page 4 - The Behrend College Beacon. Thursday, March 25, 1999
The Behrend College Beacon
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie. The Behrend College
News Editor
SluiniitiH Weber
Editorial Page Editor
Natalie Galliano
Business Manager
Jaime Davis
Photography Editors
Jiison Blake
Andrea Zafftno
Layout Editors
A like Perkins
Fb:abeth Guelcher
Wire Services Editor
Katie Galley
Features Editor
Jon Stubbs
°ostal Information: The Beacon is
published weekly by the students of
Penn State Erie, The Behrend
Bollege; First Floor, The J. Elmer
*eed Union Building, Station Road,
Brie, PA 16563. The Beacon can be
■eached by calling (814) 898-6488 or
'814) 898-6DIO (FAX). ISSN 1071-
9288.
A view from the lighthouse
Where was the sense
of logic?
Sometimes students wonder
where people's heads are located, es
pecially at the Computer Access
Center (CAC). If you haven't already
figured it out, the Computer Center
has decided to charge money for pa
pers printed out at the library’s com
puter center. This is due to the fact
that the printers in the library changed
from dot matrix to laser printers. In
order to buy a card for this new cost,
one must go to Hammermill or the
RUB Desk. The cost of 20 laser cop
ies is one dollar.
Several complaints can be made
about this new charge. First of all,
full-time students are charged ninety
dollars a semester for the computer
fee. Why can't the CAC use part of
this fee for the new costs of a laser
printer instead of charging more
monev'.’ Also, why can't the card be
letters to
e d
behrcoll2 @ aol.cx)m
Editor in Chief
Will Jordan
Managing Editor
Axodele Jones
Sports Editor
Jason Snyder
Advertising Managers
Id in hdoiyer
Carey Siiinli
Associate Editors
Angela Rush
Jessica Pucci
Assistant Editor
Mike Frawley
Distribution Manager
Mark Greenbank
Letter Policy: The Beacon
encourages letters to the editor
Letters should include the address,
phone number, semester standing
and major of the writer. Writers can
mail letters to behrcoll2@aol.com
Letters must be received no later thar
spm Tuesday for inclusion in thai
week’s issue.
bought at the library's computer cen
ter? Why does it need to be bought
at Hammermill or the RUB Desk?
Why do students need to trek across
campus to pay for something that
they don’t want to pay for in the first
place? Thirdly, on campus students
are already paying almost $ 11,000 a
year. Why should they have to pay
even more?
This is ridiculous. CAC failed to
utilize any logic when considering
the needs of students.
t o
//) ~
4*^
Copy Editor
Rose Forrest
Advisors
Robert Si>eel
Jim 0 'Ltmuhlin
the
Time to Complain
The Voting Concept
I am writing this editorial column
in response to all the comments 1 have
been receiving concerning how the
newspaper “sucks". My purpose is to
justify why the newspaper is the way
it is.
The Beacon’s main problem is that
it is too understaffed. There are only
about twenty students on the editorial
board. These editors are responsible for
writing articles, editing other writers'
articles, laying out their page, and past
ing their page together. A lot of time
and effort is placed into this process.
Editors spend countless hours in the
newspaper office in order to produce
their page. These editors have only one
assistant, whose name is Mike
Frawley, to help the process run more
smoothly and efficiently. Mike spends
a lot of his time to help the editors as
much as he possibly can, and I com
mend him for making the editors’ jobs
a lot less painless.
Another problem the Beacon staff
suffers from is the lack of stories to
Miscellaney,
Spiders in
Someone once told me that people seen, one much too large, I thought, cabin in New York state. “Was it light
eat an average of six spiders per year to be native to Erie, Pennsylvania. It brown?” she asked. "It was brown,"
in their sleep. This is because spiders looked like a tarantula; big, brown, I answered. “Was it fuzzy?” “Yes."
supposedly like warm, damp places, and fuzzy. I remained on the log, but “It was probably a tarantula.” I
and I suppose a sleepy open mouth is my boyfriend stood up and walked wasn't too sure about that; "A taran
damp and dark and warm enough. Af- over to the spider. Instead of stoop- tula? In Erie?” “Yes. They come in
ter I first heard this I had a hard time ing down to get a better look at it (as on banana boats.” This conversation
falling asleep for a few nights. I thought he would), he stomped on took place after we had a confronta-
Sometime toward the end of high it. I heard a distinct popping sound tion with a three-inch spider. I was
school, my boyfriend, at the time, and as the spider was flattened under his dusting picture frames on the wall
I were sitting on a log in the woods, shoe. I had never before heard a spi- when I spotted it in the woodpile. I
"Look,” he said, pointing to a leaf to der pop like that. tried to urge the spider onto a piece
the right of us. I looked. Resting on it I told all this to a friend ot mine ol paper so I could take it outside, Kerry Hinkson is a fourth semester English
was one of the hugest spiders I had ever last year while we relaxed at her but it ran away. “I hate to do this,” major. Her column appears every three weeks.
Finding out the hard way why fish make the
best college
"For reasons of sanitation and
safety, pet animals, with the exception
of tropical fish and goldfish, are not
permitted in residence halls, apart-
ments, dining halls,'or other Univer
sity buildings," '
So reads the official regulation on
pets for Penn State's Erie campus,
where 1 attend school. Fish in this con
text refers to any aquatic animal, such
as frogs, turtles, and so one. The catch,
according to rumor, is the animal has
to be able to survive underwater for at
least five minutes.
As anyone can guess, students have
often joked about training Fido to
breathe underwater for five minutes or
of watching the room inspectors stand
ing over a frog tank holding a stop
watch,
Jokes aside, this rule on pets was a
difficult one for an animal lover,(es
pecially of cats) to swallow. At one
Letter to the editor:
Faculty member defends fraternities
The end of the school year ap
proaches, and it appears that once
again it is ‘ime to talk about social
decadence by focusing on fraternities.
Last year at this time there were com
plaints about the number of members
of SGA who were fraternity/sorority
members. This year the last couple of
issues of the Beacon have examined
the theme—with good reason. With the
question of coed fraternities and binge,
drinking on the minds of many college
administrators, there is a certain justi
fication to examining the roles frater
nities play on campuses. But these con
cerns do not justify the myths or mis
conceptions that are spread about fra
ternities.
To clarify: (1) People do not join
fraternities simply to party. They can
do that for free or at a minimal cost on
their own. (2) People do not join fra
ternities to "buy their friends”. That’s
perhaps the dumbest myth I’ve heard
so far. There is no brother on campus
who you can’t be friends with (assum
ing they want to be your friend) just
by saying hello and taking it from
there. Membership, rushing, and social
responsibilities can be ignored. Many
of the brothers will tell you that their
best friends are not even members of
their fraternity. While fraternities are
a social organization where you can
make life-long friends, it seems that
the people who tend to join are already
socially outgoing and therefore de
cided to join—not that the fraternity
turns them into social creatures.
Editorial
write about. Face it. Rarely does any
thing interesting happen at Behrend.
Well, except maybe in the Police and
Safety reports. Students want to read
about something that catches their
interest; something that they care
about. Rarely does this occur.
And when finally the newspaper
does write interesting, controversial
stories, such as the one concerning
drinking among Greeks last year, a
lot of criticisms are dished onto the
plates of the newspaper staff for
printing such an article. This is a
major reason why the newspaper
rarely produces articles of such a
nature.
There is almost never any input
from anyone on campus. Once in a
blue moon, a letter to the editor is
received. The newspaper staff wel
comes everybody’s ideas but never
receives any. We want to know how
we can improve the newspaper, how
we can benefit others. It’s really dif
ficult to change the newspaper when
the Old Jalopy
the dollhouse
point last year one of my three room
mates and I discussed breaking it.
After visiting a pet store, we were
sold on the idea of getting a kitten.
The only problem would be to per
suade another one of our room-:
mates —one usually less whrm to our
ideas —to go along with the idea.
She beat us to the punch: She was
going to adopt a stray pet one of her
friends had found and take it to her
parents' home. She asked us if the cat
could stay the night before she went
home for the weekend. Of course we
said yes. This was a dream come true.
The prospect of a cuddly and play
ful companion overwhelmed us. As
a result, we encountered a few prob
lems. We never really had time to
enjoy the cut's presence because the
trouble started right away. We failed
’ to find a suituble location for the
smelly litter box, constantly fought
Why join a fraternity? For many
college students it may be the best
investment outside of the education
that they make. I cannot tell you the
number of imes I’ve walked into the
office of a senator, lawyer, doctor, or
businessman to find a fraternity
paddle on the wall. Or how many of
them Have gone out of their way to
help a fellow brother find a job or
get,a promotion. The name of the suc
cess is who you know, and
those people who are sociable
enough to tpake long-term contacts
and succeed. Let’s face it, no one is
going to hite §ou because you are a
member of the chess club, but many
people have been known to get their
foot in the door because of a brother
within the organization.
Joining a fraternity connects you
with something bigger than yourself.
Most of the things we do in life are
simply of direct benefit of us—mar
riage, jobs, etc. But members of a fra
ternity make a commitment to rep
resent their school, help their com
munities, and stand by each other for
life. I do not understand why there is
such a stigma to joining for some
people; no one complains or sneers
at my membership to Nautilus and
that only helps me. No one complains
about joining the Economics Club or
Engineering Society, and when was
the last time one of those organiza
tions announced any type of commu
nity service program? Why criticize
an organization which says we, as a
ets
we don’t know how people want the
newspaper to be.
People don’t have a right to bitch
and complain if they are not going
to get off their lazy butts and offer
some suggestions to the newspaper
staff concerning improving the news
paper. It’s kind of like the voting con
cept. You have no right to bitch if you
are not doing anything to find a so
lution to the problem.
The college newspaper is an inte
gral component of any college cam
pus life. It makes people aware of
what is happening on campus. Some
times, the newspaper is the only way
that people Find out about upcoming
events.
I feel that people on campus, with
the exception of the newspaper staff,
don’t realize how much time and ef
fort is put into the newspaper. We
don’t just wave our little wand and
make a newspaper appear. There is a
plethora of late nights for the editors,
especially the editor-in-chief, Will
to keep the feline out of sight and thus
out of the windows, and struggled to
figure out where the cat could sleep
without getting disturbed.
By the time the next afternoon
rolled around, we were glad to see
the fur ball move on to its permanent
home. We did not love animals any
less, we simply realized the limita
tions of a five-room on-campus
apartment.
We also realized the university
had made its policy on pets for some
very good reasons-and we certainly
learned our lesson. Not only is a cat
or dog too much to handle in a small
apartment frequented by many stu
dents, but the situation is not very
humane for the animal, either.
We were not the first students at
Penn State Erie to challenge the of
ficial word on pets. I know of other
people who have kept gerbils, frogs,
group, will work together to help
each other in our classes and for the
rest of our lives whenever we can?
We also pledge ourselves to commu
nity involvement and college im
provement. What is wrong with an
organization that helps young adults
see themselves operating in a com
munity that is larger than their im
mediate family or homes? These
commitments which make fraterni
ties unique are not idle ones. Taking
on the responsibility of helping your
brothers through classes is one thing,
but to further commit yourself to
helping through public service like
Special Olympics and Easter Egg
Hunts for young children requires
sacrifices that are not always fun or
easy. We all say we want to make the
world a better place, but few of us
will ever be in a position to change
the entire world through our indi
vidual actions. What we can do is
make a commitment to the commu
nities around us. If each of us does
that, the world will take care of it
self.
I am not claiming that fraternities
are idyllic societies—neither is
America, but in both cases we work
to correct those things that are wrong.
I strongly believe that those who
refuse to be an active part of finding
a solution inevitably become a part
of the problem. That is why when
Kappa Delta Rho asked me to be
their advisor I agreed, despite the
raised eyebrows and open mouths of
NATALIE GAGI.IANO
Jordan. We work endlessly until the
newspaper is done. Our objective is
to produce a sound newspaper with
few errors. Sometimes, our objective
is not completely met due to the fact
that we don’t receive any extra help.
I am not saying that the newspa
per sucks, because it doesn 1.1 think
that the articles are all well-written.
The newspaper staff is very dedicated
also. Some of the articles are inter
esting. 1 think the newspaper’s image
needs to be changed. I feel that more
controversial articles should be writ
ten; they should be about something
that people want to read about and
want to respond to. They should make
people question things on campus and
why they are the way they are. What
people want to read about is my ques
tion That is why the newspaper needs
input from the general student body.
iVc italie (ioehann is the editorial page editor
of the Beacon. Her column appears every three
weeks.
KERRY HINKSON
said my friend, "but maybe we should
just kill it. A spider that big is gonna
come after someone.”
We eventually exterminated the
spider, but not until the next day.
Sometime during those paranoid
hours my fear had talked my rationale
into taking a small hike, and I forgot
about the days when spiders were con
sidered sacred, and killing one was
like killing your mother.
KAREN HEALY
or lizards. One guy even had a puppy
that he often took with him to his
friends’ apartments.
Although I can’t say for sure, I bet
he had many of the same difficulties
that my roommates and I had.'
Our adventure with the cat last
year has not stopped us from wanting
to keep frogs or turtles as pets this
year—and I don’t mean the tiny
aquatic ones that live in two-gallon
fish tanks. No we want the big ones—
the ones that require five- or 10-gal
lon tanks...the ones that will have no
problem meeting the five-minute rule.
Karen Heuly is a senior majoriny in communi
cation and media studies with a minor in En
ylish. This column appeared in the Tuesday,
November 24, 1998, issue of the Christian Sci
ence Monitor.
some of my colleagues and friends. I
am committed to working through
some of the problems the fraternity
has. I believe that especially on a cam
pus like Behrend, the social opportu
nities such an organization makes
available should be taken advantage
of by as many students as possible and
encouraged by the administration and
faculty. Such a commitment on my
part is more than simply a willingness
to sign forms —it is a promise to any
brother that at any hour they can come
to me or call with any problem and I
will do what I can to help them. I made
this promise to them a month ago.
They made it to each other when they
decided to join.
Fraternities are not for everyone,
just like the military or law school is
not. If you choose not to join, how
ever, do not disparage those who do.
Instead find your own way to become
involved in your community, to inter
act with those outside your immedi
ate circle of friends, to grow from see
ing the world through a different set
of eyes. If the only person who ben
efits from your college experience is
you, then you have already lost an
aspect of your life that can never be
reclaimed. If you are interested, come
check us out.
Professor Gregory W. Fowler
Lecturer of English
Advisor of Kappa Delta Rho