8 The Daily Collegian it yjjMyj] Enhanced learning Diversity courses teach students about life as well as careers At a time when race relations in America seem particularly volatile with the renewal of the affirmative action debate, surfac ing of reports about racist cops and harassment of minority stu dents on this very campus, multi cultural understanding is impera tive. At Penn State in 1991, the administration attempted to solve this problem by requiring all stu dents to take a class in cultural diversity. And now University President Graham Spanier has made diversity one of his primary goals. But recently, some concerns have been raised about the diver sity requirement and its useful ness in getting people a job after they graduate. The point of college, however, is more than just to find a job after graduation. Without this requirement, many students would not venture into such classes and would therefore make it through college without learning the important skill of how to relate to people different from themselves. College is about more than learning how to be an accountant, a biologist or an engineer. And it is more than just learning to use the tools of your trade. It is about learning about life and the world you live and wo*k in. It is about opening your mind .. || ■ Copy/Wire Editors f Michele DiGiacinto, Michele E. Johnston QSlIy Idl I James Kwasmk, Rebecca Logan, ! Scott Perry, Nicole Radzievich Weekly Editor Nanette Bitting Assistant Weekly Editor Lisa Haarlander Day Sports Editor Jonathan Bombulie Assistant Day Sports Editor Michael Palm Night Sports Editor Matt Volpi Assistant Night Sports Editors Paige Mundy, Don Wagner Arts Editor Melanie Cox Assistant Arts Editor Davis Schneiderman Photo Editor Jennifer J. Plumstead Chief Photographer Aaron R. Bandell Graphic Editor Matthew Zitelli Chief Graphic Artist Benjamin Scanlon Thursday, Oct. 19, 1995 ©1995 Collegian Inc. Editor in Chief Courtney Cairns Business Manager Randy Abrams The Daily Collegian’s editorial opinion is deter mined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not nec essarily those of The Daily Collegian, Colle gian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Colle gian and related publications, is a separate corporate institution from Penn State. Board of Editors Managing Editor Heidi A. Shubilla Opinion Editor Mark Correa Assistant Opinion Editor Kathy Broderick Campus Editor Erin Strout Assistant Campus Editor Nicole Ostrow Metro Editor Jon Feinberg Assistant Metro Editor Amy E. Oakes News Editors Jason Alt, Julia Geis Forcing multiculturalism Multiculturalism has led to a further dilapidation in the American educational sys tem from our colleges down to our kindergartens. The wonderful idea, that everyone should pay respect to the many cultures this world offers, has led liberals to institute destructive policies. These policies create resentment and distract from the important skills that future workers and citizens need in the work place and the ballot box. Multicultural programs such as those here at Penn State should be reexamined in light of the resent ment that they create. Most of the students would rather not learn about ancient Indonesian music. If there were no diversity require ment very few would sign up for History of Nonwestern Music. When people do not enjoy a sub ject they cannot be expected to learn it to the full extent of their abilities. When people do not enjoy a subject and have the full realiza tion that this will never help them get a job, they learn even less. Nothing is learned in these class- arid challenging the way you were brought up. Like it or not we are in a coun try made up of different races and different cultures. In addi tion, we are in a globalized com munity that is becoming smaller every day. Instead of eliminating the cul tural diversity requirement as some have suggested, the admin istration should work to strength en those classes. The chances of actually learning something about another culture in a large lecture class are pretty slim. Small dis cussion groups might better serve the purpose of diversity educa tion allowing students to share their differing views and back grounds. Some students also complain that it is unfair for them to have to take a class based on another culture, when, for example, a black man could take an African- American Studies course as his diversity class. They complain that the black man is not learning about another culture. The fact is that in taking any history or literature class they have already taken a “diversity” class as it is Eurocentric to begin with. Understanding other cultures is the best way to ease the tensions that we all have in our increasing ly smaller world diversity edu cation provides that. Board of Managers Advertising Manager Allison S. DeKosky Zone Managers Scott A. Boetig, Kevin C. Foster, Audra L. Smith Accounting Manager Melinda R. Hennessey Marketing Manager Carrie Elmer Office Manager Beth Eichler Assistant Office Manager Karen E. Shontz Layout Manager Antonia I. Schaefer es for as soon as the final exam is completed all the crammed info is deleted. Students only suffer through these courses because of coercive multiculturalism. The diversity requirement was a political decision not an education al one. If we are still interested in building a University that seeks to provide a universal education we must take away the coercive diver sity requirement. Let people learn the intricacies of Indian folklore through their own elective curiosity. Some skills such as English and computer pro ficiency must be required. Requir- Will the Million Man March have muite any affect on black society? “I think it maybe would raise awareness, but I hope it would not raise any anti-Semitic views. I hope it would have more of a positive reflection on the black community.” Angela Bakowicz senior-nursing Wal-Mart capitalizes As evidenced by Monday’s article on big business in State College, the local strug gle between small businesses and national chains is getting a lot of people concerned. These boycotting activists mix melancholy descriptions of the vacant Dank’s building with cry’s for choice, “we want small busi nesses to thrive so that we can have the freedom to choose where to shop.” These hippie activists overlook the basic theory of capitalism: Whoever can offer the high est quality goods and services at the low est price will dominate the market. A desire to dominate the market leads to competition between businesses which in turn ensures high quality and low prices. Hence, by ostracizing Wal-Mart for merely succeeding in this system, they are in fact ostracizing the very system in which Wal- Mart exists. So, by saying, “boycott Wal- Mart, so we can still have choices,” they are indeed saying, “screw capitalism,” a system based on choice. To this I feel obliged to say, “move to communist China, you won’t find Wal-Mart there.” Irresponsible company I am writing in response to your column, “It’s No Accident That Coors is the Right Beer in America.” I find it horrifying that a company as large as Coors Brewery would have the audacity not to give back to society in a positive manner. It is the moral and ethical responsibility of any company which primarily exists due to benefit of their patrons to have the respect to at least uphold a code of respect. I for one work in a bar and will refuse to sell any products of Coors to anyone I serve! I also encourage anyone who is as mortified as I am over the unprofessional nature of Coors to call and voice their concern at 1- 800-642-6116. Make some NOISE! To toler ate racism is to condone it! Rude fans ruin visit I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Pennsyl vania and State College for the Wisconsin vs. Penn State football game. Your state is very beautiful and State College is defi nitely one of the top three college towns in ing the student population to take specific cultural courses that will not show any results in the work place or in each individual’s free intellectual fulfillment is foolish. While it may be true that in the competitive world marketplace we will come into contact with other cultures, does it follow that know ing some insignificant detail about a native folk dance will give us an edge? How many Indonesian folk dances will we attend later in life? Multiculturalism should not be over employed in our educational system for it is fragmenting soci ety. High schools which are major ity black should not overemphasize black history and touch lightly on the European contribution. This insults the great American leaders who happened to be born black by making it appear that they only affected black society, when in fact they changed American society. The same principle should apply to all schools without regard to what race is the majority in the district. Schools must teach the history of John Gabriel Davis junior-agricultural science Nancy Mahmoud sophomore-journalism increases gaps between people "If we continue down this road of multiculturalism the centrifugal forces that it creates will destroy American society. We will think of ourselves ... as hyphenated interlopers on the North American continent." all the regions of the planet. The focus must remain on a Eurocen tric history for the roots of our American civilization start there. The liberal need to protect the culture of people immigrating into the United States has led to a coer cive program of bilingual educa tion that has grown into a $lO bil lion bureaucracy. The program protects the native culture by pre venting the immigrants from learn ing English. Students who speak English but who cannot write Eng lish are placed into classes taught in their native language. They fall farther behind as they forget the English that they already know and speak in their native tongue. If you are of Mexi can origin you are placed in the Spanish-speaking program and “Of course it will. Hopeful ly, the blacks that were there will come back and will reflect what they heard in their com munities and it will have a pos itive effect.” Dawit Teklai junior-chemical engineering the Big Ten. However, there was one inci dent that has made me lose respect for your fine university. Late Saturday night (Sept. 30) after I and my friends had thoroughly enjoyed the town, we were leaving the Acme Pizza Co. when two female students stopped us with the now familiar line “Are you guys from Wisconsin?” I asked the one young woman if she knew where a post office box was so that I could mail my postcards of Beaver Stadium to my family. She said that she would mail them for me, because she lived very close by. After some initial hesitation on my part, I gave them to her since she assured me that she would mail them unscathed and she gave me her word as a Nittany Lion. After all, everyone else had been so friendly to us and I had no reason to think that she would break our agree ment. The postcards reached their destination with very crude comments written on them. It is one thing to write some good natured ribbing, but it is an entirely differ ent matter to write some of the lowest things on earth. I do not know this stu dent’s name, but she knows who she is. Please print my letter, as this is my only hope of trying to get even with her. Thank you for your help. Sneering is no answer I am writing in response to Emily Peco ra’s “My Opinion” column that appeared in the Oct. 17 issue. Pecora uses one fat wel fare recipient and a children’s story as the basis for cutting all welfare benefits and “sneering” at the poor people in this coun try. She goes on to say, “The fact is that no one is starving in America . . . Let them earn their keep ... Now I only sneer.” This garbage reeks of Pecora’s lack of real world experience. Obviously her only exposure to poverty or hard work has been through children’s stories. I challenge her to sneer at the 3-year-old boy who has nothing to eat because his mother traded the family’s food stamps for heroin. Yes, Emily, it happens; just ask any police officer, social worker or judge. I agree that the welfare system must be reformed. But ignoring the suffering and sneering at the impoverished are not the answers to welfare’s problems. “Yeah, I think it will. I think “No, I think those things are it shows that yes we can come just pretty much symbolic, together peacefully for a good They’re just symbolic gestures cause and yeah there is hope. I I guess ” was really happy with the turnout despite the negative things that were said and I’d like to see that kind of thing take place in the future.” Shannon Morris senior-political science Jeremy Juern Madison, Wis. Casey Bowers senior-administration of justice only taught English 30 minutes a day. This will protect your unique culture from being lost as you are brought into American society. Bilingual education will also pre vent you from learning English well enough to attain employment in the upper levels of the American economy. Communities suffer as their edu cational system is destroyed through culture protecting bilin gual education. Immigrants want to melt into the American society and economy. Should we teach 300 lan guages in our elementary and Eng lish only as a side note? Foreign languages should be taught but not at the expense of teaching English. The United States should make English the official language and stop this foolish bilingual education Thursday, Oct. 19, 1995 Tell us what you think Law violates rights I am in response to the editorial opinion published on Tuesday Sept. 26 concerning Megan’s Law. You described how a vigi lante group invaded the home of the con victed offender, dragged a man from the house and beat him severely. You went on to say that the only problem was that the man was not the offender but a guest in his home. The use of the word “only” implied that if the group had the “right" man, they would have had the right to do what they did. If retaliation directed at the wrongly identified person is your main reason for opposing the law, then you do not fully understand the issue at stake. In my opinion, the main issue is that an offender, who has served his time as repayment to society for his crime could then be further persecuted, punished and/or beaten in retaliation for a debt he already paid or for a crime he may commit in the future. When anyone incurs a debt that they go on to repay, they should not expect to have to repay it for the rest of their life. “Megan’s Law” is an empty promise to the public that a crime can be stopped. We will never have a crime-free society and we never did have one. Longer sentences and “Three strikes you’re out” are also political propaganda that will only lead to more and more prisons with increasingly large geriatric wings. Our system provides its own justice in the form of imprisonment. Homemade jus tice is wrong. It will never be right to encourage retaliation and vigilantism. It will never be right to deny free citizens of their civil rights. Released offenders are free citizens. The constitutional problems that enactment of this law are facing are exactly the reasons these protections were created in the Constitution. I have no quick solutions for crime prevention or any that are guaranteed to work. No one has. You are right that some sort of reform is necessary. But that reform must happen within the justice system not through laws that promise what can never be delivered. I am not unsympathetic about how to protect children. I have three children and I work hard every day to protect them. There can never be a guarantee that they will be safe forever. However, I am not so naive as to believe that the enact ment of a law will prevent it. I take respon sibility for their safety myself. program which only hurts the peo ple who want so much to blend into America. Is it necessary to print Spanish, Chinese, German and Pol ish ballots? If you do not speak English how can you make an edu cated decision at the ballot box? How can you drive a car? If we continue down this road of multiculturalism the centrifugal forces that it creates will destroy American society. We will think of ourselves not as Americans but as hyphenated interlopers on the North American continent. Minorities will continue to look to the past slights and resent the American dream as they become further isolated, pulling away from American society. All of America will resent the fact that liberal multiculturalism forces bad educa tional policies and creates rifts in society. We should not be a society of separate groups, but of indepen dent individuals. Jeff Gorman is a senior majoring in economics and political science and a Collegian columnist. liLlLjLLliUr Stephen Fox sophomore-division of undergraduate studies Susan J. Mort Class of ‘95
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