Eileen Falkenberg, Editorial Page Editor
The Behrend Beacon
povisiudvittithh‘• thr stud( nts ol Pt nu Stale it 111( 13( hu (
News Editors
Courtney Straub
Justin Curry
Sports Editors
Kevin Fiorenzo
Amy Frizzell
Editorial Page Editor
Eileen Falkenberg
Features Editor
Erika Jarvis
Greek Life Editor
Eileen Falkenberg
Staff Photographers
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 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. Monday for inclusion in that week's issue. The
Beacon reserves the right to edit letters for length, content, libel,
spelling, and grammar.
The look of
by Myriam Marquez
The Orlando Sentinel
Arnold Schwarzenegger smiles at his
wife, Maria Shriver, as he celebrates his
victory Tuesday night in Los Angeles. An
easy win, thanks to Kennedy gal's A magic.
There will he theories galore: The vot
ers fed up with business-as-usual politi
cians. The body-builder-turned-actor
turned-governor-wannabe buying victory
with millions of dollars of his own money.
The star appeal of the highest-paid action
hero in the world trumping any real voter
analysis of his positions or more precisely.
voters' lackadaisical attitude about his lack
of specifics on just about everything. For
get them all.
In the end, it was the striking presence
of a Kennedy that made all the difference
for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold couldn't have made history in
California without Maria. And he knows
it. No more than a few sentences into his
acceptance speech after Tuesday's recall
election of Gov. Gray (boy, is that an ap
propriate name for a lackluster old pol)
Davis, Arnold told the world that he won
thanks to his wife, NBC News Correspon
dent Maria Kennedy Shriver.
I couldn't have done it without Maria,
he said to cheers.
Bad boy or not. Groper or worse. Voters
didn't care. None of it mattered because
Shriver, the daughter of Eunice Kennedy
and Sargent Shriver (the running mate of
the most liberal of Democrats, George
McGovern), stood by her man. It's as if
they were conjoined twins ever since The
Los Angeles Times published last week the
allegations of six women who said Arnold,
as recently as 2000, had grabbed a left
breast here and there, grabbed a buttock
for fun, made outrageously humiliating
sexual advances and on and on.
Immediately, Arnold said he "behaved
badly" on movie sets and "apologized"
while maintaining that most of the allega
tions were untrue and refusing to elaborate.
And, amazingly, it worked! Maria came to
his defense in a Hollywood minute, even
as the tally of women with wild tales about
Arnold grew to 15.
Forget the numbers. The timing of those
allegations coming so close to the election
(how could they not in a campaign
squeezed into two-and-a-half months?)
Editor in Chief
Lauren Packer
Managing Editor
Robert Wynne
Ass't. Managing Editor
Scott Soltis
-----
Beacon
Copy Editors
"A newspaper by the Carolyn M. Tellers
students for the students" Kristin Bowers
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
MMIS
love
only helped Schwarzenegger. Voters, in
cluding many women, suspected his accus
ers' trash talk was nothing more than dirty
politics coordinated by Davis.
And there was Maria, in stop after stop,
never wavering, never once showing any
sign that there could be an ounce of doubt
in her mind about her husband's ethical
She asked voters: Who are you going to
trust? Anonymous women who are saying
had things or even those who give their
names and talk about Arnold's raunchy
side, or this woman, the gal who has
pledged to love him for better or worse?
Trust me, she told voters. I'm his wife,
the mother of his four children, the woman
who knows him best.
And in case the little-woman thing, jhe
Tammy Wynette act, the Hillary The Door
mat imitation wasn't going to sway voters,
Maria had her journalism credentials to
hold over anyone. Whom are you going to
trust, she told voters, "gutter journalism?"
And with journalists long competing with
used-car salesmen in the trust department
(as the daughter of a car salesman, rest his
soul, I take exception), Arnold got the easy
knee-jerk response he needed to win.
Besides, voters had decided a month ago
to recall Davis, polls found. Allegations,
schmallegations, at least 48 percent of Cali
fornia voters who backed Arnold didn't
care. Heck, two thirds of all voters in exit
polling said Arnold didn't address the is
sues in enough detail, but a quarter of those
voted for him anyway.
So now a 56-year-old Austrian immi
grant, who came penniless to this country
and built an entertainment empire, will lead
the nation's most-populous state with an
economy that's the fifth-largest in the
world. A liberal Republican who's a fiscal
conservative will try to make sense of a
place that's sinking economically. And he
hopes to build bipartisan support among
politicians he dismissed during the cam
paign as the very problem to the state's
woes.
Voters desperate for a change (President
Bush, take notice) gambled on a Horatio
Alger of the 21st century to lead them to
prosperity. Winning was easy, thanks to
Maria. Now comes the tough part govern
ing and there Arnold will need more than
macho charisma and Kennedy gal magic
to stay on top.
rik
Advertising Manager
Ryan Russell
Calendar Page Editor
Amy Wilczynski
A&E Editor
Daniel J. Stasiewski
Healthy Living Editors
Courtney Straub
Erika Jarvis
Adviser
Cathy L. Roan, Ph .D.
. 5w; R,- )3
Friday, October 10, 2003
Homework and group work are
pointless at any age
Once again, the topic of homework has
made the headlines of national newspa
pers. Once again, it is saying the same
thing.
Educators and parents do not feel that
children are being pushed hard enough
in school and want hours of homework
assigned. Other educators and parents
feel that children have far too
much homework assigned
Moreover, the children still state
that they spend less than an
hour a day doing homework
for school
Hours of homework
piled onto a child are
useless at any age.
First, high school
aged children and be
low generally require the
use of adults or some form
of assistance to complete
any given assignment. Parents today are
too busy working, cooking, cleaning or
car-pooling their children to various ac
tivities to spend hours helping with
homework. Parents also have to spend
time one-on-one with their children, and
unless you are the Waltons or the
Camdens from "Seventh Heaven," how
many parents are able to sit for patiently
for hours helping their child with home-
work? Patiently and hours being the key
Second, after elementary school is high
school, where recess is no more. High
school is a time where teens are figuring
out what group of peers they best fit in
with, what activities they like, what ac
tivities they are good at, and they are
starting to rebel against their parents and
other forms of authority.
When a child has so many activities to
participate in, and is building a positive
self-image and interacting with peers,
why would anyone want to cut short
these character-building experiences to
assign homework? Then, at a time when
teens and parents are at the height of re-
Rush Limbaugh's relative mass
by Adam Massaro
staff writer
Rush Limbaugh brazenly pushed all
his chips to the middle of the public opin
ion poker game, after calling the media's
bluff. However, he was beat before he
could show his hand—the opposition
trumped his hand, laying down their ace
in-the-hole, er, race card.
Limbaugh, a syndicated radio talk
show host, recently opined on ESPN's
NFL Countdown that Philadelphia
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb
was overrated and over-hyped by the
media because of his skin color. Follow
ing his comments, public dissonance was
expressed by civil rights leaders, and re
sulted in Limbaugh's timely resignation.
The opposition failed to grasp that
Limbaugh's statement was not directed
at McNabb the player, but the hype that
had been built around McNabb by the
media. With public pressure to see black
Americans succeed at the quarterback
position, the media has rallied behind
McNabb as its poster child. Limbaugh
was not criticizing McNabb because of
his race; he was criticizing the media for
their unethical bias towards him.
As a whole America has become so
conscious about being politically correct
Letter to the Editor
The hassles of living the in U.S.A.
Dear Editor,
We have freedom of speech. I can yell
"fire" in a crowded movie theater. I can
tell the staff at the bookstore that I have a
bomb. I can even express my political
opinions. But, for all those actions, I must
accept their consequences.
Mohammed Hogue, though you are ad
vocating a noble cause, you are mis
guided in your interpretation of free
speech.
First, Mr. Hogue, you criticize the me
dia for its poor opinions of Islam. How
can you condemn acts against free speech
but criticize news reports that offend you?
Is that not a contradiction on your terms?
bellion, let's have teachers pile on the
suggested hours of homework.
It doesn't add up.
Some educators falsely give their
claim validity by saying that students are
unprepared for college and receiving bad
grades because of the lack of homework
in high school.
Lauren Packer
Even Penn State gets in on the home
work bandwagon with their general rule
of thumb: Students should spend at least
three hours outside of class for every
hour spent in class.
Bottom line, unless it's is a class that
students are having trouble grasping
concepts, or students really like the
class, nine hours a week on a three credit
class is entirely too much to spend study
ing. For most classes, the Packer rule
of thumb is one hour outside of class
per hour in class, and that is only if
something is due the next class.
Moreover, why must there be group
work? Every major has it; every stu
dent hates it. College group work is ab
solutely more useless than homework
and fails miserably for the following
reasons
I. One student does all the work.
You know the drill. Maybe you even
are this person. Inevitably, in each group
there is one student who is not willing
to work with the group for fear that his/
her grade will suffer, has social anxiety
disorder or the other members are so
that racial issues cannot even be uttered
for fear that they will be twisted and mis
interpreted into a racially motivated
statement. Limbaugh had no malice to
ward McNabb or anyone of his race, yet
his comments were treated in such a
manner.
In the court of public opinion,
Limbaugh was charged unjustly with
making a racist comment. The opposi
tion prematurely raised their red flags,
refusing to hear Limbaugh out, and in
stead opted to begin catapulting accu
sations at him.
Adding to the hypocrisy, Limbaugh
was stereotyped because he is a Cauca
sian, conservative and the concomitant
was automatically drawn that he was a
racist too. Limbaugh was plagued by a
double standard, for if either black
Countdown host Michael Irvin or Tom
Jackson would have made the comment,
it would have gone without question.
Limbaugh was flagged for going
against the grain and bringing to light
an issue that most would rather keep in
the closet. If an individual fears to make
a statement, since public persecution
will follow, it is equally a violation of
freedom of speech. One should not fear
losing their jobs, because they pointed
out a flaw in the system. If that flaw
You display your misunderstanding of
the media's purpose in your prayer when
you ask Allah to "Remind them (the
media) of the moral practical value of
the simple truth of humility." You must
consider that most people do not live up
to your standard of morality and the me
dia, being a capitalist entity, is represen
tative of most people. By that reason, the
media shall always be immoral to you.
You complain that having the name
Mohammed makes you feel uncomfort
able when talking about certain issues
in public. Have you considered that in
most Arab countries, freedom of speech
is nonexistent because the controllers of
those nations are despots? While you
I have not done any research,
)ut an ethicated guess after
having gone through three
years of college and being in
my senior year is simply
this. It is not so much the
lack of homework given
in high school, but the
lack of knowledge
in areas such as
time manage
rioritiz-
ing and partying
too much.
The Behrend Beacon
lazy that one member must rise to the
challenge and complete the assignment
so everybody does not fail.
2. Students concede to each other in
order to save face. In this case, group
members usually agree to agree so that
no one gets mad. Group unity is almost
bigger than the project and grade. The
work is done fairly well because mem
bers of this type of group are usually
concerned about the grade as well as how
their classmates view their peers' work.
3. No students want to put forth the
effort on the forced assignment that
may or may not have any relevance to
them or their major. This is where stu
dents do the assignment because it is re
quired for a larger part of their grade.
Members of the group put forth about
25 percent in effort and say "I'll do this
part" so that others cannot write in their
papers that they did not do anything.
4. Combination of previous three.
This is by far the most severe case of
failed group work. It is the result of pro
crastination and too many other failing
groups near the end of the semester.
Education institutions are doing a great
disservice by assigning group work. Stu
dents find ways around it in order to get
the desired grade. Lying on group pa
pers is a common phenomenon.
All this homework and group work for
what? Give students homework in el
ementary and high school and they miss
important socializing skills and self-dis
covery. Keep giving them homework
and group work in college and they get
set up for failure.
In the business world, no one will con
cede to get a good grade. One worker
might end up doing all the work and oth
ers might not care about being your
friend in the project. It is a tough lesson
to learn. and I'm glad the educators in
our society want to spend a lifetime
teaching us a lesson that in the end is
wrong.
goes unattended, it will expand and
weaken the integrity of the system.
Everyone operates on pins and needles
because they are afraid to step outside of
the PC boundaries. Sometimes those
lines need to be broken and redrawn in
order to deal with new issues. If people
are unwilling to accept that concept,
when someone does step over the line;
the public backlash will he that much
more amplified.
We do not live in a clear society, al
beit no issue is black and white either,
sometimes for movement to occur the
initiator must go out on a limb.
Limbaugh has been a lightning rod in
the past and will continue to be one. His
statement was not intended to cut down
black pursuit to play quarterback, but to
suggest the media was doing a disservice
to them.
When we hear race, we turn a deafen
ing ear to the focal point of the argument,
ostracize the speaker and run and hide
behind our proverbial "PC shields." Un
fortunately we cannot deflect issues for
ever, these problems will not just go
away and we cannot ask for their resig
nation, they must be addressed.
may feel uncomfortable talking about
Iraq in Bruno's, I, being an Israeli Jew
cannot even attempt to enter most Arab
countries for the high likelihood of anti-
Semitic persecution.
Mr. Hogue, you have free speech, just
as I have free speech. As you should
avoid talking about Iraq in Bruno's to
prevent malicious behavior. I should
avoid talking about suicide bombers and
whites should avoid talking about rac
ism. Mischievous people are every
where and, despite your belief, you are
not immune from them.
Sam Marvit
Biology, 02
Page