opinions
editorial opinion
A. question
" ®f credibility
It isn't easy to criticize a report that rates
Penn State among the top universities in the
nation, but one must if the credibility of it is
in question and the substance as well as the
research methods are ridiculed by profes
sors and educators alike.
The study that gave the University a 4.60
rating out of a possible 4.99 is the
Gourman Report, a supposed in-depth rank
ing of worldwide colleges and universities
released at the end of 1983.
Scholarly criticisms of the report, which
examines nearly 50 fields of study, range
from the sublime to the severe. And for good
reason. Some have labeled the findings
"questionable" while others such as the
Univ,ersity of Pennsylvania's David
Webster, who critiqued earlier Gourman
studies during his graduate work, call the
previous reports an "absolute disaster."
Probably the primary criticism is echoed
by William E. Toombs,. director of the
center for the study of higher education at
this University. He thinks the report's crite
ria are not valid or open to criticism. And he
also attacks the report's methodology
mainly because the author doesn't explain
how he arrived at his findings. -
The author, Jack Gourman, a professor of
political science at California State Univer-.
sity at Northridge is, however, quick to
defend both his methods and criteria. But
unfortunately, the vagueness of his explana
tion and the unscholarly methods used both
lend credence to his many critics.
Gourman has stated that an explanation
of his work was prepared, but the publisher
of the report declined to include it because
of the additional printing costs. No wonder
the explanation is hundreds of pages long.
• Toombs pointed out that the majority of
"credible" scholarly evaluations of higher
education are produced by an advisory
committee, which traditionally publishes its
Op-ed reminder
•
This is a reminder thatan Op-ed page devoted to the Those interested in contributing can submit either a
possibility , of a totally barrier-free environment for forum (3-5 pages of double spaced type) or a letter
disabled students, faculty and staff within the Penn (maximum of 1 page double spaced type) to the
State system will appear, Thursday Feb. 16 in The Collegian office in 126 Carnegie. Deadline for material
- Daily Collegian. is noon tommorrow. •
reader opinion
Opinion confirmed
I follow the columns by Manjula Saxena with great
enthusiasm. But, I have been following the letters to the
editor in reply to her first column with even more interest.
I find a paper's editorial letters an accurate reflection of
the prevailing political opinion among its readers. Thus, I
must thank all those who wrote in to berate Manjula
, they confirmed my opinion as to the provinciality and
narrow-mindedness of the general student body.
Manjula's expressed political opinions are so similar to
mine, I will not bore everyone by repeating them. All I ask
is that she continues to write with as much verve and
Sparkle as she did in her first column. •
:Thank you, Manjula for bringing some political honesty
and wit to The Daily Collegian.
Trevor I. Miles, graduate-mineral processing
Feb. 13
Little 'beasties'
I would like to respond to Michael Vand's Feb. 6 column.
As someone who spent last summer working in pest
management (a.k.a. roach control), perhaps I can offer
some suggestions to Mr. Vand and his like-wise plagued
readers in controlling those disgusting little "beasties."
While it is true that having cockroaches is not a sign of
Student aid responsibility should be borne by the student
Government-sponsored financial aid for college stu
dents is a sensitive topic for discussion in today's era of
fiscal austerity. Unfortunately, because of the emotional
hysteria surrounding that issue, no substantive debate
can occur. Students tend to respond vociferously to
threatened cutbacks in aid in a manner that is devoid of
much thoughtful analysis, and it is high time for some
one to bring a measure of perspective to the issue.
To begin with, there are a few myths that cloud the
issue which must be disposed of.
First, Ronald Reagan is not out to get students. The
argument cannot be reduced to one of MX missiles
versus Pell Grants. President Reagan is presiding over a
budgetary situation that is ideologically repugnant to
findings plus the explanation of the research
methods. Gourman, instead, wrote his re
port alone.
His graduate program rankings have
caught much flak also.
Gourman evaluates 'each program by
examining basic criteria in each area of
study. These criteria, simply explained,
are: the variety of different disciplines in
each major; the number and quality of the
instructors; the quality of the administra
tion; the strength of the curriculum; the
amount of faculty 'research in each field;
the library resources available and the
amount of money allocated for study in'each
field.
Each' criteria is ranked, given a number,
added to the other criteria and then aver
aged to ascertain the major's overall rank
ing. So far so good.
However, when examining the. initial
rankings of each criteria, an amazing simi
larity emerges. For example, a school with
the 15th highest-ranked chemistry depart
ment also coincidentally has the 15th best
-chemistry curriculum, the 15th best chemis
try faculty and so on.
Does the graduate school that receives the
15th largest amount of money or the 15th
best research facilities necessarily have the
15th best pfogram when all factors are
considered?
Gourman has cdrtainly produced an ex
tensively researched report that does not
exclude any major universities in the world.
He obviously had to put much time and
effort into it. -
However, in view of the response and the
accompanying lack of credibility the report
now has, perhaps Gourman's time would be
better spent improving the quality of educa
tion through his teaching skills.
His report certainly has not anything
to further that goal.
bad housekeeping, all possible efforts should be made at
cleanliness.
This means keeping food in tightly sealed containers,
not leaving dirty dishes and pots on the stove or sink,
wiping up spills, and mopping up wet counters. The last
thing is especially important. Roaches love kitchens and
bathrooms as they are usually very moist, warm areas.
Roaches can be introduced into an otherwise uninha
bited area via their egg cases which can cling to cloth,
paper, and cardboard. Be especially wary of used furni
ture unless it has been specially treated, and also card
board boxes and paper bags.
Be sure to seal up any possible means of entry, such as
cracks around windows, counters, sinks and stoves, and
spaces around pipes.
As you may have noticed, pesticides do little good.
Roaches are sturdy little critters and can develop high
tolerances to chemicals (Why do you think roaches have
beeti around so long?). While I cannot comment on using
The Daily Collegian to kill roaches, I can suggest a better
method.
Boric acid, a powder obtainable at drug stores for under
$2, is quite effective at killing roaches. If it is sprinkled in
cracks, crevices and by baseboards, it kills the roaches by
dissolving their insides when they ingest it while removing
it from their fuzzy little legs. This method is infinitely
better than using pesticides it is cheap, clean, odorless
and much more pleasant.
The roaches do not usually die at your feet, but rather in
him; as a fiscal conservative he is compelled to preside
over huge budgetary deficits. To assume, however, that
he derives some perverse pleasure from making life
difficult for students is a foolish, unfounded, and thor
oughly naive presumption.
Second, more is not necessarily better even with
educational funding. The notion that more dollars will fix
anything is a fallacy that the American people appear to
be especially vulnerable to. Specifically with regard to
education, federal funding of educational programs has
ballooned geometrically in the last two decades and the
result has been a steady decline in standardized test
scores. The image that many politicians attempt to
convey, that by increasing aid programs we will become
a nation of enlightened scholars, is not realistic. More
dollars in and of themselves don't help.
Third, while critics of the Administration are quick to
call attention to waste in the Pentagon, they are passive
ly ignorant of correspondingly flagrant waste in• the
educational entitlements programs.
These programs seldom incorporate , performance
standards into eligibility requirements the result
being that many students with sub-2.0 G.P.A.s are
subsidized through college to get degrees that are all but
meaningless. Investment, and that is what educational
entitlements are, should always be based on anticipated •
Letters Policy: The Daily Collegian encourages corn
thedaily Collegian ments on news coverage, editorial policy. and University
affairs. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced,
signed by no more than two people and not longer than
30 lines. Students' letters should include the term, major
and campus of the writer. Letters from alumni should
• include the major and year of graduation of the writer. All
Susan M. Melle writers should provide their address and phone number
Business Manager
for verification of the letter.
The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for length
The Daily Collegian's editorial opinion is determined by and to reject letters if they are libelous or do not conform
its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final . to standards of good taste. Because of the numbers of
responsibility. Opinions expressed on the editorial letters received, theOollegian cannot guarantee publica
pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, tion of all the letters it receives.
Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Mail letters to: The Daily Collegian; 126 Carnegie Build-
Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and ing; University Park, Pa. 16802. Names may be withheld
related publications, is a separate corporate institution on request. Letters may also be selected for publication
from Penn State. in The Weekly Collegian.
Alecia Swasy
Editor •
the privacy of their own homes so that there are no dead
roaches to clean up.
I cannot guarantee that all of your roach problems will
be solved by following my suggestions, but there should be
a definite reduction in number in a few weeks (be patient,
roaches can be very prolific). If you make,your dwelling
inhospitable enough for roaches, they will go find someone
else to live with.
Mary Russell, junior-biology
Feb. 13
Horror stories
I wish to thank Adam Trott for his "Blind Cuts" letter.
He, unknowingly, illustrated the point of my original letter
very well.
In my first letter I commented on the "horror stories"
on the effects of budget cuts in education. Mr. Trbtt's
response was that he lost $5OO a year, a "blind cut," in his
words, by the Reagan administration.
It should be noted that Mr. Trott is a senior at this
university. The loss of aid did not force him out of school,
only to people getting an undeserved handout from the
government.
While students who's aid has been cut back, like myself,
may not be able to spend as much as they would want to on
return. Students who don't perform up to acceptable
levels of academic achievement ought not to be funded.
The preceding three points are not particularly pro
found; they are simply conventional wisdom that has
been thrust aside amidst the furor of an emotionally
charged debate. This has resulted in action dictated by
emotion more than seasoned thought this isn't an
optimal state of affairs.
Senator Claiborne Pell, the delightfully erudite legis
lator from the state of. Rhode Island, envisioned a grant
program as a means of ensuring that, all Americans have
access to a college education. While -I concede that
grants shOuld be a component of a comprehensive
financial aid program, they cannot and should not be the
foundation on which the program rests. '
It's a fact of human nature if you take a person off
the street and offer him a free meal at a good restaurant,
chances are that he'll order surf and turf or some equally
enticing and expensive entree. However, if he were
picking up the tab himself, chances are that he would be
a bit less extravagant. He would still eat, but he'd use
seasoned judgment because the burden of payment
would rest with him.
This must be incorporated into student aid programs.
Simply handing someone money and saying go get
yourself an education is foolish. Students must feel a
AND RUN ?. .. NO WAY/ "
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1984
©1984 Collegian Inc.
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1984
non-school activities, they are , able to attend college.
Generally the cuts have not effected the number of
students in college. The percent of people between the
ages of 18-24 was the same as it was in 1980 (the last full
year of the Carte'r administration).
Jonathan M. Jacobs, junior-public service
Feb. 10
Trap response
This letter is in regards to the one written by Sim
Aberson titled, "Morality Trap" in the Feb. 8 issue of the
Collegian.
Sim is operating under false assumptions, perhaps
obtained by negative contact with church individuals. .
The true Christian church of today encourages both men
and women to be leaders, conforming to the spiritual
rather than the secular.
It's because God really does love us that he exhorts us to
refrain from immorality: its psychological as well as
spiritual, and in some cases even physical, effects are
debilitating.
Michele Fehr, senior-special ed
Feb. 8
sense of responsibility; they must have an ongoing
incentive to perform to as exacting degree as they are
capable of.
An argument could be made that the Guaranteed
Student Loan Program satisfies this criterion. It is
certainly better in that sense than the grant programs,
but so many students simply fail to repay the loan that it
could clearly stand improvement. This improvement
will be hard . to come by, however, when students don
their war paint every time the Administration proposes
changes to the student aid programs.
This has not been a condemnation of student aid
programs; I firmly endorse the view that the, public
sector ought to facilitate educational opportunities for
the less fortunate members of our society.
I merely contend that this ought to be done in a manner
that ensures that resources are not being wasted: This
requires that a large measure of the financial responsibi
lity be borne by the student. This doesn't arise out of the
belief that students are freeloaders; it•sittnply acknowl
edges the aspect of human nature that Adam Smith
recognized centuries ago.
David Klingler is a senior majoring in political science
and a columnist for The Daily Collegian. His column
appears on alternate Tuesdays.
The Daily Collegian
reader opinion
True advocate
To Manjula Saxena:
Forgive my bringing up your first article for which you
have already received deserved criticism, but I would
think that after that uninformed, shallow "attack" on
America, you would reexamine the validity of your views
on America.
In your last article you discussed the lack of depth with
which Americans sometimes approach the subject of
communism. However, in discussing democracy, you
show what seems to me (though perhaps according to you,
I have no right to speak since I've not read Imperialism:
the Highest Stage of Capitalism or The Gulag Archepele
go) an inadequate understanding or elk. a suppression of
facts by implying that the relatively low degree of voter
participation is the reason for the stability of the Ameri
can democracy.
Rather, they are both the effects of other causes. One
major reason democracy works in America is the large
Ametican middle class. We are fairly well-educated, and
we are not desperately in need of improving our economic
status. Thus the lower voter participation and the stability
(economic leading to political stability) of our nation.
Another reason is the media who you criticize as adding
to political confusion. You fail to note that the media and
freedom of the press play an'important role in protecting
our democracy by exposing government myth. An obvious
example of this is the Watergate scandal.
Third, the long tradition of democracy in Americans,
and believing in democracy, makes it work. Yes, this is
our system; we have "a haven of democracy" to quote
your sarcasm, in referring to our wish for other nations
like Nicaragua.
Perhaps Americans have objected to the Nicaraguan
government's slowness in effecting democracy, but Amer
ican ideals; if we were, our democracy would not survive
in the world.
'Your attitude in your two editorials makes it seem that
you came to America not to get an education, but to tell
those rich, complacent Americans what unintelligent
uppity folks you think they are.
You from the unsmiling, socialist-democratic India that
your first article tried to compare advantageously to
America. If you wanted to praise India, you should have
brought out the richness and depth of Indian culture and
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the practicality of Eastern philosophy.
India has much to offer, much that is praise-worthy. My
parents are immigrants from India, and I wish someone
had given you the advice my grandfather gave my father
when my father came here: "Do not criticize something
people have been doing for a long time. You may not know
the reason, and may think it is wrong, but observe. The
logic is there.
Manjula, he was a true advocate of thoughtful uncer
tainty. •
Satwant K. Mehta, sophomore-pre-medicine
Feb. 13
Well worth it
This letter, is in response to Robin Rhoades' letter of
Feb. 8. Ms. Rhoades should be commended for her
concern for the dancers' safety and well-being in the
annual IFC Dance Marathon. I must, however, take issue
With her opinion on the rules governing breaks throughout
the marathon.
The rules call for a mandatory three minute break every
eight hours. Ms. Rhoades makes the assertion that these
mandatory breaks are not enough for the participants.
And for some dancers they may indeed be quite insuffi
cient.
The point she misses is that these breaks are mandato
ry. A dancer is free to take additional breaks at any time
during the marathon and (with the exception of leaving
during•the last hour) still remain a participant.. Dancers
are in fact encouraged to take such breaks if for any
reason they feel it necessary.
In addition to this, there is a medical staff on hand at all
times, and a hoarde of morale people placed throughout
the dance floor, constantly on the lookout for anyone who
looks as though he or she might need help.
Having danced the last two years (this year will be my
third) and having interviewed many of the dancers for a
research study, I can attest to the effectiveness of. the
Marathon .Committee's' precautions. And the fact that
some 75 percent of the dancers have successfully endured
the grueling event over the past several years also speaks
on behalf of the Marathon Committee.
In regard to the pain we endure: Yes indeed we do go
through a lot of pain. But for me, this pain becomes a very
meaningful symbol. It is a sacrifice a taking up your
cross, if you will, for the, kids who endure pain for nearly
all of their lives.
And being there to show those kids that we really care
and are behind them is as important to me as the money
we raise. When the marathon is over and I've had my good
night's sleep, the sacrifice that I and some 500 dancers
have offfered remains in my heart. And I have a feeling it
touches the hearts of a few kids and their families as well.
Don Binder, senior-psychology
Feb. 9
Happy anniversary, Iran
Happy anniversary, Iran.
In your "peaceful" five years of existence, you have
invaded a U.S. embassy and held over fifty American
citizens hostage. You blew up another U.S. embassy
killing 17 Americans and you are responsible for the
deaths of more than 270 U.S. marines.
It is bad enough that U.S. citizens have to put up with a
country such as Iran, without seeing our daily paper being
used as a propaganda tool for a nation that graduates its
newly trained officer corp by having them march over a
U.S. flag.
Happy anniversary, Iran. It is a real shame that the
thousands you have executed for speaking against the
present government are not around to celebrate with you,
not to mention the hundreds of thousands who have died in
the "unwanted war" that you refuse to halt, despite peace
overtures by Iraq.
Happy anniversary, Iran.
I would like to congratulate you on the wonderful
economic progress you have , achieved, as so vividly
illustrated in your "paid advertisement" in The Daily
Collegian. But because the figures quoted have all come
from the Iranian goirernment with no outside confirma
tion, please excuse me for being just a little bit sceptical.
In closing, I would like to share with the public the real
spirit of the Iranian revolution.
In the same issue of the Collegian as the "paid adver
tisement" there was a small article detailing the assassi
nation of two pre-revolutionary Iranian military leaders
who were both shot in the head as they left their Paris
apartments.
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The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1984-9
Such is the fate of unbelievers in Iran, where political
assassination is governmental policy. Happy Anniver
sary!
William M.Whyte, senior-ceramic science and engi
neering
Feb. 13
Power pie
I was surprised to read in the Feb. 8 issue of The Weekly
Collegian about the interest community housing being
proposed by Benson Lichtig.
This arrangement would provide a setting, replete with
a community center and, three computers, "Where those
students primarily active in student organizations may
live and govern themselves." While I am impressed with
Lichtig's innovative business spirit, the patriotic goals of
this residential haven move me most deeply.
To improve the leadership of so diverse a student body
as Penn State's by cloistering its representatives near
Southgate Drive is quite a stroke of genius. It will all
become so easy.
This nerve center of the elite will undoubtedly see a
stream of varied student viewpoints on campus, state and
world affairs rushing to be expressed at the community.
center. Soon, anyone wanting to probe the pulse of student
opinion will need only to locate a terminal connected to the
Orchard Park Village Interest Community's data bank.
In addition, Penn State's eternally troublesome student
representation snags will be easily defused with a mere
two thirds vote of Interest Community members.
' There are those who will.wonder about thelew sectors of
the University student community not represented in the
Interest Community. Fortunately, examples of effective
interest communities already exist in Manila's Forbes
Park and in most of South Africa. Now, Perin State, too,
can have a close-knit, effecient student leadership.
Step right up, all student activists, and rent your share
of the power pie. If you miss this boat, Big Brother may
already have leased the next one.
Daniel M. Bollag t , Class of 1982-Science
Feb. 13