Editorial opinion The United Mine Woi strike may blackout your cation. At the current rate of sumption, West Penn P< Co. has about 40 days of reserves for the Univei An engineer for West ] Power says that even ii strike is settled today, if take 15 to 17 days for a coal shipment to come in. If the strike continues longer than three weeks no conservation attempf made, the University . running without adeqi electricity, or possibly ' ting down. But if everyone consi. now, the University’s fuel con- Thank you It is unfortunately true that the cost of education is rising with the cost of everything else. In the Graduate School, the increased costs of education have translated to a,decrease in the availability of assistantships, which has, to some extent, led to a decrease in graduate enrollment. In an effort to help current, continuing and potential grads come to grips with the financial realities, the Graduate Student Association will be sponsoring a financial aid workshop, January 26 (7:30 p.m.) in 101 Kern. The guest speakers will be Dean Benjamin Howell of the Graduate School and Holly Zuleba of the Office of Student Aid. We will informally discuss everything from loans to grants, work study to fellowships. A question and answer period will follow. Additionally, GSA will make available information we have been collecting from different graduate departments about sources of aid within the departments. We are particularly gratified by the enthusiasm of graduate faculty as they assisted us in finding this information. It is through such cooperative efforts that we will be able to maintain quality education, communication and esprit de corps in the graduate school, the University, and the community. Our appreciation to all those who have assisted in these efforts. Wrong sponsor Friday's In Edition critiqued an article which appeared in “Turning Point,” about Changing Lifestyles, a new Spring Term - course. In keeping with the Collegian’s concern for petty “details,” the writer quotes one of the course initiators as saying the time and location of the class are unknown, since the initiators were a little slow with the paper work. The writer goes on to say that “it seems they weren’t paying attention to petty details.” The writer has ignored a few petty details himself. In the same article he states that “Turning Point,’.’ State College’s new alternative paper, is put out by the College of The Liberal Arts. Turning Point is, in fact, simply sponsored by the School of Journalism. • University officials did not see it in keeping with their rules to permit an independent paper to be distributed on campus. The School of Journalism empathized with our cause and helped us to obtain permission to distribute on campus. But, get them while you can folks, because University officials continue to confiscate them. Mars ton It was very disappointing to read Charley Mitchell’s column on U.S. Attorney David Marston. Mitchell, and many of my friends, have had the same reaction to this case. They have written off the Marston problem as Jimmy Carter’s lesson in politics, although it is apparent that as governor of Georgia he must have learned enough of politics to know what was expected of him. *B UTT FIRST, A \VORP FROM MVSFOU6O?..? DdUy CoIIQQIQH fOWITI Blackout ■ ' Bisf ivff w* vi iv v % | u&tdijKe j) P ' irkers sumption can be reduced by at for less than 15 minutes, I|fp H / edu- least 20 percent possibly Dean says, and turned off if _^ r ., | j /« v giving the University a fuel they will not be used for longer // 1 %A ap"’*' con- reprieve. than that time. (C __ r<o> , 1 IUVr Hill ,% lmi M ill! 'ower J. Carroll Dean, manager of University President John Kin \ fU p yfif t coal the University’s energy con- W. Oswald has ordered elec- 3L3* Mr t 1 1 1 fflwMw N > srsity. servation program, says any tncity conservation on all JIS Is 11 ft J Penn action that will Save energy in Penn State campuses. The -y • gpj y' if the general will help conserve Association of Residence Hall. | 1 5 / ! ’ it will electricity. Students has recommended S . k iI ; f new Students should accept the that dorm residents volun- lui ill JI ■ responsibility of reporting tarily reduce their energy con- M My in |\ ft much malfunctioning systems, such sumption by 10 percent start- H rW/ i !i *5 and as heaters. Students can also ingJan.3o. mif its are conserve energy by turning off If the United Mine Workers’ T| v risks incandescent lights when they strike isn’t solved soon, the . <cw juate are not needed, conserving University could be asked to , * -ww dmmmm shut- water and eliminating the restrict non-essential opera- *** non-essential use of energy. tionstoa4shourweek. erves Fluorescent lights should be The message is all too clear. iig^ left on if they will not be in use Gary Gillette Marilyn Henry GSA Jan. 20 Betsy Morris Michal Whitehouse Staff members, Turning Point Jan. 23 Letters to the Editor Carter’s shabby conduct in the Marston case is not the most discouraging point. What is discouraging is the attitude toward that conduct. From Kennedy through Johnson and ending in Richard Nixon, the American public and press turned a blind eye on one corrupt, underhanded action after another. They were each excused as a necessary part of the system. Finally we had a president who assumed that little, if anything, was expected of him in the way of integrity and decency. The disaster of Watergate need not be outlined; we are all familiar with it. The firing of David Marston does not rate near the com plexity or importance of Watergate. It is exactly what it has been described as a standard political maneuver. Unfortunately the reaction to it is foreboding. The feryor to “clean up" in post-Watergate days is now dying. Progress springs only from the minds of those who would improve. Anyone who has excused this action has put more belief in the inevitability of the world as it is now than in their hopes for the future. When a person settles for what he sees, he prohibits himself progress. This is one of the saddest atrocities a man can commit against society. Misgivings In reference to all the “Bleeding heart” individuals who are against the reinstatement of the death reinstatement of the death penalty for murder, I pose this hypothetical situation: Picture a Charles Manson-type individual murdering your family or anyone that you love, in a similar style that Manson and his family committed their terrible atrocities, then tell me that you wouldn’t be screaming for their heads. Informed Do you know what the Penn State Task Force is? Most students who we have talked to know little or nothing about it. Yet, it is a very important student issue that will affect every student and all student organizations. According to a USG official, the task force has been in operation for two years gathering information on methods of improving the efficiency of undergraduate student govern ment. If their recommendations are adopted the present form of undergraduate student government will drastically be changed. But before their recommendations can be adopted, public hearings will be held probably in early February. The hearings will determine whether the students support or oppose the changes. If there is support, undergraduate student government would like to hold a special referendum during spring term registration tq permit the students to vote on the new form of government. We wonder how a committee as powerful as the task force can work for two years and the students know nothing about it? Also, why is the USG-backed task force so interested in trying to push the public hearings and the elections before the students are knowledgeable on the subject? If the public hearings are held in February we feel there would not be adequate student input. How can students intelligently voice their opinions if they don’t know anything about the task force or its policies? Also Conserve energy now. Gus A. Kostas Uth-law enforcement and corrections Task Force seeks student views! By STEVE DiORIO Co-Chairman, University Task Force on Student Representation, and President Interfraternity Council On Jan. 30, 31, and Feb. 1 the University Task. Force on student representation will be holding public hearings for the purpose of allowing interested students the opportunity to become involved in the process of reorganizing student government at Penn State. It is necessary that as broad a base of opinion as possible be represented in order for the Task Force members to receive an even greater ’ cross-section of opinion than to date, in particular student opinion, and to allow Task Force members the opportunity to reply to a variety of issues. For purposes of clarification a brief description of the origin of the Task Force is in order as well as an iden tification as to where the need for student governmental reorganization developed. In ihe late fall of 197?, the Undergraduate Student Government charged a committee of students with the task of examining and evaluating the current internal situation and per formance of USG. It was stated in this report that the recommendations of the USG Task Force was a first step in a long process of evaluating the whole of student governmental organizations. During this time several staff mem bers of the Office of Student Affairs met how can those just learning about the task force be expected to gather enough information on their position in the short amount of time remaining? We think that it would not be in the best interest of the students to hold the referendum balloting during spring registration or any time in early March as many students will not be ready to vote. Especially since February will be a time students will be preparing for finals rather than collecting feedback on the issue. We urge that'an educational campaign be initiated to inform the students of the issue and we encourage undergraduate student government not to conduct the hearings and election until this is done. Short letter Chuck Zito 2nd-liberal arts Jan. 13 I have been attending this University on and off for five years and have been reading about the same issues in your “newspaper” for five years. However, it has come to my attention that your “newspaper” is biased against, short people. While I have never read a word of degradation against blacks, homosexuals, women or any other minority, you seem to think that being short is somehow amusing. Your attempt at being funny with Friday’s weather report (drifting may be monumental and cover up short people) was totally out of line, lacked respect for a substantial percentage of the population and revealed how much short people’s problems are overlooked. It is no fun living in a world where everything is out of reach, or where you are overlooked because of your size. Short people are easily as smart, agile, artistic and creative as tall people. Given the chance, short people can do anything that a tall person can do, even athletically (tall people aren’t so great; look at our basketball team). I am tired of being called a midget and the brunt of jokes about short people. Enough is enough! I would hope that short people on campus will unite to fight discrimination (i.e. high tables, low chairs, big people with small minds, etc.). All interested short people call me or write to The Daily Collegian to express your views. So, to the Collegian, Randy Newman and the rest of you prejudiced people, stick a live chicken in your undershorts. Mission In view of the recent development in the Middle East, it is clear that since its inception the goal of Zionism has been the creation and expansion of a colonial settler state in the heart of the Arab lands. Israel’s intransigence in the recent negotiations, despite the massive concessions by Mr. Sadat, makes it clear Israel intends to continue to expand into, colonize and settle the neighboring Arab lands. Zionist cries for “security” and “defensible borders” are thereby'shown to be merely a smoke screen for the continued expulsion of Arab inhabitants of the region from their homes and farmlands in order to obtain such homes and farmlands for settlers coming in from other countires. with the members of the USG Task Force at the students’ request to discuss the interrelationship of USG to the ad ministration. From these meetings a consensus was reached that student participation needed to be improved at both the “decision-making” and the “policy-level” of the University. In general, then, it was agreed that there must be further consideration of student representation as it relates to existing University government. As a result of these sentiments being ex pressed by both students and ad ministrators, Raymond 0. Murphy, vice president for student affairs, established a University Task Force on student representation. The objective of the Task Force, as was stated in its charge, was to establish a “proposal of ways and means to improve the quality of par ticipation and representation for students in University matters.” The composition of the University Task Force included individuals who worked on the USG Task Force as well as the student leaders of executive council organizations. The Council of Branch Campus Student Government Association became an additional member of the Task Force at a later date. In addition, four administrators from the Office of Student Affairs were requested to sit on the University Task Force in order to allow the necessary interaction for an intelligent review of student representation in University matters. ’ Thomas D. Gracik 12th-poly mer science Bill Reininger 9th-man-environment relations Jan. 24 Charles Mazzitti (5’6”) 7th-division of undergraduate studies Jan. 23 Initially the Task Force divided into two subcommittees: internal and ex ternal. The internal committee examined the interface between student organizations, (i.e., the Association of Residence Hall Students and the Organization of Town Independent Students) while the external committee analyzed areas of student concern and answered the question as to whether or not these concerns were being met by a student input group to satisfy those concerns. A survey of students was utilized to generate student opinion as to needed services and programs. Having acquired the above information the subcommittees issued their final reports, and the task of restructuring a student government according to the needs of students at Penn State was underway. The purpose of the University Task Force is not to make other student groups pay for USG’s problems, as has been stated. Its purpose is merely to develop the most efficient and effective organization of student services as possible. This requires an open mind to change and a willingness on the part of students and organizations to work for thai. change, into whatever form it develops. Self-interest present in the existing student government must be replaced with an attitude beneficial to the good of the whole. i In Jim Scarantino’s article he stated Mr. Begin’s open defense of such colonization makes it clear that the only peace the Israelis are willing to make with the native Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, is the sort of peace Hitler intended to make with the neighboring Slavs. It is no wonder that the PLO has refused to be a party to such a “peace,” which necessarily entails a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem in the form of the destruction and ex tinction of the Palestinians, not only as a nation, but as human beings. -- While the predominant force in the PLO, that of Mr. Arafat is willing to concede more than the Czechs did at Munich, the PLO cannot lend itself to serving as a mere' front and a legitimation for the total expulsion and destruction of ths people it represents, from which it draws its sole reason existence Miscreants Scenario: ' . Upon returning to your families’ '"; home from an evening out, you . sense that the house is too quiet. „ The dog didn’t greet you—“he’s probably ' sleeping upstairs under someone’s bed.” . ■ The only sound is the TV’s post-Anthem hum. ‘ a You walk into the next room . .. your stomach immediately reacts to the picture that your eyes have just confirmed. No need to continue. Now . . . Vengence is whose? j. When murder walks through your castle, who will decide , what is just? When capital crime and punishment become. r more than a detached abstract discourse because of a vivid, unforgettable memory trace, the problem becomes urgent. 1 Your attitude would be different if you were to spend some* time as an aide on a ward for the criminally insane and patrolled a cell block in the behavior adjustment unit oPe penitentiary. ,1!. When you begin to raise a family and send your children to school and remember who peopled those institutions and whj£ they were there, you become a realist and not a sophist./ Murderers, sexual psychopaths, child molesters, rapists, kidnapers, etc., are not just stories on Kojak. . ‘ And, if murder walks into your house, it will be because ybtt opened the door for him. So until the abstract becomes the real Dan Evalf graduate—community system and planning development 1 Jan. 22 iCollegiari Jeffrey Hawkes Editor . orij, Formal grievances may be sent to Gerry Hamilton, Inc., executive secretary, 126 Carnegie Building, Universifos Park, Pa. 16802. Sabah A. Wali Organization of Arab Student^ , Jan.-io ■ra Business Manager that “Task Force members insist that' reorganization model is only tentative and not amenable to public discussion.I’’" 1 ’’" While the reorganizatipn model 'is 1 tentative, the latter part of thdt 1 statement is both extremely misleading and completely inaccurate. The feed-7 back generated from public hearings planned for next week will play an iti° tegral role in the completion of a final document and in the final development of a new student government structure. 111 The voice of the students has been will continue to be heard by the Tqsk Force, but it must be an organized one. As a Daily Collegian editorial stated, the Task Force tried to hear every of every issue, it would be years before anything concrete would ever come qut of it.” The Task Force members desire change a change for the benefit of all students. The legitimacy of the recommended structural changes will lie in the hands of the students wher?it belongs. The Task Force welcomes criticism criticism directed at tjbfi ability of the new structure to aid pi] students. Finally, and most importantly, the Task Force welcomes suggestions : te remedy any weaknesses identified in its proposals. To simply criticize without subsequent suggestions for ini l provement would be senseless. The Td§R( Force’s mind is open we hope that tH6 organizations’ minds are open as well. 1 zksctf?B ' i. 5 4 , .-JT a Scott R. Sesler
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers