A View From The Lighthouse Where did summer go? Well it’s time for us to go back to school again. I don’t know if it is just me, but summer went by way too fast this year. We at the Beacon are looking forward to an exciting year of putting out newspapers. But coming back to school also means many other things that we as students have to be prepared to deal with. For those of you who are coming to college for the first time, the transition to college life can be very difficult. While college is not half as hard as everyone in high school made it out to be (for some reason high school teachers love telling horror stories about how hard college will be) it still requires a lot of work and effort. So here is a little advice from those who have gone before you into the abyss of college life. First things first, SLEEP. 1 cannot stress this enough. Take it from someone who knows, trying to go a week on no sleep does not work. Try reading a paper you’ve written after not sleeping for three days, it’ll be the funniest thing you have ever read! Staying awake in class on a full night’s sleep is hard enough, but on no sleep, it is almost impossible. And if a professor has to wake you up for snoring too loud or not answering when called upon, life as you know it will come to a screeching halt. Another major item to remember is not to put things off. Procrastination is the worst thing for a college student to do. Got something Send a letter to the editor to behrcoll2@aol.com The Behrend Beacon published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Editor-in-Chief Jason Snyder Managing Editor Michael Frawley News Editors Liz Hayes Heather Twining - assistant Editorial Page Editor Katie Galley Features Editors Karl Benacci Jermaine Hardy Arts & Entertainment Deanna Symoski Sports Editor Doug Smith Wire Service Editor Rob Wynne Calendar Page Editor Nicole Greene Photo Editors Jeff Miller Becky Weindorf Associate Editors Libbie Johnson Jill Seaholm 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 Beacon can be reached by calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN 1071- 9288. Take it from people who know, waiting for the last minute then trying to write a five-page paper. Waiting, too, for the last minute to try and get everything that you have due done is just asking for trouble. I know that it is very hard to get back into the swing of things after being off for the summer, but unfortunately we have very little choice. Remember how ambitious you were last year when you scheduled that 8:00 a.m. class? I know that after you try to drag yourself out of bed for the first time that early, you will have an overwhelming urge to drop that class. Take it from someone who knows, don’t do it. You’ll be a lot happier getting the class out of the way, instead of trying to take a 26-credit semester later on. Hopefully these few hints will help you become adjusted to college life a little faster and enjoy the college experience much more. College can be a great time in your life, as long as you put as much effort into your schoolwork as you do into having fun. Good Luck! to say? Say It! 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 than 5 p.m. Tuesday for inclusion in that week’s issue. The Beacon is Advertising Manager Kim Zuck Business Manager Kristine Harakat Office Manager Kevin Bruner Public Relations Ainslie Ulmer Secretary Melissa Proha Advisors Robert Sped This Is Earth , Have We Met? MARCH 17, 2000 What a college education means to me: an essay Ltxik out world, but I think I am about to defend Behrend. Yes, you heard cor rectly: this editorial may actually point out gcxxl tilings about our school, rather than bashing it for its many huge, embarrass ing failures. Recently, I have been con fronted with some opinions about how the school as a whole is failing to provide stu dents with a proper and complete educa tion. These views have come from stu- dents, patents, Erie community members, and even a few local "celebrities.” Wait a minute ... 1 retract the celebrity part of that; let me say local pinheads instead. Maybe I have been missing the point of college die past few years. Maybe die candy shell around my brain has grown a little too thick. Maybe my brain is clogged with a bit too much malted hops and bong resin. But isn’t there .supposed to be more to the "college experience" than just in class situations? I thought students were encouraged to do more than just sit in lec ture halls all day, listening to die some times endless droning of our teaching es tablishment. I thought doing something other than studying or watching WWF Smackdown in the evenings was a good When choosing a school, don’t people look for the extras a school oilers? Does it have varsity sports teams'? Does it have social organizations? Does it have clubs aid oiganizations that interest me? I real ize it’s been a few years since I was look- Living the Behrend life, Commuter style All right, so I’m that girl you see in the halls with car keys jingling in her purse and with luggage for books, pens, pencils, a calculator, change of clothes for work, money for food, and a snowbrush for my parents' red van that I drive to school everyday. I'm telling you, the com muter life isn’t as smooth as it gets - sure, I get home-cooked meals ev ery night and my job doesn’t involve preparing food in Bruno’s. And I have a car at my fingertips when ever I say, but the commuter life is much more than just that. Allow me to present the commuter day, typi cal of the Weindorf household: 1 have a 9:30 class today, but 1 set my alarm for 7:15 a.m. because my dad needs the hot water by 8 a.m. And 1 supposedly use all the hot wa ter in the twenty minutes it takes me to shower (I don’t, really!). So af ter I grumble a few injustices about having to share the shower (hey, there's little sisters all over the place - I have to grumble everything now), 1 walk in the bathroom and find that the toilet, is, well, backed up (I am not kidding). So 1 grumble a few more curses A View A little too much sex ed? Psst... Hey you, come over here .. yeah, it’s okay, no one is watching you read this column. We’re going to talk about sex . . . Okay, now that we have your attention, the staff of the Beacon would like to give some thumbs up and some thumbs down (heh heh, get it? up and down?) to a few campus events. And just to keep your interest, we’ll talk a little bit about First, hats off to Trigon for holding the most attended event of the semester The Safer Sex Cabaret. Held in the Studio Theatre (yes, we know it’s a small building), on Thursday, January 27, the group promoted HIV prevention through a number of silly skits. Topics covered included forbidden passion, body piercing, condom use, homemade lubricants, dirty dancing, and of course, masturbation. What fun! Congratulations, again, Trigon. You guys found the key for successful event turnouts! Hold on, losing interest already? Here’s a little something to keep you Liz Hayes HilVi \ IS il ,\Vvd\ ing at colleges (lots of fieople go to col lege for seven years . . .). but 1 seem to recall these questions coming up quite a bit. Tme, I made sure Penn Slate had the academic programs 1 was interested in. hut a lot of schtxils oiler my major. The de ciding factors were the extracurricular things a school could boast. So. correct me if I'm wrong, hut wouldn't that indi- cate that extracurricular activine,, play a pretty decisive part in education' 1 I linmm. prov