Editorial opinion
Wrong combination
University wastes time and money removing USG's safe
Choose your favorite cliche: “Cutting off your
nose to spite your face” or “Two wrongs don’t
make a right.”
Both sayings describe the University’s act
Monday when it’ removed a floor safe from
Sparks Building. The safe was installed last
March in a closet in Sparks by the Un
dergraduate Student Government.
William Hetrick, director of physical plant
administration, said the $9OO safe was removed
because of its unauthorized installation and
because of structural considerations.
Director of Student Activities Melvyn S. Klein
said the safe was removed because USG used it
for storing money and “altered the space
without permission. ”
The closet had been alloted by the University
for USG use, Andy Weintraub, USG vice
president, said.
According to Weintraub, USG paid the total
cost of the safe and gave a full apology for its
unauthorized installation.
The safe, designed to store equipment and
USG film money, has been returned to the USG
office, Weintraub said.
USG will pay for the safe’s removal and the
cost of restoring the closet “to what it was
Inside view of today from a page out of history
Columnist’s Note: The negative feelings
surrounding the current presidential
campaign exemplify what has become a
discouraging trend in America many
voters have become turned off to
politics. In part, this may be due to the
fact that voters simply don’t understand
enough about the office of the president
or how it works. Last week, Daily
Collegian staff writer Paul Sunyak
traveled to Mount Ruslunore, South
Dakota, where he interviewed former
Presidents George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and
Theodore Roosevelt on the presidency,
negative political apathy and the current
state of world affairs. The following is a
transcript of that interview, edited for
more length and less clarity.
COLLEGIAN: Whew! That was quite
a climb. You guys got a beer?
- WASHINGTON :.Sure. In the frig. Help
yourself.
.-COLLEGIAN: Now down to business.
Let’s chip away at what you think are
the biggest issues in America today.
LINCOLN: Well, I.think gun control is
the biggest issue. Senator Kennedy is
unequivocably right in calling for gun
control, and I favor it 100 percent.
‘ ROOSEVELT: Abe, you have the
perception of a bull moose. Gun control
was not intended in the Constitution. In
Disappointment
I am disappointed that you would use your
paper to further so obvious a cult as Mormonism
in your July 28 Collegian.
The article is very misleading and can only
benefit Mormonism and eventually harm those
who accept it.
Utah (more than 70 percent Mormon) has had
a divorce rate that exceeds the national average
every year but one for over 30 years.
Polygamy though they say they do not
practice it is widely practiced in Utah and is
protected by state officials. Polygamy is as
much a part of Mormonism’s teachings now as in
Brigham Young’s days, but no article says that.
fact, the Constitution was
against gun control, right Tom?
JEFFERSON: Hmmm. Let me see
(shuffling papers). I think I’ve got it
written down on a napkin
someplace. .. .
ROOSEVELT: What a filing system!
Is that how you did the Declaration of
Independence, too? You were there,
can’t you even remember?
JEFFERSON: I can’t recall much
from the night we wrote that part. We
were pretty drunk Pat Henry and
John Hancock and the rest of the guys.
All I can remember was Betsy Ross
bitching about how we should include
something called the ERA. We told her
not to worry about it, equality for women
was a passing fad.
COLLEGIAN: But it wasn’t. It’s still a
Please do not allow your newspaper to be used
in such a manner. Everything you could say
about Jim Jones could be said about Joseph
Smith. Mormonism’s people are totally sub
servient to him.
John L. Smith, Utah Missions, Inc,
Marlow, Oklahoma
August 11
High ideals
I read with considerable pleasure the story in
the Collegian on the Mormons by Pam Medve. I
beleive it is one of the best stories I have ever
read in the Collegian.
vV IUMICS v seNATDR, Fofc yoUR COtflfelpOTioM*
before,” Klein said. Hetrick said he estimated a
“pretty good ballpark figure” of between $3OO
- for the job.
Klein said it is routine for the office of
physical plant to take care of matters like
removing the safe and repairing the closet. But
since USG paid for the safe’s installation and
will have to bear the eventual cost of its
removal, should not USG have been allowed to
try to have the safe removed at a.lower cost?
Moreover, the safe’s presence was not har
ming anyone and was valuable to the student
government.
Weintraub said he was told that USG did not
go through the proper channels. This is true.
The safe’s installment by former JEM
Productions Business Manager Ernie Hicks
was a clear violation of University policy. Blit
should a worthwhile item be removed simply as
punishment?
The University should not have deprived the
present USG administration of the safe in
Sparks because of the actions of a member of a
previous administration.
Student funds are now being wasted only
because the University wants to prove a point.
written
Letters to the Editor
big issue with a lot of people. However,
the Republicans just scratched it from
their platform and the Democrats
haven’t taken a stand one way or the
other. What about that?
LINCOLN: It saddens my heart to
think that the party I led to victory a
party which demanded equality for all
mankind could have backslid so much
in such a short period of time.
COLLEGIAN: Now it looks like we’re
getting somewhere. But first, let me get
a consensus from the others. Guys, do
you or do you not think Abe looks like a
young Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini?
WASHINGTON: There’s a question we
can get our teeth into. Yes, I think Abe
looks a lot like the Ayatollah. But with
different glasses, I think Teddy would
look more like Bani-Sadr than Abe looks
From stories I have read, what I have wit
nessed, I have developed a picture of the average
student as indiffernt to ideals and too sloppy in
character. He is often pictured as having a liquor
bottle in one hand, some pot in his pocket and a
person of the opposite sex nearby.
From what I have observed, the Mormons
evidently have high ideals which they try to
demonstrate by the way they walk, as well as by
their talk.
Too many persons claiming to be Christians,
seem to be satisfied to go to church (most don’t
go at all), mumble over some prayers, listen to a
pleasing sermon, and because of their conduct,
are undiscernable from those who claim to have
very few high ideals.
: irst> (i
the x/
had (
news...
Now
the x
<gsod
hews..
like the Ayatollah.
LINCOLN: You must be kidding!
Teddy looks nothing like Bani-Sadr.
. ROOSEVELT: Bully. Where have you
been for the last nine months, at the
theater? If you watch television, you
know I bear a striking resemblance to
Bani-Sadr. You, on the other hand, are
twice as homely-looking as the
Ayatollah.. . .
LINCOLN: That may be true, but lam
the most famous president named
Lincoln. Can you say the same?
COLLEGIAN: Mr. Jefferson, what do
you say?
JEFFERSON: When in the course of
human events it becomes necessary to
render a decision, we the people, in
order to form a more perfect union,
abstain.
WASHINGTON: I think the problem
stems from a lack of respect for the
presidency. When I started, the
presidency was respected. Those chosen
to fill the position were competent. The
people had faith. And congress worked
with me, instead of trying to compete.
Special interests were not as influential;
elected officials could vote their con-
I salute the high ideals of the Mormons, and
admire them for trying to live them.
Your story was like a fresh, clean breeze
coming from the vale of old Mt. Nittany. It
reminded me of what I saw and experienced here
more than 50 years ago.
A.R. Mandeville, class of 1924
August 13
Poor alternative
In response to Jean S. Guertler’s letter of
August 8 concerning Rep. Gregg Cunningham’s
efforts to restrict abortion'funding, I would like
to comment on several points she made.
Her discussion of the right to choose abortion
within a pluralistic society shows a lack of un
derstanding about the concepts of pluralism and
choice. Pluralism is legitimate when it permits a
choice among alternative goods. We have the
choice to live where we want to live, buy what we
want to buy, be what we want to be.
With regards to abortion I ask, what are we
choosing? Do we have the right to deny the lives
of the youngest members of our race?
Before 1865 we had the choice, limited by
political jurisdiction, to own slaves. Certainly
this was not a fair, moral choice, but pluralism
sanctioned this in opposition to natural law. With
respect to slavery this law holds that all people
are free and automatic individuals.
Human bondage,then, is not and issue where
pluralism con be permitted. Similarly, abortion
cannot be allowed under the aegis of pluralism,
because it too entails a transgression of natural
law. It violates man’s right to exist, and the
unborn child has as much right a life to life as
everyone else.
Guertler’s statement, “Serious moral choice
involves alternatives which offer no final happy
resolution. . . .” warrants careful consideration.
If we analyze the alternatives for their rightness
or wrongness, then perhaps a clarification of the
matter can be made.
. Looking at abortion and the arguments raised
supporting it, I ask, is an evil committed to
obtain a good? Wishing that a woman pursue a
career or that she not experience a pregnancy
resulting from rape are good desires.
However, letting these wishes take precedence
over a pregnancy requires that a life be taken.
Any goods proffered are contingent on this first
act. Choice in this case interferes with the life
imperative: “Thou shall not kill.” Thus we
cannot choose abortion as a reasonable alter-
COLLEGIAN: What do you view as
the major contributors to political
apathy in the United States?
JEFFERSON: Ah, the “Who cares?
Let’s party! ” syndrome.
LINCOLN: You are right. People
seem to be losing faith in the political
system. I don’t know why this has oc
curred, but I have noticed a decline in
participation over the last four score and
seven years.
The economy is
a mess...my
foreign policy is
ajoke and the
country is going
down the tube.
I'm
nominated
again...
sciences. Few officials owed their
positions, and hence their alligiance, to
financial contributors.
JEFFERSON: That’s the way we
intended it to be when we set the system
up: government by the people.
LINCOLN: And that’s why the system
stayed solvent throughout my ad
ministration. Even in the face of the
biggest internal crisis in our history, the
system survived, because the people
cared enough to participate.
ROOSEVELT: Exactly. No one rode
roughshod over the voters in my day. We
weren’t saddled with the large-scale
negative apathy of today. People voted
because they believed it could make a
difference and it did.
COLLEGIAN: But the fact remains
that people don’t believe that anymore.
The argument is that the system has
grown too large, the world too complex,
for them to make a difference. What do
you see as possible consequences if this
trend continues?
WASHINGTON: Well, it’s like
something Martha used to tell me when I
waivered about using my powers while
in office.
COLLEGIAN: And that was?
WASHINGTON: If you don’t use it,
you lose it.
Paul Sunyak is a 13th-term journalism
major and staff writer for The Daily
Collegian.
native. There can be no choice when it comes to
the life of an unborn human being.
Larry Mueller, State College resident
August 13
Now hear this
Draft registration has divided many people
in this country and on this campus. With
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr.’s
stay of a Philadelphia court decision ruling
the sign-up process unconstitutional, many
young people will be anxiously waiting for the
Supreme Court’s final ruling on the matter.
The constitutionality of forcing persons to
reveal their social security numbers has been
questioned. Moreover, any registration plan
excluding women may .be ruled as
discriminatory against males. .
Although The Daily Collegian has run op-ed
pages in the past on women in the draft and on
registration, the question still lingers of
whether registration is right or wrong.
On Tuesday, Sept. 9, The Daily Collegian
will focus its first op-ed page of Fall Term on
the continuing controversy surrounding the
new military draft sign-up. If you have any
comments on registration, please submit
them to the Editorial Editor, 126 Carnegie. All
letters must be typed, double-spaced and no
longer than 30 lines. Deadline is Friday,
August 22.
Collegian
Friday, Aug. 15, 1980—Page 2
Betsy Long
Editor
BOARD OF EDITORS: Managing Editor, P.J. Piatz;
Editorial Editor, Andy Linker; News Editor, Rick
Jackson; Sports Editor, Paul Boynton; Arts Editor,
Paddy Patton; Photo Editor, Rick Graff; Graphics
Editor, Randy Guseman; Copy Editors, Lynne
Johnson, Bari Winemiller, Elyse Chiland, Calias
Richardson; Weekly Collegian Editor, Martha Snyder
McCoy; Assistant Weekly Collegian Editor, Wendy
Trilling; Office Manager, Jackie Clifford. '
© 1980 Collegian Inc.
Kathy Matheny
Business Manager
Working the court beat
makes jesters of pros
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. Officially, this
group of about 15 reporters is called the
Bucks County Courthouse Press Corps.
Unoffically, it is a group of fun-loving
journalists professionals, at that
’’which makes The Daily Collegian staff
look normal. Well, at last normal for
newspaper people.
For five weeks this summer, I was a
member of the courthouse press corps,
representing Today’s Spirit, a small
daily newspaper from Hatboro, a suburb
of Philadelphia.
I was nervous at first. The other
reporters wrote for papers the Spirit
competes with. I thought it might be a
little cutthroat for stories. I hadn’t ex
pected the press corps to be such a
closeknit bunch; they were more than
colleagues, they were friends.
And they welcomed me into their
circle and showed me what professional
reporters are really like. For more than
a month, it was like living in a Marx
Brothers movie.
The first two weeks I learned the
s ropes. The entire courthouse was my
' beat and I had to be alert for any
hearings or trials the Spirit should
cover. Marty, who runs a news service
for the local papers, took me under her
wing and help me find the sources I
needed for certain story information.
Emilie, from the Doylestown Daily
Intelligencer, was my model of the
typical, young female reporter. Her
huge handbag held notebooks, pens,
change for the phone and vending
machines, clips and press releases a
portable press room of sorts.
Jack, of the Bulletin, taught me to be
' skeptical of things I heard, and how to
take better notes by using the system of
abbreviations and symbols.
Ed of the North Penn Reporter and
Tom of the Allentown Morning Call
usually teamed with Jack in a threesome
the Scorpion
presents
TUESDAYS—Happy Hours All Nite
WEDNESDAYS—“Scorpion All Stars”*
THURSDAYS—“Tahoka Freeway”
FRIDAYS—“Tiger Lilly”
SATURDAYS—“Backseat Van Gogh”
' Band Schedule for Next 2 Weeks
'Jam with State College's finest—Musicians Welcome
Sunday
Tahoka Freeway & Blackout. No cover!
Monday
Men’s Gusto Nite 8:30 p.m.-l:30 a.m. Grab
the gusto and Monday Nite Baseball!
Tuesday
Ladies Nite: featuring Tiger Lily, the
Saloon’s original “Upside Down Margurita”
and no cover!
Wednesday
The Original “Warren O. Fitting Oldies Nite”
from 9:00 p.m.-l:00 a.m. and No Cover!
Thursday
Backseat Van Gogh
“Sex, booze and rock ’n’ roll” with no cover!
(and every Sunday thru Thursday it’s Happy Hours
from 4:00p.m.-8:00p.m.)
Friday (August 15)
Glenn Kidder
Saturday (August 16)
Glenn Kidder and no cover!
that made the Marx Brothers look dull.
The last three weeks of my internship,
the six of us covered an arson-murder
trial. It was a long and often boring trial,
and I learned what portions of testimony
I could safely miss in order to cover a
county commissioners meeting or
political press conference elsewhere in
the courthouse.
But now that I’ve seen the so-called
real world, I’m no longer afraid of
graduating into this world. Reporters of
all ages are a crazy bunch, looking for
fun like everyone else, and they often
have a sharp, wacky sense of humor.
Their humor became very evident the
last week of the trial. Tom brought in his
portable video display terminal to type
his story on. Jack wanted to know if he
could program it to play Space Invaders.
We needed something to relieve the
boredom of waiting for the jury to return
the verdict. Emilie, Marty and I played
cards. Tom, Ed and Jack played hand
ball against the 30-foot wall in the
rotunda outside the courtroom. A bridge
crossed the upper portion of the rotunda
connecting sections of the next floor.
They threw the ball over the bridge too.
“Hey, haven’t you guys ever heard of
the hallowed halls of justice?” Emilie
asked as the ball narrowly missed her.
• We argued over what kind of pizza to
order for dinner and who would pick it
up.
We discussed each other’s papers and
the stories we had written. And when the
trial was over we all went back to our
offices to type the stories.
But I won’t be going back to the
courthouse. I have one more year of
school before I join the ranks of the
professionals.
In a way, going back to the books will
be a disappointment after all the fun I’ve
had. I’ve had a job I enjoy and
coworkers I liked. We all got along, we
teased each other and helped each other
and we laughed together.
Covering trials can be depressing. A
reporter sees tragedy, cruelty and
misfortunes every day in court. Perhaps
that’s why the best corps reporters often
seem to flippant their levity helps
counteract the environment.
“After this, Jan goes back to being a
mild-mannered coed,” Tom said on my
last day.
“What are you going to give me for a
going away present?" I asked.
“We’re going to throw you in the
Delaware Canal,” Jack said.“ Bring
your bathing suit.”
“So now that you’ve seen the real
world, are you sure this is what your
want?’’Torn asked.
“There is still time to change your
major,” added Jack.
But I wouldn’t give up now. I’ve seen
the big time and it’s what I want.
Reality, here I come ready or not. But I
think I’m ready.
Jan Corwin is a lOth-term journalism
major and copy editor for The Daily
Collegian.
Heister St.
234-0845
i • i
“No wonder committees can never get
anything done,” Ed said.
Emilie solved our problem by finding
a place that would deliver. We all rode
down in the elevator to pick it up and had
a pizza party in the lobby. And we
waited.
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Coverage of
media travel
“It’s Bush, Walter! It’s BUSH, BUSH,
BUSH! ” That’s Leslie Stahl, reporting to
Cronkite during the Democratic
National Convention in cool journalistic
style.
After she and Walter bantered a bit,
she turned her head to the side, rolled
her eyes and stuck out her tongue for the
benefit of everyone out there in
television land all in dispassionate
broadcast tradition. You’re right Leslie,
it’s very bush.
Not too long ago, it would have been
valid to write a column on the effect
media coverage has on national politics.
But that’s not news any more. We know
that convention planners schedule the
meatier proceedings for prime time.
Winners and also-rans mug for the
photographers with upraised hands
clasped together, arms wrapped around
one another, binding them physically
and symbolically.
We’re into the age of media and the
media. When “Doonesbury” dealt with
the press coverage of the coverage
earlier this week, I thought it was cute,
typical Trudeau satire and social
comment. When he ran another strip, I
began to wonder.
Sure enough, spread across the pages
of “Time,” “Newsweek,” and "U.S.
party conventions:
down memory lane
News and World Report” were articles
on the electronic medium by the print
medium. Then TV did a piece on radio
coverage. Radio reported on the
newspapers, and before you know it, it’s
spread beyond the pen and ink people in
“Doonesbury.”
1 . •-***£■(•;
\
They went too far. Monday night, CBS
presented a convention flashback on the
coverage of the 1952 convention by you
guessed it CBS. There was Walter
Cronkite taking a break to flash back to
clips of Walter Cronkite. I realize con
ventions can get slow. They can get
downright tedious, until the floor
reporters and anchors and com
mentators can do-nothing but “vamp
until ready,” a term borrowed from
vaudeville by Cronkite himself.
But when the most trusted man in
America resorts to showing home
Very Conducive to
friendliness & mashing
»c mass
f * Z:00m~~6.O0 w -..
&vmy Friday
JUNCTION of COLLEGES GARNER state college .
Flenty of fsrkfm behind The STATIONdaiIy.
The Daily Collegian Friday, Aug. 15,1980 —3
movies in the name of press coverage,
they’ve gone off the deep end.
At the conclusion of one night of the
Republican convention, Dan Rather
commented on the legendary Ford/Bush
switch. Headset and suspenders firmly
in place, he let us know that this is what
reporting is all about. This is what
makes it all worthwhile. His colleagues
agreed, mikes and headphones nodding
in affirmation.
But think about it. What if you turned
to the front page, read a piece on the
conventions, then at the end/ saw
“Reporter’s note: stories like this make
it all-worthwhile. This is what it’s all
about. It’s moments like this that make
me proud to be a journalist. Thank you,
everyone.”
The media are important. They in
fluence us precisely because they
communicate to us. But this sense of
self-importance, like everything else, is
inflated. The news media should cover
the news, not the media. I’m sorry,
Walter, but that’s the way it is - or
should be. Back to you, Leslie.
Scott Dugan is a 1979 graduate in the
English writing option and columnist for
The Daily Collegian.
Tonite at
(Fri. 8/16)
The Phyrst
111 '/z E. Beaver Ave.
DOUBLE FEATURE!
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'ian
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Second Show at 10 pm