■a*
April 1887-April 1987
PACs pile on the money
Supporters, foes debate
issue of influence-peddling
By JAMES A. STEWART
Collegian Staff Writer
Among the audiences trying to catch an
influential ear in the U.S. Capitol, lobbyists
from the National Association of Letter Car
riers believe they have an inside track. But
most citizens and many congressmen know
little about their concerns.
‘PAC money is necessary
in terms of getting people
involved in the political
process.’
—Jim Clark, campaign manager (
for U.S. Rep. William F. Clinger'
Letter-carrier issues include preservation
of the postal monopoly and civil service
pensions, as well as general attitudes about
the federal budget, said association spokes
man Fred Nesbitt.
The group is the nation’s fourth largest
political action committee.
At election time, Nesbitt said, his group
tries to interview all the candidates before
making a political endorsement.
“Sometimes, quite truthfully, a candidate
Almost No. 1
The Nittany Lions assemble on the gridiron to celebrate their 23-3 victory over the Lions up in the polls to rank No. 2 among the country’s college football
the Crimson Tide of Alabama last weekend. The tromp in Tuscaloosa moved teams. Please see story, Page 10.
inside
• A sensitivity training session
for State College apartment
owners will help them to “be
perceived more like they want to
be perceived" when dealing
with minorities and people from
other cultures ‘.....Page 3
• The champion New York
Mets, confident and cocky
through 108 regular season vic
tories, the National League play
offs and the World Series,
already are talking about doing
it again next season Page 10
index
weather
This afternoon, breezy and warm
with lots of sunshine, with a
high of 68. Tonight, cloudy. Low
42. Tomorrow, it will be cooler
with any morning clouds giving
way to increasing sunshine.
High 57 Heidi Sonen
the
daily
doesn’t know too much about our issues,”
Nesbitt said. “It’s an opportunity to discuss
issues and tell candidates about issues as we
see and view them.”
Proponents of political action committees
known as PACs say the $70.7 million in
1986 campaign contributions donated by spe
cial interest groups each year gives individu
als the opportunity to maximize their voices
in Washington
Opponents, however, say the money is used
to exert influence over government officials,
creating both the appearance and the possi
bility of conflict of interest. PACs ought to be
controlled or eliminated, they say.
“PAC. money is necessary in terms of
getting people involved in the political proc
ess,” said Jim Clark, campaign manager for
Republican U.S. Rep. William F. Clinger.
“People donate through their own industries.
They want to get involved and let people
know they’re there.”
In contrast, Citizens Against PACs spokes
man Mark Zuckerman said: “PACs have a
detrimental effect on the political process.
They’re anti-democratic. They buy access to
people in power and limit access of citizens to
representatives.”
PACs and Pa. Politics
Whether for or against PAC contributions,
both sides admit to the large role they have
Education more than learning a skill
Editor’s Note: This is the first of
three articles on education by writers
who attended an education symposi
um held last week at the Indiana
University of Pennsylvania.
By WINSLOW M. MASON Jr.
Collegian Staff Writer
Instructors on both a college and
elementary school level must instill
social and moral justice in students
and act as gatekeepers ensuring that
only socially conscious people partici
pate in the American society, accord
ing to several education specialists.
The specialists exchanged ideas at
a symposium titled “American
Dreams: The Future of Education in
America,” held last week on the
campus of the Indiana University of
Pennsylvania.
“Teachers are cultural transmit
ters and should use their power to
engage the young in what our nation
al community has learned about all
cultures,” said Kevin Ryan, profes
sor of education at Boston University
and author of 50 published articles
and reports about education.
Educational institutions are the
places where cultural traditions
should be passed on, he said.
Collegian
played in the Clinger-Wachob and Edgar-
Specter races this fall
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., running for
re-election to the state’s Senate seat, leads
the Pennsylvania PAC race with $691,952 in
PAC contributions, according to the Federal
Election Commission.
Henry Giroux, professor in the
school of education at Miami Univer
sity of Ohio, characterized elemen
tary schools as “dead zones.” He said
“public education teachers do not
promote citizens who will improve
public life.”
Ryan said teachers should not
serve as technicians who just deliver
knowledge, but should be responsible
for reshaping material and teaching
methods to obtain the common good,
which he characterized as a func
tional society and economy.
Penn State College of Education
Dean Henry J. Hermanowicz, in a
critique of the elementary school
system, said teachers should have a
great deal of responsibility in deter
mining students’ curriculum.
At the college level, Ryan said;
many undergraduates are too young
to make a career choice because
“during these years they are wonder
ing about the existence of God and
their sexuality.”
But Hermanowicz said that al
though students change their majors
several times, “it’s fine because stu
dents should have the opportunity to
engage in the decision making proc
ess.”
He called the teaching of standard
and the controversy
curriculum and human values inse
parable and supported teachers who
do not try to take over family respon
sibilities but work with the family.
A good education would include the
combination of a good liberal arts
background and a marketable skill
such as engineering or computer sci
ence, Hermanowicz said.
Ryan said the term “professional
teachers” should be upgraded be
cause prostitutes, dishwashers and
football linebackers are also called
professionals. '
“The question for me,” Giroux said
about teaching methods, “is not what
works, but does it matter? ... Is it
just?”
“Teachers and professors should
be ‘transformative intellectuals’ who
are concerned with empowering stu
dents so that they can read the world
critically in order to change it,” Gi
roux said, “not to become yuppies.”
He said elementary and secondary
schools should be democratic public
spheres where students learn public
responsibility mnd become rational
human beings.
In reference to teacher training,
Ryan said college professors must
not have a concept of teaching as
simply talking. “We should not give
Specter’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Edgar,
D-Del., received $331,445 from political action
committees, FEC records said.
In the 23rd district U.S. Rep. William
Clinger, R-Pa., has received $200,218 from
PACs and Democratic challenger Bill Wa
chob has received about $220,000.
v
teaching a vocational aspect,” he
said.
Saying that teachers and profes
sors are underpaid, not well trained
and not regarded as important people
in our society, Ryan said “we need
more, better and longer teacher
training. The best way to improve the
output of teachers is to improve the
input.”
“We’re a culture that’s been edu
cating for a long time and there must
be something we’ve learned about the
process of instruction that should be
implemented.”
Currently, teachers and professors
are “gatekeepers of Reaganism,”
Giroux said, advocating more student
experience in learning and less dicta
tion of classroom discussion.
Both speakers, in addition to many
others throughout the conference,
cited the poor conditions of urban
public education and urged the need
for reform to improve the education
of lower-income blacks, Hispanics
and others.
Concerning the role of families in
relation to the role of teachers, Ryan
and Giroux agreed that both play a
role in educating America’s young
people.
Wednesday, Oct. 29,1986
Vol. 87, No. 76 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1986 Collegian Inc.
PACs generally endorse and support candi
dates on the basis of voting records, recom
mendations from local groups, and the
importance of the political race to their
special interest. Donations to campaigns are
limited to $5,000 per candidate per election.
The National Association of Realtors runs
the nation's largest political action commit
tee. The group favors the Gramm-Rudman
budget deficit reduction program and deduc
tions of automobile expenses from income,
said spokeswoman Elizabeth Razzi.
“PAC contributions magnify the voice of
individual members," Razzi said. “It allows
them to have an effect on races that mean
something to them. It prompts broader politi
cal participation
“The point is that the contributions are
from individual NAR members,” said Razzi.
Jeff Cox of the Pennsylvania Association of
Realtors said the Realtors’ Political Action
Committee favors Specter and Clinger, both
Republicans, in local races.
The nation’s second-largest PAC is the
National Education Association. The NEA, a
national union that represents educators,
believes the federal government should take
an active role in financing and regulating
education.
NEA spokesman Howard Carroll said en
dorsements and donations by NEA-PAC, the
union’s political action committee, are based
on whether a candidate is “considered an
overall friend of education.”
The major factor in the NEA-PAC’s selec
tion of candidates, besides incumbent voting
records, is a candidate’s view of the role of
the federal government in education, Carroll
said
Please see PACS, Page 16.
McKee
to stay
open in
summer
By VALERIE BAILEY
Collegian Staff Writer
McKee Hall will be open next sum
mer only for graduate students occu
pying the residence hall during
Spring Semester 1987, said Donald
Arndt, director of Housing Services.
Arndt said that when these students
file a summer contract, they will
have to sign an agreement that they
will tolerate the noise and odor asso
ciated with maintenance work. Areas
in the hall will be painted and refur
nished.
During the summer, McKee Hall
will be locked 24 hours a day, and
students will be issued a special key
to enter, Arndt said.
Graduate students living in McKee
will have “the continuing understand
ing workmen will be in the building
starting at eight in the morning,” and
at times there will be no screens in
the windows, in addition to the noise
and odors, he said.
Housing for students beginning
graduate work in the summer will be
provided in Nittany Apartments, lo
cated on campus, Arndt said.
Irvin Hall, which houses under
graduates during fall and spring se
mesters, will not be open for graduate
students during the upcoming sum
mer, he said.
Maintenance work in McKee will
begin during the Intersession in mid-
May and continue until the end of
Summer Session, Arndt said.
Only 120-130 of the hall’s 160 rooms
will probably be completed by the end
of the summer, Arndt said.
The change in housing plans was
made because the needs of the grad
uate students could be accommo
dated while the projects were being
completed, Arndt said.
GSA housing committee member
Haleh Rastegary (graduate-psychol
ogy) said at last night’s Graduate
Student Association general assem ;
bly meeting that several things both
ered McKee residents.
Students were not consulted prior
to making “a decision that would
closely affect their lives,” she said.
Also, students were upset that they
were only given seven months notice,
Rastegary said. Seven months warn
ing is not enough time for students
looking for jobs because they have
already given out their McKee Hall
phone numbers, she said.
For some students this would have
been their second or third across
campus move in two years, she said.
Former Atherton Hall residents had
to move last summer when Atherton
was converted from an graduate to
an undergraduate residence hall.
“People (were) saying if we
knew we had to move another sum
mer, we would have made other
living arrangements,” Rastegary
said.