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The Behrend Beacon
The Behrend Beacon
, „ ,
News Editor
Erin McCarty
Assistant News Editor
Jen Henderson
Sports Editor
Scott Sottis
Assistant Sports Editor
Lauren Packer
Editorial Page Editor
Paige Miles Bea C BE otn"
Features Editor
Karl Benacci
"A newspaper by the
Staff Photographers students for the students"
Jeff Hankey
Heather Myers
The Beacon 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 Beacon can be reached by
calling (814) 898-6488 or
(814) 898-6019 (FAX).
ISSN 1071-9288.
The symbols of life
after 22 years
In my (almost) 22 years of existence, lam close to being able to run some of
I have heard, generated and analyzed the production equipment in my sleep.
more metaphoric comparisons to life Now keep in mind, I'm not a pro yet,
than I can even count. My past Bea- but I'm working at it. I have had my bad
con columns have been full of those days behind the camera, just like
allegorical discoveries - one else. I have tried in the
ations for several semest eight months to turn every-
Everyone knows the tg from the good, the bad, and
Gump-coined phrase, " ugly into video projects,
like a box of chocolates. tans and assignments. Some-
In addition to that, Imes you hit the nail on the
have been known to corn- lead and sometimes you just
pare life and have heard don't. With each passing
life compared to every- day my aim gets better and
thing from sweat socks I fall more and
to mowing the lawn to Just a little side note more in love with
apple pie to running a Chr istine Kleck the field.
marathon. In a bleak Over
effort to define who last year, I have
and what we are, we
have all ventured out into the world of
creativity to compare our own figura
tive phrases to the non-tangible word
"life."
But no matter how many different
comparisons I have heard or created, I
have yet to find the one that truly says
it all. The words pass through my
brain, I take them in, and really think
about them...but not one comparison
to life has ever really struck me as be
ing the end all, be all of life's true sym
bol. That is, until now. A little back
ground to this comparison is probably
necessary for everyone to really un
derstand its meaning. And so I be
gin....
I have a job. Yes, a real job job job.
I am graduating and I have a job (and
the world breathes a huge sigh of re
lief) so needless to say I'm on cloud
nine. As I attend my last few classes,
finish up my last few assignments (this
being one of them) and as I cross the
stage on May 17 to conclude my col
lege days, in the back of my mind "I
am employed" keeps lingering through
my head. It's kinda nice.
It all started about a year ago. I have
always loved cameras. Everything
from 35 mm to family camcorders I
can't get enough. So my media pro
duction class, Commu 383, was a wel
comed addition to my fall semester
schedule. Nervous, yet overly excited,
I began the class last August. Now
eight months later I am employed by
Behrend as a Research Technologist.
The editing bays will be my new home,
a camera will always be at hand and
the resources and technology of the
Media and Instructional Support Cen
ter will surround me on a daily basis. I
couldn't be happier.
Over the last few months I have re
ally tried immersing myself in the
world of production to prepare for this
job. My camera has been on and run
ning in everything that I do. I am in
volved in projects that are going on in
the media department, and at this point
Editor-In-Chief
Kevin Fallon
Managing Editors
Rebecca Weindorf
Robert Wynne
Professional Publication Mgr.
Dave Richards
Advisor
Cathy Roan
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@aoLcom. Letters
must be received no later than
5 p.m. Monday for inclusion in
learned a lot
about myself as a student, as well. I have
learned that there is a difference between
being a tourist and a being a photogra
pher, that a camera can really only be as
good as the person who is running it,
and no matter how much you try to or
how much you want to fight it, video
footage can never and will never be the
real thing. Every tense gives its own
view of the event or object being filmed
and every photographer's angle changes
reality, sometimes only slightly, but just
enough to make it "different."
So now, here I sit, about to go to
work in an editing bay, writing to you
all for the last time as a student. It has
been an incredible four years. I have said
this all before, as my last few columns
have all been about saying goodbye,
graduating and moving on (just in case
you haven't read them).
What a better way to finally say
goodbye for the last time, than to tell
you my view on life as it stands, tainted
by 22 years of living in Erie, four years
of being a Penn State student and most
recently in becoming a member of the
working world of production. For me
anyway, I think I hit the nail on the head
this time. At this point in my life this
metaphor really says it all. "Life is like
video production the best results come
from proper preparation, extreme con
centration, careful editing, and persis
tent practice."
I wish you all the best. I wish you all
the chance (if you haven't already) to
find your own answer to what life truly
is to you, to hit the nail on the head, and
to be able to immerse yourself in some
thing that you really truly love. To the
class of 2003 and to all that will ever
read this, thanks. And if you ever see a
camera pointed in your direction, say
"hello" because it might just be me be
hind it!
Advertising Manager
Christine Keck
Calendar Page Editor
Erinn Hansen
A&E Editor
Daniel J. Stasiewski
Associate Editor
Mike Butala
Healthy Living Editor
Courtney Straub
Distribution Manager
Scott Sottis
that week's issue
Friday, May 2, 2003
r Editor,
This letter is in response to Guy
.chenthaler's column on affirmative
action. First, kudos to Abbey Atkinson
for her letter in last week's paper. I will
try not to repeat too much of what she
said because she mentioned some excel
lent points, but there are a few things that
I would like to add.
On Wednesday April 30, the National
Society of Black Engineers and the
Multi-Cultural Council sponsored an
open forum discussing affirmative action
and whether or not it is still needed to
day. My first question to Mr.
Reschenthaler is, where were you? Of
course I understand that as an active stu
dent on Behrend's campus you had things
to do, but at the same time this forum
specifically addressed issues that you
spoke about in your column. If you were
so adamant about your beliefs, you
should have also been willing to find out
why other people believe what they do
and made an effort to attend.
I, for example was against affirmative
action. I had originally been taught that
it was about a quota system and like you,
I did not approve. It made me feel infe
rior to white people. The concept of a
quota took away my right as a human
being and labeled me as only a black
woman. After attending the forum and
being educated by Drs. Robert Speel and
Peggy Lee, I have developed an under
standing of affirmative action and what
its true goals are. Now I support it whole
heartedly.
In your article, Mr. Reschenthaler, you
use phrases like "America should be a
colorblind society" and "if all received
proper education." Well, the reality is
we don't live in the s rfect world where
everyone is treated equally. We live in a
society where racism, sexism, and other
isms still exist. You are completely right;
America should be a society where noth
ing matters besides a person's merit. But
in my opinion, this is what affirmative
action tries to do. It causes the employer
or the university (for the sake of the U of
Michigan case) to give two people of
different and unequal backgrounds equal
What was my point, again?
I started going to Behrend for all the wrong reasons. The
biggest reason was all of my friends went to Behrend and I
was stuck out at Edinboro University. I was having a mis
erable time at Edinboro as an art major. I was spending my
days drawing fat, ugly, naked men. I drew places that I
didn't even know existed. They would be naked and
contorted in pretzel-like poses, thereby e 7
ungodly nooks and crannies. Drawing
nooks and crannies was supposed to teach
the beauty and wonder of the human form.
Mainly, I wondered when I would be draw•
ing hot women wrestling in mud. However
the closest I got was a dude named Tony bens
over with the wrong way facing me.
So, I went to Behrend's web site to see
what programs it offered. Anything would
be better than drawing nasty Kamasutra il
lustrations. My excitement turned to disap
pointment when a bunch of technical pro
grams came on the screen such as Manage
ment Information Systems and Electrical
Engineering Technology. Yeah, I got a D
in high school algebra. I mean, there was a reason I was an
art major.
But somewhere on the list I saw something called Com
munication and Media Studies. I had no idea what that was,
but hey, I just wanted to hang out with my friends. When
people asked me what I did in my major I would just say,
"Communicate though various forms of media."
Luckily for me, I ended up really enjoying my major. I
kind of floundered through my first few semesters of col
lege. It wasn't until I took a few writing courses that I be
come interested in college.
I still had a high school mentality of just wanting to do
the least amount of work and go home. But as soon as I
finished my gen-ed courses and started delving deeper into
the communications world, my thirst for knowledge really
began.
I think one of the main problems with the education sys
tem is that starting from the beginning, students are not
taught to think; they are taught to follow directions. As
soon as I abandoned that line of thinking, school became
exciting. There were a select few teachers that encouraged
me to stop regurgitating answers and start asking questions.
I stopped memorizing and started thinking. For the first
time school became about thinking, creativity, invention,
and discovery.
This led me to my best experience at Behrend, writing for
the Beacon. For the first time, I was writing for an audience
that was not just my teacher. I think one of the reasons that
many people struggle at writing is because they are not used
to writing for a mass audience. Granted, the Beacon is a
little paper on a little campus, but it changes the way you
think and write. Many students only know how to write for
a one-person audience. Teachers are the only people who
read their work. But this is not how the world works. Writ
ers know that they have to know their audience.
opportunities. Perhaps I was admitted
to Penn State instead of a white student
with the exact same credentials. But it
wasn't because the school was trying to
meet some quota. It is because Penn
State is committed to diversity within
its population. People who don't under
stand this obviously have no apprecia
tion for diversity and what it can do to a
community. Granted there is still much
work to be done in terms of its students
and faculty accepting and embracing di
versity, but it is one of the four principles
that Penn State supports.
Diversity adds character not only to
the school itself, but also to the individu
als who attend the institution. This is
one reason I chose not to go to a histori
cally black college. The world is not
full of black people. I'm trying to de
program myself from thinking in terms
of black people and white people and
everything in between. I am a person
just like you are. I want to be able to
embrace a person's unique culture while
ignoring their color.
President Kennedy's executive order
declared that federal contractors take
affirmative action to ensure that appli
cants are employed, and employees are
treated during their employment, with
out regard to race, creed, color or na
tional origin. For anyone to say this
clause is not necessary is unconstitu
tional based on the original premise of
the constitution that "all men are cre
ated equal."
Affirmative action means nothing
more than taking a positive action or a
step in making sure that people are, as
you quoted, "evaluated not by the color
of their skin but by the content of their
character." I would rather that no one
have to be given special privileges be
cause they are considered a minority. In
fact, I hate the term minority. I am first
a person. Before I am black or a woman,
I am a human being and I wish to be
treated as such. If a white female or an
Asian male feels too intimidated to talk
to me, it's because they see me as a black
female, not as another human being who
bleeds red blood just like them.
Of course, many people avoid joining the Beacon because
they are not interested in journalism. However, they do not
understand that writing is the foundation of every career. If
you can prove you know how to write, you will be much more
successful, no matter what field you go into.
My favorite part of the Beacon was writing my edito
rial columns. I liked to use humor and satire to discuss
issues. I was often criticized for being insensitive to
serious subjects. However, as a writer, I knew my
audience. I knew that if I wrote an editorial titled,
"The Middle East needs to like, totally chill out" more
college students would read it than if I would write
a dry book report.
I did not really want to argue a point. Some
of my editorials didn't even have a point. In fact,
I think I forgot the point of this one. My editorials
had two purposes: to make people laugh, and more
importantly, to bring issues into the dialoge.
Getting people to discuss topics was more
important to me than actually getting them to
agree with me. The United States is supposed
to be founded on free speech and debate. Some
times people, especially my age forget that. When I became
editor-in-chief of the Beacon I wanted to extend that spirit to
the rest of the paper.
There were many times where the Beacon would print an
editorial and someone would disagree with what was said. I
have no problem with that; in fact, I welcome it. I wanted the
Beacon to be a place where students could voice their concerns
and opinions.
Kevin Fallon
But, sometimes people would upset me, and it wasn't be
cause they disagreed with what was said. It was because they
said the Beacon was wrong for printing it.
I am more than happy to print both sides of an issue. I respect
the pro/con arguments. However, I believe it is wrong to si
lence someone just because you do not agree with what they
say. That contradicts everything this country is about. Unfor
tunately, it has become a growing trend to reject dissent. Voltaire
said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it."
But who am I to question the demagogues of this campus
who are bequeathed with the knowledge of absolute truths? I
am an American, that's who.
I will soon leave Behrend and continue to pursue journalism,
not only because I enjoy writing, but to be a part of the free
press. Free press and free speech are two things that keep us
free and protect our liberties.
I am sickened by these so-called patriots who wave a flag
and have no idea what it stands for. I will tell you where you
can put your censorship. You can stick it in an ungodly nook
and cranny. If you want, I can draw you a picture.
Ok, this is it, my last few words for the Beacon. I may have
started Behrend for all the wrong reasons, but I think I learned
all the right things.
Paige Miles, Editorial F'tge Editor
Affirmative action is
alone. It is for all u
groups in the U.S., inclui women
other ethnic groups. :fore, Mr.
Reschenthaler, if you, a whit male were
living in a neighborhood predomi
nantly Hispanic females in be U.S., af
firmative action would ma‘ sure that
you were given an equal opprtunity to
get a job in that neighborhcbd regard
less of the fact that you are f different
descent. It does not mean th 4 you will
instantly get the job because oi who you
are, but it does ensure your right to be
fairly considered for the pos tion. Of
course, if you were not quakfied you
would not get the job, regardlessof your
background.
I also disagree with your statement that
"if all received proper education and
were given the knowledge and lessons
needed to perform well academically,
then there would be no need to offer ap
plicants 20 points for being black." The
real statement should be, if all received
proper education about the value of di
versity and were given the knowledge
and lessons needed to perform well in a
diverse world, then there would be no
need to offer 20 points for being black.
There would be no need to offer 20 points
for anything.
The protesters on March 30 and April
I were not in support of a quota system.
They were in favor of affirmative action.
Get this: Affirmative action is not a quota
system. In fact, quotas are illegal and
indeed should stay that way.
So to Mr. Reschenthaler and anyone else
who's read this letter, if you have any
questions or comments, please. let's talk
about it. I'm not so adamant about my
beliefs that I'm not willing to talk about
it with someone else. I would rather that
you learn from me what I think than for
you to try to imagine it for yourself.
Sincerely,
Nicole C. Greene
COMBA 08