One would like to believe that the purpose of choosing a university campus as a site to deliver a speech is to speak to the students. When the students of the Pennsylvania State University first heard that President Bush would be making an appearance on campus, we became very excited. We were under the impression that the President would be coming to campus to speak to us, the students. Unfortunately, we were mistaken.

The Bush/Quayle campaign publicity agents were obviously looking for a supportive crowd, as any campaign publicity agents would. But we feel that the measures taken to ensure this type of crowd were inappropriate for the chosen location -- a university campus. Supporters across the Commonwealth were given special blue passes which enabled them to gain entry to the fenced-off area closest to our guest speaker. Only a small, elite group of students were privileged to obtain these passes. The average student was forced to take a back seat to this carefully screened group. We became second-class citizens on our own campus.

President Bush delivered an articulate speech, but that speech was obviously not intended for the students. His address included numerous allusions to Penn State football, which gave the illusion that we were indeed its intended recipients. However, a handful of football jokes only thinly disguised the fact that the 25,000 invited guests, and not the vast majority of the student body, comprised the audience for whom the speech was intended.

Perhaps the Bush/Quayle campaign has chosen to disregard the average university student. If this is the case, we'd like to reiterate something that Mr. Paterno shared with us: "If you don't vote, don't gripe."

We vote.