4 I TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2010 THE Dlll.l Collegian Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Clinf Kelsey Thompson Business . Manager About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc.. an independent, nonprofit cor poration with a board of directors composed of stu dents, faculty and profes sionals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both papers and solicit advertising for them. During the fall and spring semes ters as well as the second six-week summer session, The Daily Collegian publish es Monday through Friday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and individual subscribers. Complaints: News and edi torial complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be pre sented to the business man ager. Who we are The Daily Collegian's edito rial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. The letters and columns expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian. Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publi cations, is a separate corpo rate institution from Penn State. Editorials are written by The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion. Members are Kevin Cirilli, Jenna Ekdahl, Bill Landis, Elizabeth Mur phy, Laura Nichols, Edgar Ramirez, Andrew Robinson, Heather Schmelzlen, Jared Shanker, Katie Sullivan. Alex Weisler, Steph Witt and Chris Zook. Letters We want to hear your com ments on our coverage, editorial decisions and the Penn State community. ■ E-mail collegianletters@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 writers should provide their address and phone number for verification. Letters should be signed by no more than two peo ple. Members of organiza tions 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 cannot guaran tee publication of all let ters it receives. Letters 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. Thition rise pricing out students When the Penn State Board of Trustees unani mously voted to increase tuition Friday, it was just the latest weight placed on students' rising costs for higher education. What is more daunting is that Penn State Presi dent Graham Spanier warned of more tuition increases for next year even with this year's 5.9 percent tuition hike for in state students and a 4.5 percent increase for out of-state students. In addition, in-state tuition has risen by at least 5 percent in 3 of the last 4 years. For out-of-state tuition, the increase has topped 4 percent in 3 of the last 4 years, too. These consistent tuition increases could be leaving Facebook causing relationship issues By Shannon Simcox Is it Facebook official?lt's a common question that peo ple ask these days about relationships. Facebook, the social network ing site that rules the lives of college students and beyond, offers a few options of defin ing our relation ships online and redefining it. MY OPINION According to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Facebook is increasingly becoming a factor involved in divorce. One man, Ken Savage, turned his ruined relationship status into a website to help others being cheated on via Facebook by creating face bookcheatlng.com. When I went on the Facebook cheating website, articles such as "Don't Forget to UnFriend Before You Get Divorced" and "How to Reveal if Your Lover is Cheating On You" pop up under recent arti cles. Also tabs at the top of the page include "Cheating Stories," "Facebook Flirting," students apathetic to them, but students should continue to let their voices be heard. While tuition increases even though our state appropriations were equal to last year the Board made cuts internally. The $4 billion approved for the Penn State operat ing budget included inter nal reductions of $l2 mil lion. Once again, students are getting hit hardest in what appears to be a never-ending battle between Penn State's administration and Penn sylvania's General Assem bly. But Penn State extends beyond just students it also includes their family members, some of whom help pay tuition and will "Facebook is increasingly becoming a factor involved in divorce. One man, Ken Savage, turned his ruined relationship status into a website to help others being cheated." "Facebook Chat," "Facebook Tragedy" and "Facebook Divorce." Has Facebook really become so much a part of the everyday social life of individuals? Personally, I thought in post college life I would be deleting my Facebook page right around the time that I would be looking for a job. But it would seem from this article and from per sonal experience that it's no longer just the college demo graphic using Facebook. I'm sure you all thought it was as weird as I did when your par ents, aunts and uncles started friend requesting you. Beyond the age factor, it is constantly debated whether Facebook,helps or hurts a rela tionship. The other day when driving to work it was the topic of a radio talk show. Considering that there is a Facebook cheating website and that divorce lawyers are increasingly looking to Facebook to gather evidence be hurt by the increases. Many of those families just miss the mark for scholarships and govern ment funding. To help decrease the tuition hike, the Board voted to budget $30.4 mil lion for faculty and staff pay increases based on merit, which is a positive investment made for our university's deserving fac ulty. No employee should be overlooked. Deserving Penn State employees in all departments from the Dining Commons to Dean's office should be eligible for the increases. Spanier told the Board that officials would begin work immediately on next year's budget. It looks like they'll need all the time they can get. NO) WILD 14Z5T FITIF.6F for their cases, I'm inclined to say it hurts. But I think the most disturbing part of all of this is that the question is even debated and this cheating web site even exists. What happened to talking on the phone? What happened to meeting someone and holding a conversation in person? I would much rather be talking to a person a voice at least than a computer. For all of you out there who check your Facebook page reli giously, there is a whole world out there in which you can see, touch and speak to people beyond the computer screen. And for those people out there who are using it to cheat, moral of the story is that you will probably get caught. Wise up or take it off Facebook. Shannon Slmcox is a senior majoring in journalism and political science and is the Collegian's Tuesday columnist. Her e-mail address is scsso96@psu.edu. fr/ 'a -----N THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Column advocating vuvuzelas disrespectful towards others I read with disappointment the July 9 opinion piece "Vuvuzelas are humming in Africa and Penn State." The disappoint ment comes because it seems to promote no sense of respect for others' need for peace and quiet. You seem interested only in your own fun and excusing or justifying like-minded others. I expect a Penn State senior to show more maturity than that. Having your fun blowing into a vuvuzela in the privacy of your own closed vehicle or room would be fine, but, just as with smok ers, your right to make such noise should end where others' ears and sensibilities You say it's a symbol of South African heritage with no evidence of research or proof. I suspect it is nothing more than a huckster's variation on a New Year's noise maker. Prove otherwise, scholar. The adjacent column "Vuvuzelas need to stay in South Africa, not U.S." showed much more effort Fortunately, the Penn State Athletic Department is showing interest in banning the devices. Maybe they understand that American heritage accepts non-amplified human vocalization at baseball, soccer and other sporting events and venues, and that fans would frown on vuvuzelas here. Jay Beckerman Arts Fest visitor Useless school expenditures should stop to freeze tuition So I just read that tuition is going up again in "Trustees approve tuition hike - in the July 12 issue. I understand that costs do rise, such as utilities, insurance, etc.. and it has to be made up somewhere. Unfortunately, sitting in room 203 in the Information Sciences and Technology build ing, there are about 40 computers that all have movable LCD stands for the screens. If you look on the company's website, the cheapest of these stands (though not the model used in the classroom> cost $BO. Even if you assume that Penn State received a bulk discount, that is still a lot of money on useless movable stands for screens for just one room. Is that really worth us paying almost $9,000 next semester? Loss of Webster's Bookstore saddens State College visitor I visited State College for my second time this past weekend to partake in the Arts Fest activities. On my first day there I had the pleasure of stumbling upon Webster's Bookstore Café . After a quick look around, I decided to come back the next day to do a bit of shopping. When I returned, I noticed the "Lost Lease - and "All books 50% off, everything must go- signs. I only had about 10 minutes to shop around, so I stuffed five books under my arm, not really having any idea what I was buying and went to the checkout counter. Most of the books are more than 30 years old and in mint condition. When I got home I checked out the titles and they were all great finds. Even if these books cost their full price a whopping $22-- it would have been a steal. Next to Webster's I saw lots of bars, an Abercrombie, a Panera and pizza, pizza, pizza. Apparently, your intellectual community of 40,000 bright students would rather eat pizza than knowledge and would rather get over-priced beers then spend a buck on a book. And the saddest part of my weekend was driving past billboards for the spectacular new Fraser Centre and seeing a little picture for the up-and-coming Borders. Taylor Wallace senior-English Univensty of St. Andrews (Scotland) Footblog With all the uncertainty surrounding the quarterbacks competing for a start ing spot, one thing that has never come into question is their athleticism. Quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno attrib utes that to a "semi-conscious" change in recruiting. That change brought the Lions' freshmen pair of Robert Bolden and Paul Jones this year, two passers whose games rely heavily on their mobil ity, Paterno said. They join Kevin Newsome and Matt McGloin in the race for the starting quarterback role. Read more from the football blog Footblog and the rest of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucol leglan.com/blogs. Editor in Chief In this job, you are told one thing con stantly: "Don't get us sued." As luck would have it, we hadn't been sued we'd just been served. State College attorney Joseph Amendola included both The Centre Daily Times and The Daily Collegian on several routine expungement notices. The orders effec tively required the listed parties to delete any record of Amendola's clients. These orders are typical in the police station or the prothonotary's office not in a newsroom. While it was strange to be on the answering end of the interviews, I found it easy to respond: The Daily Collegian will not yield to intimidation, does not answer to the government and reports the truth as it happens, day in and day out. Read more from the Editor in Chief blog and the rest of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucol leglan.com/blogs. Robert Seaman senior-mathematics
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