I Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010
I II 1 Daii. a
Collegian
Elizabeth Murphy
Editor in Chief
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Business Manager
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Decision should be for majority
The State College Plan
ing Commission has
balked at a proposal by
Hemy Sahakian to rezone
a plot of land occupied by
former Kappa Sigma fra
ternity house, 254 E.
Beaver Ave., in order to
erect an apartment com
plex with a commercial
level on the first floor.
The area is currently
zoned for fraternity hous
ing, single family
dwellings, elderly housing,
churches, daycares, com
munity centers, offices,
nursing homes or private
' ' '
:c SI~
CkAffAlT/
Seating discrepancy affects both sides
By Jessica Uzar
Student seating in Beaver
Stadium will always be an
issue of debate.
Students want
whatever is best
for them. A
legitimate claim
because after
all, this is a
school. Without
student ath
letes, there
would not be a
football team.
The athletic department
wants to balance the wants of
students and other stadium
guests mostly returning
alumni while still minding its
underlying goal of making a
profit.
Both sides will never be
happy at once.
Though students will always
want more tickets to be allotted
to them, I think that the amount
of tickets allotted is a fair num
ber. It allows those students who
want to attend the game the
most, purchase tickets for the
game.
Alumni are a very important
part of the crowd and they
deserve a fair chance to get tick
ets. After all, they were once
students here. But what group
is it that is on their feet for the
entire game? Current students.
And who is the loudest group
in the stadium?
Current students.
A stadium full of more alumni
and less current students would
be quite boring.
But what group is there from
the beginning to the end of the
game? Alumni
schools. But given its loca
tion just north of the stu
dent-dense Beaver
Canyon, none of these
other options seem plausi
ble.
Sahakian’s proposal to
convert current student
housing into more student
housing seems to be the
most sensible and eco-
nomically sound plan.
The planning commis
sion and borough council
must remember that they
live in a college town and
they should make deci-
sions based on what’s
And, yes, many students as
well.
But looking up from the field
last game, I noticed that our stu
dent section was not filling up.
In fact, I’m not sure it ever
entirely filled up.
At first, I was a little disap
pointed. But after thinking about
it, I realized that half of those
students were probably too
drunk to attend the game and
the other half were faithful
friends making sure those
drunks got to bed okay.
Is that an excuse for not
attending the game? I don’t
mind really. It was still an early
season game (granted, not an
easy game like we would’ve
liked).
Aren’t we a school known for
our football culture, including
the sometimes heavy tailgating
that is taking place outside?
It is a much better option for
those students too drunk to
function to make their way
home instead of risking an
underage or arrest by entering
the stadium.
Some alumni complain that,
we are not supporting our team.
When it comes down to the
important games, we are all
there. Fbr a white out game, the
student section is filled before
kickoff.
And as a student, I also have
one small complaint. The ticket
enforcers that are located
throughout the student section
go a little overboard.
I entered one game with four
or five friends, and was the only
one to receive q seat ticket that
began the next row. I did not
want to sit in that seat while my
friends are at the other end of
best for* the town and the
majorit y of its residents.
As th e university contin
ues to add more students,
more s tudent housing will
be needed, and more rev
enue c an be made by pro
viding it.
Though the council and
comm unity members fear
the ini,flux of more student
residents in Beaver
Canyon will lead to behav
ioral issues, it is hard to
justify foregoing the opti
mal u:se of the plot simply
as a preventative meas
ure.
EXHAUSTED
the row/ in front of me. No one
asked me to move, but I was
ready to fight if they did.
Some students say they would
like a “free-for-all” ticket system
where they could sit wherever
they like, with whatever friends
they want.
Despite my past experience, I
still know that would be crazi
ness and utter chaos.
So if you want to sit by your
friends, meet up with them
before the game and enter with
them. If you have a friend in a
different class line than you,
then sit in the underclassmen
section. It’s a privilege to sit in
the upperclassmen section,
earned by the students.
It’s a privilege to sit in the
upperclassmen section, earned
by the students (though there is
at least one easy way to get
around it, but I won’t mention
that because I don’t want them
fixing that problem, too).
If students could choose
wherever they wanted to sit, the
lower sections would be crowd
ed and our student section
would look even smaller—not
the impression the number one
student section wants to make
while on TV
Tllough there will always be
discrepancies, I think the ticket
system overall is fair. The major
ity olf fans seem very content on
game day, and we should all
focus on supporting our team
rather than the seat we do it
from.
JessHca Uzar is a junior majoring in
journalism and political science and is
the Daily Collegian's Wednesday
columnist. Her e-mail is
Jlul2s@psu.edu.
The Daily Collegian
LETTERS
Alcohol causes untimely deaths
Just as the epidemic of obesity destroys
lives due to tragic addiction, alcohol contin
ues to destroy lives of many from case to
case. From Joe Dado, to convicted drunken
driver Anthony Torsell (serving time for
vehicular homicide), the power of the bottle
and the consequences of bad choices are
relentless and unforgiving.
No human deserves to die of unnatural
causes. Responsibility is at the core of
every bad choice. In the recent case of
deceased Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick
Adenhart, who was struck by a drunken
driver in April 2009 following his first win as
a Major League pitcher, the man behind
the wheel, Andrew Gallo, was found guilty
of second degree murder of Adenhart and
two others. The reason for the murder con
viction was the fact that Gallo was a repeat
DUI offender.
What is most disturbing is that his
lawyer, Jacqueline Goodman, commented
that his conviction was a “miscarriage of
justice.” She is also on record defending
her client, saying that his bad decision was
attributed to intoxication hindering his
judgment of the possible consequences of
drinking and driving. Both of her state
ments are insensitive, egregious and unin
telligent Explain to the affected families
that we should pass on murder because
alcohol is an acceptable excuse to forego
mature decision making.
To my fellow Penn Staters, do not ruin
your lives in order to get trashed on a
Saturday night. Do the right thing. Be
around the right people and stay responsi
ble. By the way, Andrew Gallo is looking at
50 years in prison for his bad choice. Is it
worth it?
Greed results in empty seats
Since the implementation of paperless
ticketing for football games, there have
been noticeably fewer people in the student
section. On Friday afternoon, just a few
hours before the 5 p.m. sale deadline, there
were more than 150 tickets on sale for $69
and hundreds more for cheaper. And that’s
before the $1.95 processing fee, and the $29
more it would cost to validate a guest ticket
(that’s $99.95 for a guest).
Anyone who has ever been to a non-con
ference preseason game here knows that
there are hundreds of tickets being sold
before the game for equal or less than face
value. No student who knows anything
would waste $70.95 on a ticket when it
would be easy to find one for $4O on game
day.
The face value for a student ticket is $29.
To ask for $6O for a Kent State ticket is just
greedy. As price increases, quantity
decreases. That’s how elastic supply and
demand works. Don’t be greedy Befl your
ticket for $3O or $35 dollars to cover the pro
cessing fee that you paid on your season
tickets. Plus, wouldn’t you rather have
those $35 dollars than the zero you will get
for listing your ticket at $6O and having no
one buy it? Finally, something should be
done with unsold tickets.
Students should be given until midnight
on Friday to “reclaim” their ticket from the
exchange, if they plan to use it. All tickets
left listed should be sold at the door, start
ing at kickoff, for $35, and $2O of that should
go to the student who listed the ticket (min
imum listing price), and the rest can be
claimed as a processing fee. Whatever the
plan, something needs to be done.
Mike Kalserlan
senior-mechanical engineering
Gamers as bad as tailgaters
In response to Diesday’s letter “Ticket
holding students need to tailgate less, sup
port the team,” Andrew Smith confronted
students who chose Vlady and Natty Light
tailgates over the game, but my observa
tion is about the students who did attend
the game.
Predictably, as Temple took the field, the
Penn State student body booed. When the
outcome of the competitive game was
determined, someone thought that break
ing into a chorus of the dated and insipid
“Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye”
chant was a good idea. Forget that it’s a
Penn State letterman who has revived a
team that had been kicked out of a confer
ence for stinking. Then go ahead and
ignore the fact that Coach A 1 Golden’s kids
as well as ours played inspired foot
ball on a beautiful day. Keep booing and
singing stupid songs.
I learned a lot about hospitality, life
and football a few weeks ago in
Tuscaloosa. Adults and students invariably
welcomed us, conversed, invited us to join
them, bought drinks and complimented our
coach and program. That won’t happen
when they visit next year. One student will
sicream at some family with kids. Another
will spill Nacho cheese on one of their fans,
like I saw a drunken kid do to an lowa fan
last year.
With apologies to our courteous students,
which are still the majority, I’m embar-
I'assed already. We’ve always been proud of
the fact that we act as if we’ve seen the end
j tone before.
Poor sportsmanship shouldn’t be an
option. If it continues, just remember to
iremove the “Success with Honor” banners
•after the season.
Lions still have winning record
In response to Monday’s letter “PSU
football not worth the price,” Joseph
Korsak complains about Penn State’s
coaching, saying the program is “out of
touch with mainstream college football”
Since 2005, the Lions are 54-14, including
4-1 in bond games. If this is out of touch,
let’s stay there, please.
Kyle Greenwood
Class of 2001
Robert Biscontlnl
Class of 1974
Paul Levine
Class of 1969