O The Dally Collegian Editorial Opinion Remain in control Students must not celebrate sports victories with unruly acts of violence How does the saying go —it’s all fun and gaipes until someone loses an eye? Well, how about until eight police officers are injured while try ing to control a mob of “cele brating” Penn State football fans. That’s exactly what ended the fun and games last week after the Kickoff Classic. Fans may have been excited about the Lions’ 34-22 win over Georgia Tech, but damaging expensive university property and running around in riotous packs was not the way to celebrate. Some of the students who stormed Beaver Stadium in the resulting coup de goal post may claim that police officers were too violent in their crowd con trol techniques. However, the problem is not with the police officers using mace, but with hundreds of students, possibly intoxicated, throwing rocks and threatening police officers. This team didn’t beat peren nial giant Notre Dame or cross state rival Pitt teams which in the past have inspired sponta neous, jubilant but nonviolent celebration. daily Colegian Wednesday, Sept. 4,1991 ©1991 Collegian Inc. Editor Isabel MoHna Business Manager Wendy L. Frank The Daily Colegian’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 Penn sylvania State University. Collegian Inc., pub lishers of The Daily Collegian and related publications, is a separate corporate institution from Penn State. Board of Editors Managing Editor Joe Tarr Opinion Editor Lisa M. Zollars Asst Opinion Editor Lisa A. Loeffler Campus Editor Dana DiFilippo Asst Campus Editor Bridget A. Mount Town Editor Tom B. Smithyman Asst Town Editor Greg A. Scopino News Editors Beth Higbee, Andy M. Hunn Copy/Wire Editors Dave S. Eichler, Karen Guth Jessica Hartshorn, Sue Ramsey Sports Editor Laura Eckert Assistant Sports Editors Nick GHI, Jeff Pratt Dave Stevenson Magazine Editor Chris A. Otto Asst. Magazine Editor Chris Martin Arts Editor Shannon Kokoska Asst Arts Editor Alisa Bauman Features Coordinator Kimi Eisele Photo Editor Jeff A. Farrar Solving the rape crisis: L L nee a person close to ** ■ ■ you is raped, you can’t w view the world through the same rose-colored glasses anymore. I used to love watching new students wander around campus at the hpgmning of the semester. They always looked slightly dazed and amazed. Most of them really do know exactly where they’re going —they just have more important things clogging their minds. “Wow, look at all these gorgeous women,” John marvels on his way to English IS. “Look at all these gorgeous men,” Jane tells herself on the way to Psychology 2. These kinds of thoughts lead to some of life’s most excruciatingly joyful experiences. Unfortunately, in this twisted world that we’ve created, these thoughts can also lead to pain, fear and degradation. According to USG’s Department of Women’s Concerns, Jane has a one in-three chance of being raped during her lifetime and an 84 percent chance of knowing the rapist. (Quick def inition rape equals sex without consent.) And what happens next? The last two post-game celebrations Notre Dame 1990 and Georgia Tech have come after away games. A similar home-game situa tion, theoretically involving more than 93,000 fans, could result in many injuries and threaten the well-being of excited but con trolled spectators. Let’s be realistic. This is September in Happy Valley. It is a time for Penn State football fans to rejoice over victories and celebrate respon sibly. People cannot act like stereo typical drunken college stu dents after every win. And presumably the team will per form another drubbing this week. Nobody faults spirited cele bration. But spirited celebration doesn’t mean destroying Uni versity property and hurting others. Just remember the next time, or 11 times, the Lions win this year to celebrate and show school spirit just don’t do any damage. Go out and say, buy a Penn State sweatshirt. Chief Photographer Mike Kubel Board of Managers Assistant Business Manager Heather L. King Accounting Manager Kristin A. Jones Office Manager Tracy L. Risser Asst Office Manager Jeffrey W. Pilof Sales Manager David E. Weiss Asst. Sales Manager James R. Fetterolf Layout Manager Courtney L. Caswell Marketing Manager Thomas G. Demetriou Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising cornpiamts should be presented to the business manager. If a complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, some grievances may be filed with the Accuracy and Fair Play Committee of Cotegiai Inc Information on filing grievances is available from Gerry Lynn Hamiton, executive secretary. Collegian Inc. Letters Poicy: The Daiy Colegian encourages comments on news coverage, editorial policy and University affairs. Letters must be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than one and one-half pages. Forums must also be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than three pages. Students’ letters should include semester standing, major and campus of the writer. Letters from alumni should include the major and year of graduation of the writer. Al Writers should provide their address and phone number for verification of the letter. Letters should be signed by no more than two people. Names may be withheld on request. The Colegian reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters if they are libelous or do not conform to standards of good taste. Because of the number of letters received, the Colegian cannot guarantee publication of al the letters it receives. Letters may also be selected for publication in The Weekly CoHegan. Al letters received become the property of Collegian Inc. Letters and forums from University Park and State College: Please deliver any submissions in person at the office of The Daily Collegian; 123 S. Burrowes St. All authors must be present with picture identification either University ID or photo driver's license when presenting the letter or forum. Mail other letters to: The Daily Collegian; 123 S. Burrowes St.; University Park, Pa. 16801-3882. My Opinion And John might be one of those men who admit on anonymous sur veys that he would rape a woman if there was no chance of being caught. Who knows? For women, dating in the 1990 s seems much more dangerous than ground combat. I need both hands to count the number of women I know who have been raped. But we’ve all got hormones rag ing in our bloodstream, so we go to parties and bars in the hopes of meeting those gorgeous men and women. Then, we meet alcohol —the demon chemical from Hell. If a woman doesn’t know her own Opinions limit, she literally becomes a walking target. Her impaired judgment and lack of physical coordination increase her vulnerability to a rapist. And as Claire Walsh, a Florida-based con sultant on sexual assaults, warns, “A date rapist will follow through no matter what the women wants because his agenda is to get laid.” I want to digress for a second and emphasize that fraternities are not dens of frothy-mouthed rapists. In our society, any place with lots of men and lots of alcohol isn’t totally safe for women. (But members of a brotherhood often forget that their brothers must earn loyalty). Women have to be on guard when they go out to blow off some steam. Sure, it’s not fair. But if you don’t take precautions like staying with a group of friends and drinking in moderation the probabilities will eventually catch up with you. Until we, as men, manage to police our own ranks, you, as women, are in dan ger. Not too long ago, a friend told me she’d been raped by a guy. I helped her contact a counselor for victims of sexual assaults and listened to her OREGCNl£*<.©*& Reader Opinion Listen to the others Losing one’s life for refusing to cover all but one’s hands and face goes well beyond hoing a “harsh” punishment, as I was quoted as saying in the Aug. 22 Collegian, in regard to a comment made by an Iranian official. While some Iranian women may choose to conform to religiously based dress codes, other Iranian women, both in Iran and elsewhere, have fought for the right to choose their style of dress. We must listen to the voices of all women in cultures with which we may be unfamilar and support their rights to live as they choose. Lynne Goodstein director-women's Studies Program An unhappy alumnus I was not “Penn State Proud” this morning when I read about the “celebration” after the Kickoff Classic victory. Winning a football game is not an excuse for a drunken brawl, if, in fact, that is what-happened. If these were non-students, they should be pros ecuted to the full extent of the law. If the arrested individuals were students, they should be suspended for a semester. Larry M. Skvir Class of 1970 Missing the others I am a skateboarder. I have been riding my “little wooden toy” for over four years. It is my sport, my recreation, my hobby and my transportation. Skateboarding takes commitment, balance, coordination and dexterity. It is also a clean, ecologically sound and efficient form of transportation. Now it appears that skateboarding will soon be banned on campus. a battle for both men and women vN».v Let’s look at the reasons for this ban. One, skateboarding is cited as dangerous. How can anyone accuse skating of being dan gerous when there have been no studies on it and there are no statistics to back up such a claim? In fact, many doctors have said they treat more injuries related to mainstream sports such as football than related to skateboarding. "And as Claire Walsh, a Florida-based consultant on sexual assaults, warns, 'A date rapist will follow through no matter what the women wants because his agenda is to get laid.' " story. There really wasn’t much else I could do. She didn’t want to pursue legal action for various personal rea sons. And even with immediate physical evidence, getting a date-rape conviction from a jury is almost impossible (but well worth a try). That’s when I tasted the helpless rage felt by many victims, coun selors, family members and lovers. They knew this guy’s identity and where he lived, and they really couldn’t do anything about it. (One enraged counselor basically sug gested that somebody put on a ninja suit and take some “direct action.”) Men don’t have to follow Stalin’s example and purge our ranks, but we must flush a dangerous myth out of the sewers of the male mind. “No” doesn’t ever mean “yes,” even if the women has had a few too many Oh, but skateboards hit pedestrians! So do bikes, cars, buses and even Frisbees, but no one is trying to ban them on campus. And contrary to what many believe, we skate boarders do have control over those boards. We can control them as well as any rider can control his or her bicycle. The second and greater reason is because of damage to University property. True, skateboarding does chew up the edges of a few curbs. And cars cause potholes, bike spockets gouge the ledges in front of Old Main, football and soccer games kill the HUB lawn, automobile exaust destroys our atmosphere, construction destroys nature. Apparently all of these types of dam ages are acceptable, but a chipped curb is not. The curb still functions as a curb, skating merely causes aesthetic damage. Neither of these reasons are any more deleterious than cars or bikes and even on their own, they don’t justify a ban So why are skateboarders being singled out and banned from campus? Because we are different? Because we are “weird?” Because we are loud? Because skating is not socially accepted like football is? Because our sport doesn’t have a set of rules or a scoring system? Because we are having fun and you can’t let that happen? Because we are a minority and thus easy to pick on? My guess is that all of the above reasons are true and that now this damage to benches and curbs has given the administration an excuse to do away with something they don’t like. Why don’t the legislators try to meet and talk with some campus skateboarders to try and work out a solution to this problem, rather than just going off and banning something they don’t understand? Tell us what you want and listen to what we want, too. If the Office of Physical Plant has a problem with us skating in certain places, tell us where we can skate. Give us a spot of our own and we’ll leave yours alone. I’m ready and willing to work toward a compromise, but a skateboarding ban is unfair and unjust. I’ve been skating for four years, and I’m not going to stop now Peter A. Larsen sophomore-architecture drinks. As Dean Kilpatrick, direc tor of the Crime Victim Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, asks, “Why does a woman’s having a drink give a man the right to rape her?” Part of the problem revolves around the distortion of male sexuality. Rape is a crime of violence and some where along the line, dominance and sadism became tied to sexual expression for all too many men. Misogyny is so subtly ingrained into the fabric of our society that most parents still teach the “This is a man and this is a woman” myth. The other part of the problem is, as author Barbara Ehrenreich calls it, the “Crisis in Intersex Conver sation.” Nobody realized that once we dumped the baggage of sexual repression and Puritan morality (almost an oxymoron), men and Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1991 Not our fault alone I thought the rally reason I would ever write an editorial to The Daily Collegian would be to criticize one of Chino Wilson’s thoughtful articles, but I assumed too much. Today, I picked up the paper and read that skateboarding may be banned on campus. I must say that I was wondering when this action would be considered by the Uni versity. Due to the “unhealthy” image skating has received over the years, it was only a matter of time until this proposition came up. What bothers me was that no unique concerns were raised in the article. I would hope that safety and damage to University property would be considered for all types of transportation on campus, not just skateboarding. It seems to me that walkers and bikers rengp more damage to University lawns than all the skaters on campus could do to a few benches or curbs. I guess the cost of thousands of pounds of grass seed and the miles of rope to protect these destroyed areas was not worth mentioning. Are University officials willing to ban biking, or even walking on campus? No, but these same officials would consider banning another legitimate form of transportaion skate boarding. Serious safety concerns were also voiced by two police officers. These officers act as if pedestrians are being maimed by “renegade” skateboarders. I think it is safe to say that more people are hit by bikes than skateboards. In spite of this, the skating minority is being singled out as a hazard. Next time I get hit by the Loop, I hope the director of University Police Services considers a complete ban on this form of transportation. Stephen T. Gosnell senior-agriculture business management women would have to try to understand each other. We need to rein in the sexual frustration generated by the breakdown of communication between the sexes. A difficult but necessary task in a society where many men and women can’t seem to get past “the sex thing” and really talk to each other. (Banal conver sation doesn’t count). I still miss watching the river of students flow by the steps of Pat tee Library, but the recurring image of a red bullseye on every third woman was too depressing. And this past Sunday, while I watched the women’s volleyball team crunch Arizona, I couldn’t help but wonder which four of the 12 women on the court were in for some tough times. Maybe this mess will change once we learn to talk openly, without embarrassment or sarcasm, about sex and love. Nick Capo is a non-degree grad uate student and a Wednesday columnist for The Daily Collegian. So why don’t we start talking?
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