10 The Daily Collegian
Opinions page lets students raise
voices among the masses
Of all the pages in The Daily
Collegian, the opinions page
belongs to you, the reader, more
than any other. This is the page
where you can strike back.
This is the page where you can
write a letter to tell almost all of
the University's students, faculty
and administration what's bother
ing you. This is the page where
you can become a columnist and
espouse your opinion on a regular
basis.
This is the page where you can
be heard. All you have to do is
take the reins.
To inform new readers and
remind returning readers, listed
below are two of the biggest prob
lems facing Penn State students
today. These are issues that most
likely will receive extensive cov
erage in the coming months.
1. New student trustee: A new
student representative will be
appointed to serve on the Univer
sity Board of Trustees. The stu
dent trustee is the lone student
voice on this board, and is sup
posed to speak to express your
view on issues affecting you such
as tuition and University policies.
Make sure you know who the
trustee is, and then make sure he
or she is speaking out for you.
2. Campus construction: This is
something that is happening
everywhere on campus with the
biggest projects being at the HUB
and Pattee. Though it may be a
nuisance when you're trying to
get to class, the campus is grow
ing substantially with this expan
sion.
3. University sports: According
to national football polls the Nit
tany Lions are at the top, so it
should be an exciting year in
Beaver Stadium.
Sports fans should also keep an
eye on other sports such as fenc
ing, rugby and volleyball because
those teams are expected to have
a good year.
If direct action is your solution
and working through this opinions
page is not, we have compiled a
list of most of the people whose
jobs have a direct effect on your
lives.
Clip and save this list for future
reference and make yourself
heard.
In Washington:
President Bill Clinton: (E-mail)
=Collegian
Wednesday, August 27, 1997
©1997 Collegian Inc.
Editor in Chief
Rachel Hogan
Business Manager
Christopher Taylor
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 Julie M. Randall
Opinion Editor Jennifer Strawser
Campus Editor Bridgette Blair
Assistant Campus Editor Amy Brosey
Metro Editor Erin Horan
Assistant Metro Editor Mark Parfitt
News Editors Molly K. Fellin, Kerrylee Nadeau
Copy/Wire Editors David Andrews, Carrie DeLeon
Jennifer Nejman, Kelly Ruoff, Holly Shick
Weekly News Editors Patricia K. Cole
Weekly Sports Editor Kate Blaschak
Day Sports Editor Geoff Mosher
Assistant Day Sports Editor Man DiFebo
Night Sports Editor Nick Zulovich
Assistant Night Sports Editors Brian Costello
Steve Feitl
Arts Editor T.R. Deckman
Assistant Arts Editor James Reid
Photo Editor Ilan Sherman
Chief Photographer David S. Spence
Graphics Editor A.J. Sedlak
On-line News Editor Megan Donley
Say what?
president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Al Gore: (202)
456-1414 ( or E-mail at vice-presi
dent@whitehouse.gov)
Senator Arlen Specter: (202)
224-4254
Senator Rick Santorum: (202)
224-6324
Representative John Peterson
(202) 225-5121
In Harrisburg:
Governor Tom Ridge: (717) 787-
2500
Representative Lynn Herman:
(717) 787-8594 (or 238-5477 in
State College)
Representative
Senator J. Doyle Corman: (717)
787-1377
In State College:
Mayor Bill Welch: 237-1708
Borough Council President Tom
Daubert: 238-0467
Council Member Jean McMan
is: 238-1934
Council Member Ruth Lavin:
238-1547
Council Member Jerry Wett
stone: 234-0402
Council Member Janet Knauer:
238-3307
Council Member Richard
McCarl: 238-8082
Council Member Donald Hahn:
235-9671
Planning Commission Chairman
Drew Hyman: 237-0110
At Penn State:
University. President Graham
Spanier: 865-7611
Executive Vice President and
Provost John Brighton: 865-2505
Senior Vice President for
Administration Carol Herrmann:
865-2507
Vice President for Student
Affairs William Asbury: 865-0909
Executive Director of Universi
ty Relations Stephen MacCarthy:
863-1028
University Board of Trustees
President Jesse Arnelle: 865-2521
USG office: 863-IUSG
President Jaime Desmond, Vice
President John Polk
The Daily Collegian:
Office: 865-1828
Editor in Chief Rachel Hogan:
rahl4s@psu.edu
Opinion Editor Jennifer Straw
ser: jjs242@psu.edu
On-line Sports Editor Krista Hawley
Board of Managers
Advertising Manager Maria E. Crespo
Sales Managers Rachel Vavrick, Kurt Wolf
Accounting Manager Amy Flaming
Marketing Manager Michelle Brouse
Office Manager Megan A. Hannigan
Assistant Office Manager William Schwab
Layout Manager Tressa Campbell
Letters Policy: The Daily Collegian encourages com
ments on news coverage, editorial policy and Univer-
say affairs
Letters must be typewritten, double-spaced and no
longer than 500 words. Forums must also be type
written, double-spaced and no longer than three
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
All 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.
Any letters or forums may be submitted via electron
ic mail at: jjs242@psu.edu
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. Bur
rowes St.; University Park, Pa., 16801-3882.
Complaints: News and editorial complaints should
be presented to the editor. Business and advertising
complaints 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 Collegian Inc. Information on
filing grievances is available from Gerry Lynn Hamil
ton, executive secretary, Collegian Inc.
C) .
..,....
n s
In order to really benefit from your time
here, I believe you must put aside the
notion of a college education as a series of
hoops to be jumped through and embrace a
picture of University life as a process of
acquiring deeper and more robust ways of
thinking about and understanding the
world around you.
My advice, above all else, is that you
THINK! Think about everything, question
everything. More explicitly, I urge you to
think first, and judge second.
By the time we reach college, we all
have a fairly well established set of values,
a picture of how life is supposed to be.
Editor hopes for mutual respect
The theme of Encampment this year
was Respect, with a capital R. About
300 student leaders and administra
tors gathered together at Stone Valley
Recreation Area on Tuesday to discuss this
Respect, and how it plays out in our daily
lives.
Sounds simple enough.
Wrong.
Talking about respect is a tough thing
in some ways, it's so abstract that it's
tough to get a handle on it. In another way,
it's so tangible and real that once you start
talking about it, you can't stop.
You can't stop analyzing how respect
functions in your life, can't stop debating
what respect really is is it an action, a
theory, a way of being? or trying to fig
ure ways to get it.
Well, consensus at Encampment seemed
to be that the only way to get respect, real
ly, is to give it. The folks at Encampment
also decided that giving respect isn't as
easy as it sounds.
From an editor's eyes, giving respect to
readers is a daunting task. And one that
can't be avoided.
How do we respect both the conserva
tive and liberal viewpoints of our audi
ence? How do we avoid using ambiguous
labels such as conservative and liberal,
labels that tend only to offend people who
reject them?
How do we cater to what the majority of
people want, while not forgetting or alien
ating what the minority are clamoring for?
It'll set the head spinning, but I'm glad
someone asked all these questions now, at
the beginning of the semester, when it's
not too late to try.
So, after the tempest of an afternoon of
respect-talk has died down, I'd like to
respectfully make some promises to you,
the readers of The Daily Collegian:
1. The Daily Collegian will try to serve
its readers in every way it can.
2. We will undoubtedly slip up
There's so much going on around this
campus so many sports, campus events,
art performances that as a student,
Letters to the editor
University is place
for personal growth
I would like to begin by extending a fond
welcome to those of you returning to Uni
versity Park as well as to those of you
beginning your University lives this
semester.
My purpose in writing this letter is to
remind all of you of the incredible oppor
tunities for personal growth that are avail
able to you as University students.
Your opportunities for exploration and
change are greater now, both in scope and
in number, than they will be at any other
point in your lives, but, as with all opportu
nities, they will simply pass, doing you no
good, unless you actively pursue them.
I believe it is, sadly, not uncommon for
students to pass through four years on this
campus, get a degree and not really grow
at all.
If this is the path that you choose, you
not only cheat yourself but you do a dis
service to the rest of us as well.
This set of values colors the way that we
look at everything, it is the filter through
which we see the world around us. This
picture is something that we have learned
over the course of our lives.
In addition to a lot of noble and
admirable ideas, this set of values carries,
embedded within it, all of the prejudices
and narrow-mindedness of the cultures in
which we grew-up.
By blindly holding tight to our existing
value systems, we limit ourselves by
claiming as our own a large portion of the
ignorance of the generations that came
before us.
In order to truly grow, I believe we must
explore and understand our own views of
right and wrong and constantly refine and
upgrade our beliefs.
We must all work to understand our
prejudices and discard the ones that do not
make sense.
Our views of the world are cluttered
with little bits and pieces of narrow-mind
edness that really do not make a lot of
sense and when we are alert, we can find
these pieces of nonsense and discard them
in favor of something more reasonable.
Through this process, we can create for
ourselves a more consistent an productive
view of the world and the people around
us.
So explore! Explore State College, the
University and the people around you.
Most of all, use what you see to help you
to explore yourself, because it is only
through this self-exploration that real per
sonal growth can occur.
William J. Dean
graduate-kinesiology
administrator, faculty or staff member,
it's impossible to attend them all.
That's where we'll try to fill in. We'll try
to give you as thorough and complete cov
erage as we can.
The Collegian wants to be your best
source of information, news, reviews and
analysis.
This semester promises to be filled with
exciting issues and events the Nittany
Lion football team is ranked No. 1, HUB
construction is actually underway and the
University is entering its first year under
the new Commonwealth Educational Sys
tem. New bands will come into town, the
women's volleyball team is nearing the top
of the charts and the State College Bor
ough's housing amendment is in place.
There's plenty going on, and we're here
to tell you all about it.
Of course, there's a catch. Because
we're all part of the same community,
we'll need to work together, learning to
Respect one another by being honest and
forthright.
Tell us what you like and what you don't
like. We'll be trying out a lot of different
things this year on Page 3 on Tuesdays,
a column titled "Announcements from
Shields" will update you on official dead
lines for things such as drop/add deadline,
financial aid forms and housing contracts.
We'll be running a health column titled
"Dear Doc" regularly.
Let us know how these work for you, and
let us know what doesn't work.
Weckiesday, August 27, 1997
Medical clinic wrong
to perform abortions
While visiting Florida last month our
family was very impressed with the pro
tection given to nesting turtles on the
beaches. Their nests were roped off with
signs not to disturb under penalty of law,
heavy fines and possible imprisonment.
Within a few days a story appeared in the
newspaper.
A bachelor party was going on with
bright lights on a beach front patio. The
nature of baby turtles is that after hatch
ing they crawl toward light toward the
moon into the water to safety. It is illegal
to have lights along the beach at hatching
time. However, as the newspaper reported
being confused by the party lights, the
baby turtles headed toward the party
rather than the safety of the water. The
bachelor party turned into a rescue party!
All of these young men carried handfuls of
these little turtles across the beach to the
water. Some of these young men removed
their shoes, rolled up their pant legs to get
the turtles deeper into the water. It was
quite a newspaper story!
We returned to State College to read of
the coming of an abortion clinic under the
guise of State College Medical Services.
How can this possibly be named a "med
ical service" when the purpose is to brutal
ly, painfully, willfully kill babies who
should be safely "nesting" within their
mothers' wombs?
And where are these tiny babies to be
buried in Happy Valley?
Linda Howard
State College resident
Write letters to the editor to complain
about something in the borough that's real
ly got your goat, or to point out something
that's pleased you.
The biggest thing we're going to try to
do is keep you informed of all that's going
on around the campus, the borough, the
state, the nation and the world. And we'll
try to do it respectfully, with kindness and
consideration to those involved.
We'll try to hold the powerful account
able and give voice to the voiceless. We'll
try to be fair and unbiased in our cover
age, and be as thorough as we can. And
we'll try to do all this with as much
Respect as we can.
From what I could see at Encampment, I
think it might just be a trend. Student
leaders from across the campus seem
interested in really respecting the groups
which they serve. Hold them to it. Hold us
to it.
This just may be the year for all those
students who thought their voice didn't
matter to get involved.
If writing for the Collegian sounds like a
good idea to you, look for the ad in today's
paper telling you how to try out, or call the
office at 865-1828. Reporters here cover
everything from University sports to bor
ough government, from arts to administra
tion news and student groups.
If selling or designing ads is more your
style, look for the ad in upcoming issues to
see how to apply, or call the office at 865-
2531 for more information.
Maybe you don't have the time to be a
reporter, but still have a lot to say. Then
read the opinions page today to see how to
apply to become a columnist or editorial
cartoonist.
Or maybe none of this sounds fun. That's
all right. You can still write letters to the
editor. Respectfully, of course.
Rachel Hogan (rahl4s@psu.edu) is a
senior majoring in history and the Colle
gian's editor in chief.
Collegian Graphic/Chris Kelleher
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