• Is Alice Cooper coming to Behrend? •
The Behrend Be n
September 19, 2003
Nail Pages
Vol. LI SEP z 2 ZOO 3
No. 2
BEHREta) COLLEGE
' enn State wrestles with Info Tech Fee
by Justin Curry
news editor
Each semester for the past 12 years,
Penn State students have been paying
into what is know known as the
Information Technology, or IT, Fee.
Since its inception in fall of 1991, the
IT Fee has more than quadrupled, to a
cost of $l6O per semester. The way
the fee is being spent, however, seems
to remain unnoticed by most students.
With Penn State having an enrollment
of 82,()00 for the 2(X)3-04 school year,
the IT Fee alone will bring in more than
$26 million. But many students do not
have understanding of where their
money is actually going.
Each location of Penn State,
including University Park, has a
predetermined IT Fee board. The
hoard is usually chosen by the CEO or
Dean at each location. Behrend's IT
fee hoard, however, is formed by the
SGA, according to Ron Hoffman, IT
director. This committee decides how
to spend the money that the campus
collects each year from the IT tee. This
money is intended to be spent on
providing up to date technology, and
improving labs and computers for
exclusively students.
Students at each location don't see a
full return on their $l6O fee, however.
Out of the $l6O, only .37.5 percent, or
$6O is returned per student per
semester. The rest of the money is
retained at University Park to pay for
the libraries, computer and information
systems budgets and site licensed
software. Services used by the
students that fall under this umbrella
are eLion, webmail, ANGEL, portal,
Midnight Bingo in jeopardy
by Courtney Straub
news editor
For the past few years, Midnight
Bingo has been one of the best
attended, regularly held programs at
Behrend. However, the club is in
jeopardy of fading out of existence this
semester.
Midnight Bingo is an event that is
held approximately three times per
semester. The program starts around
10 p.m. and runs as late as 2 a.m. Each
bingo has a different theme, including
Getting leid at Midnight Bingo and
Valentine s Day. The event hands
out more than 50 prizes per night, at a
cost of over $3OO. Also, around
midnight, players receive a free meal
from McDonald s, Pizza Outlet, or
catering from Housing and Food
Services. Average attendance last year
was approximately 175 students.
Although the events were popular,
the club has begun to weaken. The
decline of the club began last semester
when the club was only funded for one
event as opposed to past years when it
was given up to three per semester.
Graduation of key members of the club
was a contributing factor to lack of
involvment.
According to Patrick Mazur, current
treasurer of the Midnight Bingo Board,
the funding cut came because SAF
wanted more specific quotes.
Although the programs were well
attended, the club found difficulty in
recruiting members to help. Aside
from the executive board, the club only
has five current members. Also hurting
membership was the graduation of
most of the clubs founders such as
NEWS 1-3
EDITORIAL 5
A&E 6
e-mail accounts, personal web space,
Microsoft programs for students, LIAS
and the online library as well as a
plethora of tutorials and computer
training modules. Every Penn State
student's money is divvied up this way,
regardless of location or major.
At Behrend, the 37.5 percent return
on the IT Fee equals out to be around
$456,0(X) a year. The fate of this bulk
appears to be ambiguous. Labs are
updated with the newest software
yearly. yet the money required to do
that comes from the other portion of
Aaron Barun, Ryan Raines, and Tiffany
Schlosser. A final blow to the club was
the loss of advisor, Maria Madigan,
who is no longer employed at Behrend.
The fate of the Midnight Bingo
Board is not yet sealed but hopes are
quickly diminishing.
The sad part about it is that it s one
of those things that students like to do,
said Netta Nelson, former treasurer of
the Midnight Bingo Board.
Midnight Bingo is a rare delicacy
that sadly has now come to an end,
said Jenna Boazzo, regular attendee of
Midnight Bingo.
However some are still keeping
hope.
W e re trying to find enough people
to put it together, said Mazur. The
group can likely be saved with the
Inside
CALENDAR 7
FEATURES 8-9
NAT'L CAMPUS NEWS 10
Students dilligently at work in the computer lab in Hammermill
the IT fee which remains at University
Park. Every year, at least one lab is
updated with new computers. This
year, three labs were overhauled. But
as of yet, the IT report from last year
as well as the committee has yet to be
released
Student leaders have been trying to
deal with the IT ambiguity on a
University-wide level as of recently.
At the last meeting of the
Commonwealth Council of Student
Governments (CCSG), a resolution
was passed to form a committee that
Students may not realize how much
work goes into one bingo. Prizes must
be bought, food ordered, Reed
Wintergarden set up. Calling the
bingos, for example, yelling, Under
the 0, 69 has always made helpers
cringe as the student body cheers back
with fourth grade comments such as
00000.
It is the stigma of helping a dub, in
addition to student apathy, that has been
an issue constantly facing Behrend, as
well as campuses across the nation. It
is not until clubs start to disappear that
the problem becomes visible.
We all need to realize that unless
we support all of our clubs there will
be nothing to do on campus, said Scott
Soltis, Student Government
Association President.
SPORTS 11-12
will set up the guidelines for the IT
committee at each location. The goal
is to set up equal student representation
on IT Boards across the
commonwealth, given that students are
the only ones paying into the IT fee.
The committee that the resolution
formed is comprised of a student from
each caucus. Locations are placed into
caucuses depending on their
geographic location in the
University plans switch to new
identification numbers
Penn State President Graham
Spanier has approved a plan to
replace the University-wide use of
an individual s Social Security
number with a unique Penn State
Identification Number. The Social
Security Numbers in the central
business and student systems (IBIS
and ISIS) will be replaced during
the winter break of 2004. The
entire University is closed. This
means that there are three
semesters of the status quo before
the new numbers are put into use.
This number may end up being just
as long as a Social Security
Number since a Penn State number
may have to be issued to alumni as
well, though that information is not
known at this time.
This is all being done for
confidentiality reasons, says Dr.
Mary Ellen Bayuk, Penn State
Erie s Registrar. Bayuk said that
there are many concerns these days
about identity theft, and the
University is trying to address these
concerns. Upon completion of this
project, the Social Security
Number will be stored as a
confidential attribute and the
University s use of it will be
restricted.
A number of smaller private
colleges have already transitioned
into this new system of
identification; however, Penn State
Contact Us
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matter of identificatio
by Justin Plansinis
staff writer
PHOTO BY JUSTIN CURRY/BEHREND BEACON
commonwealth. The student
representative for the Northwest
caucus, which Behrend belongs to, is
Elischia Fludd. She can be reached at
elfls3(qpsu.c4l.t if anyone has
questions or suggestions for the
committee.
is one of the first state schools to
try this. While most private
colleges only deal with a few
thousand students, Penn State, and
most other state colleges, have
more than 100,000 students in
addition to faculty and staff that
have to be taken into account.
The identification cards that are
used for everything from buying
food at Bruno s and Dobbins to
obtaining a transcript in the
Registar s office have your social
security number on the magnetic
strip; therefore, new ID cards are
going to have to be made for all
students after the change.
Remember this will be over winter
break next year so seniors need not
worry.
There are always problems
whenever there s a change to
something of this magnitude,
says Dr. Bayuk, However, this is
all being done for the protection
of students.
Despite the possible problems
that may arise from this transition,
the new numbering system is
clearly going to benefit everyone.
The University has gone to great
lengths to ensure our safety and
security so we should be patient
and understanding about any
problems.