Students must protest borough housing plan

In about seven weeks the State College Borough Council will most likely pass an ordinance limiting new student rental housing in the borough. Under the new plan's provisions, only a certain number of student rental homes will be allowed in a particular area.

This eliminates the possibility of expanding student housing in areas where it is now concentrated. Students will be forced to live farther away from campus or in the outlying townships where buses will be the only transportation to campus.

There are people who certainly will blame the Undergraduate Student Government for failing to effect change in these proposals. Why the blame has not been placed on the shoulders of the organization most responsible for these discriminatory measures -- the State College Borough Council -- is beyond my comprehension.

While these measures are legal, they clearly discriminate against nearly 70 percent of the voting-age citizens residing in the borough -- the students. Isn't it funny that our governing body seems to have little concern for our rights and opinions?

These people are not representative of their constituency. They are little more than a group of grumpy, middle-aged people who seem to want a group of twenty-somethings to live their lives as if they were 60-year-old retirees.

They don't understand what it means to be a student in this town. They don't understand inflated rents, stolen housing deposits, limited parking and empty pockets. They don't understand these issues and they don't care to. They don't care that this plan will result in an inflation in rent payments for students living in town.

All they seem to care about is occasionally we make too much noise, and our houses aren't as pretty as those of "regular" community members. Sorry -- I'm too busy to put time in gardening, and if you move into a neighborhood filled with students you should expect a little noise.

When I was at the last council work session I spoke in the portion of the meeting titled "public hour." While I was speaking, I was interrupted no less than three times by council members. When they addressed me, they spoke in such a condescending tone that my mind was cast back to my elementary school days.

These people could not care less what I had to say, and had little or no respect for me as a community member. Quite frankly, I am embarrassed to live in a town that they control. They are not community leaders, they are petty bureaucrats propagating their own petty agendas and ignoring the concerns of the majority of their constituency.

There is, however, a reason why they feel they can act in this manner with impunity. We don't vote. As long as students don't participate in local elections, we will consistently be viewed as second-class citizens in a community that owes its very existence to the University we attend. That's right -- the Alumni Association is 25 years older than the State College Borough. So, next time a student runs for borough council, vote for that person.

They might not be able to change every unfair rule or ordinance that comes up, but at least our voice will be heard, without interruptions. As this current issue stands, the borough will most likely pass the proposed ordinances. It appears to have unanimous council support. But there will be several public hearings on the issue (as mandated by law) before the final vote.

The first is on March 17 (the Monday we return from spring break). I encourage all to attend this meeting (they are held in the borough building where we pay our parking tickets). Perhaps we can't stop the passage of this unfair and discriminatory policy, but we can raucously oppose its passage publicly at the hearings. I hope many of you will show up and strongly voice disapproval with your local government.

Ed Kilpela
USG Vice President

Concert reviewer buys into metal stereotypes

It seems to me that if the reviewer of the Metallica concert on Sunday finds the sounds of thunderstorms and Metallica unnerving, he shouldn't pay to listen to them. Instead, why not stay in the safe world of quiet and "sunshine"? Perhaps review something a little less "unnerving", maybe the upcoming Phil Collins show or Sesame Street Live?

It is true that Metallica struck The Bryce Jordan Center like a thunderstorm Sunday night, but it could only have been unnerving to the unprepared -- those who went with no previous listening to Metallica and/or without an open mind.

As for James Hetfield's interaction with the crowd that seems to have so offended the reviewer, it should be obvious to anyone that a concert without energy is a pretty pathetic concert. Metallica and Hetfield, already well-known for their ability to work the crowd to a fever pitch, worked their magic again Sunday night, and succeeded with all but one person, it seems, who was obviously above it all.

The review makes a special point of deriding the moment when Hetfield initiated the chant, "We don't give a shit!," despite having already discussed the reason behind the chat earlier in the article. The review quotes someone as saying, "A lot of people have accused them of selling out." Before going into the new material -- the alleged "sell-out" material -- Hetfield proudly stated that the band does not "give a shit" what their critics say. The chant did anything but lower the "brain cell count."

As I was at work around 6 a.m. Monday morning, a police services employee was reading the review at about the same time I did. His conclusion was, "This guy sounds like he's never listened to a Metallica song." Certainly, the common stereotype of heavy metal as loser, white-trash, high school dropout music seems to have been in full swing in Monday's review.

Stop seeing and hearing what the mainstream tells you to see and hear. Open up your eyes and your mind. There is nothing unintelligent about Metallica, and many other heavy metal acts, including Corrosion of Conformity, the opener that was not even mentioned once in the review.

Finally, the comment about the "testosterone" being high in the crowd displays yet another stereotype. Actually, I saw quite a few women that were enthusiastically part of the crowd. Metallica appeals to all elements of society, except closed-minded concert reviewers.

Gabriel R. Davidson
freshman- international politics