Editorial: The blue and gold

February 7, 2007

In the Jan. 30 issue of Temple News, Temple sophomore John Lamb wrote an article entitled “Why we should be tuning in to TU-TV.” In it, Lamb laments the quality of the Temple television station. He states that the fact that the Temple communications program is one of the best on the East Coast “is a hard pill to swallow when a smaller university in our own city is overshadowing our department.”

That smaller university is none other than La Salle University.

Lamb goes on to note that La Salle is “certainly not as aesthetically pleasing as Temple,” but that the one category that La Salle trumps Temple in is our television station, La Salle 56. The article goes on to explain how Temple could improve its television station by adopting La Salle 56’s system of a 24/7 TV station with student-produced programming.

The troubling part of this article is that the writer felt the need to bash the La Salle campus. La Salle University may not have the lush, rolling hills of Villanova or the grassy knolls that pepper St. Joseph’s campus, but La Salle’s campus is not by far aesthetically unappealing. The fact that this callous comment was slipped in not only boggles the mind but offends the Lasallian in all of us. Without provocation and without context, someone not associated with the school at all decided to knock us down in order to prove an inconsequential point.

To say that La Salle’s main campus is not aesthetically pleasing is nonsense. Not only is the main quad spacious and rife with grass, but on the other side of McShain Hall (which was designed by the same architect who designed the Pentagon, the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington National Airport), the “Bumpy Quad” has an amazing variety of textures, trees, hills and park benches that, once in a while, makes one forget that he or she is in North Philadelphia. At night, when the stadium lights illuminate McCarthy Stadium, a gentle aura fills the sky, giving it a peaceful glow over the trees.

A quick trip across 20th Street leads to the Peale Estate. It was owned by Charles Wilson Peale, one of America’s more revered painters, and is a magnificent sight in the spring, when the vegetation comes alive again. If one should chance to walk along the path behind the Peale House, he or she would come upon La Salle’s Japanese Tea House, a rare and valuable asset to the La Salle community. Students can learn about the Japanese tea ritual there, and even participate in one.

As for the television station, yes, La Salle has an excellent communication program. Not only does La Salle train communication majors in how to use the equipment to create their own productions, but those productions are then broadcast on Comcast cable for the entire Philadelphia area to watch. The shows themselves are rather well-produced, informative and entertaining. La Salle, however, has much more than just a TV station.

Lasallian pride runs deep here, and it hurts when someone takes an unnecessary jab at the school. Instead of feeling defeated, however, we should remember that this university, its campus and its people have many strengths that should always be taken to heart. It is never fair for someone to put our college down without knowing what good La Salle has to offer. Our campus has many points to be proud of, not the least of which is our pleasant aesthetics. From our TV station to the handsomeness of the Peale Estate, from our Japanese Tea House to Wister Woods, the blue and gold should take pride in our brown and green surroundings.