opinions
editorial opinion
An image to protect
University administrators, under the aus
pices of University President Bryce Jordan,
have made great strides toward improving
the Penn State image within the last few
years. And they have done this within the
constraints of two difficult tasks: increas
ing the number of black students attending
Penn State and 'convincing the state legis
lature to appropriate more funding to the
University.
The new Penn State image is putting the
University not just Beaver Stadium on
the map as a reputable institution of higher
learning.
And Penn State is just that, or at least it
appears to be.
Sadly, though, a clear picture of the
University image is unavailable because
the image makers have chosen to keep the
most important variables out of the picture.
The figures for minority recruitment ef
forts and this year's state appropriations
request are under wraps until the Universi
ty Board of Trustees convenes in mid-No
vember. This, of course, is a matter of
protocol the trustees shouldn't read in a
newspaper first what will be reported to
them at a meeting later.
But the entire UniverSity community
including students, parents and alumni
deserves to have access to these figures as
soon as they are compiled.
Black students should have enrollment
da% Collegian
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1985
01985 Collegian Inc.
Gall L. Johnson
Editor
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.
Board of Editors Managing Editor: Mark DiAntonio;
Opinion Editor: Doug
,Popovich; News Editors: Patrick
Collier, Bill Ferrell, Anita Katz; Copy/Wire Editors: Bob
King, Anita Yesho, Phil Galewitz, Sue Graffius, Colleen
Barry, Ron Yeany; Town Editor: Pete Baratta; Assistant
Town Editor: Megan O'Matz; Campus Editor: Anita
Huslin; Assistant Campus Editor: Kim Bower; Sports
Editor". Chris Lindsley; Assistant Sports Editors: Mark
Ashenfelter, Chris Loder, Chris Raymond; Arts Editor:
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tures Editor: Amy Fellin; Science Editor: Nan Arens;
Graphics Editor: Tony Ciccarelli; Photo Editor: Jeff
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Board of Managers Sales Manager: Susan Shamlian;
Assistant Sales Manager: Dawn Kelley: Accounting
®pied:
As Nov. 19 draws near, the State Correctional Insti
tution at Rockview will become the focus of a great
deal of controversy.
For the first time in 23 years, two sentenced crimi
nals John Lesko, 26, of Pittsburgh and Michael
Travalgia, 26, of Washington Township are sched
uled to die in the electric chair on that day.
And since Gov. Dick Thornburgh authorized these
executions in August, the citizens of the Common
wealth of Pennsylvania have rekindled the debate
surrounding the death penalty.
My sister's kid:
I often get the feeling that everything that
happens to me in this world has already
been experienced by someone else. In one
way that's a comfort, because it proves that
just about everything is survivable. It also
means that since so many people have
already had your experience, what is excit
ing and new to you is old hat to someone
else.
Which is why when I tell you my sister is
pregnant a good many of you will stop right
now and move on to Doonesbitry if you
haven't read it already. But don't worry,
I'm not going to get into the gory details
about her twenty-four hour "morning" sick-
Business Manager
Executions at
2 ,,fa1,
figures when considering Penn State. By
withholding this knowledge, it could be said
that an unrealistic picture of the University
is being presented.
The University's financial priorities,
which are spelled out in the state appropria
tions request, are also vital to students.
That information has direct implications
concerning tuition increases and the use of
surcharges for next year.
The progress the University has made in
both recruiting black students and gar
nering state appropriations is measured
through facts and figures.
And up to now, Penn State has made
marked improvement in both areas as is
evidenced by increased' state funding last
year and by a 41 percent increase in the
number of black students enrolled between
1983 and 1984.
But what about this year's figures?
At a time when the University's public
image is vital to its future, the administra
tion i t s stifling attempts to monitor it.
As the University moves toward the "top
ten," a positive Penn State image has
clearly been an asset. And the best way to
protect that image is not to withhold infor
mation from those who have a vested inter
est it, but rather to promote open and honest
dialogue that will, in the long run, benefit
the entire University community.
Manager: Cathy Reese; Marketing Manager: Roland
Deal, Jr.; Office Manager: Wendy Metzger; Assistant
Office Manager: Amy Norris; Layout Coordinator: Co
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Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be
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plaints should be presented to the business manager. If
a complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, grievances
may be filed with the Accuracy and Fair Play Committee
of Collegian Inc. Information on filing grievances is
available from Gerry Lynn Hamilton, executive secretary,
Collegian Inc.
Karen Jaret
About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The
Weekly Collegian are published by Collegian Inc., an
independent, non-profit corporation with a board of
directors composed of students, faculty and profession
als. Students of The Pennsylvania State University write
and edit both papers and solicit advertising material for
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day, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during the semes
ter, and Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during
the summer. It is distributed on the University Park
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wealth campus students, parents of students, alumni
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University news.
Letters Policy: The Daily Collegian encourages com
ments on news coverage, editorial policy and University
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of the writer. All writers should provide their address and
phone number for verification of the letter.
Rockview near
Opinion Editor Doug Popovich wants to know what
you think about the use of the death penalty. On
Wednesday, Nov. 13, The Daily Collegian will publish
an op/ed page with your views on this topic.
If you have an opinion you'd like to share, present it
in the form of a letter-to-the-editor (one typed page,
double spaced) or forum (no more than three typed
pages, double spaced) by Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m. in
the Collegian office, 126 Carnegie Building. Letters and
forums must be presented by the author in person with
some form of identification and must include semester
standing and major.
Comparing notes on nearsightedness, gray hair and our two different worlds
ness or about the latest decision on a name.
I've already been told that Karen, Jr. just
isn't an option.
My sister lives in a galaxy far, far away
(Nebraska, actually) and I think it's going
to be a long time until I get back out there.
And when I do make another trip out to the
wilds of the Midwest, it'll just be on a
visiting basis I don't see myself making a
home in or near where my sister lives in
Nebraska.
So this baby is going to have to grow up
without much direct contact with good old
Aunt Karen. I was surprised at how much
this bothered me, because I've always
tended to be one of those people who avoided
children until they were old enough to get
around in a small city by themselves. Being
an aunt is going to be a new experience for
me. And already I feel the need to commu
nicate with this baby.
But "communicate" is one of those se
verely overused words that serves as a
catch-all for all types of ideas. What I'm
trying to say is that I want to make a
difference in this child's life to exist in
some real way that matters to the kid.
How very egotistical you're probably
thinking. Yes, I don't deny that it has
certain "I am the World" overtones. I
defend myself by saying that all I want is to
be more than a name signed on a birthday
card and a voice Over the telephone at
Christmas.
I'm not going to try and influence this kid
one way or another, or try to mold him or
her into some sort of second me. I'm not
sure my family could stand another clueless
Penn State English major, not to mention
the fact that to most Nebraskans, encourag
ing a child to think kind thoughts about
Penn State is akin to encouraging a child to
grow up to be a Nazi.
I'd like to picture this kid and me in a
relationship that has the closeness ex
plained by blood relation and the give and
take found in friendship. I think we have the
potential to be close both ways.
Since we'll be so closely related we'll have
in common all the cruel tricks nature and
our family's gene pool have played on us.
We will be able to compare notes about the
inevitable nearsightedness, the tendency of
\\.
"I warn you, World, you're pushing me to the right!"
reader opinion
Open up
Kudos on your editorial regarding the closed USEC
meetings. Student leaders are supposed to be representa
tive, responsive, and responsible to their constituents.
This latest policy removes "responsible to" from that list.
Once the meetings closed we, as students, lost all reports
on how our leadership is representing our concerns. We
no longer have a check on whether our leadership is being
responsive or representative.
Is it not USEC's purpose to represent student concerns
to the University administration? I wonder what student
concerns are so sensitive that the students can't know
about them. What are they trying to hide from us?
Of course, we can not put-all of the blame on the council
members. On several occassions, Dr. Jordan has ap
proached the council saying he would only talk to them
during a closed session. Since USEC can only function if it
is in contact with key administrators, the council must
give in to Dr. Jordan's request or continue to talk to a
wall. It is time for Dr. Jordan to open direct dialogue with
USEC and the public and put an end to this dancing.
None of this relieves the USEC membership of its
responsibility to open up its meetings. There is no reason
to close USEC meetings. The council has only opened up a
network by which they can do what the administration
has so often been guilty of: announcing decisions to the
students after they've been made.
Greg.Martin,senior-computer science
Unrest
There has been a good deal of unrest at Penn State
~_
13 ,
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the toes to curl under and the gray hair that
comes so early in life.
The two of us will share the experience of
growing up under the ever watchful eye of
my older sister. I can see myself giving the
kid advice on when to push my sister, and
when to know you just have to give in. It
makes me feel good that my twenty-one
years of experience will do someone other
than myself some good.
I hope this child and I will be close on
another level besides the simple fact of our
blood relationship. Granted, we won't have
a lot in common as far as environment goes,
considering he or she will no doubt grow up
in a small Nebraska town very different
from the suburbs where I grew up. But with
1: little luck well achieve the give and take I
think is necessary for friendship.
I get excited thinking about seeing Ne
braska again through the eyes of a native,
which is really the best way to look at any
part of this country or at the world. And I
like to think about showing someone from
such different surroundings what my world
is like. If I'm lucky, I'll get to the kid before
))) ' '
ii'
unrest about our educational system. It has been identi
fied by many sources, two of them being the Graduate
Student Association and the Undergraduate Student Gov
ernment's Academic Assembly. Concerned about teach
ing assistants training, GSA and Academic Assembly are
in the process of developing a "standard, well-con
structed program," according to Collegian staff writer W.
T. Holland.
Yet, with all this unrest, where is the corresponding
concern about the third essential part of instruction? We
talk about learning. We talk about teaching. We rarely
talk about "studenting."
"Studenting"is a concept parallel to teaching. Whereas
many who adopt the active-versus-passive view of educa
tion would say, "a teacher teaches and a student 'learns,'
I am advocating a more balanced relationship--one in
which there is an active-versus-active view. In general,
"A teacher teaches and a student 'students.' "
"Studenting" is asking questions even in the vastness
of the Forum. It is sharing relevant experiences even in
the ego-threatening, intimately small classrooms. It is
familiarizing yourself with your notes even if it takes
an extra fifteen minutes each night. It is studying for
exams before the review session even if it means
staying in an extra night.
"Studenting" is learning plus responsibility. It is taking
an active role in education.
Can you_ see the parallels? Can you see the challenge?
Can you honestly say that there is any less of a need for
students to learn better "studenting" than there is for
teachers to learn better teaching?
The Daily . Collegian
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1985
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Lisa Firing, junior-speech communication
Oct. 23, 1985
the University of Nebraska propaganda
brainwashes him or her against the East
Coast.
Wait a minute already, you may be think
ing. The child isn't due for another two
months, and already I'm worried about the
possibility of the kid being a Cornhusker.
You may think I'm a bit overeager.
Give me a break like I said, my new
experience is old stuff to a lot of other
people. I'm of the opinion that it's never too
soon to start being a good aunt.
I remember learning that in some socie
ties the relationship between child and aunt
or uncle is considered as important as any
relationship possible. I'd like to sit back one
day with my niece or nephew and be able to
say we have cultivated an important
relationship, one that matters to both of us.
And anyway, I think Karen, Jr. has a nice
ring to it.
Karen Melchar is a senior majoring in
English and a columnist for The Daily
Collegian. Her column appears every other
Wednesday.
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reader opinion
Unfair
The football spirits of all Penn
Staters are riding high this year with
the spectacular success of the Nitta
ny Lions. I, too, am happy and proud
and hope to see the Lions in a big bowl
game at the end of the year. Howev
er, a recent incident concerning a
decision made about the eligibility of
a player has left me with a tarnished
image of Coach Paterno and the
athletic department.
For many understandable reasons,
the football team has a policy of not
allowing walk-ons to be students of
senior grade standing. Because of a
communication mix-up between a
current senior and assistant coaches,
this policy was overlooked and the
senior won a position on the team as a
walk-on. For six weeks he practiced
with the team. As a walk-on, he was
designated as foreign team member,
or in other words, the guys who get
beat up by the first team in order to
make them better. Without a doubt,
they are a very important, if not the
most important part of a winning
squad.
A few days ago, it came to the
attention of Coach Paterno tha there
was a senior walk-on on the team. Joe
quickly saw it fit at this point to cut
the player, no questions asked. In my
opinion, such a move was not only
wrong and uncompassionate, but
demonstrated absolutely no class on
the part of Coach Paterno. Even
though this player played an integral
part in the first six victories of the
season, it is unlikely that he will see a
bowl game of which he was a part in
attaining.
There is no excuse for such an
action as this for a program with as
much class as Penn State football is
supposed to have. This letter will not
give the player back his job, even
though he is probably willing to for
give and forget despite his treatment,
but I hope that it hits home to those
responsible. Maybe they will remem-
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ber their own personal and Penn
State class the next time around.
Frank J. Pazzaglia, senior-geosci-
Aggravation
A few certain individuals' right to
free speech aggravates me to the
point that I'm writing this letter in
defense of several things. Various
institutions such as education and
religion are, deemed wicked daily by
these preachers. As a Catholic and a
student of PSU, I resent the generali
zation that education here and reli
gion everywhere are in dire need of
repentance.
Being an insufficient point of refer
ence for me, these men are display
ing much gall in their daily
assumptions and condemnations. A
certain young man had the gall to
include these quoted utterances in his
spiel lately: "Catholicism garbage
. . . the papacy and Catholicism have
nothing to •do with God." This is
beyond my cognition. To render such
judgments makes me indignant. As a
Christian, I would never, nor was I
ever taught to, judge others or con
demn masses of people as wicked,
etc.
Where do they get off? I thought
this group was rather pathetic until I
realized just what they say daily. The
continual slanderings, accusations,
and other bias, unfounded remarks
are a joke. How dare they attempt to
find my beliefs, or anyone elses a
total fallacy. I don't disregard the
Bible, but stop placing it on a garbage
can to begin your speech from. I don't
find it a suitable podium, even for
your interpretations.
Somehow I don't think they'll
change, maybe that's OK. They'll
probably always deem education as
worthless and that's one place I can
gain my strength, but don't reli
giously rape me or attempt to deter
me from my right to practice and
uphold the beliefs I choose.
Elizabeth Ileaton, junior
Armistice Day:
Years later, it's just another day to one of the survivors
It has been almost seventy years since the
draft in its inimitable fashion made Uncle Larry
a doughboy and took him to France and contami
nated his body and soul with mustard gas.
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He couldn't pass the physical exam required to
return to work in Altoona's giant railroad yards.
He had recently escaped a bout with peritonitis
he had sustained at work and his wound had
stopped dripping just days before. The Army
needed men badly and Lawrence E. Fink was in
the wrong place at the wrong time.
"How tough can they make it if they need a
million men for cannon fodder at the front," he
says in a medium-low voice that comes across a
bit gritty. "We were loaded on a train after
getting over to France. We didn't know where the
hell we' was going. Here this outfit was going to
the front. Well, anyhow, I was dumb enough to
stay on the damn thing."
Legs crossed, worn shoes propped on a stool
and arms folded on his stomach, 90-year-old
Uncle Larry leans back in his reclining chair
watching the Steeler game. He takes each break
in the game to tell a bit about the war. A thick
wad of Mail Pouch between his cheek, gum and
teeth holds his mouth open slightly. As he spits,
the sagging veins in his neck harden and stand
out.
I was dead tired by the time we got to the front.
It just looked like hell, them shooting flares over
them, and the bangin'. They picked me and two
other guys for outpost. We crawled out through
no man's land to get to this little hole.
After a while I leaned up against this sandbag
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and I was just ready to go to sleep, and one of
these guys who had been in the regular Army
tapped me on the shoulder and said: "Look
buddy,' don't go to sleep. Christ, we're out here
trying to protect everyone, and if a commis
sioned officer finds us sleeping he would shoot
the whole business of us." I said I didn't know
how I could take it, being so run down. He gave
me a chew of tobacco, and I was chewin' there,
and first thing you know I swallowed some and
got so damn sick I couldn't go to sleep. I've been
chewin' ever since.
The next day they took us back in the woods
where we could sleep, and somebody asked them
what we were doing, and the sergeant said we're
going out tonight to cut the barbwfre. We're
making a drive tommorrow.
Now sometimes we were so close to the Ger
mans we could hear them talking, and it must not
have been far from Christmas, since some of
them were singing 0 Holy Night. We Was cutting,
like I said Johnny, and somebody hit a wire with
a cow bell on it. Those bastards put a barage on
us. My God, did they ever have the guns. And
then they started shooting these gas shells in.
First damn thing you know, you begin to vomit.
Hell, you go to vomit and it just comes out in
green strings, and you can pull it out like mucus.
I vomited in my mask, and then when I cleaned
the mask out I took in more gas.
We laid in there for seven hours. And then
came the blow off. By that time my eyes were all
swelled shut and I couldn't see, and then they
took me to a French hospital.
• "Ah, don't ramble on like that," Grandma
Herdman says interupting Uncle Larry's story.
"Johnny wants to write something about the
Armistice since Armistice Day's coming up
soon."
Grandma Herdman was only seven when her
two older brothers, Les and Larry, went off to
war. She usually doesn't get too upset when
Uncle Larry rambles on about the war, except
when he starts to talk about the French women.
"They didn't talk about the war at all when
they came back," she says as she shakes her
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The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1985-7
head. "He sure is making up for it now though."
I got in there, and near as I can figure they took
my eyes out of my head took them out, washed
them off with some, kind of stuff, and put some
thing in the sockets. When I was lying there on
my back with my eyes hanging out I could see
things clean over on the other side of the room.
They was all out of focus.
Finally, I got transferred to an American
hospital in Calais. I gilt up there andseen some of
them guys, and my God, some of them were just
cooked.
In November they came in and said the Armi
stice was signed. Out on these trains they had
these big casks of wine I don't know what Kind
they had. They knocked a hole in the bottom of
them and this main street was flowing with wine,
and the nurses and everybody was drinking. •
Here they come in the next morning and tell us
it was a false alarm. And this old general came in
and threatened to send all the men in the hospital
back to the front.
The next week we had the real Armistice on the
eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh
month.
Grandma Herdman brings in the Western
Union Telegram dated Dec. 8, 1918 saying Law
rence Fink had been wounded. His official docu
ments were lost earlier in the war, and he didn't
get paid for being in the Army for over a year. He
was supposed to have $lO sent home a month and
he was to receive $5 a month.
I know next Monday I'll remember Uncle
Larry's sacrifice, and I asked him what he would
be doing.
"Same as any other day," he says. "I was
never in a parade of anything else since I got out.
The ones deserving the credit are the ones lying
over there."
John Dunn is a senior majoring in English and
a columnist for The Daily Collegian. His column
appears every other Wednesday.
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