Opinions The current draft of the noise ordinance is not music to the ears Students, borough officials and neighborhood associations will again have a chance to debate one of this town's hottest issues the noise ordinance. Tonight's State College Planning Commission meeting offers a per fect opportunity for all groups in volved with revising the State College Borough noise ordinance to iron out their differences once and for all. But if the results of this meeting are similar to past meetings with the Borough Council and the spe cial noise ordinance task force, very few people will be pleased. Throughout the last six months, various groups have debated the noise issue. At the first public meeting of the Borough Council in October, the noise issue was dis cussed. Student representatives and neighborhood groups were un happy with some of the prelimi nary decisions made by the council. The council then created a task force comprised of four acoustics experts. The experts on the task force allowed anyone interested in the noise issue to submit recom mendations.to the task force. Seve ral groups, including a coalition of student groups, made written and Verbal recommendations. The task force then would submit its recom- OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR, cc; Collegian Thursday, April 12, 1984 ©1984 Collegian Inc. Alecia Swasy Editor The conscience of a fiscal conservative •Politics is supposed to be about making choices and setting priorities. America's politicians have little taste for these tasks anymore. And that is the main reason why the federal government is facing a $lBO billion deficit this year and for several year§ to come. Robert J. Samuelson put it best in a recent column in "Newsweek" when he said that the "rapidly deteriorating budget outlook . is a political stalemate masquerading as an economic dispute." The federal budget is, above all, a politi cal document. Beneath the technical lan guage and the charts, it is a statement about how power is apportioned in this country. Efforts to balance the budget-by tinkering with entitlement formulas here and loophole closings there will never work for two rea sons. First, this approach will inevitably run afoul of countless constituency groups who have the political muscle to protect their share of the national pie. And second, the deficit problem is simply too large to be significantly altered by scattered savings in the low billions of dollars. What is required, I believe, is a complete ly new and daring course of action an Susan M. Melle Business Manager 0 94- kfracel, mendations to the planning com mission and a new noise ordinance would be drawn up. Sounds easy, right? It wasn't. Several problems occurred as soon as the task force was appoint ed. First, there was and still is today a misunderstanding about what the responsibilities of the spe cial task force were or should be. Mark Foley, of the Organization for Town Independent Students, said it was his understanding that the four acoustics experts served as consultants whose job was to collect information about decibel levels and take any recommenda tions other groups proposed. •He believed the task force would riot be responsible for drawing up the final noise ordinance proposal. But Mark Henry, the borough's health officer, said the acoustics experts were responsible for hear ing all written and oral testimony and making a decision as to the best recommendation to the plan ning commission. The second problem occurred when the task force began to re view the original draft of the noise ordinance. Somehow, the wording of the ordinance was changed with out any prior notice to council members, students or neighbor hood groups. Before the committee began re- ..Jake, lust take all the time. Jou need. er, you will have this wrapped up by, ch., say Election Da wog you ? The Daily Collegian's editorial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publications, is a separate corporate institution from Penn State. across-the-board federal budget freeze that would remain in effect until revenues finally catch up with spending. In order to have any hope of being "sold" politically, such a freeze would have to reach down to the cabinet-level depart ments. For example, allocations for the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Edu cation, etc. would continue to be budgeted at the same relative levels for the duration of the budget freeze. Priorities on spending within each department would be allowed to fluctuate, subject to necessary congresio nal approval. Special legislation freezing the automatic growth of entitlement programs would be the hardest part of this package to secure. However, the overall freeze in federal spending would help to accomplish this difficult objective in one vitally important way. It would help set a different "tone" for the entire budget debate. A sense of shared sacrifice would allow the federal budget to be seen (and dealt with) as an organic whole rather than just the sum, of competing parts. And since a freeze in all major categories of federal spending would, obviously, prevent de creases as well as increases, it would serve one other purpose as well. It would elimi nate all bona-fide complaints about one group's favorite program being cut while another group's is being increased. I stipulate "bona-fide" complaints be-' cause, in budget parlance, the word "cut" is' frequently used in a misleading (and some times demagogic) way. A 'cut in spending should properly refer to an actual reduction in spending (e.g., from $lOO million to $9O million). However, the word "cut" is often used, improperly, to refer simply to a lower q reader opinion Dancing in Germany ~... ~. good points about student government but I must disagre on several. I aria a Penn State Student now studying abroad in West Speaking from years of experience, The Undergraduate; • ermany for the 1984 Spring Semester. It was an opportu- Student Government does have problems but they do noti \ s\ nity I had, so I jumped at it, but I naturally had to give up a extend from too many campaign promises unkept. While:, `\ \\\ \ few things in order to do it. the students aware of USG are disapointed, when candi-i 1994 \\\\• The single event that I have missed so far, or will miss dates' promises do not materialize, the normal student': • before the semester is over, that almost kept me from does not remember what was promised last year. s\ • , jot . ,\\\ going was the IFC Dance Marathon. I have danced in it the When I was vice president of USG in 1981-82, we did not. : \ last two years and hope to again next year, but this year I "attack outside enemies." We worked with administra- 1 !dal!" 1--. 1 2 ..•..-1, \ , vant ::::::: ! w e ! N was not able to do so -- much to my regret. tors, alumni and student organizations to help benefit the MAI JUNE 41.0 PUG A friend of mine sent me The Daily Collegian headlines University. ' - j -- t. ".."1 :•-•-= IBM ; . and pictures of the marathon from Monday, Feb. 29 and : Students organized against financial aid reduction,: " ti ' " nt ' 1 " 1 " 4 \‘'` ' once again I realized that I had missed something special ' '`' \ to SOFAR, became one of the most successful group effort& me. tt - iiii iLtii mini s \ \at the University in years. We did not expect to eliminate; It's too late now, and I wouldn't have changed my all financial aid cuts but we had to dent them as much as; • decision to go to Europe anyway but I wanted to write possible to insure some students could return to school. i the people who danced it, and especially those who : \ \ \\ \ organized it and made it happen, to let them know they are Not all of our platform projects worked out as well as \\\ \\\ appreciated even from this far away. SOFAR•but at least we tried to do everything we outlined.! Some of the projects failed because students showed an; I hope they all felt the unity, the good will, and the • determination I felt and now realize that if it hadn't been unanticipated lack of confidence in their government. so trying, it wouldn't be such an accomplishment. The Finally, Mr. Klinger points out that policy making' : - sum of $130,000 is unbelievable and it's going to a wonder- "belongs in the hands of competent administrators." I! ful cause. I wish I had been there to help. strongly disagree. Congratulations to everyone! Competent administrators still make mistakes and: sometimes cannot anticipate problems such as the moving Rich Melsheimer, junior -molecular and cell biology of the Credit Union. Students input can improve these April 10 decisions. Dr. Jordan has shown openness to change and+. new policies which only makes it easier for student] government to accomplish its goals. , Active student government Kenneth Reeves, graduate-meteorology David Klinger's column of March 20 brought up some March 26 1 I k\\ view of ‘ the technical aspects of the ordinance, two conditions had to be met in order to charge someone with noise violations. The ordi nance read that in order for a group to be charged with a noise viola tion, the noise had to be "declared to be excessive noise or annoying to a person of ordinary sensibilities." In the original ordinance the two clauses were connected by the word "and" to denote that both conditions had to be met. But under the new draft, the word "or" was inserted between the two clauses. Although it seems like a technicality, that word changes the meaning of the ordi nance. With an "or," police need only one condition to charge some one with a noise violation. The student groups were upset with this change since it made the new definition of a noise violation more stringent. What's more, Fo ley said he is unhappy because no one was notified of the change. And no one can answer how the change in terminology occurred. Mark Henry said he "does not know how it got in there." "Somehow that 'or' got in there it was not done purposely." Henry said. "The task force re viewed it. It's gone. It's past. I can't change what happened." Clearly, if the task force wanted .\\ level of increase in spending (e.g., a planned increase from $lOO million to $l2O million being scaled back to $llO million), How would the federal budget freeze look in terms of actual dollars? The chart, re leased by the federal government's Office of Management and Budget, provides infor mation on federal spending, revenues and the resulting deficits for fiscal years 1980- 1989. (A fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.) Four of the fiscal years, 1980-83, have been completed. The current fiscal year runs 'from Oct. 1, 1983 to Sept. 30, 1984. Final figures for this fiscal year as well as for the five remaining fiscal years, 1985-89, are based on OMB projections : The numbers are sobering, to say the least. Let us assume that the 1984 deficit projection holds up when the fiscal year ends in five and one-half months. That will mean that during the first half of this decade, the federal government will have amassed deficits totaling $607 billion. Under the current estimates for fiscal years 1985-89, $Bl2 billion more in federal deficits are scheduled to be rung up. If these projections are anywhere near accurate (and some sources say they are much too optimistic) that would mean a total of $1.42 trillion in federal deficits for the decade of the 1980 s. That's $1.42 trillion added to the national debt more than had been accu mulated during all of the previous years of our history. There is simply no amount of increased taxation that can even come close to make up for this staggering revenue shortfall. Besides, our taxes are already much too high, at all income levels. The solution must to change the terminology they should have made the change known in advance. The third problem rests with the amount of student input allowed in the debate. The Interfraternity Council, the Organization for Town Indepen dent Students and the Undergrad uate Student Government submitted a combined proposal to the task force. The proposal ad dresses key issues and problems with the original noise ordinance draft and also recommends changes in the terminology. Both Foley and Emil Parvensky, USG president, feel that their pro posal Was not given enough atten tion. "We were under the impression we were working with the commit tee all along," Foley said. "The issue is the way we've been treated and the way in which we've been perceived." . Finally, the student groups be lieve that the task force should not have been permitted to be the deci sion-making body because they are not qualified to make policy deci sions. Henry said it was the bo rough council's original intentions to give the acoustics experts full decision-making authority. Three weeks ago the task force made its recommendations which The Federal Budget Fiscal year Spending Revenues Deficit 1980 1981 1982 1984 (est.) 1985 (est.) 1986 (est.) 1987 (est.) 1988 (est.) 1989 (est.) (in $ billions) come on the spending side of the ledger. A federal spending freeze at the current level of $854 billion would produce a pro jected deficit of $lO9 billion in the 1985 fiscal year as opposed to the current OMB esti mate of $lBO billion. If the budget freeze was extended to 1986, the deficit would fall to $39 billion rather than the projected $177 billion. And, by 1987, the freeze would actually yield a surplus of $34 billion instead of another deficit of $lBO billion. By then, with fiscal sanity restored, the federal government would again have the "luxury" of allowing a modest increase in spending. Perhaps a start could even be made on paying off the national debt: (When was the last time you heard anyone raise that subject?) Even with the budget freeze, freeze the budget 992 1,068 1,130 1,184 The Daily Collegian Thursday, April 12, 1984 are now to be discussed at tonight's meeting. The students believe that none of their recommendations were adopted and feel ignored. Mark Henry said the acoustics experts baSed their recommendations on what they believed were the best parts of all proposals submitted. The debate goes on. Whether the task force should be allowed to make policy decisions no longer matters. What does matter is tonight's meeting. Parvensky said the stu dent groups face a more difficult task in trying to convince the plan ning commission to , add the changes for which the students are fighting. Henry said the commis sion will hear any changes that any group wishes to make in the ordi nance. Both the planning commission and the student groups should be urged to put past differences be hind and concentrate on drafting a noise ordinance that will please the most people. The new noise ordinance will not be able to satisfy each State Col lege resident. But with mutual re spect and cooperation, all groups endeavoring to change the ordi nance can make State College more harmonious. 888 978 1,060 however, these decisions would be three years down the road. A nation's economic strength is as impor tant a component of its national security as is its military strength. The current deficit projections are a loaded pistol pointed at America's future prosperity and her ability to meet commitments at home and abroad. We have all heard a ;great deal of talk during the last couple of years about the need for a nuclear weapons freeze. But the freeze that America needs the most right now involves the Department of the Trea sury, not the Department of Defense. John R. Nordell, Jr. is a graduate student in American history and a columnist for The Daily Collegian. When you bomb a test, break things to release that tension So you stayed up all last night studying. You did all the homework, read all the material and feel so confident that in the waning moments before the exam you calm ly read the paper instead of frantically jamming information into your head. e I I 11‘111,6 f: 7 l You know that you're prepared for this big test. It could make or break your grade in this course but you feel pretty good about it. As the exam is passed out, you retain the posture of James Bond eagerly accepting another mission. No problem, let'S get this show on the road. After snatching a paper off the top of the pile you confidently glance over all the questions. Suddenly you get a panicky feel ing in your stomach not unlike the one you had when you were about to go off the high dive for the first time. The pounding, rythmic beat of your heart can be heard three rows over and confusion scatters yOur brain as you gasp out loud. Looking around, too scared to be embar rassed, you notice the person next to you Optional 1 year 12.000 mi warranty, good anywhere in U.S. Now available on all used cars. 1982 Datsun King Cab 4x4, fully equipt, 26, 1981 Mercedes Benz 300 D 4 Dr., automatic 000 mi., white ext $7995 trans., 55,000 mi., silver ext $2060 1981 Ford Escort L Station Wagon. 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"Get a grip!" you demand of yourself. After a deep, quavering breath you look it over carefully one more time and spend the remaining 15 minutes scribbling down answers that seem to be related to what is being asked. After the test is over the confusion fades and anger rushes into every part 'of your drained body. It builds up like a rolling ball of snow until you feel like a crazed maniac. People stop talking in the hallway and jump aside as you storm out of the building and down the sidewalk. A friend cheerfully says hello and you let out a grunt that would intimidate the Incred ible Hulk. Squirrels scurry up trees as .you approach. You're so mad that the Hare Krishna guy doesn't dare shove literature in your face. You get home with amazing speed, crash down the door, stalk into the room and . . . . Wait a minute. Hold it right there! This is the critical moment. What you do next may very well affect your mental stability. There are basically two choices, suppression or release An attempt at the cool, collected, mature method of suppressing your ire would in clude calming yourself down, pretending that it doesn't bother you, and scolding yourself for not studying properly. You might tell yourself, "It's all my fault and I'll just have to study harder next time." If that works you're in trouble. There's no way all that anger can be diluted completely and it will come back to haunt you. More than likely it will be a totally ineffective remedy and will bring on depression and an extension of your grief. Nightmares are a definite possibility. For these reasons I recommend skipping choice number one altogether and proced ing directly to choice number two, a com plete, uninhibited freak-out of large scale proportion. It is the only rational way to deal with the situation. This impulsive action can take many forms that are equally effective but not as equally acceptable. It is a good idea to stay reasonably within the law in what you are about to do. Regardless, you must find a direction for the anger. It comes down to this: You can direct it towards yourself, someone else, or inanimate objects. Unleashing anger upon oneself is definite ly the worst way to go. In effect what you are doing is trading pain for more pain, similar to tossing a hot potato from one hand to the other. Chances are you've already suffered enough. Furthermore, it could prove quite embarrassing explaining a self- 1982 Mazda RX7 5 spd., white ext 59575 1981 Datsun 2 Dr. 210, MPG, 5 spd., tan ext. 54295 1979 GMC,,,.t b Pickup extremely nice, extremely I.?yr „nes one local owner 1981 Datsun Maxima $8895 1979 Dodge Colt Two Door $2495 1977 Volare Station Wagon, Practically equipped with 6 cylinder, automatic, power steering, steel belted radials, air condition ing, vinyl interior. Light green metallic with wood grain. 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It is therefore wise to avoid this route altogeth er as it is sure to fail in cleansing the body of this turbulent wrath. Practically speaking, it's about as effective as taking a bath in the Hudson River. On the other hand, verbally abusing all people within earshot can be infinitely more satisfying. Beating up your roommate would be an option if you felt that a pizza and a coke would mend the rift. However, victimizing other people will evoke repercussions that in turn will further prolong the agony. It's entirely likely that they will get you back either immediately or or in the near future. Once again the prob lem lingers on. In the end there's only one way to go. Specifically, you must abuse or destroy inanimate objects. One of my personal favorites is the de struction of the textbook that is involved in the conspiracy. Simply heaving it as hard as you can at the nearest wall or on the floor is immensely gratifying. If you are especially mad, kicking it around repeatedly should also be included. For the inhumanely obsessed, death by slow torture is a good idea. One word of caution however. These books may cost a Drawing: April 13 1984 EE candidates (BS, MS, PhD) You're only weeks away from receiving the reward for your efforts. There's still time t 0... Learn Whatffs Happening at Harris Harris Corporation is a $l.B billion Fortune 200 with a worldwide reputation for superior communication and information systems. The RF Communications Group of Harris is the technology leader in the design, manufacture and installation of sophisticated HF and VHF/UHF radio communication systems. Rapid expansion and several new product devel opments have created additional opportunities for EE graduates to join this long established, yet high-growth organization at ,our Rochester, New York facilities. 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Textbooks aren't the only objects that are available for this mission of destruction. One of the best qualities of this method is the infinite supply of victims. However some items make for better outlets than others. Look for items that break easily. Nothing is more frustrating than viciously throwing something against the wall only to have it come up unscathed. A tremendous feeling of impotence could result, only compounding the problem. Conversely, the whole concept is to devel op a feeling of dominating power and signifi cance. You want to instill fear in others and demonstrate that you're not going to take this crap. In this respect, destroying large fragile items offers the greatest pleasure and often total release of this raging anger. Ultimately it may take a lamp through the television to do the trick. Whatever the means, one thing is sure. After you complete this ritual you will feel much better. The pressure has been totally released through furious rebellion and you suddenly feel suprisingly calm. Now you can go out and party with a clear mind. Gary Talbot is a junior majoring in civil engineering and a columnist for The Daily Collegian. GRADE PT. AVERAGE