goehring,
director of transportation and'Richard Crowley, vice
president for. business - V- .
written questions. So the Collegianfi|fportefs pre^area i a''y<f@'iTstand what we meant by ‘official’ correspondence/
set of 13 questions for Shilke. J ; . , Perhaps,, we could have made the original question
Shilke, who had been out sick, told a Collegian clearer, but had Shilke not understood the question,
reporter that he couldn't have the questions until that he should have called for a clarification or better yet
Friday. Come Friday, Shilke said the answers would be allowed us to question him in person,
ready Monday. On Monday, Shilke said the questions
were being approved by his bosses Goehring and Instead Shilke typed out a nice, neat, but for the most
Crowley. ‘ part worthless, inter-office memo in response to
Had Collegian reporters been allowed to ask their Collegian questions,
questions in person, muld Gohring me[Crowley have W{J heard ath , t was requesting a fifth
been there to okay Shi Ike's answers? Probably. Par-. Btaff ||ot and had even C0 H mp | eted a ,7 the necessary
dcularly since the Collegian's first interview w.th paper work. We asked Shilke if this was true. '
Goehring found Crowley on hand to . clear up any
questions that Goehring couldn't answer. To this Shilke wrote: “Over a period of time the
amoihejs ihtreupo? Goes oj&z -tpe vOhite mouse femge
Dismissed
June 28. Even then, however, the.
RA felt that the reasons given only
disguised the truth.
He was gay, and apparently that
is not "the kind" of person
Residential Life desires on its staff.
If so, it’s their mistake and their
loss.
What attention was paid to the
RA’s past record? What regard
was given to that RA’s right to live
a private life?
Perhaps Residential Life viewed
a homosexual staff member as a
“threat" to the students, in his
charge. But it is difficult in this
liberal-minded age to conceive of
persons still clinging to the
stereotype of some “sick” friend
taking advantage of young boys.
Perhaps Residential Life felt un
comfortable keeping someone on
this kind of welcome. They were ordered to move along,
quickly, without explanation. So follow me, please, and no
straggling.”
Kathleen Pavelko
The buildings on Ellis Island are brick, of an ornate style no
longer associated with institutional architecture. They were
built in 1900, after a fire which destroyed the original wooden
buildings. We followed the rapidly disappearing ranger into the
doorless entrance of one of the buildings. The dark hallway
was like a mine the walls were shored up with wooden
beams, and above,'the ceiling was covered with plywood to
keep the plaster from falling. Opening off the hallway at
unexpected places were-iarge, empty rooms, their grimy paint
peeling from every surface. The tjles which lined the walls half
way to the ceiling were cracked; fallen tiles lay In mounds here
and there in the hall.
We emerged, blinking, into a courtyard and were led at a trot
by the ranger to an enormous building on the other side. He
stopped at the doorway and waited for us to catch up and to
catch our breath. “We are now entering the baggage area,
Where the immigrants first arrived,” he said. One stocky man In
front of me muttered, “This Is where I had to leave my baggage
in 1905.”
The baggage room was like those we had glimpsed along the
Although one-on-one. interviews are more to my
liking, I can't complain about talking to several sources
at the same time. .Sometimes there is some good in
teraction between the interviewers and the subjects.
However, when questions have to be in writing this
exchange is thwarted. And more often than not the
questions are misunderstood.
For example, when the Collegian asked Shilke if it
was true that it had actually been more than a year siqce
the last ‘official’ correspondence with the Federal
Aviation Administration, Shilke said he didn’t un-
Jan Selinger
its staff who deviated from what
they saw as the sexual norm. But if
one of the responsibilities of an RA
is to help students grow and
mature, then the RA who was
dismissed should not be viewed as
a hindrance.
Any individual who has the
courage to rise above petty
biases, hypocrisy and cruel con
ventions, should be applauded
not fired.
Residential Life could have
taught students much about
tolerance, compassion and open
mindedness from the incident. In
stead, students learned about
distrust, contempt and
discrimination.
Residential Life opened up our
eyes. But we don’t like what they
had to show us.
Mors trip—wasted or wondrous?
Public apathy notwithstanding, the
Viking landing on Mars stands as one of
the greatest scientific feats of all time.
The near-perfect performance of Viking-I
is a tribute to the technical brilliance of
workers and scientists Involved . in
America's space program, a tribute that
is magnified in light of four Russian
failures to accomplish the same feat.
I imagine that volumes have already
been written about every conceivable
aspect of this Martian flight. Hours
probably have been spent in discussion,
speculation, and explanation about Mars
and the new knowledge we have gained
from Viking.
But through all this jabber, I find one
thing lacking by all except a small
minority of people, and that is a sense of
true wonder, of awe, at what America
has accomplished. ' \
Granted, the moon landing had all of
the drama and suspense of a life and
death situation. It was a much greater
achievement than the Mars landing,
emotionally if not technically, and It
deserves all the excitement that it
generated. The awe inspired by the
moon landing js a direct consequence of
a primordial urge that man possesses to
reach up and touch the moon; to ex
perience the alien environment of a
heavenly body that is totally alien yet
totally familiar.
Though Mars, like the moon, is alien,
it lacks that combination of familiarity
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hallway' cavernous areas littered with crushed tiles and
plaster, paint hanging from wall and celling. We walked be
tween the gratings which divided the room into narrow
corridors, as the immigrants had walked with their baggage. At
the end of the baggage room, a narrow door. And then, on the
other side, the ’great hall,’ the main processing area. The hall
was three stories high and occupied nearly the entire building.
A wide staircase In the center of the room led to the railed
balcony on the second-floor level, where the men’s and
women’s dormitories were located.
"Hurry,- quick!" the immigrants were told, as they were
pushed towards the stairway. As they crowded up the stairs,
they were inspected by physicians. Those limping, or breath
ing hard were marked with chalk for later examination. All of us
would have, been marked. At the top came the questions,
usually through an interpreter: Name, country, how much
money, do you have a job, are you alone here?
But the questions posed a dilemma to lie or be honest?
Many immigrants had been hired while still In their native
villages, hoping that a job in hand would assure their entry into'
the United States. Yet proof of a job put the immigrant In
violation of an 1885 contract labor law forbidding the overseas
hiring of labor.
Do you have any money? To immigrants accustomed to
petty officials who stole from the unwary, the answer seemed
to be to have none. Yet the penniless immigrant could be
detained because he might become a public charge.
Processing through Ellis Island for the lucky 80 per cent took
three to four hours. But for the 20 per cent detained with chalk
utility, attributes and advantages of a fifth staff pilot
has been discussed." No definitive yes or no.
The Collegian, however, did get a definitive answer as
well as'an actual real-life in-person interview with
George H. Lovette, assistant vice president for
business.
Lovette said that they have been constantly studying
the possibility of a fifth staff pilot whose addition would
cut down on the number of outside charters that the
airport would have to use. However, Lovette told a
Collegian reporter that up until, this time no fifth staff
pilot has been requested.
When we asked Shilke if the airport operates on a
profit basis, Shilke replied: “I am not in a position to
make comment on this question.". .
Lovette, who explained that the airport operates on a
break-even basis, agreed that revealing this information
was not up to Shilke. It looks like Shilke’s job is’ to
manage the, airport, apparently not to deal with the
press.
from the looks of things, it appears that airport
ticlals are sticking to the suggested procedures for
handling questions from the media spelled out in the
June issue of "Intercom." They are refusing to comment
on matters outside their expertise.
We can grudgingly tolerate ‘chain of command’
filtering, of information. We can try to understand the
reason for stoppage of important information channels.
And we can try and figure out why certain questions
must be in writing. However, I find it abirritating double
standard.
and strangeness that the moon has.
Mars is essentially alien. The moon is an
eternal companion.
There are some, though, here on
earth, who do marvel at the Viking
landing. Their wonder goes beyond the
sentiments expressed by President Ford
when he said, “We’ve gone from a flight
of a few seconds and a few hundred feet
to a year-long flight to Mars, crossing
some 440 million miles of space."
There are some scientists, writers, and
artists who are expressing wonder at the
Mars landing in terms of a visionary
perspective. They see the landing as an
event even more significant to the future
of the space program .than the moon
landing. And they see past this
beginning to even more spec
tacular than any comparison between
the Wright brothers and Viking 1.
With the success of the Mars landing,
man has proven that he can reach far out
into the universe and explore and gain
knowledge while sitting safely, millions
of miles away, on earth. -
The obvious question, then, Is what
will follow Viking I? What is it that these
visionaries see? '
First of all, there's Viking 11, due on
Mars in It success Is vir-
Tom Reeher
tually assured by the success of its
predecessor, and the knowledge gained
from Viking I will enable the new robot to
make a more sophisticated study of the
planet.
After Viking 11, scientists will surely
petition the government for more funds
for more missions to Mars and beyond.
The success of their ventures up to this
point will be an invaluable asset in
obtaining those funds, make no mistake.
Already, scientists have plans for the
construction of space colonies that
would mine ores from the moon and
contain up to 10,000 people. These
colonies are feasible with today’s
technology. Though the colonization
effort would require an initial Investment
of 100 billion dollars (Apollo cost 39
billion) there would be a dollar return
from the .project .that would eventually
show a profit.
One of the scientist visionaries, Dr.
Gerard K. O’Neill of Princeton Univer
sity, says, 1 “Probably the most direct,
immediate' (benefit to life on earth)
would be in making a contribution to the
energy problem. We’ve looked at the
possibility of building big, fairly con
ventional power stations located in an
orbit that would keep them over the
same spot on earth and beam microwave '
power back to earth."
If all this seems a bit off track,
remember that, had Viking 1 tailed
miserably, the credibility and
marks “H” for heart, “X" for mental defects, or "SI,” tf.e
dreaded Special Inquiry the processing could.take weeks or
even months. If marked with an SI, the immigrant faced
questioning from three Immigration inspectors. Because he
was not a citizen, the immigrant had no right to a lawyer,
although an appeal could be made through one of the Social
Welfare agencies which aided immigrants.
From the medical opinion, however, there could be no
appeal. Many of the children suffered from glaucoma and other
contagious.eye diseases and could not be admitted to the
country. A diseased child under ten was deported, ac
companied by one parent. A child over ten could be sent back
alone, because those deported were sent back at the expense
of the steamship company which had brought them.
Irving Howe calls Ellis Island "the nearest earthly likeness to
the final Day of Judgment.” Nearly 12 million
passed through Ellis Island, and they.called it the Island of
Tears. Although 20 per cent .were detained, only two per cent
were deported a quarter of a million persons.
Those accepted Into the country were sent at government
expense across the bay to New York, where they could
settle or make rail connections for points further west. The
ferry which took them, the “Ellis Island,’- now lies half sunk
and rotting in the island’s original ferry slip.
The National Park Service estimates that $5O million will be
required to restore Ellis Island (only $1.5 million has been
appropriated so far). Perhaps the "Ellis'lsland" will be ex
cluded from the restoration so that all may see how run-down
we’ve allowed the land of opportunity tobecome.
|A OOMAKIeCI
momentum of America’s space effort
would have suffered, making talk of
space stations much harder to accept.
But the fact Is that the success on i u
Mars, will prompt more space ex
ploration. -
I think that one basic goal, perhaps
the ultimate goal, of space exploration is
to discover life somewhere in the
universe, to prove that man is not alone.
Viking i represents the first real chance
that man has had to find that life. _
Man must grow with his technology,
though. There are lessons to be learned
in space as well as knowledge to be
gained.
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury
insists that Viking will discover life on
Mars, or at least evidence of a past life. If
it doesn’t, then the search will go on and'i
Viking I will soon be just another name
in the space program. However, if it does
discover life, then the Mars landing will
go down In history as the most won
drous feat yet accomplished by man.
JANICE SELINGER
Summer Editor
NADINE KINSEY
Business Manager