opinions editorial opinion The art of compromise and the art of writing It's like 20 weeks of boot camp everyone knows they _must take. It isn't much fun while it's going on but like the Marine who graduates from basic training before his proud parents and girlfriend it's all worthwhile in the end. Those necessary evils English 10 and 20 are needed to discipline students in the useful art of writing. However, , some times these beginning composition courses get bogged down in banal compositions and irrelevant assignments. As part of the transition to the semester calendar, the English department has proposed some beneficial structural changes for beginning English. classes. That's a favorable sign that the calendar conversion will be more than regurgitating the same course material under a new name. The English department's first proposal to offer a freshman/junior year compo- reader opinion/dorm contracts Editor's note: The following letters concern ing dorm contract issues were submitted by representatives of on-campus housing groups. Hard pill to swallow The recurring debate over the value and privileges of interest houses seems to be inspired mainly from ignorance. From without appears to exist a minsunderstanding of the sense behind an interest house. From within, 'one often sees a confusion concerning the mission of the house. To the best of my understanding, President Oswald authorized the foundation of the . interest house program to encourage an atmosphere of heightened academic awareness and involve ment in dormitory living. Interest houses are intended to stimulate an interchange of ideas through such mechanisms as an extensive sched ule of programs, close contact with a faculty associate and the controversial but essential social interaction. Some houses have a specified departmental attachment and others, such as Renaissance House, aspire to the more difficult goal of a general education. My argument regarding the situation at hand namely, reserved space and dorm contract lines -- centers on, the need for continuity. Students entering into an interest house ought to be immediately struck with the difference in atmosphere and the degree of involvement as opposed to other dormitory floors. This situation is tremendously dependent on a returning core of students versed with the purpose of the house and dedicated to preserving its distinction and direction. Without these conditions, any sort of continuation of an interest house tradition would survive only be chance. Now for the pill that is hard to swallow. Assuming that interest houses display a laudable effort to enhance the academic environment of the University, their maintenance should be provided for. I propose that to insert a risk factor as great as revoking reserved space or forcing students to wait in dorm contract lines is unwise. Considering that interest house members are under a continual pressure to fulfill their pur pose, the loss of a housing guarantee could easily undermine the institution. Imagine the level of dedication you might have to a volunteer group from which you might be expelled irregardless of your contributions. For these reasons, I would be pessimistic of the future of interest houses if these supports are lifted. • Above all, though, I would invite any student who is challenged by the types of goals I men tioned above to visit an interest house and 'Well, I can't say right 2 AM (SN) MOVIE Biography (BW) "The Winning Team." (1952) Ronald Reagan as the immortal baseball pitcher Grover Cleve land Alexander. Doris Day, Frank Lovejoy, Eve Miller, James Millican. (2 hrs., 25 min.) —TV Guide, March 23, 1982. With the possible exception of Hawkeye and Hot Lips on "M*A*S*H" reruns, President Reagan is on television more often these days than just about anybody. Which is both good and bad. Good because the public should see and perceive the president as being both accessible and responsive. Bad because the president is i.lsoher responsive nor accessible. When it comes to the media, Reagan is mostly visual and very little audio. Outside of his late-night movies, Reagan's television existence primarily amounts to photo opportunities, where he waves and smiles to the cameras on his way to a plane or car, or when he's greeting an important guest. Occasionally, he'll provide a quip in answer to an aggressive reporter's serious question. Ah, /&:07,/,4-/- sition program was rejected by the powers that be because of a lack of funds. So the department came up with English 15 (an intensified version of English 10) and four English courses offered anytime during or after student's fourth semester the middle of his sophomore year. The idea is to allow enough Commonwealth campus students to take the second En glish course before coming to University Park, thus saving money here. After a student has mastered English 15, he can move on to one of four English options depending on his interest or his major or both. While this plan doesn't have the advan tages of offering students a chance to refine their English skills as they ap proach graduation, it will give them the chance to write about ideas they are inter ested in. The new plan is also an im provement over the department's original become involved. It may be your most reward ing experience at Penn State. Dan Bollag, former president Renaissance House March 15 Major drawbacks Guaranteed Reassignment is an alternate sys tem for assigning dorm rooms. This system, which was used by the University before the first-come, first served basis, is a system where a person wishing to remain in the same room for the next year, simply submits their contract early and is then guaranteed that room. The remaining rooms are allotted to freshmen, re serve space and branch campus students. This sounds like a logical, trouble-free system, but there are a few major drawbacks. The University had to abandon this system because the number of people who wanted guaranteed reassignment along with the incoming freshmen, and the number of reserve spaces added up to more rooms than were available. This system may still be used with a few changes so as to eliminate the problem of more spaces requested than available. As members of the Dorm Contract Acceptance Committee (DCAC), we are studying this alter native method. Another problem that arose was that too many people wanted direct room switches to obtain wanted rooms and this caused problems with housing. DCAC proposes that if this system were to be used, a clause should be included to prevent abuse of the direct room switch policy, except in emergency situations. Mike Foote, ARHS Representative for West Halls, Dean Ball, South Halls President March 21 Sororities entitled Each year thousands of students are told that dorm space will once again be allocated on a first come/first served basis. Lines begin to form earlier and letters to the editor of The Daily Collegian about the inequity of reserved space also come earlier each year. One such group that is entitled to this controversial reserve space are the women who make up the sorority system at Penn State. Sororities are socially based organizations. They depend on close friendships and a feeling of Otherwise, the nightly 30-second news shots of the president are of him speaking to the lowa legislature or building dikes or horseback rid ing at his ranch in California. There are enough of the photo opportunities and "action" shots to maintain the public illusion of accessibility, while in reality the president slips into a world of isolation and confinement. This has been especially true ever since the assassination attempt on Reagan, which took place a year ago tomorrow. "I think every president has over time felt confined in the White House," said David R. Gergen, the administration's head of commu nications. "The fact is you simply can't walk down the street; you can't go out to lunch; you can't do anything without having a retinue of agents, photographers, reporters, assistants a long parade of other people going with you." The media, eager for stories and eager to inform the public, must be placated. The White House has obliged by making available all the president's men, from top advisers Ed Meese, Jim Baker and Mike Deaver to Secretary of State Alexander Haig. They provide the meat and potatoes that normally originates with the president. The media swallows it, partly be cause the White House correspondents like Reagan personally, partly because they like, being spoonfed. There are times the president still likes to reach the Masses directly, but he prefers to do it on his own terms. As a former radio broadcaster, TV host and veteran of the rUbber chicken circuit, he knows how to give a speech and how to effectively read a teleprompter. He also knows how to warm an proposal requiring students to only have one semester of English. Students would choose from: • English 201, with a • social science emphasis. • English 211, humanities. • English 218, technical writing. • English 219, business writing. But the courses still have to be approved by the University Faculty Senate's Curric ular Affairs Committee. Is the plan that will be presented to the committee the ultimate in English instruc tion? Probably not but it is an im provement and as Wendell V. Harris, English department head, says, it won't decrease the writing competence of Uni versity students. It will "kind of improve it, we hope," he said. Ideals are never easy to reach. unity to accomplish the various events that Penn State students and the community have come to expect from the Greek System. These events include Homecoming, the Dance Marathon and the Regatta. The only way to organize such events is to be within close access to each other so that communication is not lost through- va rious channels. Sororities also have a contract with Resi dential Life that guarantees them a suite in the dorm they occupy and reserved space in certain cases. Girls who live off-campus are required to wait in line to be put in temporary space. These girls are then given last priority to move out to a regular space not on the floor at which time direct room switches to the sorority floor may be worked out. To get reserved space, a girl must be a sister or a pledge by the Spring Term of the year in which she is requesting housing. There are various other restrictions that Residential Life and the Panhellenic Council put on the sororities in the way of housing. A question often asked is: Why don't sororities move off campus? There are numerous reasons. The top one is that there are no houses left in the area that can accommodate 45-56 girls that the dorm floor and fraternity houses do. Money is also a problem. Most sororities here at Penn State cannot afford to move off campus. A major reason for this is that most national offices would not back a move such as this because a chapter would be so far removed from the other sorority chapters. This would be particularly detrimental during formal rush when there is limited time to accomplish certain goals. Sororities need unity to function. Living to gether provides that unity. The University, by way of a contractual agreement provides the spaces for the sororities to live together. Sorori ties are not a group of "close-minded elitists" by any means. They are open to any female stu dents who wants to be part of various campus events and philanthropies and also to enjoy the fun of forming close friendships by living togeth er. Pam Santoro Special-Interest Group Representative Residence Hall Advisory Board March 15 Input needed Penn State, Home of the Nittany Lion . . . or Line? It certainly seemed to prove to be the latter as the weekend of the "Great Contract Race" resumed once again. Little did many of the students, standing in line now, but please take my photo audience with simple messages and anecdotes, earning him the label of "the Reader's Digest of politics." So when the president has made direct ad dresses via national television, they have been warmly received by both, the media and the public. But these are definitely one-sided. George Reedy, press secretary under Lyndon Johnson, describes such presidential exercises as merely "a means by which a man can conduct a monologue in public and convince himself that he is conducting a dialogue with the public." Traditionally, the most reasonable facsimile cir octiousrvAmoP;arrirveu4c , _crsortiontar All with an emphasis in this year, realize that the system of allocating dorm contracts on a first-come, first-served basis was developed by a group of students in 1978. The students were members of the Dorm Contract 'Acceptance Committee. The commit tee was set up by the Association of Residence Hall Students. After extensive research, meeting with Housing and Residential Life administra tors, and many student surveys, DCAC sub mitted the first-come, first-served system to the dorm residents. It was met with almost unani mous approval. DCAC then gave the proposal to the Residential Life and Housing offices. So, you see, what has turned into an outdoor experience is really not a new form of torture set up by the students to test the endurance of students to the elements. The first come, first served allocation of dorm contracts was actually a system set up by the students for the students. In 1978, DCAC and the majority of students who wanted dorm contracts felt that it was the best and fairest possible way to give the contracts out. It's been four years now since students began to wait in line for dorm contracts. ARHS feels that the time has come to re-evaluate and find out how the students feel after being a part of the first-come, first-served system. A new Dorm Contract Acceptance Committee has been formed to investigate the other options available for a system of handing out dorm contracts. We need your input though. How do you feel after waiting in line for a dorm contract? Would you do it again? Is there a better way than the current system? DCAC wants to make a recom mendation to Housing and Residential Life by May 15 on a system that provides the allocation of dorm contracts. Whether it will be the present system or a new one, that's up to you. Robin Bronk, chairwoman Dorm Contract Acceptance Committee March 22 No special Well, dorm contract lines have come and gone for another year. Some if us will get contracts and some of us won't. The thing that bothers me is that some people will get dorm contracts and they didn't even stand in line! I'm talking about all those who have reserved spece: sorority members, interest house members and athletes. There are approximately 12,000 available spaces on campus and nearly half of them aren't actually available because these peoole have special privileges merely because they chose.to join one of these groups. to a dialogue the president has at his disposal is the news conference. (That's discounting, of course, the ineffective call-in talk show and town meetings of Jimmy Carter). But Reagan, supposedly the Great Commu nicator, has shunned this. When the president holds his news conference scheduled for later this week, it will only his 11th in 14 months of office. That's far less than any other president since the news conference was first given regular status by Franklin Roosevelt. Since FDR every president, including Richard Nixon even during Watergate has averaged twice as y . . j l A y -,?1 , 1 ( - ' ' l , 11 otbing• 1. • '` • *Kt OS.