, ... 1 Oscar review, Page 7 4, „,-,k, .. - . . , 416 A: • 1 .1 0 ° t , . . ''* 1 1 1 , Women's Basketball, t , , r ~• Page 10' ' a 4li gik ' 1 o I , . ~ $ i / , THE BEHREND 4: +k is , BEACON ~,.. Friday, March 4, 2005 Proposal misses deadlines, violates policy Most students buying tickets would not recognize that the New Found Glory concert scheduled for March 31 had several adminis trative difficulties from its inception up to and including its current status. However, students who work intimately with the Student Activity Fee suggest that the aid given to a staff created proposal may have gone too far. Kris Torok, who is both a staff member and SAF committee mem ber, submitted the proposal for the concert. According to the SAF Handbook, the proposal violated SAF guidelines with its use of out dated quotes and exceeding the maximum allowance of $3,000 for speakers and/or performers. The proposal was submitted on March 18, 2(X)4 and requested $38,500. That amount was requested based on the cost of the 2001 Sugar Ray concert. On April 29, 2004, the Office of Student Activities was awarded $19,250 for the concert with the completion date of Jan. 31. A memo regarding the allocation sent from the SAF committee to the Office of Student Activities stated, "The Committee funded this request provided that these funds will be released if no one is under contract by Nov. 3, 2004. If this program occurs, the Committee has agreed to pay any balance of expenses not covered by ticket sales out of JIT.- As of Thursday, the contract had yet to be signed The memo went on, "The award must be expended during the Fall 2004 semester according to the completion date indicated on your proposal." The application process for the concert committee began in October of 2004 with the selection of Concert Committee Chair Ross Zambanini, INBUS 04. The deadline for applying to the con- Orientation directors seek leaders By Jennifer Haight copy editor This year's Orientation Directors are looking for people to be orienta tion leaders. There are many perks to being an OL. They get to move in early, free meals for that week and it allows for extra time to explore the campus. Orientation Leaders are also there "to help in any way" and to direct the El Canelo review, STUDENT LIFE, Page 7 Tennis team winning streak, SPORTS, Page 9 Equality? OPINION, Page 4 Contents News Editorial.. Humor Student Life.. Sports Contact Us Newsroom 898-6488 Fax: 898-6019 E-mail: Behrendßeacon@aol.com Our offices are located down stairs in the Reed Union Building. By Dan Snedden assistant news editor incoming students. OLs are there "to help them get involved" in activities on campus, said Chris Fox, coordina tor, Student Organizations and Development. There is no better way for the new students to learn about the campus than from current students. Justin Curry, 08 PSYCH, and Teri Melani, 04 Business Administration, this year's Orientation Directors, are looking for "dedicated people who show commitment" either by being active on campus or by belonging to other clubs and organizations. They would also like people who "want to be involved and who are interested in serving the incoming students," according to Chris Fox. He also said they are looking for "someone who can make a good and positive first impression." They are also looking for more first year OLs who can relate a little better to the newcomers. The first year OLs went through the experience a year ago so who better for the new students to be greeted by? Dr. Seuss Day creates fun, On Feb. 27 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., about 40 children attended the sixth annual Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration in the Smith Chapel Living Room. Families and children were invited by the Association of Women in Communications to read Dr. Seuss' books, games, prizes, birthday cake and fun. ...1-3 7-8 ...9-10 Dr. Seuss Day is an annual event at Penn State Erie. Reading Dr. Seuss books was the highlight of the event, with AWC member Alyssa Peconi, COMBA 08, doing the Sam-I-Am hon ors. The National Education Association holds this day to promote Read Across America. Although AWC's Dr. Seuss Day was just one of the thousands of events across the nation to stimulate the reading interest among children, it has been very successful. "We want to encourage reading in children throughout the community," said Sara Kamber, COMBA 08, presi dent of AWC. Activity stations included a fishing game coupled with the book "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish," pinning eggs on the plate with "Green Eggs and A Penn State Erie Student Publication Viin 0 4 "I stepped down from leadership of my organization because of frustrations, not the least of which were with the Student Activity Fee." -Steve O'Donnell, former president of the Matchbox Players cert committee was Jan. 21 Despite the then still-forming concert committee and the passage of both the Nov. 3 deadline and the unspent money at the end of the Fall 2004 semester, the SAF Committee, through use of the ambigu ous appeals process, awarded an additional $15,750 for the concert and changed the conditions of the award to saying, "If no bid is received by Jan. 31, these funds will be rescinded." The notable change was from having a group "under [a legally binding] contract, on the original proposal, to a bid which is not necessarily legally binding. "These contracts take a long time, they're large documents," said Torok. "When we have a contract over $lO,OOO it has to go through University Park. I can sign contracts up to $lO,OOO for our campus. Anything over $lO,OOO or a contract that has a rider attached to it has to go through University Park and be signed by Risk Management." Torok explained that the process behind getting a band under con tract was a catch-22 saying, "We cannot submit a bid to a group without having a budget ready to go. Therefore, we have to have the money to back it up. There's no way I can get accurate quotes with out the group's rider." By Tiffany Mak staff writer As for the long-term affects, it is nice for the freshman to see some familiar faces around campus once they get adjusted. It would be comfort ing for them to see someone they rec ognize. The theme this year, developed by Curry and Melani, is "Truth or Dare." The inspiration for this theme came from the idea that "college is a time you find the truth about yourself," said Curry. There are many benefits that orien tation leaders can take from this expe rience. Aside from the free meals and moving early, they get to meet people they might not ordinarily meet and the commitment looks great on a resume. Orientation Leaders also assist in ori entation activities for the freshman. They get to "know they've made a dif ference" and "they get a great leader ship opportunity...they're part of a team," said Fox. "No one knows the school like the students. They wouldn't get a true sense of what the college is all about," Ham," making the children's own Dr. Seuss Hat with "The Cat in the Hat," a ball tossing game, matching game and face painting. Other than showing the children the fun of reading, it was also a great time Regarding the fact that the proposal was staff initiated, Torok said, "There's no reason going though the Concert Committee inter view and application process if there is not going to be any money." "The proposal was put in on behalf of the students," said Scott Soltis, SGA president and SAF committee co-chair. "If it's what the students want and what the students deserve, then the students have said Fox when asked why orientation leaders are needed. He also said, "Without orientation leaders, [faculty and staff] would not be able to give new students the experience they get here." The connection would be lost without student OLs. The deadline to apply is March 25. They have had a good response so far with a little over 40 applicants. This year the Orientation Directors are looking for somewhere between 50 and 55 orientation leaders. "[Being an orientation leader is] a time you can give something back to your college," said Curry, "it is also a great and fun experience." For more information contact Chris Fox at the Office of Student Activities at 898-6171 or email him at cdfl3@psu.edu. Interested applicants can stop in the Office of Student Activities or fill out the online appli cation at http://pennstatebehrend/stu dent/activities/sail/index.htm. for the children and the parents to take part in something together. "Parents and kids had a great time and so did the girls in our group," said Kamber. "For three hours, kids ran around, let loose, had fun and be cre- CONCERT, continued on Page 2 learning ative." AWC received various donations and sponsors for the event, such as TGlFridays, Splash Lagoon, Wegmans, Target, the Communications Department and the Athletic Department. Every child was able to get candies, necklaces and at least two McDonald's free French fries cards. Member of AWC also gave door prizes to every child so that no one was left out. "Through these wonderful donations, we were able to buy snacks, birthday cake, make goodie bags filled with puz zles, magnets, coloring books, candy, key chains, tattoos and stickers for every child," said Kamber. "We even had a few prizes for the parents." Kamber felt they accomplished great results and received good recognition. WSEE-TV, Erie's CBS affiliate, came to the Dr. Seuss' Birthday Celebration and interviewed Kamber to "learn more about why the AWC student chapter holds this event each year." They also received emails from families telling them what a wonderful time they had. "Seeing the kids having so much fun and knowing what we set out made the hard work worth it," said Kamber. "When you work so hard on an event, you hope the turn out will be good and, once again this year, we had a great turn out." Vol. LII No. 23
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers