Changing key

Increase in concert diversity step toward learning outside classroom

It's more than a concert.

It's a step in the right direction.

After 311, Phish and Aerosmith livened up The Bryce Jordan Center, it is finally time that by booking a hip-hop concert such as Mary J. Blige and Usher, the people who organize concerts at the University recognize the fact that the student body has a variety of musical interests besides rock.

Whereas in the past, these concerts such as The Fugees and A Tribe Called Quest have had to play in Rec Hall, it is finally time that a R&B artist is given an opportunity to play in a large venue at the University.

"By doing so, you will inform the music powers that be that these concerts have a place at Penn State, too."

The Bryce Jordan Center offers an opportunity for many students to enjoy an experience in which they can be enlightened to the experiences of other cultures around them.

While it may not be as "profitable" to have the concert in the Center, many students should come out and support this move. By doing so, you will inform the music powers that be that these concerts have a place at Penn State, too.

It should be the goal of the University to have more diverse opinions coming together not only in the classroom, but also in the arts and extra curricular activities as well. Although the University may try to bring in speakers from diverse communities, encourage study-abroad programs and promote the study of foreign languages, it is just as important, if not more important, to give students the same opportunities in an environment where students can truly learn.

Indeed, sometimes the highest caliber of learning can take place outside of a classroom and in our daily lives.

All too often, University events and meetings are focused more toward the majority, while ignoring the minority.

Hopefully, this can have a chain reaction and allow a forum for the expression of different ideas and perceptions about the society in which we live.

It would be a great travesty for the University to continue to support events that do not reach out to the whole campus and community population.

Such thinking is not only narrow minded, but naive as well.

Thus, by recognizing the student body contains students of many different interests, students can truly be enriched, which is something that higher learning should entail.

That's the 411.