I Tuesday, Dec,
Till D\i i. \
Collegian
Elizabeth Murphy
Editor in Chief
Kelsey Thompson
Business Manager
About the Collegian: The
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rial opinion is determined by
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the editor holding final
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and columns expressed on
the editorial pages are not
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ers of The Daily Collegian
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Allison Jackovitz. Andrew Met
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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.
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Equality efforts must see results
Facing the issue of gen
der inequality among uni
versity employees, Penn
State has dealt with the
issue effectively and
quickly something that
should continue in the
future.
The university released
a report finding that a
higher percentage of men
earned tenure in a seven
year period than women.
Penn State’s Commission
for Women also found that
a. °
- —..
Classic still teaches ‘Wonderful’ lessons
By Michael Oplinger
I spent my Friday night
attending the School of
Theatre's production of
■‘lt's a
Si
i- nfilMnlr''
Wonderful
Life," which
benefited
THON,
The cast and
crew brilliantly
tackled the
daunting task of
adapting one of
the best movies
MY OPINION
ever made to the stage, while
still evoking the powerful emo
tions of the storyline.
They accomplished this by
sticking mostly to the lines writ
ten in the script of the movie,
differing only in a few places,
including a very noticeable line
addition.
“Who would have thought you
couldn’t trust the American
banking system?" one character
said about the financial crisis
that took place during the story.
The line drew uncomfortable
laughter from the sold-out
crowd, who very clearly under
stood the film's impact nearly 60
years after it was made.
"It’s a Wonderful Life" is
rightly called a timeless classic,
as its lessons of being good to
others while remaining selfless
continue to be relevant today.
In a world where bailed-out
bank executives take home huge
bonuses and corporations con
tinue to make large profits while
many remain unemployed,
George Bailey’s tale could be a
lesson to all of us.
George, like his father Peter
before him, continually foiled the
plans of Mr. Potter, the greedy
businessman who practiced the
harshest form of capitalism and
desired a monopoly over all of
fictional Bedford Palls, NY
Potter accused Peter Bailey of
being a man of high ideals
only 17 percent of profes
sors at Penn State were
women a shockingly
low statistic.
While the trend is pres- ing to the requests,
ent at a national level, the including adding more
fact that Penn State has daycare options, but there
these commissions shows is still much more to be
that it is making an effort done. Penn State must
to treat its employees continue to stay ahead of
equally. the curve by frequently
However, any effort doing studies to deter
made by the university to mine which strategies are
reverse this national working and respond
trend’s hold on Penn State accordingly.
instead of a good businessman
because he provided people with
houses for below market value.
But why do the two have to be
mutually exclusive?
People like the Baileys seem
to be just what the world needs
right now. George and his father
prove that it’s possible to be
both a good businessman and a
humanitarian. The Baileys only
made a minimum profit on their
transactions, opting for the
lower prices to allow for the
community to live in decent
homes.
The Baileys viewed their cus
tomers as actual people instead
of dollar signs, humans instead
of pawns in a game to get rich.
When people went through
rough patches and couldn’t
make that month's loan pay
ment, they weren’t foreclosed
described “It’s a Wonderful Life
as a story about a community
where people felt the power of
good was much greater than
understood families couldn’t individual satisfactions.
Yet today we almost seem
conditioned to ignore what fore
closure really means. George
simply be thrown out on the
street. He trusted people and
they repaid him a quality that
seems to be lacking in the cur
rent climate.
The Baileys made money
from their business without pur
suing maximum profits and
never got extremely wealthy. In
today's world, such an approach
would probably be denounced as
socialism.
But really, the Bailey's were
just running their business with
the needs and struggles of their
customers in mind, a trait
observed by many small busi
nesses and something large cor
porations could benefit from
today.
Potter said George’s kind
heart and modest capitalist
approach would cause “a dis
contented, la2y rabble instead of
a thrifty, working class. And all
because a few starry-eyed
dreamers like Peter Bailey stir
means nothing without
results.
The university rightly
acted quickly in respond-
them up and fill their heads with
a lot of impossible ideas."
This argument is often heard
currently as to why labor and
service workers don't earn more
money. The argument goes that
giving them more money would
somehow reward them for a
perceived laziness.
Obviously some people are
going to earn and deserve more
money. But that's no reason
that all can't have a decent life
with satisfactory basic necessi
ties.
George used strong morals to
protect his small business while
shirking the big business greed
of Mr. Potter, fostering a strong
sense of community between
customers who were able to live
in acceptable homes.
Before the play, director and
producer Laura Matey
It’s a feeling most of us expe
rience in the Bryce Jordan
Center during THON.
It would be nice to feel it in all
aspects of our lives.
George had faith in people
and his community faith that
was rewarded in the movie's
powerful final scene. We could
use more of that attitude today.
Since the movie was released
in 1946, times have changed yet
remained the same and
George's story may provide
answers to today’s struggles.
NBC airs “It’s a Wonderful
Life" this Saturday. Take a study
break to see the movie's lessons
and hopefully, find that little
piece of George Bailey in every
one of us
Michael Oplinger is a senior majoring
in media studies and political science
and is The Daily Collegian's Tuesday
columnist. His e-mail is
mjoso7l@psu.edu.
The Daily Collegian
Workin’ on the web
It's not easy maintaining a site like
the Collegians. I honestly get whiplash
sometimes when I think about the
amount of content I am responsible for
overseeing on a daily basis. It takes a lot
of hands each night to design the lay
outs you see each morning. A number
of people look over and approve our
plans before they get posted to the web
site.
First, during our budget meetings
when we lay out the paper, the home
page is also designed. We customize
these for each day, picking the most
important and interesting content to
make sure that the site's'visitors get the
news that means the most to them and
affects them the most.
We also design the homepage based
around multimedia we want to direct
our visitors to. Obviously, you can't run
a video or a slideshow in the paper, but
the website is perfect platform for
unique content that can't work in a print
platform. Many of our stories have, at
the least, a photo gallery or slideshow,
and some feature custom designed
interactive to present the story in a fun
creative wav.
The sports and arts pages are also
customized. The sports page gets a new
design every day designed by the sports
editor at their budget meeting.
Generally, sports is underrepresented
on the homepage, so we try our best to
present sports stories on their own
page to represent the biggest and most
important games and features that the
staff has to offer.
The arts page is only updated twice a
week to highlight the staff's special sec
tions —■ Arts in Review and Venues.
Both of the online managers spend a
lot of time gathering media and posting
stories so that w e have everything we
need, both for a successful layout and to
make our w ebsite as dvnamie as possi
ble...
Fat as a food group
I'm living in one of the world's most
beautiful, interesting cities, so you'd
think there’d be a lot for my American
comrades and I to talk about.
But after more than three months
here, the topic of what sort of crazy
foods our host moms are feeding us still
comes up constantly.
From applesauce on toast, to ketchup
on pasta, to barlev in a bowl and sand
wiches made up ot one piece of bread
covered with raw fish I've developed
a lot of strange eating habits here.
Some of my favorite Russian foods
are borsht. which is a traditional
Russian soup made oi beets; pelmcni,
which are similar to wontons: and blini,
which are thin pancakes similar to
crepes. St. Petersburg has a last food
place called Teremok. which has quickly
become a favorite spot of mine. It spe
cializes in blini stuffed with various fill
ings -- the apple and caramel blinis are
mv favorites.
But aside from these delicacies, there
are definitely some tilings about
Russian food that I'm not too fond of.
The main one being that almost evety
thing I cat has a large amount of fat on
it. Whether it's a big chunk of butter in
my kasha i oat meal > or a large dollop of
sour cream in my borsht. my diet here
is extremely high in fat. I once got a
containt r of liquid caramel with my
breakfast, which, tty as I might. I just
could not bring myselt to eat.
Salads haven't escaped this fate. 1
haven't had a real salad 'real meaning a
dish that contains tomatoes, lettuce and
other vegetablesi since August.
Here, the only kind of salad I ever get
is a vegetable smothered in mayon
naise..
Big Ten representin’
The Big Ten tied a conference record
by sending eight teams to this year's
NCAA tournament.
And through the first two rounds. Big
Ten teams did not disappoint, establish
ing their a reputation as one of the most
talented conferences in the country this
season.
Of the l(i teams left in the tourna
ment. six are from the Big Ten. In com
parison. the Pac-10 has the second-mosi
representatives left, with four teams
still in play.
Here's a look at where each Big Ten
team stands when the Sweet Sixteen
kicks off this weekend:
Purdue, the tournament's No. 1(>
overall seed, has the toughest challenge
of any Big Ten team this weekend. The
Boilermakers will square off with No. l
Florida on Friday night. The Gators
have a 29-1 overall record so far this
season. Their only defeat? A loss to
Penn State on Sept. 10.
The Fighting Illini have one of Hu
more intriguing Sweet Sixteen
matchups. They'll face Texas on t In-
Longhorns’ home court. Texas has only
one loss at Gregory Gym this year ii
was to Illinois, back on Sept. :i.
Volleyball reporters
Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at
psucollegian.com/blogs
Paige Minemyer
Online manager
Erin Rowley
.-.oriel blogger