I Tuesday, Aug. 24,2010 The Daily Collegian Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Chief 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 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 or Collegian Inc. Collegian Inc., publish ers of The Daily Collegian and related publications, is a separate corporate institu tion from Penn State. Members are: Lexi Bel cufine, Caitlin Burnham, Paul Casella, Kevin Cirilli, Beth Ann Downey, Amanda Elser, Zachary Feldman, Ashley Gold, Stephen Hennessey, Allison Jackovitz, Kevin Kline, Samantha Kramer, Bill Landis, Andrew Metcalf, Nate Mink, Elizabeth Murphy, Laura Nichols, Michael Oplinger, Edgar Ramirez, Heather Schmelzlen, Caitlin Sellers, Laurie Stern, Katie Sullivan, Jessica Uzar, Aubrey Whelan, Alex Weisler, Somer Wiggins, 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/ln 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. EDITORIAL Long-term plan lacks details Penn State recently announced the implemen tation of its long-term plan to increase the universi ty’s educational standards and fiscal policies. The five-year plan will be fully activated by 2013, and gives the university a standard for the future. Though it’s great that the university is looking ahead, the administration needs to make sure the plan has specific goals and a concise way to measure progress. Transparency and accessibility must also be provided to students and their parents. Spokespeople for the university said the plan will address concrete issues, reduce the cost of health care benefits and provide new technological Mosque opponents are By Michael Oplinger American flags decorat ed porches across the country. Spectators at high school football games actually sung the words to the national anthem. Chants of “U-S- A! U-S-A!” nor mally reserved for Olympic years became popular. Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be an American” seemed to be the most played song on the radio Such was America in the highly patriotic period after ter rorists with a perverted reading of the Quran cowardly took the lives and freedoms of more than 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. In an address to Congress fol lowing the attacks on the World Hade Center, President George W Bush urged Americans to continue on with their daily rou tine. He said al Qaeda was jeal ous of our freedoms. If we abridged our freedoms in any way as a result of the attacks, the terrorists would win the bat tle. “We are in a fight for our principles, and our first respon sibility is to live by them,” Bush said in the same speech. “No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith.” Yet nine years later, those wise words seem to have been forgotten by the people protest ing the proposed Islamic com munity center two blocks from the former site of the World Hade Center. resources to students. Other goals like “enhanc ing diversity” and “serv ing the people of the com monwealth” must be expanded upon by the uni versity. There needs to specific goals with specific num bers and attainable mile stones with tangible results. Rinding for the plan will come from Penn State, and will be aided by pri- vate donations. The uni versity stressed that there will be no added financial pressure on students, and we expect them to live up to this through all stages the plan’s implementation. Penn State tuition is already expensive enough, and combating that with things like scholarships should be a main priority A government prohibition of the mislabeled “Ground Zero Mosque” violates rights guaran teed by the Constitution. Ironic, considering the United States military fights in Afghanistan and Iraq for the rights of the predominantly Muslim population, yet the rights of Muslims on our own soil are being threatened. The Islamic community cen ter is being attacked because it is just that Islamic. Should a YMCA be proposed at that loca tion, no one would protest. MY OPINION Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Muslims have been unfairly grouped together as militants or extremists. But al Qaeda is called extrem ist because its message and mission varies greatly from mainstream Islam. The terror ists who attacked the World Hade Center that fateful day share the same religion as other Muslims in name only. The Muslims who want to build the community center are not the same as al Qaeda, just like most Christians aren’t the same as the radical Christians who attack abortion clinics. Most national opinion polls show an overwhelming disap proval of the community center. However, democracy takes a back seat in issues of Constitutional rights. The Constitution exists for this very reason to protect the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority. While tiie community center might offend the families of vic tims, America’s beauty rests in the rights to utter words or per form actions that some may consider distasteful. The same rights enable anti war activists to hold protests when outside funding is concerned. When any thing with funds are involved, especially when it comes to plans that involve students and their education, the administra tion must make the opera tion as transparent as possible Literature, updates and plans must be available to students for them to review and make sure all funds are being used properly and efficiently. Accessibility is key to keeping track of money and the progress made. The five-year plan has the potential to make Penn State more finan cially stable in the long term, but only if the administration goes about it through the correct channels. misguided even if they offend military fami lies or allow anti-abortion activists to display pictures of aborted fetuses to the dismay of passersby. The victims of the terrorist attacks must be viewed as mar tyrs for these freedoms. While tragic and unnecessary, their deaths were the result of the actions of a radical group envi ous of this country’s liberties, including the freedom of religion and free market system. The proposed Islamic com munity center’s proximity to Ground Zero tops the list of rea sons why it’s offensive to the memories of the victims. But government opposition based on location starts a jour ney down a slippery slope of institutional religious intoler ance. Many across the country lost loved ones on Sept. 11 and have an emotional attachment to this issue, but prohibiting the com munity center to be built in New York City based on its potential to offend could become a prece dent for the prevention of Muslim structures across the country. The Constitution and its inherent rights apply every- where and to everyone. The right of religious groups to build places of worship or community centers cannot be determined on a locational basis. Should the Islamic communi ty center be forced to change locations, ignoring the very rights that make this country special, then the terrorists will have truly won. Michael Opllnger is a senior majoring in media studies and is the Collegian’s Tuesday columnist. His e-mail is mjoSo7l@psu.eilu The Daily Collegian IFC president right in voicing his concerns with THON issue Max Wendkos is right in bringing up the discussion about the leadership of THON. I fully support THON, the great accomplish ment that is THON and how we are hble to support families and children with pediatric cancer. It’s becoming more apparent that THON wishes to eliminate greek influence altogether, so why not just take Interfratemity Council/Panhellenic Dance off the title of THON? Because they’ll lose the hefty amount of fundraising from greeks. Pace it, greeks created THON, nurtured THON to what it is today, and support it more than any other collective organization. Hiding behind the “Fbr the Kids” battle cry is really becoming comedic. In the interest of the children battling cancer, THON needs to embrace its greek association and build a stronger unity, that is what you do “For the Kids.” No White House home game is bad administrative choice Those of you not here for the summer may have missed the administration’s announcement that there would not be a White House game declared because the home stand games didn’t warrant it. Forget for a minute that we are likely to start a freshman quarterback, the fact that the head coach appears to be inches from death and the fact that we are ranked pre-season anywhere from No. 7 (are you kidding?) to No. 19. This is typical of the administration’s con duct of the athletic program (especially where pricing is concerned). Incredibly, The Daily Collegian agreed with the administra tion. White House games have become a great tradition. I hope the student body chooses to declare one of our games as a White House. Illinois, being Homecoming, would be a great choice. Dining services must halt use of battery-cage eggs in halls The recall of over half a billion battery cage eggs due to salmonella contamination highlights the need for Penn State Dining Services to switch to cage-free eggs in its campus dining halls. While not one of the eggs recalled so far had been shipped to Pennsylvania, the inci dent should be a reminder that battery-cage eggs the kind served to students at Penn State pose a dramatically higher risk of salmonella contamination than cage-free eggs. More than 5,000 Perm State students, fac ulty and alumni have already signed a peti tion calling on the school to go cage-free, with several students noting that they have experienced food poisoning or other sick ness after eating eggs in campus dining halls. Seeing as how the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 120,000 Americans get salmonella poisoning each year from battery-cage eggs, it’s not only a possibility, but a statistical certainty that each year Penn State students are being needlessly sickened by Dining Services’ battery cage eggs just so Dining can save a few pennies per egg. Nick Cooney Director of The Humane League, Philadelphia CAN YOU DIG IT? Lions preseason favorites There may be several new faces on the Perm State women's volleyball team, but it’s starting the season as a big tar get for the rest of the nation. The Nittany Lions were announced as the No. 1 team in the preseason AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll, as Russ Rose’s squad received 40 of the 60 first-place votes. Perm State finished the 2009 season as the top-ranked team en route to its third consecutive national champi onship. The Lions currently have a 102- match win streak... Ryan Loy Women’s Volleyball reporter FOOTBLOG Team misses injured players Senior center Doug Klopacz has missed practice with an ankle injury, a team source said Friday. The injury does not appear serious and Klopacz should return to practice soon, the source added. In Klopac”s absence, redshirt sophomore Matt Stankiewitch has been taking reps at center. All-Conference offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski remains at right guard after he moved there from center during the offseason. The source also said fullback Mike Zordich suffered a knee injury that could keep him out a couple of days but not an extended period of time. The source added Zordich has looked "great" so far in practices. Zordich missed April's Blue-White game after being cited for underage drinking... Read more of The Daily Collegian’s blogs at psucoilegian.com/blogs. Stefan Choquette junior - integrative arts Joseph C. Korsak Class of 1971 Andrew J. Cassavell Football reporter
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