The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, December 01, 2000, Image 6

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    Beaver College
as Arcadia University
by Billy O'Keefe
TMS Campus
November 20. 2000
The Beav has left the building.
Pennsylvania's Beaver College, in
hopes of tempering ridicule and
boosting enrollment, announced
Monday that it would change its
name to Arcadia University.
The college unveiled the new
moniker, selected through a poll of
more than 20,000 students, alumni,
faculty and parents, as well as a
handful of university focus groups,
at an impromptu slumber party for
students, whom staffers rounded up
with less than an hour's notice
The new
comes offici
16, 2001, cou
major boon f,
school, w
claims to lo
significant p
tion of prosp
five studen
each year o
the issue of
the name
alone.
"The
word 'bea-
ver' too often elicits ridicule in the
form of derogatory remarks pertain
ing to the rodent, the TV show
'Leave It to Beaver' and the vulgar
reference to the female anatomy,"
Beaver president Bette E. Landman
wrote in a letter sent last month to
members of the community.
Landman isn't kidding; everyone
from Conan O'Brien and David
Letterman to Howard Stern and the
cast of "Saturday Night Live" have
garnered laughs at the college's ex
pense.
But the college, which claims that
the name regularly turns off more
than 30 percent of its prospective
student base, isn't laughing along.
And, according to Landman, both
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BEEMESDAYB•tiFiI
current and former students have
faced unnecessary challenges he
cause of the 'B' word.
"There are alumni reports that
our name presents an obstacle when
seeking employment, and that
some have chosen not to display
their diplomas to avoid unkind re
marks from colleagues," wrote
Landman.
Trustees at the college voted in
June to change the school's name.
In order to streamline the search
for a new name, the college created
the Name Finding Task Force,
which comprised of students, fac
ulty, alumni and trustees. The goal
was to find a name that was at
The winning name comes from
the name of a region in ancient
Greece, which the university calls
"a birthplace of modern thought
and learning where philosophers
pursued independent thought and
inquiry."
Founded in 1853, Beaver Col
lege received its original name
from its location in Pennsylvania's
Beaver County. Interestingly, the
2,800-student institution left Bea
ver in 1925 for the Philadelphia
suburb of Glenside. The school ap
plied for university accreditation in
June, and was recently approved by
the state of Pennsylvania.
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NATIONAL CAMPUS NE'Vvr-i
reborn
ntriguing, presti
reflective of the
er --and, natu-
potential ridi
cule.
"Arcadia Uni-
versity reflects
our foundation
and the kind of
learning envi
ronment we
aim to foster,"
said Landman
at the unveil-
NCAA graduation rates improve, but barely
by Wendell Barnhouse
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
November 20, 2000
FORT WORTH -- A decade of re
porting graduation rates has led to
just slight improvements in NCAA
Division I graduation rates of col
lege athletes.
As mandated by federal law, the
NCAA released its annual Gradu
ation Rates Report on Monday. For
the class that entered in the fall of
1993, 58 percent of student-ath
letes graduated from the school at
which they began as freshmen.
That graduation rate is the same as
the 1999 Report, which tracked
freshmen who started school in
1992. The graduation rate for all
students at Division I schools was
56 percent.
"Overall, these rates are similar
to those we've been seeing for stu
dent-athletes for the past several
years," NCAA president Cedric
Dempsey said. "For the most part,
student-athletes are performing
steadily in the classroom."
The graduation rates don't al
ways reflect the academic perfor
mance for a school or a specific
sport at individual schools. The
data track student-athletes who en
roll as freshmen, receive athletics
related financial aid (scholarships)
and graduate from that school
within six years of initial enroll
ment. Student-athletes who trans
fer count against their original in
stitution and are not counted at the
school to which they transfer,
whether or not they graduate.
TCU fared well. The school's
student-athlete graduation rate was
62 percent, above the national av
erage. In grad rates for female stu
dent-athletes, men's basketball and
women's basketball student-ath
letes, TCU was above the national
average. Only in male student-ath
letes and football players was TCU
below the national norm.
Big 12 Conference schools --
who were still members of the Big
1/,',.
ogqof
tt•
Eight and Southwest conferences
when the 1993 class entered school
-- did not fare as well. In football,
only two schools (Baylor and Ne
braska) were above the national av
erage. In men's basketball, only
Kansas was above the national av
erage. Only Baylor and Texas A&M
had grad rates for male student-ath
letes that were above the national
average.
"This is an area where we want
to do better, and we've focused a lot
of attention on academics," Big 12
commissioner Kevin Weiberg said.
"In some respects, those results
aren't that surprising. The gap be
tween student-athlete rates and the
overall student body at our schools
is not that great.
"Our schools have made an in
creasing investment over the last
five years in academic support for
student-athletes. I think that will
start showing some positive re
sults."
When the Big 12 was formed in
1996, it voted to not accept student
athletes who did not qualify under
NCAA initial eligibility standards.
The graduation rates that will show
an impact of that decision will be in
2002.
Among Division 1-A football
schools in Texas, Rice had the high
est grad rate for male (85 percent)
and female (81 percent) student-ath
letes. Rice also had the highest grad
rate for football (75 percent). Lamar
had the lowest rate (7 percent) for
male student-athletes, and Houston
had the lowest (35 percent) for fe
male student-athletes. Among I-A
football programs in Texas, the low
est grad rate was at UT-El Paso (13
percent).
Nationally, the biggest decline
among student-athlete groups was
in Division I-A football. Graduation
rates for football players dropped
from 51 percent to 48 percent. That
equals the all-time low for football
players, 48 percent in 1985, the first
year grad rates were reported. The
graduation rate for Division I-A
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white football players was 55 per
cent, a 6 percent decline.
"We're concerned about the de
cline in rates among football play
ers,- Dempsey said. "There's been
a slow, steady decline in the over
all rate for this group for a number
of years. We need to start looking
at what some of the reasons for that
might be.-
Men's basketball showed a slight
increase in graduation rates, from
41 percent to 42 percent. The rate
for Division I black male basket
ball players also increased, from 33
percent to 34 percent. However,
those rates are far below the over
all student rate and the rates of
other Division I sports, such as
football and women's basketball.
"When you look at the numbers,
the initial reaction is we should be
doing better." said Jim Haney, ex
ecutive director of the National As
sociation of Basketball Coaches.
"But when you look at the num
bers, it's not particularly a reflec
tion of what's going in men's bas
ketball. With so many players
transferring and leaving early for
the NBA, that sort of skews the
graduation rates for the sport."
Proposed NCAA legislation
could alter how grad rates are de
termined. One proposal would al
low student-athletes who transfer
in good academic standing (still to
be defined) to not count against his
initial school's rate. Also, legisla
tion that would limit the number
of basketball scholarships a school
can award over a two-year period
is designed to curb the number of
transfers.
The NCAA established initial
eligibility requirements in 1986.
Known as Proposition 48, the leg
islation required incoming student
athletes to achieve a certain score
on standardized entrance tests.
Since those standards began affect
ing graduation rates, student-ath
letes rates have remained in the 57
or 58 percent range.
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2000
Teens turn to
Ecstasy as pot
use declines
by Matthew McGuire
TMS Campus
November 27, 2000
Marijuana use decreased over the last
three years among American teenagers,
however, an increased use of the club
drug ecstasy shows drug use as a whole
is not declining, according to a new study
by the Partnership for a Drug Free
America.
The study, released Monday, Nov. 27.
polled 7,290 teenagers between the ages
12 and 18 and in grades 7 through 12.
The margin of error is plus or minus 1.5
percent.
In 2000, about 40 percent of teens re
ported trying marijuana at least once,
down from 44 percent in 1997. The study
also found a drop in the number of teens
who had used marijuana within the last
month, down from 24 percent in 1997 to
21 percent in 2000.
•
"The shifts were seeing with mari
inane -*ll, by end large represents the
bUlk of Ointedrug use among kids - sug
gest gads ngs for the future," PDFA
president Richard D. Bonnette said in a
statement. "With this particular drug, we
appear to be turning a very important cor
ner. But as we turn one corner, troubling
developments are coming at us from other
directions • specifically with Ecstasy.
While the overall usage numbers are
much lower for this drug, the spike were
seeing demands our attention?'
The drop in marijuana use occurred
mostly between 1997 and 1999, as fig
ures between 1999 and 2000 stabilized.
Use of ecsuisy, however, increased dur-
Mgt* Sarnetime frame.
About 10 percent of teens reported us
tag ecstasy in 2000, twice the number
who muted using the club-drug in 1995.
While the number doubled over the last
five years, the most significant increase
took place over the last year, as use
among teens increased from seven per
cent in 1999 to 10 percent in 2000.
The study also found small, but statis
tically significant increases in teen meth
amphetamine and inhalants use. Use of
cocaine, crack, heroin and LSD remained
stable.
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