I Monday, Oct. 2: T H K D x I lei 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 culfine. Caitlin Burnham, Paul Casella. Kevin Cinlli. 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 Chns 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. Good to see prevention efforts Citing a decrease in thefts and fights, the State College Police Depart ment has deemed the Neighborhood Enforce ment and Alcohol Team effective in reducing crime in the Highlands neighborhood. Given recent violent incidents in State College, it’s good to see the police being proactive with a program that actually works. NEAT focuses on mak ing “pre-party contacts,” which provides a much needed increase in stu dent-police relations. Election research goes beyond surface By Katie Sullivan I was in sixth grade during the 2000 presidential elec tion. We followed the cam paigns and the controversy in my history class, and in the process we A&jbkf learned the basics about voting and how the govern- MY OPINION ment func tioned. Following election day, my friend came to school and said her mom voted for George W. Bush. When I, a young product of a fairly Democratic family, asked why, her explanation was simple: Bush was way cuter than the frumpy A 1 Gore. Thank you, parental unit, for aiding in the election of one of the greatest presidents of all time. Not. Four years later it was like deja vu when John Kerry's Frankenstein-ish looks lost him the vote of a Pennsylvania house wife. Even at age 12, something about an adult voting based on the politician’s looks irked me. But now, 10 years later, on the brink of my 22nd birthday, I hear of people voting based on ridicu lous criteria. Which politicians' spouse dresses better? Who has the funniest ad campaigns? Enie-meenie-minee-moeing the names in the voting box. The reasons are endless, but no one is less pathetic than the other. This measure attempts to bridge the disconnect between students and law enforcement by establish ing a mutual understand ing of acceptable conduct. The goal is to prevent parties from spiraling out of control. With this pro gram, the police and hosts will already have a rela tionship, if the parties do get out of hand. The consistency of hav ing the same officers patrol the area also helps. If hosts becoming famil iar with the patrolling offi cers cause parties to be less rowdy and violent, ■ CA Mid-term elections are coming up in exactly eight days, and though this is not the presiden tial election, it is no less impor tant. The representatives elected on Nov. 2 will dictate the future of Pennsylvania and the nation for the next four years. Votes should be based on policy, along with economic and social agendas, rather than which candidate looks better in a three-piece suit, or skirt for that matter. Don't know much about the candidates? The remedy to this epidemic of people who vote without candi date criteria is simple: Take 10 minutes each day to look up each congressional, gubernatorial, state legislature and country representative candidate. Research one or two candidates per day. Write down three things you support about their political platform and three things you disagree with. Next Monday, the night before the election, make a decision. Know who you are voting for going into the booth. When you are about to pull the lever or touch the electronic screen, do Vt think about who looked better in their campaign ads, but rather who you actually believe will bring positive change to Centre County. It’s easy. Just yesterday I spent the afternoon in a small room with 15 student editors and one congressional candidate after the other. To prepare for the question and answer session, I went on the candidates’ Web sites and then the NEAT program should be continued and expanded to other prob lem areas. Unlike the previously proposed Nuisance Gath ering Ordinance, which takes effect after the viola tion, the NEAT program encourages preventative measures to avoid vio lence, theft and criminal mischief. With alcohol-related behavior a constant prob lem, the police deserve credit for acting on the issues, rather than simply reacting with strict conse quences. <- *.'rsiVt«v I EARLY RFTIRFMSTT 15 A FRENCH BIRTHRIGHT/ researched their beliefs, sup ported policies and endorsed bills no self-respecting jour nalist wants to look like an uned ucated idiot when speaking with a potential political official. After questions about education, health care and civil rights, the editorial board made its decision about who to endorse. It only took me a few minutes before each candidate arrived to make a relatively informed deci sion about who to lend my sup port. You don’t need to be a journal ist, political activist or news junkie to cast an informed and important vote. You just have to be a United States citizen who cares about the direction this country will go. In a world where everyone’s whining and moaning about the economy, the war, health care and everything else there possi bly is to complain about, this is our chance to get our voices heard through local representa tion. You might have a thing for gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato’s smiling dimples, or you may want to looks deeply into his opponent Tom Corbett’s blue eyes. But please, please, base your vote on something a little deeper than the politician’s exterior. Do a little research and base your vote on the issues. Katie Sullivan Is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Monday Columnist. Her e-mail is kmss424@psu.edu. Lions’ past can’t be forgotten In response to Friday’s letter “PSU foot ball still a business,” has Mr. Herman already forgotten the past five seasons of Penn State football? In that time we have had two Big Ten championships and an 11-2 season. We’ve also won four of five bowl games in that time. So much blame is put on coaching and “conservative” play calling when in reality, play calling has very little to do with success in football. It’s the execution of the called play that makes the difference. The fact is that we have a true freshman quarterback, an injured defense and an offensive line that can’t even get the best half back tandem in the Big Ten going. It’s called a “rebuilding year,” and it happens. If you bought your season tickets because you honestly thought we were going to contend for the Big Ten title this year than you made what the business world would call a “bad invest ment.” The thing that bothered me the most about Mr. Herman’s letter was that he only focused on Joe Pa’s football record and for gets that the players are in college. What about the fact that Joe Patemo has shown incredible interest in higher education. He even donated an unbelievable sum of money to have a library built. How many football coaches can say that? Penn State consis tently has one of the highest graduation rates among its players and that is a direct effect of Joe Paterno’s teachings. Mr. Herman insists that JoePa and the Penn State coaches owe him something when in reality the Penn State community owes JoePa more than he could ever owe the Penn State community. LGBT supporters can do more On Oct. 20,1 showed my support for the LGBTQA community by wearing purple. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that many other students also participated in this sign of support. While I do agree that presenting a united front, albeit through clothing, is effective, I also believe that there are other and more proactive ways to show that we sympathize. For example, if every one of the allies who wore purple on Oct. 20 joined an LGBTQA group on campus, I believe that their out reach to troubled and "at-risk" teenagers would double. Yes, showing support through wearing purple was a way to reflect to the LGBTQA community that you are on their side, but there is so much more that needs to be done. Awareness needs to be spread, harassment needs to be combated and sui cide needs to be erased as an option. I wholeheartedly believe that the tragic end ing to Tyler dementi s young life could have been avoided had he known that there is a tremendous outpouring of support from not only the LGBT community, but also the allies. If by joining one of the LGBTQA groups on campus and expanding their out reach prevents an incident such as Tyler’s on Penn State's campus, ultimately saving a life, why not join? We need to show these individuals that suicide is never the answer and that it gets better, they just need to be here to see it. PER s.icl a' lIA V m; 1964 season good comparison In response to the Oct. 18 article “Mid-sea son turnarounds can be done,” this was an exceptional article. The reporter talked to some outstanding people who weren’t out to just bash the team and the coaches. Regardless of their record, they were win ners, and “heroes” after the way they pulled their season together. They had good things to say about an "unknown” young assistant coach, in whom they still indicate confi dence. The current students should have the opportunity to witness what State College was like after that Ohio State win. It was absolute bedlam and with only half as many students as there are on campus today. Thanks for the excellent reporting. a*# fm A few weeks ago, two drunk Russians followed me home from the metro at night. I told them I couldn’t understand them (though the fact that they were making fun of me transcended the lan guage barrier). One of them kept trying to nudge me against a fence. It was defi nitely one of the scariest moments of my life; I was pretty sure something ter rible was about to happen to me. Luckily, one of the guys ran off io meet his friends. The other guy told me we should wait, but I bolted and luckily I got home safely. I like to think that if they had kept fol lowing me, the militsia who patrol my street would have helped me out, but with a name like “militsia,” they aren’t exactly the most approachable people, and I’m not sure how willing they are to help foreigners. The scariest things about Russia are definitely not its famed mafia (to which, apparently, the old ladies who sell flowers in the metro give their proceeds) or the threat of being kidnapped by a prostitution ring and needing Liam Neeson to save you, or even terrorism. The scariest things about Russia have more to do with adjusting to the issues that make living in a big city like St. Petersburg difficult... Erin Rowley Small World blogger Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucolloglan.com/blogs. The Daily Collegian John Boyle senior-architectural engineering Jordanna Lembo freshman-psychology Bob Casey Class of 1966 SMALL WORLD A scary night
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