Thursday, February 21, 1991
Life in a northern
The morale is low my
friends.
Of course it always has
since I've been here.
Behrend students, in
general, are so devoid of
pride for this place, it's a
wonder anyone stays
here.
You can find graffiti
around like "P.S.B.- The
mistake by the lake."
People stroll around with
the feeling that they've
been sentenced here for
one reason or another,
"Hey, whatcha in for?
Grades or S.A.T's?"
"Grades man, but I'm
getting out soon and I'll
be off to State."
In conversation with
people who aren't from
Behrend, future plans to
move to University Park
are quickly mentioned as a
way of redeeming
themselves. If anyone
says that they're spending
four years here, the first
question out of other
person's mouths is
"Why?" -- along with pity
for the other person.
One of the biggest
complaints about Behrend
is that the campus is so
It's easy to figure pro-war students
by Mike Royko
Some people are puzzled by
the pro-war attitude of America's
college students. During the
Vietnam War, students were
among the most zealous
peaceniks.
But now, "support the
president" groups are springing
up on campuses all over the
country. Pro-war rallies are
drawing big, enthusiastic crowds.
Some campus papers carry
articles by students deriding peace
activists as naive, unpatriotic,
sniveling cowards.
So experts are trying to probe
the hearts and minds of these
hard-nosed students to see how
they got that way. And there are
many theories.
Curious myself, I asked Dr.
I.M. Kookie, one of the world's
leading experts on lots of stuff, if
he had any insights.
Could it be, I asked, that this
generation of students could be
trying, even subconsciously, to
make amends for the shabby way
many Vietnam veterans were
treated?
"Anything is' possible," Dr.
Kookie said. "But based on my
clinical research, I would have to
say, nah, no way."
Then could it be that they
small. We pretty much see
the same ugly faces every
day, and it's rare to bump
into someone you've
never seen before. It's
been compared to 13th
grade by a lot of folks.
Socially, unless you've
joined a frat or live real
close by, your weekend is
doomed. Granted,
Bruno's is an attempt by
the school to get non-
Greeks to stick around on
weekends, but Behrend
still tends to be considered
just a branch campus- a
sentence before the trip to
U.P.
I don't think this place
is too jumpin' either.
There isn't even • a
convenience store within
walking distance. At least
the classes are. Walking to
my eight o'clock classes I
often mull over the
advantages of a campus
smaller than my old
neighborhood. I talked to
a friend about morning
classes at U.P. He
laughed and said he can
never walk that far in the
Morning.
A huge bonus, I think,
is that you can actually
have somehow become a genetic
throwback to earlier generations
that were willing to rally 'round
the flag--those who came of age
in the Great Depression and
fought World War 11, and their
younger brothers who quietly
went to Korea, even though they
didn't know where it was?
"That's possible, too," Dr.
Kookie said. "But according to
my studies, forget it."
Then what is behind their
surprising enthusiasm for the
we?
"To understand that, you have
to have a background in mass
psychology, which I do, among
many other subjects. And it is
very hard to explain it in terms
that non-experts can understand."
Yes, but I'll try.
"OK. Then tell me this. What
scares most people more than
anything else?"
Snakes? Or maybe big bugs?
Or footsteps in their roof at
night?
"Yes, those are all scary. But
the thing that scares people the
most is ceasing to be."
Ceasing to be?
"Yes. Or in scientific terms,
croaking."
You mean dying?
"Yeah, you could put it that
way. When somebody is
The Collegian
meet professors. It's
easier to pay attention in a
classroom than in an
auditorium, and it's a
whole lot easier asking
questions. Finding them
after class isn't all that
hard either, what with
their plush trailer-offices
being only a few feet from
the classroom.
John
Einolf
So what now? What do
we do? For most people
you have two years of this
place to deal with, most of
which will be spent
planning weekends at
U.P. or saying that you
can't wait to go to school
there.
A lot of you realize that
the education we're
getting is easier to handle,
so you stay here for the
two years. Others just stay
here because this is where
murdered, it gets in the paper.
But if they are scared by a snake
or a bug, who cares?"
I see your point.
"So let us look back to the
students of the Vietnam era and
what motivated them."
We all know that. They were
MIKE ROYKO
against against the war. They
were appalled by the mass
detruction an waste of life.
"Yeah, some maybe. But
most of them were appalled by
the chance that it was them who
might, to use another scientific
term, be zapped. Remember, we
had a draft."
ghost
they were accepted.
Besides that, though, you
still complain. Think
about it, isn't it sad with
the few people that go to
this school, so many don't
like being here? If
nowhere else accepted
you, quit complaining, at
least you have a chance at
a degree (future).
If you can get
somewhere else, go.
Now, eventually
maybe S.P.C. will get
some excitement brewing
on weekends. There was
rumor that if Bruno's was
a big enough success, an
actual night-club sort of
thing would be built. With
the fact that the average
Behrend student deals
with the weak weekends
at Behrend by getting off
campus, I wish Bruno's
luck.
Maybe with all the
grumblings about this
place things will change.
Maybe if there were fewer
cops breathing down
everyone's necks, people
could loosen up and have
a good time Oti carpus.
Seriously, there are too
many cops trolling
Yes, but those who stayed in
school were deferred.
"Sure, but they couldn't all
stay in school. And they couldn't
all get jobs• teaching in the inner
city schools so they'd be deferred.
That is a hard judgment.
"Maybe. But after the draft
was abolished, most of those
inner-city schoolteachers said:
'Bye, kids, I got to go make a
buck.'"
But what about today's hard
nosed students? How do you
explain their attitudes?
"I thought I explained it.
There is no draft. So except for
the ones who are in reserve
outfits that got called up, there's
no chance that they'll get zapped.
Their lives aren't being disrupted.
They don't have to go teach slum
kids or run away to Canada or do
anything but watch the war on
TV.
"And so far, it's a neat and
clean war, except when CNN
shows some Iraqi kids in
hospitals. And even then, a lot of
people figure that those kids were
hit by Baghdad taxicabs and
Saddam is faking it."
You seem to be saying that if
we still had a draft, their attitude
would be different.
"Yes, that's fair to say. I think
that if we had a draft, instead of
Page 5
town
around. People are afraid
to have parties on campus,
so they party off campus.
Somehow P . S . B .
wonders why no one
wants to be here on
weekends. A change there
seems unlikely, but it's
the only way it could be
worth anyone's while
sticking around here.
I appeal to the whole
system to loosen up, let
people be social on
campus. Police, forget
your quotas, and bust
maybe every other person
instead.
Of course it's crazy to
think that cops will start
turning their heads for the
bettering of Behrend's
social environment, but
realistically that's about
the only way it's going to
happen.
I'm not trying to be
rebellious here or promote
anarchy, I just think living
in a ghost town is a drag.
John Einolf is a second
semester, prelaw major.
His column appears every
other week in Th e
Collegian.
bravely signing petitions saying
they support the troops and
president, and telling TV
reporters that they are a new,
different generation, they would
be having fits of hysteria,
jumping up and down, screaming
and hiding in their closets.
"Sure they support the troops.
Because the troops are there
instead of them. And they
support the president because he
says there won't be a draft. The
day he says he's running short of
warm bodies and is drafting them,
they'll start putting up old Abbie
Hoffman posters."
Do you have any scientific
data to support your theory?
"Sure. Lots of it. You can
check it out yourself."
"Whenever ther is one of these
pro-war campus rallies, and they
strut around saying they support
the prez, and we are fighting for
democracy and stop the spread of
whatzis and the threat of
whoozits, go up to the students
and ask them one question."
What question?
"When are you going to
enlist?"
Mike Royko is a Chicago
based, nationally syndicated
columnist. His column appears
each week in The Collegian.