6 I THURSDAY, DEC Tit] D I I Collegian Rossilynne Skena Editor-in-Chief Holly Colbo Business Manage, About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc., an independent, nonprofit corpo- ration with a board of direc- rack and protes—onals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both pap? - - olic - ,vertising .em fall and spring semesters as well as the second six-week summer session, The Daily Collegian publishes Monday through Fnday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and individual *.‘ subscribers. Complaints: News and edrto nal complaints should be pre sented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. Who we are The Daily Collegian's editori al opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsi bility. The letters and columns expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, Collegian Inc or The Pennsyl vania State University. Colle gian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publications. is a separate corporate institution from Penn State. Editorials are written by The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion. Members are Chris Bickel, lan Brown, Matt Brown. Adam Clark. Rich Coleman. Matt Conte, Abby Drey. Kathenne Dvorak. Beth Ann Downey. Stacey Federoff, Mike Felletter, Stephanie Goga. Mandy Hofmockel, Patrick McDermott. Andrew McGill. Dave Miniaci, Eliza beth Murphy, Michael Oplinger, Dan Rorabaugh, Erin Rowley, David Rung. Alexa Santoro, Heather Schmelzlen. Shannon Sim cox. Rossilynne Skena, Danielle Vickery, Alex Weisler, Aubrey Whelan and Julie Wolf. Letters We want to ht your com ments on our coverage, edi torial decisions and the Penn State community. ■ E-mail collegonletters@psu.edu ■ Online www.psucollegian.com ■ Postal mail/In person 123 S. Burrowes St. University Park. PA 16801 Letters should be about 200 words. Student letters should include class year, major and campus. Letters from alumni should include year of graduation. All writ ers should provide their address and phone number for verification. Letters should be signed by no more than two people. Members of organizations must include their titles if the topic they write about is connected with the aim of their groups. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters. The Collegian can not guarantee publication of all letters it receives. Let ters chosen also run on The Daily Collegian Online and may be selected for publi cation in The Weekly Colle gian. All letters become property of Collegian Inc 3, 2009 PSU not averse to vocal students Student activists' goals and university plans don't need to be at odds. With the efforts of Penn State Beyond Coal (PSBC) and the Sierra Club, one official said that one or two student voices may be present in the task force researching an upgrade of the West Cam pus Steam Plant. Through taking interest in a university decision and a quick undertaking of peaceful activism, the groups' efforts have paid off. RJ Van Auken, a stu dent leader for PSBC, said his organization isn't try ing to force any ideas on the administration. By not being too forceful ( :XT[ZKIS•kNtI)S al4.leiß Gfw‘l4 , Aea . `••TING CUT QSZ-Rn=STIN ANI) IMPLeNketiTING I€I4O2cRATAC 'Wgit (-„r- TV dependency needs attention By Stephanie Goga WHEN I arrived back at my dorm room after Thanksgiving break. I made one important change in my life: I unplugged my TV and sent it home with my parents. With the bulky screen remove , from its precari ous position atop my microfridge, I suddenly had a clear space and a clear mind. The idea to ditch the Magnavox came to me during my trip back to State College. as I reflected over what I had accomplished during the long break Instead of the studying, paper writing and class reading that I probably should have completed, my agenda had been filled with far less academic pur suits. I realized that hours of day time TV had informed me all about Adam Lambert's scan dalous performance on the American Music Awards and the "Twilight" craze. However, noth ing stood out in my mind as eye opening, educational or inspir ing. I started to fear that I had squandered my gift of 10 glori ous days off, and I wondered: Had I completely wasted my entire Thanksgiving break on television, of all things? and showing interest about being part of the actual process, it shows the dedication of the groups and how taking the right form of initiative can bring students and the university officials together in common work. Although the university has been exploring an upgrade since 2005, according to Office of Physical Plant spokesman Paul Ruskin, we think it bodes well to bring the students into the decision making. The groups' vocal expressions and zeal helped them possibly nes tle their way into the process, so kudos to PSBC and the Sierra ?R - Cgr' . s,s. Apparently, I'm not the only one who's grown transfixed by the tube. A Nielsen report found that the average American who watches TV views over 151 hours every month, according to CNN.com. This new -all-time high," which measured based on the last quarter of 2008, increased from 145 hours during the last quarter of 2007. Of course. one should remain a little wary when looking at these statistics: The 151 hours could conceivably count the MY OPINION hours when the TV is on in the background. Still. 151 hours a month, about five hours per day is a huge chunk of time. I don't think this is a figure to boast about rather, excessive TV watching is something we should try to acknowledge and assuage in our daily lives. CNN reported that devices like DVR and TiVo plus today's wide variety of shows have helped to increase the hours of TV viewing. The sheer number of TVs in people's homes is also a factor of the increase. We're living in a country where there are more televisions than people per household: 2.73 versus 2.55, according to screentime.org. Only 19 percent of U.S. homes have one TV I don't normally live up to the American standard of five hours of TV every day, particularly when I'm at school. It's hard to justify watching sitcom repeats when textbooks and ANGEL beckon. Club. Their visibility and openness only aided to gain good standing with Penn State on the use of coal as the university makes its plans to progress. Because of these groups and their passion, stu dents are taking part in a significant long-term uni versity undertaking. This collaborative effort is a great example of the student body and the uni versity coming together to achieve a common goal. We would like to see this proactive approach more often in the future, with understanding and com mon direction on both sides. At the same time, I know that it will be upsetting to miss out on some parts of my TV exis tence, especially at this time of the year. The cheesy Christmas movies on ABC Family and Lifetime will soon abound, but without a TV they will no longer fill my days with holiday cheer. Through all of this, I don't mean to sound like a TV hater. I really enjoy watching TV and I understand that it's an impor tant facet of American culture as a means of recreation and relaxation. For example, the 2008 American Time Use Survey Summary performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 96 percent of Americans enjoyed daily leisure activities. Watching TV was the most prac ticed leisure activity proof of the popularity of this pastime. Giving up TV forever seems unnecessary, not to mention tremendously difficult. Every once in a while, though, it's nice to know that you're not totally dependent on something like TV. So, I'm viewing these last couple of weeks in the semester as a trial period to try to lessen my obsession. In any case, I'll soon be home for the holidays, and my house has four TVs and five people. It's not exactly the national norm, but I think it will suffice. Stephanie Goga is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Thursday columnist. Her e mail address is scgso2s@psu.edu. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN PSU's investigation integral in preserving science ethics This letter regards the Nov. 30 article "PSU investigates 'Climategate.' As the proud parent of a recent Penn State gradu ate and a holder of a B.S. degree in geology myself, I laud Penn State for their investi gation of Professor Michael Mann's involvement with "Climategate." Though the source of the letters is uncertain (hack er? whistle-blower?), surely the facts revealed are more important than the source of the facts remember the Pentagon Papers' revealing of the illegal bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The ethics of science are too important to bypass merely because one believes strongly in a particular hypothesis. Where would science be if Wegener and Bretz had been subject to a campaign of exclusion and important data had been hidden or destroyed by one side of those arguments or another? We are all proud of Perm State's long standing eminence in the fields of meteor ology and climate science, but let's be sure that unpleasant facts don't get swept under the rug because one of our own may be at fault. Media hoopla around Woods unfair, shows cultural flaws By now most people know about Tiger Woods' accident, which occurred early in the morning after Thanksgiving. And he has since refrained from giving out too much detail about the incident. This, of course, has people riled up because they see this as a chance to uncover some of the mystery surrounding Woods' personal life. I find this to be very disappointing. If the world's richest and perhaps most recognizable athlete has been able to keep his home life to himself, it should be respected, not put under a microscope. But we as a country are surrounded daily by tabloid journalism, and we love to see celebrities knocked off their golden pedestals. People often justify this scrutiny by making the argument that since celebs put themselves into the public eye, they become property of the public. But are they not still humans? In fact it seems that only when we dissect the per sonal life of a celebrity, we find out they are indeed human and that they have many the same problems as us: wrinkles, weight problems, financial troubles, marital issues the list goes on and on. So let's be grate ful for one thing these celebrities provide for us that we cannot live without: enter tainment. And let us not be entertained by their misfortunes. Bill Decker junior-broadcast journalism Acting against consumerism valuable in fighting world ills In his last column, Rich Coleman pres ents Buy Nothing Day as a useless protest, as a "misplaced rebellion." He writes, "What is buying nothing going to do for our country? Capitalism has been around for hundreds of years and someone walking around the mall with an empty shopping cart isn't going to change that." I ask Rich, and like-minded individuals, what action WILL change our system? Our consumption habits determine the health of our economy. A tenet of ethical consumption is that we vote with our dol lars, i.e. when we buy something, we show our support for that product, that store, that company and the global consequences of its business. Those who participate in Buy Nothing Day are not "doing nothing," they are voting "no" to a system that, as Rich glosses over, "has its drawbacks." What precisely are those drawbacks? It doesn't take 20/20 vision to see the adverse effects consumerism has on our environ ment, the lives of millions of species (including humans around the world work ing in sweatshops) and even our mental health (because things = happiness). With the advent of huge global crises like peak oil and climate change, not to mention war, terrorism, poverty, genocide, Extinction and Population Explosion, it's a cold truth that consumerism and capital ism need to end before our world does. Our country runs on consumerism, yet consumerism cannot continue without us, the consumers. We have the power to change the way things are. And that can start with simply becoming more aware of what we are paying for and choosing to buy (or not to buy) accordingly. Between the Pipes Ten Question Tuesday makes its return following the holiday break and brings you Icers sophomore forward Nick Seravalli. Seravalli provided a num ber of interesting answers, telling us about his feelings on Allen Iverson, his love for Taco Bell and an interesting choice of what school he would go to if he didn't attend Penn State. 1. Who are your three favorite bands right now? A: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Hank Mills. 2. Who is your favorite Penn State ath lete, not on the Icers? Read more from the Between the Pipes and the rest of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucoileglan.com. James A. Schrumpf Monrovia, Md. Gabrielle Bedelan sophomore-English
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers