I MONDAY, OCT. 1 T D%lll\ 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 der faa, ' 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 etha nol 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 culfine, Caitlin Burnham, Paul Casella, Kevin Drill', 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 Welsher, 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/In person 123 S. Burrowes St. State College, 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. 1, 2010 Rebuilding This season of Penn State football, especially after the worst-ever Homecoming perform ance Joe Paterno has ever coached, can be described as lackluster at best. Suffering from everything from inexperi ence to injury, the Nittany Lions are looking shaky this season. It's safe to say a "rebuilding year" was something almost every one expected with the football team's current lineup. Rebuilding is fine, but there has been little to iMt2l 4 Nobel Peace 'rile RM. A a LIU X iAollo -,---- , --- , ---1 0 - .01 11" I 4.1.1„ • ' PSU streets should be safer for bikers By Katie Sullivan I. 'm a recent convert to bik ing. I used to be a walker a " • ed" and an ineffi cient time- waster who had to leave 10 min utes earlier to walk to class. Now I'm a new woman, one who makes it to class in half MY OPINION the time, who feels the wind through her hair and gets an adrenaline rush whenever someone jaywalks in front of her on road and she has to pull a stunt to avoid a collision. I get to skip the lines for the White Loop and the bottom of my jeans don't get wet on a rainy day. I get to class early, and I can hop on and go quickly between my job, rugby training, THON meetings and my evenings at the Collegian. Yes, in a busy world where I'm trying to milk my senior year of college for all it's worth, the bike seems like the way to go. This new lifestyle does come with a downside crashes. The first month of my new liberty and speed, I escaped unscathed, but last Wednesday I survived my first tumble while cruising down Shortlidge Road. It was slow motion: wheel twists, breaks squeal, I have the "Oh shoot" moment and before you know it I'm over my handlebars and sprawled on the cement. Luckily, it was late at night should mean progress no improvement or progress since the team's loss to Alabama last month. There doesn't seem to be any cohesion on offense, and the defense's pass protection hasn't stepped up either. Understandably, inexpe rience and youth are the football team's greatest hindrances. Many young players are still learning to play college ball. This year is going to be rough, and a young team is going up against a tough Big Ten schedule. But in the future, after playing more ~~~~ yA~' Chinese Dissident fa - 1 Geis.ZPAtt Nobel `ftemsig3 ( NN, ,I )1 ' Nobel fteac e prise ellEt a Ott- ' ~/~ ,y~~i and there was only one other person around to witness my wipeout and humiliation, and even more luckily, the only injury I walked away with was a nasty road rash on my elbow (which seems to be a great con versation starter at parties). Anyway, my crash landing made me realize a few things are important when it comes to biker and pedestrian safety in State College. One: There are not a lot of bikeways on the roads in Happy Valley. Bikes are mixed in either with the cars on the road or the walkers on the sidewalk This is unfortunate because not a lot of people bike fast enough to keep up with traffic, and pedestrians don't find it amusing when peo ple are passing them on bikes, weaving in and out of walkers. If I would have crashed on the street rather than the sidewalk I was going down, I might have been yesterday's road kill. If there were walkers when I wiped out I might have hurled myself into, and hurt, one of IWo: Until someone takes the initiative to build us some bike lanes, bikers should decide whether they want to act as a car on the road or a pedestrian. Pick one and stick with it. Don't ride on the road and then cut into a cross walk when there's a traffic jam on College Ave. Don't cruise down the sidewalk and then decide you want to slip into traffic when there's a bottleneck of students by the Allen St. bus stop. 'bYICSLUXe SPILLS.,. Nok Li Three: Bikers, make yourself visible. Wear bright colors at night or put a light on your bike. That way, you don't have to hear a pedestrian whine when they step out in front of you and claim they couldn't see you. Don't be afraid to let people know you're there, call out "passing" or ring your little bell if you're cool enough to have one. Finally: Peds, RELAX. Bikers are not out to ruin your stroll to class. We are simply trying to fit a little more into our schedule. If you watch out for us, we'll watch out for you. We wouldn't even have to have this discussion if the State College Borough Council and the administration would team up for a bike path that would make State College a little more efficient, safe and bike-friendly. Please, Penn State and down town State College, spare a few pennies and lay down a nice asphalt trail for my new biking friends and me. If and when I wipe out next time (hopefully it will be while doing something heroic like sparing a squirrel's life) it would be nice to know peds and cars won't be in the Until then, I shall do my best to take advantage of my new lifestyle while avoiding peds and wipeouts on my quick journey to class. Katie Sullivan is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian's Monday columnist. Her email is kmss424@psu.edu. and learning their posi tions, we hope to see these young players lead the team to great things. We would all love if the team could pull together to get Paterno his 400th win and a bowl appear ance this season; however, that scenario is slipping away with every loss. With the knowledge that it's a "rebuilding year" for the program, plus a list of key players on the injured list, this outcome is any thing but unexpected. Still, we'll hold on to hope for a little longer. HERE'S LS LITTLE THING '5 NEED cENSoR OE_ , THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Game was a letdown for fans Over the past week, I heard a lot of talk within the Penn State community that the fans needed to make a strong showing against Illinois after the second tough loss of the year to a top-25 team. I did my part, and so did the rest of the student section the atmosphere in the stands was electric throughout the game, even when we were clearly being beaten down by the Illinois running game in the second half. With the score 30-13 and our offense still sputtering, I had seen enough. As I walked out of the student section, another student yelled at me, "Real fans stay for the whole game!" I beg to differ, because a real fan would have been absolutely disgusted with our per formance on Saturday. People who left were merely showing their frustration over the lack of effort and execution on the field, and quite frankly, I don't blame them. We got embarrassed on our home turf, and there is no reason to accept such medioc rity in a football program with such a great tradition. Matthew Krott sophomore-mechanical engineering Team should be embarrassed As a season ticket holder whose parents pay an astronomical amount in out-of-state tuition, I was appalled at Penn State's per formance on Saturday. On national televi sion the past two weeks, Penn State hasn't even been competitive in its first two con ference games of the year. For those 85 Penn State football players who are lucky enough to be on full scholarship this year, they should be embarrassed with the way they have played this season. If this trend of arm tackling, poor coaching and overall unacceptable play continues, I will not be purchasing tickets next year. It's time for both the coaching staff and players to stop taking the fans and their hard earned money for granted. Pathetic effort plagues team How much more pathetic playing do we have to endure? How much more incom prehensible play calling does the university expect us to digest? A few months ago, the administration declared that there would be no White Out games, because we did not have a significant enough home game. How's that for arrogance ? The university invests so much in maintaining the Paterno legacy, without realizing that it is already over. The greatest show in college football? Spare me. Court titles were deserved In regards to Friday's letter "Conflict found in court picks," I think this letter was in poor taste. The court is nominated first by their peers. Any student can nominate another for the court. That being said Florencio's and Larimer's nominations can come from people residing within Homecoming's internal structure or some one outside. I know Dan is the executive vice president for the Interfraternity Council here on this campus and he has a lot of face time with multiple people not only associated with his own fraternity of Zeta Psi, but the entire campus as a whole. Secondly, the court is chosen through an interview process and an application. They had to write a complete description of their activities on this campus and go through a quasi-rigorous interview. If they meet the standards to become a Homecoming court member they will be on the court. They had to go through the same process as every one else who is on that court and saying that favoritism is in play here is ridiculous. Sure they could have some friends in high places, but just realize that when it comes down to the bottom line, they deserved to be on that court for a reason. SNAP, CRACKLE, POP Behind the big screen lan Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson are a screenwriting duo who have been writing together since their college days. The two talked to me about their first major motion picture, "Life as We Know It," starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. Q: How did you two come to meet and start working together? Kristin: We went to Northwestern University in Illinois and lived in the same dorm. lan: We were Radio-TV-Film nerds. We are still nerds, just older nerds. When we both graduated, we knew we wanted to work in film industry, but did n't know exactly how to get into it. I worked for James L. Brooks and Kristin worked as an assistant to Randa Haines. We read a ton, that's how you learn to write, by reading screenplays. We learned to write once we came out to LA. Q: What inspired this movie? lan: The idea for the movie came about because my wife was pregnant with our first child. We were having the conversation, who we leave the baby to if we die. My wife and I had two single friends and my wife suggested that we put them down... Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucolleglan.com/blogs. Carl Nelson junior-finance Joseph C. Korsak, Esq. Class of 1971 Nicholas Geyer senior-meteorology Karina Nicol TV reporter
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