Page 4- The Behrend college C 7egian Thursday, February /3. /997 e . • Student Activity Fee by Colleen Fromkneclit Colic gian Staff On Thursday evening, February 6, 1997 there was a meeting held to determine the disbursement of the Student Activity Funds. Bchrend has approximately $160,000 to spend which comes from the fee students pay each semester. The committee denied a Collegian reporter access to the meeting. The reporter was told that it would not be appropriate for the Collegian to be present at the meeting because it was "a preliminary" discussion of how to disburse these funds. WHOA NELLIE!!! Something is wrong with this picture. We pay a $25 Student Activity Fee each semester and as far as I'm concerned, no time is inappropriate to discover where our money is going to be spent. I have been asking around since the fee has been in effect and I still haven't been given a straight answer to the question, "WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?" Oy vey! There's a new student organ i za tion by Jason Simmons Collegian Staff The ISO has intense, bold plans for this western religion, but is also a culture and Hebrew, cooking Jewish dishes, and semester. We would like to show ,a way of life. There is a lot to learn about discussing the meaning of Jewish laws , The Sea of Reeds has parted to let the Schindler's List and follow the movie with Judaism without one having to engage in and customs. JSO can even teach you Jewish Student Organization onto the a discussion by a guest rabbi. JSO will Jewish practices. JSO values education how to speak and understand Yiddish above religion, and therefore encourages slang, including words such as shtick, promised land of Penn State-Behrend. have a table at MCC's cultural fair where Actually, that is not true. The much one can taste unique Jewish ethnic foods. non-Jews to attend meetings and join the shlep and the ever so popular "Oy vey,", I polluted Lake Erie has parted to let the JSO will also celebrate Jewish holidays by organization. Signs will be posted for ISO meetings. Jewish Student Organization onto the observing cultural traditions w hi c h The JSO wants to promote awareness of Attend a meeting. We will enlighten your snow covered arctic wasteland of western includes a home cooked Passover Seder. Judaism and participation in learning mind. Pennsylvania. The ISO was formed on The JSO is open to all students about Jewish culture. Most students on campus this semester so now people have regardless of ethnicity and religion since this campus know little about Judaism. It a place to frolic with talking bagels and the ISO is not a primarily religious is a unique, fun culture to learn about. to (Of of come, I can h e ar them. lam organization. Judaism is not on ly a ISO can educate people by teaching Jetwish, so there) • . GOT A GRIPE?I, Let us know about it! You can mail submissions and letters to the editor to the office 1 anytime or email them to the I _editors at bumperl4s2@aol.com ___ _ The meeting should not only he open to the Collegian, but also to any other student who is interested in where the money is being spent. I know that means only about ten students on campus will even give a fig about this, but it really bothers me that some members of the committee are tip-toeing around and acting squirrety. To be fair, some members of the committee did not want to deny the Collegian access to the meeting. I find it very interesting that those members who did not want the Collegian to attend were staff members. Could it be the people who object to a public meeting have a vested interest in where the money will he spent? It seems objections were raised because .members felt what they would say in the meeting would he "misconstrued" by the reporter. These members must think like lunatics. By denying the Collegian admittance to the meeting their actions arc definitely being misconstrued, at least by me. (It would Two thumbs down to by John Amorose Collegian Staff A young man blamed the Marilyn Manson video "Sweet Dreams" as his inspiration for buying a gun and killing his friend's mother. A young boy burns his house to the ground after hearing Beavis say the word fire over and over again. Episodes such as these are a common occurrence in today's society. But who is to blame here? The artist responsible for these works? The parents? Dare I say, the actual kids involved? The government tries its hardest to answer this question for us. One year it is irresponsible parents not monitoring what their kids watch, the next it is Hollywood with their lack , )f morals. In my opinion, who cares! Violence is a part of everyone's life, and there is nothing ANYONE is going to do about it. Not that there have not been a couple less than valiant attempts at solving the problem. The "V" chip was to solve the world's problems. This revolutionary device could be attached to your television set, allowing parents to block out certain channels which they find inappropriate for their children to watch. Sounds great, right? Wrong! First of all, how many channels play nothing but offensive programming twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to require a complete block out? With the exception of a select few that parents should not have ordered anyway, I cannot think of any channels which do this. Which brings me to another point, what is offensive? Murder? Drugs? Sex? Well, Opinion have been a whole lot smarter to let the reporter attend the meeting and then bore him to death with all the junk these meetings usually contain!) I'll be the first to admit I have a healthy streak of paranoia, especially where bureaucracies are concerned. THIS STINKS! There's something funny going on here. If there's nothing to hide, why are these people hiding? Every semester at the beginning of each class we are handed a syllabus which states the teacher's policy concerning academic integrity. It is proper for the University to clearly lay out the policy concerning students who cheat. What the committee members did last Thursday was wrong. The people who recommended the reporter be denied access to a meeting which concerns the disbursement of students' money used poor judgment and I believe their actions were unethical. I don't know about you, but I don't want anyone with cheesy ethics, or had judgment for that matter, playing with our money. Straighten up, people. I will he watching you. I guess you would have to block out all news related shows, which use topics such as these as headlines. I know what some of you are thinking, movies and television glorify violence. Hey, have you ever heard of Charles Manson, Jeffery Dahmer or Jack the Ripper? We do not need movies to glorify violence; the news media does it for us. What is worse, seeing Jason Vorhees hack up a few teens during a two hour movie or seeing Jeffery Dahmer's sick and vicious acts being told over and over again for months at a time, until he was murdered in prison (which made front page news, by the way)? Believe me, our world is more sick and twisted then anything Quentin Tarentino could ever think up. Strike one. The early part of 1997 brought forth a new revolution in television. A rating system was devised so at the beginning of each television show, a rating symbol would be placed in the upper left hand corner of the screen. These ratings range from TV-G, which is appropriate for all ages, to the most extreme, TV-M, which is intended for mature audiences only (several intermediate levels fall between TV-G and TV-M on the spectrum). Several questions arise regarding the necessity and function of these ratings. I feel these ratings will work quite well for their intended purpose: for parents who are with their children when the ratings come onto the screen. Parents will know whether to leave a program on while the kids are in the room, judging by the rating and the age/maturity of their children. But if the The by Daniel D. Ester Collegian Columnist I was stunned the first time I saw it commence. She made her way to the counter, ordered two double-cheeseburgers, a super-size fries, an apple pie AND A DIET COKE. Now what in the hell is THAT all about?'?? Now please, for my "larger" readers, do not take offense. I am not exactly skinny myself. But come on, am I the only one who sees through this kind of crap? Can we permit ourselves to eat an 80,000 calorie meal by justifying it with a DIET soft drink? If you are going to go into a fast-food establishment and order a hag of food for each roll of flab, please do not trick yourself by ordering a diet drink. You are only kidding yourself! I mean, do you think people who see you doing this are fooled? Maybe if they are visually impaired! Being overweight is not exactly something you can hide. "Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you. Now sit down, because you might not approve. All these years when you thought I was dating girls, well, the truth is (pause), I am fat." And then there are those who claim to have an eating disorder. Well, A DUH!! there is no disorder about it, honey, because you seem to be able to eat just fine, and quite well, I might add! I am sure there are some people out there with legitimate medical problems, but for the most part, I believe the REAL problem is you just cannot stop lifting the damn fork to your mouth! And I always hear this stinkin' excuse about having a gland problem. What the hell is that? No matter how much of a propensity you have toward gaining weight, there is one basic fact you seem to have missed. Oh, please allow me to point it out. Your body can only acquire as many calories as you put into it. Now is this so profound??? Is your "gland problem" forcing you up to the Grand Buffet for your third trip to the wing tray'? Or is there some other problem causing you to eat your mashed potatoes and gravy with a scoop shovel? And then there are the excuses why people cannot exercise. There is a problem with their knees and they cannot walk for long distances. Well, no kidding If I were a knee and had 100 pounds of pressure PER TV rating parents are not around, though, children may be intrigued by a rating of TV-M and watch the program for that purpose. This event would undermine the whole purpose of the ratings. And with more and more parents working, they leave their children at home alone with the TV, so this will be a very common occurrence. Strike two. Are tools of censorship, such as the "V" chip and TV ratings the correct path for us to go? I say no. Parents need to instill in their children the difference between television and reality, and that what you see or hear from the TV is not always true, and should not be imitated. Also, shows which contain higher ratings, such as NYPD Blue (TV-M) and Beavis and Butthead (TV-14), are only shown later at night, at times when children should not be alone with the television anyway. Besides, personally, Ido not need to be told that Bananas in Pajamas is appropriate for all ages, I can figure it out during the opening credits, which is true with most, if not all television programs. If you are watching a show with the kids, and there are people being killed, having sex, and doing drugs with each other during the opening credits, change the channel or send the kids to their rooms (I am sure that they will not watch the same show on their own TVs). In closing, I would like to say to the powers that be, good try, but I do not think so. Maybe next time. weight's over look at dieting SQUARE INCH on me, I would not function right either! If anyone reading this is upset with me right now, then that is good. You NEED to get angry. You need to get pissed and want to do something about it. That's right. You see, I can certainly talk about all this because I, too, have a weight problem. I can most definitely understand what it feels like to slide sideways into the little deskseats in the Nick Building. In 1995 I weighed just under 300 pounds, and I ,too, ordered the dreaded diet drink with my fatburgers. I wore jeans below my waist so I could wear a smaller size, and I foolishly believed no one knew I was secretly a closet fatso. And the only advantage to being fat is looking younger (people with fat faces have no wrinkles!) My point is, I did something about it. I changed my diet so that I could eat as much as I wanted but none of it contained fat. I quit smoking and started to run, even though I could only go half a mile at first, and the earth shook beneath my feet. I thought I was going to die. I gradually increased, and worked my up to running 7 (yes, that's SEVEN) miles each day! I lifted weights three times a week and did those dreadful stomach crunches every day. I lost almost 100 pounds in five months! I spent over $5OO on clothes because I went from a 40-inch waist to a 32. No pills, no diet drinks, no synthetic shakes, no program. And it's still not easy. I can sniff chocolate and gain weight. I started smoking again and I've put 15 pounds back on, and if I'm not careful, I'll soon be back into my fat clothes. But do you know why I went through all that work (and believe me, it was work)? Days and weeks of relentless running, lifting, and sit-ups. Nicotine withdrawal. Feeling like I was going to fall over near the end of my run. It wasn't so I could feel better about myself and be healthy and live longer! NO!! It was so I could get a date! The reason why there are so many over weight people in the world isn't because the hole where the food goes into is bigger than the hole it comes out. No! It's because most of these overweight people aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to lose weight. And that's the God's truth. So please, don't give me that noise about an eating disorder or gland problem because I don't want to hear it. There are a million excuses not to exercise, and I've told them all. You can't fool me and you can't wear loose, dark, untucked shirts forever. Quit eating food that contains fat,•get your fat butt out there and start running (walk first if you have to; there's no shame in that, pal), drink plenty of cold water, and you WILL lose weight. And don't you DARE cheat! And maybe the next time you go to the beach, the tide won't rise when it comes into contact with your gravitational field. Good Luck!! Please send comments or hate-mail to Dannyßoy@erie.net The Behrend College Collegian published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Editors in Chief Jennifer V. Colvin Danielle M. Murphy Business Manager Carley Gwin News Editors Doreen Foutz Sara Prosser Sports Editors Brian Gregory Matt Plizga Entertainment Editor Sheila Bickel Photography Editor Colleen Gritzen Opinion Editor Colleen Fromknecht Advertising Manger Tom Keefe Office Manager Crystal Dehart Advisors Dr. Ursula Davis Dr. Rob Speel Postal nformatiom The Collegian is published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College; First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building, Station Road, Erie, PA 16563. The Collegian can be reached by calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898.6019 (fax). ISSN 1071-9288 Litaeriglim The Collegian encourages letters to the editor on news coverage, editorial content and University affairs. Letters should be typewritten, double spaced and signed. Letters should be no longer than 400 words. Letters should include the semester standing and major of the writer. All letters should provide the address and phone number of the writer for verification of the letter. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters. Letters submitted to The Collegian become the property of the newspaper. The Collegian is published every Thursday during the academic year on recycled paper.
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