I Monday, Dec. 6, TII I- Dai i. y 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 dent . 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 Ciriili, Beth Ann Downey. Amanda Elser, Ash ley Gold, Stephen Hennessey. Allison Jackovitz, Andrew Met calf, 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 mall/ln 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 im of their groups. The rilegian reserves the right to edit letters. The Collegian cannot guaran tee puolication 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. Creative protests spark interest On Thursday, members of the environmental awareness group Eco- Action stood in front of the HUB-Robeson Center with their pants down, and said they were more embarrassed about the university’s use of coal energy than they were to be exposed. Despite the cold tem peratures on Thursday, the group drew a lot of attention from students. This was a flashy way to get their message across, but we think it was both effective and relatively non-offensive. WP PLANNED To 'SPEND TUE VjoL\DAVS m TUE UoLV LAND.E3IJT 'NI'TW ALL "TOE TERRORISM 'ME DEEDED oh PISNEVWWD... - Balance career goals with By Katie Sullivan It’s my last column of the semester, so I feel the pres sure and urge to write something pro found. My goal is to change your life in about 700 words Well, maybe not change your life, but at least get you thinking about things. Perspective. That's what I’m aiming for. MY OPINION Maybe this can be exemplified through a quote I heard when I listened to a session on campus by Rita Golden Gelman, author and nomadic world traveler. “I move through the world without a plan, guided by instinct, con tacting through trust and con stantly watching for serendipi tous opportunities,” she said in her speech. When I heard these words, followed by stories of this amaz ing woman’s journey of passion and adventure around the world, it was like something inside of me clicked. It no longer seemed to matter what I did with my life, because if all else failed I could sell all of my worldly possessions and live in Malavsia for four years, just like Rita. But like most good things, the euphoria of the words wore off when I walked into the Collegian office and a prospective news adviser starte d giving us advice on job searches in a crunched economy. Inunediately, I reverted back to the young woman who was Eco-Action should be commended for its ability to balance creative, engaging protests with actual discussion and ini tiatives with administra tion, as shown by their meetings with Graham Spanier earlier this semester. This protest was a good way to bring students’ attention toward environ mental issues before the winter break. However, we think that Eco-Action could have also employed other methods to educate other students about their caus- terrified of getting a job and entering a world where learning is no longer my focus, but rather making enough money to pay off my school loans. Enter into the realm of taxes and bills, obligations and the “American dream.” How could I move through life without a plan? Sure, it’s easy for Rita, she doesn’t have bills to pay. She probably has a nice, fat alimony check funding her exot ic lifestyle, I thought. How could I rely on my own instincts when I can’t even decide what I want to do with my life? I usually have pretty good judgement about people and situations, which is what makes me a journalist. Take that judgement with a grain of salt: I went into a “dying profes sional field” that makes beans for pay. How can I trust anyone, save my inner circle, when my peers would kill for a position or job and sacrifice everything to be on top? Then, I caught myself. I caught myself and immedi ately knew how flawed my thought process was when I remembered the last part of her quote, about “serendipitous opportunities” and such. How could I possibly run into any “serendipitous opportunities” if I lived a life full of militantly strict plans for the future and in fear of trusting my peers? Let’s bring the idea of per spective into the equation now. Realistically, I wouldn’t want to dr p my entire life to move to India and live an “eat, pray, love” kind of life. I want to have a job in journal ism, and I want to own a home es. Perhaps a more effec tive form of protest would have pertained more to the actual issue at hand use of coal energy at Penn State and its nega tive effects, and why an alternative method would be better. It’s not entirety certain whether this pants-drop ping protest will change the way the majority of students at Penn State feel about the university’s use of coal energy. But grabbing the atten tion of such a large stu dent body is a commend able effort. HEY? WHEN is SOMEONE (50NNAC1IT IKIMNS? -A . rVML.Y SY£ serendipity and have a family someday. But I want to do all of those things while still embracing the “serendipitous moments” that life presents, even in my every day routine of paying off loans and making sure I have enough money to keep my heat going. I want to embrace new people and experiences and keep an open mind about everything. Pay attention to life outside Happy Valley. Know what’s going on in the world so I can be a part of making it better. Take an extra vacation to an unknown destination every year. Never say no to a reasonable invita tion. Tf-ust a person until they give me a reason not to trust them. Find a way to share what I have and what I know with someone else. These are the little things that brings the teachings of a female nomad to an average college girl looking to make her way in the world. I may not be roaming around the jungles of a far away land, and I may not have the courage to give up my worldly posses sions for a life of complete sim plicity, but I have taken Rita’s words to heart. I will live my life embracing the fact that “serendipitous opportunity” is part of the mix, and I can’t plan everything for the future. I can only know for sure what I stand for and how I interact with all those around me. There you have it perspec tive. Katie Sullivan is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Monday columnist. Her e-mail is kmss424@psu.edu. The Daily Collegian Sexes hold different interests While there were several good points made in Friday’s article, “PSU addresses disparities,” one of the main focuses of the article the number of tenured men and women should not be the basis for deter mining equality. There are interest dispari ties between genders that lead to a numeri cal equality in some positions to be unrea sonable. This seems to be overlooked in most situations. If there were 100 positions available in a field, and 150 men and 100 identically qualified women applied for those positions, the equal outcome would be that 60 men and 40 women get positions. However, an outside eye could see that the system was biased towards men. The truth is that men and women cannot have identical lives. Men do not have to leave work to give birth, and generally women are the primary caregivers for children. That leads to a higher number of men in the workforce. If every profession expected an equal number of male and female employees, then any male would be disad vantaged compared to an equally qualified female. Similar disparities can be seen in athletics. Title IX requires equal funding for men and women in sports. While that would look to create equality, consider this: Dave and Diane come from equal backgrounds. Both take up rowing in high school and have similar success. Both hope to row in college. However, there is no men's NCAA rowing championship. That exists only for women, created in 1997 to help schools reach Title EX requirements. Is this equality? Ask Dave. Mike Kaiserian senior-mechanical engineering SNAP, CRACKLE, POP Tweets give taste of tour life Being a huge fan of the Vans Warped tour, I follow a lot of bands that have played it on Twitter. Usually, these bands tweet nothing more than mindless drivel or when they're eating Chipolte. But this past Thursday. I was riveted when many shared in the #tourstories trending topic, as bands reflected on the crazy situations they managed to get them selves into while on tour. The tweets ranged from the eventful: Brian Dales - lead singer for The Summer Set i" brianlogandales Crashed a wedding at our hotel in Cincinnati with Pretty Ricky and A Rocket To The Moon. The groom opened a bar tab for us. #tourstories George Ciukurescu Valencia (« georgevalencia " valenciashane and «< Valenciajd saved a family from a flipped over car during a blizzard on 1-80 #tourstories To the raunchy Jeffree Star a JeffreeStar I hooked up with half of warped tour, my mom wasn't too happy about that #tourstories To the really raunchy: bassist for Every Matt Black - Avenue a EAMatt: the singer of my old band shaved a dogs balls for $5O for gas. #tourstories Nick Cocozzella of KOI Paradise ci Kill Paradise Took a piss in a cup. Tried to toss it out the window, but the window was not open, pee everywhere. #tourstories Then the world caught on and the hash tag was dominated by people who had only attended tours, not played on them. This made the Warped tour vets angry: Tiffany Mink Barratt - former Warped Tour pit reporter ci minkus If you haven't been on tour, you're not allowed to use #tourstories. Shooting a show for your school news paper doesn't count doll. «i minkus (and sleeping with a guy then passing out on his tour bus also aren't #tourstories. More like #whorestories). Whether you thought this was hilari ous (like me) or just way too much information, you can't deny that it's a prime example of how social media is breaking down barriers between musi cians and their fans. Christmas shows ease mind It’s only a matter of days before win ter break is here for Penn State stu dents, and finals crunch-time will undoubtedly bring on a great deal of Though writing papers, working on projects and studying for finals is cru cial, everyone needs to unwind at some point in the day to maintain sanity. TV junkies can rejoice at this time of year when Christmas movies abound nearly every day on multiple channels. ABC Family is known for being gener ous during the holiday season with their month-long movie series, the 25 Days of Christmas. By visiting chiiT.com, one can see the channel offers a mix of clas sic and more modern Christmas movies: The Nightmare Before Christmas (Dec. 4), Jack Frost (Dee. 6), Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and the Hand of Misfit Toys (Dec. 6)... Erika Spicer Arts candidate Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucollegian.com/blogs. guitarist for Beth Ann Downey Opinion page editor
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