THE

CAMPUSSERVING ALLEGHENY COLLEGE SINCE 1876

► O P I N I O NELECTION 2012Pennsylvania Electoral College changes may

PAGE 5

► F E AT U R E SMOVIE REVIEW

-tagion compelling and believable.

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► N E W SINTERNET EXPANDSThe college-wide wireless project reached completion after two years.

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INSIDE

- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 -VOLUME 136, ISSUE 5 WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COM

NEW CLUB ATTRACTS STUDENTSOver 200 people attended the Invisible Chil-dren screening Tuesday. PAGE 3

BAND PROMOTES UNITY-

ability Saturday. PAGE 3

ASG VP quits

Allegheny Student Govern-ment Vice President Mor-gan Schrankel, ’13, resigned. President Keiron Stoddart, ’13, made the announcement at Tuesday’s general meeting.

Stoddart said that she re-signed because of “personal reasons.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision and it’s not something that I came into the position think-ing I’d have to do,” Schrankel

for myself and the organization at this point is for me to step down.”

Just three weeks ago, Schrankel and Stoddart were “optimistic” about developing a long-term strategic plan.

look bad, but at the same time, it was personal and had noth-ing to do with ASG as an orga-nization,” Stoddart said. “I re-spect Morgan for the decision that she made.”

Stoddart alerted the ASG cabinet of Schrankel’s decision on Monday night. He said that it wasn’t much of a secret and that word would spread quickly.

ASG Senator Michael Kilcoyne, ’12, heard about the resignation before the general meeting.

-prise,” he said. “It didn’t appear to me that she was being over-tasked, but obviously being vice president, there’s a lot of responsibilities.”

Schrankel said that she doesn’t think her decision will hinder ASG’s further progress.

“I support [ASG] whole-heartedly from this point for-ward, even though I can’t sup-port it in the way I thought I could,” she said.

According to Stoddart, Tuesday’s meeting continued

-ment was made.

-placement for Schrankel will a while, Stoddart said. Accord-ing to ASG bylaws, the presi-dent must appoint someone for the vacant position. From there, a super-majority, or two-thirds vote, from the senate will determine whether Stod-dart’s selection is appointed.

“I don’t know when we’re going to have someone select-

is going to need to take so long is because it’s a very important decision to make and it’s not something that anyone wants to take lightly.”

US News ranks Allegheny among ‘Up and Coming’

Allegheny climbed US News & World Report’s rankings this year, moving from No. 93 to No. 86 in the “Top 100 Liberal Arts Colleges” rankings and

“Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges nationwide.

Allegheny tied for fourth with Beloit College, in Wiscon-sin, as an institution meeting the criteria for “most promis-ing and innovative changes,” according to the US News & World Report website.

President James Mullen appreciated the acknowledge-ment from the peer assessment survey experts from US News & World Report.

“Allegheny College is a col-lege on the move, and it is grat-ifying to see that ambition rec-ognized by US News & World Report, and also by our peers,” he said.

Dean of Students Joseph DiChristina said this move re-sulted partly from graduation rates.

increased by about 3.5 percent in the last cycle (taken every six years), and it’s one of the pri-mary elements that are judged

in a statistical measurement such as this,” DiChristina said.

For current students knee-deep in work, Amy Hamill, ’14, said the increased ratings may justify Allegheny’s academic rigor.

“I feel the increased rank-ings are a nice thing to know,

for going here, too,” Hamill said.

Clay Grego, ’13, said he be-lieves that Allegheny has a cer-tain reputation that it needs to uphold in order to maintain its academic integrity.

“It’s a very exciting thing

Residence hall councils re-emerge

life revitalized Residence Hall Councils this year in a move to provide students with more opportunities to organize pro-grams and events and build a stronger sense of community.

Although the concept of Residence Hall Councils has been a part of Allegheny Resi-

dence Life for some time, it -

cus or structure.Betsy Scarpaci, area coor-

dinator of Schultz, Brooks and Walker Halls, now oversees the initiative. She said past models failed to function because there

-ing their execution and provid-ing a foundation.

“Last year, I think [Resident Advisors] were just looked at

and told, ‘Hey, I think this is a good idea, why don’t you do this?’” she said. “But they didn’t really know what the purpose of them [RHCs] was.”

For some students that at-tended the Sept. 6 and 7 infor-mation sessions, RHCs were previously unheard of.

Fiona Hensley, ’12, attended

signs about RHCs in Brooks Hall.

JOHN HEIM/THE CAMPUS

G R E E K W E E K

“I heard people talking about how they [hall councils] had been around in the past, but I wasn’t aware of them,” Hensley said.

Hall councils will provide students with the opportunity to establish hall traditions, Scarpaci said. Hulings Hall, for example, was once known for its haunted houses.

More importantly, she said that the councils’ primary

focus is on residents working together to create the optimal living space.

“Each hall council caters to the needs of their hall,” she said. “It’s about allowing students to take ownership of where they live, make it like home.”

She compared the needs of Brooks residents to those liv-ing in North Village. Programs

By SETH BISHOP and ELAINA MERCATORISContributing Writer and News Editorbishops@allegheny.edu, mercate@allegheny.edu

By CHELSEA FLEISCHMANStaff Writerfleiscc@allegheny.edu

By CHELSEA FLEISCHMANStaff Writerfleiscc@allegheny.edu

See RANK | Page 2

See COUNCILS | Page 2

[NEWS]|| September 23, 2011 || The Campus 2 AlleghenyCampus.com

Sept 30th-Oct 1 st

Sept 30 7:00 -8:30pm: GATORPALOOZA CC Lobby 9:00 pm: Bingo: Homecoming Edition CC Lobby October 1 11:00 -1:00pm Tailgator Robertson Field 12:30pm T -shirt Distribution @ Robertson 1:00 pm Gators v. Case Western @ Robertson

Sponsored by ASG & GAP

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CRIME BLOTTER

9/17 - Phi Kappa PsiA female student is being investigated for underage drinking. She was taken to the hospital, treated and re-leased. 9/20 - McKinley’s Dining HallUnknown criminal stole a

unattended.

9/22 - North Main St.A student is being investigat-ed for underage drinking and public drunkenness.

9/21 - Carr HallA computer was stolen from room 107.

News editors: Elaina Mercatoris, Cory Rectenwald || news@alleghenycampus.com

THE CAMPUSwww.alleghenycampus.com

Staff and Contact InformationEditor-in-Chief (Print) : Bridget McCartin

Editor-in-Chief (Web) : Daniel BauerNews Editors:

Elaina MercatorisCory RectenwaldFeatures Editors:Cortney O’BrienColleen Pegher

Opinion Editor:Jessi Schatz

Sports Editor:Charlie Magovern

Photography Editor:Cody Miller

Design Editor:Dana D’Amico

The Campus is printed every Friday during the academic year,

except during breaks and exam periods.The Campus is printed by

The Corry Journal.

To place an advertisement, call (814) 332-5386.Rate sheets are available upon request.

Box 12, Allegheny College,Meadville, PA 16335

E-mail: business@alleghenycampus.comClassifi ed Ads are $.50 per word

(12 word minimun).

Advertising Manager:Cory Rectenwald

Business Manager:Amanda SpadaroWeb Manager:Rachel Giesel

Faculty Advisor:Caley Cook

Allegheny Computing Ser-vices continued its upgrade of the wireless network this semester, connecting the re-mainder of the campus that previously lacked wireless In-ternet access.

“Over the past summer we extended [the network] to the rest of campus,” said Chief In-

mgren. “We think we have coverage of all the residential spaces, all the teaching and learning spaces, and all of the

Wi-Fi extended across entire campusBy SCOTT KEEFERContributing Writerkeefers@allegheny.edu

meeting spaces on campus.”Many of the residence halls,

until this year, required the use of an Ethernet cable to access the Internet. Students no lon-ger need to deal with that in-convenience.

to the network include Allegh-

Schultz and Walker halls as well as the Phi Kappa Psi house and all college-owned houses, said Area Coordinator Betsy Scarpaci.

transforming the network from a wired to wireless in-

frastructure took over two years and cost approximately

included the costs of repairs, access point installations and funds allocated for continued research.

Holmgren and Fadden are

sponse to the changes. “We…have had many less

people having problems get-ting on the wireless network,”

we actually spend helping [stu-dents] has decreased.”

on an Ethernet cable last year

in Schultz, expressed relief at

“It is a wonderful thing to

“I’m glad to see Allegheny Col-lege using the technology.”

Holmgren and Fadden stressed the importance of stu-dents reporting any problems with computers and the net-work, to Computing Services in Murray Hall.

.dias neddaF ”’,eussi eht etalosi“I think we try very hard not to take the easy way out which, would be to say, ‘well, YouTube has a problem.’”

RANK from page 1

COUNCILS from page 1

that I’m happy to be a part of—I’m involved and hope that I have contributed, in part...it’s

eny’s part and something that we deserve,” Grego said.

DiChristina said the rank-

graduates.“It’s really about getting that

name recognition out there further than an 800-mile ra-

where the value of name rec-ognition is for our graduates; it’s during the graduate school interview process and career

process when having that strong academic name reference can

ence.”Increasing the

rankings begins

at Allegheny com-pared to other insti-tutions, DiChristina said.

For example, the Learning Com-

by switching freshmen regis-

in Brooks, a large building that houses students from all class-es, would most likely empha-size social activities.

North Village, however, made up of four distinct build-ings and home to upperclass-men, might focus more on post-college fundamentals that pertain to independent living.

Scarpaci also said that this

“pilot test” so that Residence Life can evaluate the success of the program.

made up of an RA who acts as Residence Hall Council Advi-sor and a chair person elected by their individual hall’s volun-teer participants.

Scarpaci hopes that by the end of this year, the program will be entirely self sustaining, and that by next year, a more elaborately structured student government will exist within each hall council.

Reactions amongst the resi-dence halls have been varied, Scarpaci said.

Ravine and North Village have done well with the idea,

to establish themselves amidst the semester’s initial activity overload, she added.

Gillian Green, ’13, the RHC Advisor for Edwards and Crawford hall councils, held two meetings in each of her corresponding halls thus far,

tration to the summer.Mullen cited the

strategic plan as a large motivator for the national liberal arts college rank-ings.

“As we continue to strengthen our strategic plan, I’m

move even higher,” Mullen said.

two strategic plan initiatives, the col-

lege is working on a new stra-

students.“By embarking on our third

strategic plan, we are bringing back alumni who have con-nections all over the place,” Di-Christina said.

“Ultimately, this turns into networking opportunities, scholarship opportunities, and additional endowments that will enable us to reinvest in the quality that has become Al-legheny.”

“It’s really about getting that name recognition out there further than an 800-mile radius.”

Joe DiChristinaDean of Students

and said that the turnouts have been improving.

“Every time at least one more of my residents comes to a meeting,” she said.

She’s also found that fresh-man, in particular, are taking initiative.

it,” she said. “We even have two co-chairs already who work more closely with me to help facilitate the RHC.”

Green said that the fresh-man in Edwards are trying to plan a sleepover party for next semester, complete with mov-

makeovers. “It would become a tradi-

tion, which is kind of what the RHC is all about: leaving your mark on your community,” she said.

Freshman Jasmine Davis

meeting.“I would like my residence

hall to gain the experience of working together as a team,”

groups, and do our own thing, but this is a chance for us to come together.”

www.AlleghenyCampus.com [Features]3The Campus || September 23, 2011 ||

Above left: Allegheny’s Invisible Children Organization sells merchandise in Schultz Auditorium hoping to get students engaged in their cause for war-torn Uganda. Above right: Over 200 students attended the Invisible Chil-dren Organization’s screenings of in Schultz Tuesday. The club showed “Tony” and “The Rescue,” both of which portray reality of the civil war in Africa.

”

“

- Melissa Robertson, ‘14, founder of Invis-ible Children Organi-zation

One World Tribe, a local band with a World Music fo-cus, will kick-

“Year Of Sus-tainable Com-munities” cel-ebration Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. in Shafer Au-ditorium .

“We think they bring a lot to the party,” said Tim Cooper, direc-tor of Confer-ence & Event

band is a real melting pot. You get a lot out of the music and messages they’ve written throughout the years. We think it’s a great way to kick [the Year of Sustainable Communities]

Communication Arts pro-fessor Ishita Sinha Roy, who helped plan the event, agreed. “Everyone felt that the message was good and that it was about sustainable communities,” Sinha Roy said. “It was a nice transition from global citizen-ship into sustainable commu-nities.”

Global citizenship, which promotes awareness of the

was Allegheny’s featured theme last year.

One World Tribe sends a message of embracing diver-sity, which is why Allegheny decided the band was a good choice.

[in planning Sustainable Com-munity events],” Sinha Roy said. “We needed events that

needed them to be appealing across gen-e r a t i o n a l groups.”

O n e W o r l d Tribe con-sists of 12 mem-bers, most of whom come from the tri-state area, including Ohio, New

York and Western Pennsyl-vania. Band leader Kennedy

World Tribe hopes to reach.“Our music is about the

people that don’t have a voice,”

into community.”-

“I listened to a lot of dif-ferent styles growing up, so I wanted to put it all under one

said.

live show as improvisational. “You never know where

we’re going to wind up going

talent of the musicians allows us to do that.”

Tickets cost $7.50 for adults and $5 for students and chil-dren under 18 and can be purchased online or by calling (814) 332-3101.

By LAUREN LAURUNEContributing Writerlaurunel@allegheny.edu

allegheny.edu

Invisible Children screening draws over 200 spectatorsNew campus club under same name promotes awareness of civil war and abduction of child soldiers in Uganda

By COLLEEN PEGHERAssistant Sports Editorpegherc@allegheny.edu

One World Tribe is a mix of reggae, funk, latin music and World Music. The band has played live performanc-es since 1994.

Band showcases school year theme with message of diversity

In Schultz Banquet Hall Tuesday night, members of the

to watch a viewing hosted by new campus club, Invisible Children Organization.

experience of three young men, whose trip to Africa inspired

the harsh reality of the war, in which Joseph Coney has em-ployed child soldiers, remov-ing them from their homes and forcing them into violence.

Several guest speakers fol-lowed up the documentary many students attended, par-ticularly members of Greek life.

Robertson, ’14, started the -

forts to bring Invisible Chil-dren to campus through ASG.

-spired her and Vice President Leigh Charland, ’13, to request permission for an Invisible

-nal ASG meeting.

from ASG, Robertson believed her job would be easy, but that assumption changed with one phone call.

Invisible Children expected her to hold a screening and with only one available date, so Robertson had to act fast.

She booked the screening

for Sept. 20, and worked to get the word out to various student organizations, particularly Greek life. Originally appre-hensive about the attendance, Robertson was thrilled with the turnout, as were the speakers who came to the event.

“I was relieved and happy to see everything come together,” said Robertson.

“I’ve been stressing out.

200 people. How was I going to do this?”

With the help of Greek life and other students around campus, Robertson and her organization reached their goal of 200.

“One of the roadies came up to me and asked me, ‘How did you do this?’” Robertson said. “Usually for a school our size, they only get about 17 people.”

R o b e r t s o n credits Allegheny students for the success of the event.

“Allegheny students are passionate about things they

get interested in,” Robertson said.

-ing for knowledge. A lot of people have seen this event

before, but they came back to it and that says a lot.”

One student, Dee Carlgren, ‘12, explained how she was af-fected by Tues-

day’s screening.

so compelling and to be able to hear from some-one that grew up in this war truly touched my heart,” said Carl-gren.

several events lined up for the remainder of the

year in its aim to promote aware-ness of the current civil war in Ugan-da.

In their “Dis-place Me” event, they will ask stu-dents to spend a day living in a box, similar to the ex-perience of those

displaced children in Uganda. Robertson also plans to hold a book drive in the near future.

Currently the group is made

“Allegheny stu-dents are passion-ate about things they get interested in....A lot of people have seen this event before, but they came back to it and that says a lot.”

up of 18 people. One member, Kate Cragg, ’13, attributes the club’s success to the documen-taries and their inspirational

founders Robertson and Char-land.

“I know that the group was started and has managed to re-cruit as many people as it has

Cragg. “It made students, like Me-

lissa and Leigh, want to be-come more proactive about the atrocities taking place against children in places like Uganda.

the stories they witnessed and started the group to do any-thing they could to help.”

-ganization holds their meet-

McKinley’s Private Dining room.

Robertson urges anyone who is interested to contact her through email at robertsonm@allegheny.edu.

More information on the national organization can be found at invisblechildren.com.

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS

SaturdayFamily Game Night

There’s nothing wrong with a little family ri-valry. Have fun and compete in board games, brain teasers and cards. The winner not only gets bragging rights, but can take home the game. The competitions run from 10 to 11:30 p.m. in the CC Lobby.

What’s Cookin’ for Family Weekend

SundayTri Delta Pancake Breakfast

Stack as many pan-cakes on your plate as you can at Delta Delta Delta’s annual pancake breakfast held in Schul-tz Hall from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. Flavors include blueberry, chocolate chip and original. Pro-

Children’s Hospital.

FEATURES4Features editor: Cortney O’Brien || features@alleghenycampus.com

Assistant Features editor: Colleen Pegher

|| September 23, 2011 || The Campus AlleghenyCampus.com

Reviewed by ERIN BROWNContributing Writerbrowne@allegheny.edu

I went to see “Conta-

rare, but then again, how bad could any movie with Matt Da-mon be? “Contagion” turned out to be an exceptionally good movie, far from routine Holly-wood style.

Director Steven Soder-bergh brings a devastating vi-ral pandemic to life in a way

resolution, ignores the conven-

prota gonist, and instead fol-lows multiple related plot lines in a more documentary-like

sion of the pandemic from the viewpoints of an interna-tional team of researchers, an

anti-establishment journal-

development and distribution

“Contagion” assembles a truly A-List cast, including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law and Mari-

on Cotillard. Each of these cast members had performances compelling enough to carry the movie on their own, but Winslet’s performance stood out particularly. Her poignant portrayal of Dr. Erin Mears was nothing short of riveting.

ibility through its avoidance of cheap thrills and through its

parison to H1N1 and other past pandemics gives the virus context in viewers’ minds, and the discussion of actual scien-

one scene I took issue with was the autopsy of Paltrow’s char-

tors’ freak-out at the sight of her apparently destroyed brain matter gives the audience a nice thrill, but seeing the top of Beth’s head folded down over her face seemed a bit out of character for the otherwise subtle movie.

“Contagion” is thematically disturbing but not overly ter-

fects society psychologically is perhaps more disturbing than the pandemic itself. Ri-

come commonplace. Everyone takes care of their own, some-times at the expense of others. International politics cause

tension among researchers. Society degrades into turmoil under the fear of disease.

documentary style seems too

new-age feel as the camera pans and focuses in sharply on the common contacts that transmit the disease and then

creating a sense of frustration and confusion in the audience that parallels the feelings of the

sic adds a compelling sense of urgency and suspense through-

silence seem doubly intense because of the contrast.

ing for hand san itizer and feeling a little paranoid about

overall unsure of what to think

I thought about it, the more I saw the art in Soderbergh’s di-

for a new take on a traditional type of thriller and ended up

gion” successfully breaks away

freshingly credible and subtle

worthwhile.

By ELAINA MERCATORISNews Editormercate@allegheny.edu

Now PlayingMovies at Meadville

Drive(12:55, 3:15, 5:30, 7:50, 10:10)

I Don’t Know How She Does It(12:25, 2:25, 5:25, 7:25, 9:35)

Straw Dogs(12:35, 2:55, 5:15, 7:40, 10:05)

The Lion King 3-D(12:05, 2:05, 5:05, 7:05, 9:05)

Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star(1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00)

Contagion(12:20, 2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 9:55)

Warrior(1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 10:00)

The Debt(12:35, 3:05, 5:35, 7:55, 10:20)

Our Idiot Brother(12:55, 2:55, 4:55, 7:05, 9:15)

The Help(1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:15)

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Credible science emerges from film

The fi lm’s pandemic causes characters to descend into violence and theft as the virus affects them both physically and mentally.

starpulse.com

SUDOKU

Diffi culty: easy Source: websudoku.com

‘Tis the season of tomatoes. Growing up, I would help my mom can salsa, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce with bushels of tomatoes from our local farm-er’s market every year.

my brother and I squeezed to-matoes through a tomato press, pushing them down the hole at the top and cranking their insides through the grinder, which separated the desired liquid from the skin.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’d have the time or the tools to can my own salsa during the school year; however, I do have a half hour or less to make a fresh salsa with fresh garden tomatoes.

kinds of tomatoes. I used to-matoes, cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes. Each with

variety adds an extra punch to the salsa.

Since I prefer the look of a chunky salsa, I cut each tomato in half and scooped out the in-sides before dicing it into small squares. If you don’t remove the insides, the salsa will be-come increasingly more runny as it sits in the fridge.

dalia onion into similar sized

you use is entirely up to you. As one who doesn’t really like onions, my opinion is to add no more than one third of the amount of tomatoes.

Next I cut up two fresh ba-nana peppers. Again, this is personal preference—it de-pends on how hot you like your salsa. If you have a fresh jala-peño, that would be delicious, too. Fresh is key, though I’ll admit canned works too.

visited, they brought me bulbs of garlic from our garden. I pressed four large cloves and cut into small pieces.

Lastly, I dumped dried ci-lantro and drizzled lime juice

erything together.It is delicious with tortilla

chips, but don’t forget other possibilities! I topped a quesa-dilla with it for lunch one day. Use it as a topping for a taco salad. It’s even delicious with Garden Salsa SunChips.

Go to the farmer’s market tomorrow at the Market House and buy all of the ingredients! You can even get fresh cilantro. Enjoy!

What You’ll Need

ELAINA MERCATORIS/THE CAMPUSElaina suggests her salsa can be eaten with tortilla chips, taco salad, quesadillas and Garden Salso SunChips.

Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

Plum tomatoes

Vidalia onion

Banana peppers

Jalapeno

Cilantro

www.AlleghenyCampus.com [Opinion]5The Campus || September 23, 2011 ||

Opinon editor: Jessi Schatz || opinion@alleghenycampus.com

The state of Pennsylvania is taking profound steps towards altering the way it chooses its electors for presidential elec-tions.

The plan advocated by Gov-ernor Tom Corbett will have a major impact on the presiden-tial election and on President Obama’s re-election chances.

Governor Corbett and state Senate Majority Leader Domi-nic Pileggi are trying to gath-er support for a system that would award an electoral vote to the winner of the respective congressional districts.

The final two votes would go to the winner of state as a whole.

This system is similar to the one Maine and Nebraska cur-

rently have, except on a much larger scale.

Maine and Nebraska have 9 electoral votes combined com-pared to Pennsylvania’s 20 elec-toral votes.

The decision for Pennsylva-nia to transition to this system benefits Republicans in this state.

However, it would not be nearly as beneficial for Repub-licans if the system were insti-tuted across the country.

For instance, California has 66 times as many people as Wyoming, but only 18 times as many electoral votes.

Many of those electoral votes are located in or around cities, meaning they would most likely go to the Demo-cratic candidate.

The few electoral votes outside of metropolitan areas

would go to the Republican candidate.

John Ziegler from the American Thinker, an online news source, argues that one of the reasons this debate is getting so much attention is due to the fact that Obama will likely get only 10 or fewer votes compared to the 20 he would get otherwise in Pennsylvania, solely because of his victories in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Nate Silver of the New York Times believes that Pennsyl-vania’s proposed system will undermine the integrity of the Electoral College.

But since Maine and Ne-braska make their selections with very little fanfare, it would be hard to see how the addition of one state would challenge the integrity of the system.

Additionally California,

By PAUL ROVEDAFeatured Columnistrovedap@allegheny.edu

According to a College Board press release, the mean score on the SAT Reading exam was 497 for the high school class of 2011.

That’s the lowest score since 1972. Not good.

However, this doesn’t nec-essarily mean that students are not as smart or are not able to read as well as they should. There are other factors at play here.

First of all, there has been a national tendency over the past few years to emphasize math and science in public schools.

With more time devoted to those subjects, it’s natural that scores in read-ing and writing could drop.

Second, the College Board – the company that administers the SAT – gave the exam to a record amount of students in the class of ’11: nearly 1.65 million students.

This group was also the most ethni-cally diverse class ever to take the SAT, due in large part to a great increase in the number of students of Hispanic origin taking the exam.

This statistic gets right to the heart of why lower reading

scores don’t necessarily imply poorer reading skills.

Any test of reading com-prehension is culturally biased in that it must assume that the reader not only understands the language to a great extent, but also is familiar with the culture.

A student who spent most of his life in France but who took English courses through-out school most likely won’t be able to fully comprehend Mark Twain.

Because of the growing di-versity of the exam pool – es-

pecially the grow-ing proportion of children with im-migrant parents and children raised in households that don’t speak Eng-lish primarily – the assumptions con-cerning the lower scores on the SAT reading exam are becoming less and less justified.

There is anoth-er, more worrying statistic about the SATs, however: The College Board lists a total score of 1550 (out of a pos-sible 2400) as the

College and Career Readiness Bench-mark.

S t a t i s t i c a l l y speaking, a 1550 indicates that a student has a 65 percent chance of achieving a B- aver-age or higher in freshman year.

Ready for the bad news?

Texas and New York would be-come somewhat relevant un-der the new system.

One may argue that Penn-sylvania isn’t a good compari-son to Nebraska or Maine be-cause it is a lot larger, but with such an uneven demographic distribution (Philadelphia/Pittsburgh and everything else) the new system is much more representative of the entire state.

In a comment left by John Murdoch on David Weigel’s article “Pennsylvania Ponders Bold Democrat-Screwing Elec-toral Plan” on Slate.com, he ar-gues that Pennsylvania is just a media battle with candidates fighting for airtime mainly in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Candidates make rare ap-pearances elsewhere in the state and then head north to

Republicans anticipate electoral changesNew possibilities for Pennsylvania’s voting system could benefit conservatives in rural areas

New York. It’s easy to foresee, as Wei-

gel did, that with the new rules candidates will now have to devote some attention to areas such as Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Johnstown.

Murdoch argues that this new plan has two benefits.

First, every voter in Penn-sylvania gets the attention that voters in New Hampshire and Iowa get in the primaries.

Secondly, the flash-in-the-pan media darlings (such as Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama) can’t simply launch their campaigns from TV.

The candidate will have to actually tour the state and sit down with the people who normally wouldn’t get the at-tention otherwise.

In the current system, cer-tain areas are far too privileged.

I remember standing in the room with Mike Kelly’s victory party in 2010.

Much of the room was standing anxiously, waiting for the results to come in from Philadelphia for the Corbett/Onorato race.

It’s inconceivable that one race relies heavily on a specific geographic location.

With the new proposed plan, the whole state will come into play.

The new system now makes the whole state relevant not only to the vote but also to the candidate, as he or she will have to actively campaign across the state instead of just the highly populated areas.

Lower SAT reading scores indicate flaws in American education system

By ALEXANDER LANGGuest Columnistlanga2@allegheny.edu

In 2011, only 43 percent of college-bound seniors got a score of 1550 or higher.

That means that 57 percent of the current freshman class, nationally, will get a C+ average at best.

Again, not good. This fact doesn’t

mean we are getting dumber.

It doesn’t even necessarily mean that college perfor-mance is going to go in the tank.

The SAT mea-sures what you know.

Period. There is no doubt

that the scores are bad and getting worse, and some-thing needs to be done about that.

It’s indicative of the problems of our education system as a whole.

However, anybody who has been to college for more than a week knows that what you know is far from the most important indicator of how well you will do in college.

In my mind, the most im-portant things we need to test for college readiness are how well we can learn new things and how hard we are willing to work to learn them. What a student already knows is truly secondary to these.

The makers of the test them-selves say that, for individual high-stakes decisions such as college entrance, SAT scores

The SAT was first used in 1926 and has been utilized by colleges to determine scholastic achievement. ALBERTOGP 123/CREATIVE COMMONS

In my mind, the most important things we need to test for college readiness are how well we can learn new things and how hard we are willing to work to learn them.

“

”--Alexander Lang ’14

should be considered alongside grades and other factors.

As of now, I’m unaware of any standardized test that can measuresthese other factors.

And maybe a test isn’t the way to do it.

We need to get past our predi-lection for quan-tifying abstract concepts such as intelligence or college readiness.

To me, it isn’t even something that can be quan-tified.

Think about it. Does it really

seem reasonable to claim that you can mathemati-cally figure out how well some-body will be able

to understand Robert Frost?

Of course not. Even the mak-

ers of the SAT say that, for in-dividual high-stakes decisions such as college admission, SAT scores should always be used alongside grades and other fac-tors.

There’s no doubt that the SAT is a good test of some of a students’ attributes, but it ig-nores other far more important ones.

Because of the growing diversity of the exam pool, the assumptions concerning the lower scores on the SAT reading exam are becoming less and less justified.

“

”--Alexander Lang, ’14

Current standardized tests inadequate for determining college readiness

The Campus Asks...What changes would you make to the SAT?

“Different prompts for the writing section.”

“I’m just not a fan of standard-ized testing.”

“Cut out the writing section.”

“I think the SAT is the best way to determine educa-tional prowess.”

--Allison Fox, ’15

--Braden Licastro, ’14

--Travis Wilkins, ’12

--Joseph Pierce, ’14