Amy Wilczynski, editorial page editor
The Behrend Beacon
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Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building,
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563.
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
Stop the dissecting
When students at a
high school "Participa
tion in Government"
class were asked to in-
vite outside speakers to
debate controversial is
sues, I accepted this op
portunity to discuss
why I believed the
school should stop pur
chasing animal "speci
mens" for teaching bi
ology, and should in
stead use lifelike three
dimensional plastic
models with removable
parts and/or interactive
computer programs.
I showed the class
a People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals
video, "Classroom
Cut-Ups," which de-
pitted, among other
abominations, workers
at a dissection supply
house embalming ani
mals - from cats to
crabs while they were alive.
Frogs are usually dropped into an
alcohol solution, which takes about
20 painful minutes to cause death.
According to Physicians Commit
tee for Responsible Medicine, the
formaldehyde used to preserve the
animals' bodies can harm people ex
posed to it. Formaldehyde is carci
nogenic irritant to eyes, skin, throat,
lungs and nasal passages.
The National Association of Biol
ogy Teachers has urged schools to
offer alternatives to dissection.
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I shared all this with the students and
asked if their biology class dissection
experiences helped them learn biology.
Most replied no.
One student wondered if it was un
ethical to dissect fetal pigs that were
taken from the bodies of their butch
ered mothers. They would not have
survived anyway. I replied that dissect
ing fetal pigs was perhaps a lesser evil
than killing live animals for dissection,
but why dissect any animal?
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer told
"Dateline NBC," "in ninth grade, in bi
ology class, we had the usual dissec
tion of fetal pigs, and I took the remains
home and I just started branching out
to dogs and cats." 1 suggested to stu
dents that while I trusted their dissec
tion experience had not demonized
them. I nevertheless agreed with
Adelphi University Biology Professor
George Russell, who wrote that "dis
section not only fails to promote rever
ence for life, but encourages the ten
dency to blaspheme it" by desensitiz
ing students to cruelty and to the sanc
tity of life.
But most schools and colleges in
America continue to emphasize dissec
tion. Educational administrators should
listen to what one student told PETA
"I passed geography without leaving
my home state, and passed geology
without seeing planets collide. It's in
sulting to argue that students can't un
derstand anatomy unless they stick scis
sors into a frog's brain."
Joel Freedman
Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate
New York
Submit letters of application to Student Affairs by April 19 at 5 p.m.
Letters must include name, semester, major and writing experience.
EDITORIAL
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Lauren M. Packer
Friday April 9, 2004
twill all be worth it in the en
As my 17 years of schooling draws
to a close, my mind twirls in the satis
faction that I will soon have a bach
elor of arts degree in communication
and media studies. I will soon be con
sidered a Penn State alumni.
I bought my cap and gown this week;
here's to the good ol' blue and white.
When I watched the woman check my
name off of the graduation list confirm
ing that I had purchased my cap and
gown, I felt a sigh of relief sweep over
me. I am almost done with college. I
made it. I never was quite sure that I
was cut out for college; in fact, I didn't
even want to go to college. I kept tell
ing myself that I wouldn't need a de
gree because I have my license in cos
metology and spent three years during
high school earning my Pennsylvania
state certification. So, why would I
need a college education? It all
sounded like a big waste of money that
I didn't have. The student loan pro
cess was a big pain in the butt and I
didn't get half as much state money as
I thought I would. I suppose that's one
of the drawbacks to being middle-class.
My first year of college was harder
than I had expected. I failed a history
class my first semester, which did not
give me encouragement to continue my
education. I was convinced that I just
wasn't supposed to be going to college.
Letter to the Editor
want this muzzle remove
Once upon a time, in the fall of
2001, at a Behrend campus near you,
a little newspaper called BUDPOT
reared its ugly head and captivated a
college for one semester. No, I do not
feel "captivated" is too strong a word.
Its creators were regularly recognized
and congratulated on campus, despite
their attempts at anonymity. At least
one department's staff meeting was
at one point dominated by discussion
of the paper and "what to do about
it." I know because a professor in that
department told me all about it her
self.
It's been over two and a half years
since that paper, created by my room
mate Michael Angelone and myself
(under the aliases of Miguel Sanchez
and Crafty Barnardo), gave the
Behrend community something to
talk about. I don't know how many
current students or staff members
were around when BUDPOT existed,
but I'm hoping that those who were
will take the time to enlighten the un
initiated.
I'm bringing up this ancient history
because of recent events at Carnegie
Mellon University, the University of
Scranton and the University of Ne
braska at Omaha. Student newspapers
at all three campuses have found
themselves in hot water after print
ing supposedly offensive content in
their April Fool's Day issues. Two of
the three papers have ceased publica
tion for the time being. I find myself
more appalled and offended by the
trouble these people have gotten into
than anything that could have ap
peared in the papers themselves.
To be fair, I haven't seen the con
tent of the controversial issues my
self, nor do I expect at this point I will
Advertising manager
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rilcz EVlTUtt
Amy nski
editorial editor
My dad was always the person who
reminded me of how worth it a de
gree would be to me in the future, in
case I ever wanted to get out of the
hair/cosmetology business. I ended
up finishing the year and when sum
mer came, I felt like a free woman. I
worked full time at a local salon and
I really enjoyed my job.
I made a deal to myself that if I was
seriously dreading going back to
school in the fall, I wouldn't go back.
If I wasn't dreading it and felt I could
handle giving my second year of col
lege a shot, then I would go back.
As it turned out, I realized that
working a full time job, at the age of
19, wasn't as fun as I'd expected. So,
I went back to college. I was plan
ning on declaring psychology as my
be able to. I will have to base my
views of the matter on vague descrip
tions of the "offensive" content that
appeared in news stories about the
controversy. The fact of the matter is
that these publications are financed
and therefore governed by the insti
tutions they are affiliated with. This
naturally puts a clamp on the'voices
of the writers. Pardon my French, but
c'est merde de taureau!
Of course, any university that runs
a student paper has every right to have
final say over what can or can't be
published. The fact that most student
papers are financed by the institution
is the problem that must be faced.
Sure, we have freedom of speech, but
would good is it if there's no forum
that will allow us to speak freely?
This is exactly why BUDPOT ex
isted, and exactly why every school
needs a paper like it. Only through
independent publications can the true
voice of the student be heard. Mikey
and I wrote, edited, designed, pro
duced, financed and distributed ev
ery issue of that paper with a bare
minimum of resources. If two slack
ers like us could accomplish that,
there's absolutely no reason why a
group of students couldn't band to
gether at any college campus to ac
complish the same. I'm not suggest
ing you go out and try to imitate
BUDPOT it was an entity of its
own. However, every student popu
lation deserves an independent, un
censored forum with which to express
themselves. Sure, it won't be fancy
BUDPOT was nothing more than
Publisher files printed at the local
copy shop but it doesn't have to be.
If it's there, people will read it.
Don't get me wrong, the official
News editor
Editorial editor
Student Life editor
The Behrend Beacon
major, but I realized that I had lost in
terest in that field of study. I began
exploring new majors on the PSU Web
site and found that communications in
terested me. The following semester
I enrolled in several communication
classes. I decided that I would defi
nitely declare Communication and
Media Studies as my official major.
After my first year of college, I
never hesitated again about returning
the following semesters. I worked
harder than ever to catch up to the
amount of credits I was supposed to
have. I took 22 credits during both se
mesters of my junior year. It was hard,
but it was important to me that I gradu
ate in May 2004, with the rest of my
class.
So here it is, April 2004, and only
one month until I graduate from col
lege. Reflecting back, I realize that I
am extremely glad that I decided to go
to college. A college degree is valued
in any work environment and I am
proud to say that I will finally possess
one on May 15, 2004. College is a
journey, no matter what the situation.
Stick with it, don't give up, and as my
dad always says, "It will all be worth
it in the end."
Amy WilczynskiS column appears
every three weeks
student publications have their place.
They are invaluable resources to any
one interested in learning about jour
nalism, writing or advertising, to
name just a few fields. They can also
be an informative and provocative
source of information to the student
body. However, as long as they are
controlled by the school they will be
limited. (On a side note, I offer hearty
kudos to the Beacon should this let
ter get published.) There needs to be
an alternative publication in which
students can say what won't be
printed otherwise. Trust me when I
say we printed a lot of controversial
material in BUDPOT. At least half of
it we didn't even mean, we just said
it because it was funny, and because
we could. We never even came close
to any kind of consequences, even
when we revealed our real names. The
fact was there was nothing anyone
could do. It was our paper and we
could say what we wanted. End of
discussion.
Thus, I implore you to organize,
collaborate and create. There's no rea
son why the staff of the Beacon can't
get involved either. Think of it as a
side project. Even though I'm no
longer a Behrend student, I'd be more
than happy to do my part by contrib
uting material. I can be reached at
jdf l79@yahoo.com. This is your mis
sion, and you really should choose to
accept it.
Even the smallest voice can be
heard above the crowd if it has some
thing different to say.
Keep on truckin',
Jason Fickley (a.k.a. Crafty Barnardo)
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