I The Behrend Beacon
fE Wo - YEAR IN RE VIE W
Concert 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, 2004 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 concert 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received by Jan. 31, these funds will be rescinded.”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,
SGA presidential candidate resigns in face of disqualification
By Daniel J. Stasiewski
from the April 1 issue
The SGA Presidential election was turned
upside-down March 25 when presidential candi
date Zack Mentz and his running mate, Seth
Laird, resigned from the race.
Mentz currently serves as senator and was look
ing to upset current SGA Vice-President Justin
Curry and Chair Pro-tempore Alexander
Henderson. The Mentz/Laird campaign received
much grassroots support that created what hopeful
students considered to be a formidable challenger.
The resignation was shocking to students
involved in the campaign, with aggressive, accu
satory letters being sent to administrators. Signs
saying “Let Zack Run” were also put up and sub
sequently tom down. Mentz said that though he is
taking the resignation in stride, he does feel bad
for the students who supported him.
“I would come in and someone would hand me
a stack of buttons they made,” said Mentz. “I felt
bad for them because of all the work they put in.”
The Mentz/Laird ticket turned in their resigna
tion after an undisclosed policy violation would
have forced their disqualification. The violation,
which was discovered by Director of Student
Affairs and SGA Adviser Ken Miller, was uncov
ered on the same day Mentz and Laird turned in
their resignation.
SGA President Scott Soltis, SGA Election
Committee Chair Mike Taylor, Mentz and Laird
were involved in the meeting that resulted in the
resignation of two candidates. Mentz described
Empty your
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BACK TOOK. TEXTBOOKS.
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EXTENDED HOURS VOR
FINALS WEEK
MAY 2 - MAY S--&AM - KPM
MAY 6—&AM - 4:3OPM
MAY 7—IIAM - 2PM
By Dan Snedden
from the March 4 issue
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.”
Regarding the fact that the proposal was staff initiated, Torok
said, “There’s no reason going though the Concert Committee
interview and application process if there is not going to be any
money.”
“The proposal was put in on behalf of the students,” said Scott
the meeting as “cordial.”
Paperwork and petitions for potential candi
dates were due March 4, the Friday before Spring
Break. Soltis said in an e-mail interview that the
Election Committee does an initial review of the
candidates, followed by Miller’s full review.
Because Miller was attending to family matters,
the discrepancy was not uncovered until March
25.
Mentz, however, admits both he and Laird knew
about the discrepancy before the paperwork was
turned in. He said he didn’t think it would be a
problem.
The Making of a Candidate
Mentz came to Behrend from Penn State Mont
Alto knowing he wanted to be
involved with SGA. He read the SGA constitution
over the summer and when he finally did get to
campus, ran successfully for an open senate posi
tion.
During his campaign for senate, Mentz used
some signs with which Soltis disagreed. The con
versation that ensued showed Soltis exactly what
kind of SGA member Mentz would be.
“He and I talked for probably an hour and it was
then that I realized the passion that he had,” said
Soltis. “For every explanation I had for him, he
had a counter question and we probably could
have gone on all night, but all in all it was a good
experience for both of us.”
Senator Mentz eventually went on to be a mem
ber of the SGA Budget, Constitutional Review
and Public Relations Committees. He is also a
member of close to a dozen campus clubs. As the
campaign began, Mentz and Laird became “affili
ated” with numerous other clubs and organiza
“If you want people to vote for you, you have to
go out and support them,” Mentz said. “Luckily,
we’re just involved kids, Seth (Laird) and I.”
The enterprising candidates had more ideas
from there. Mentz contacted the Pizza Hut and
Dominos restaurants on Buffalo Road and asked
them to put Mentz/Laird election flyers on every
box delivered to Behrend. The restaurants agreed,
but not everyone was as helpful.
“We wanted to have three standing signs on
Parking lot cameras
By Bradley Stewart and Lacy Buzard
from Nov. 19 issue
Cars in the Behrend lots are at risk. Over the course of
four weeks 12 incidents of vehicle crime were reported.
Broken down, approximately three cars per week are tar
geted for vandalism and theft on campus, racking up
thousands of dollars worth of property damage.
Police and Safety have officers, property protection
guards and a student auxiliary who patrol the parking
lots. There cannot be someone in the lots at all times,
however.
“If you have that many cars parked during the night
time hours, anywhere, there’s a certain percentage of
them that are going to get broken into,” said James
Amann, director of Police and Safety Services.
Car criminals usually break into cars for valuables
such as CDs and stereo equipment. Amann suggests that
students lock their vehicles and keep costly items out of
sight.
There are surveillance cameras in all residence halls,
except the apartments, and in Bruno’s, but none in the
parking lots. The cameras were installed to deter and
convict delinquent individuals caught on camera. Why
not use them in the parking lots?
Cameras that would be needed in the parking lots
would have to be more advanced than the $2OO cameras
used in the residence halls. They would have to have
special zoom capabilities and the ability to be controlled
manually.
Other obstacles include not having a large enough
workforce to monitor cameras 24 hours per day and not
having room to build the needed facilities. Amann does
not anticipate any additional space once the REDC is
Soltis, SGA president and SAF committee co-chair. “If it’s what the
students want and what the students deserve, then the students have
every right to get what they deserve.”
Concerning the breach of the SAF Handbook guidelines limiting
performance costs to no more than $3,000 Soltis said, “Once in a
while, when it’s flat-out not possible [to sponsor an event], you have
to have flexibility with the guidelines.” He went on to say, “There
are a lot of circumstances where an exact quote is not an option.
“On the one hand I can appreciate the fact that in order to get a
Concert Committee going, they may need to have some money,”
said Dave Daquelente, executive director of the Lion Entertainment
Board. “At the same time if it’s going to be a concert committee run
by students, their needs to be students organizing and planning it.”
“We [the LEB] are very fortunate that we do get a pretty fluid
budget for the year that we get to spend and program with at our dis
cretion. The organization and myself are very grateful for the liber
ty and responsibility we have with SAF funds,” said Daquelente, but
he continued with, “What happened was that there was money first
and then there were students, my only concern was that there should
have been students there before the money.”
The LEB is one of the two organizations on campus who’s sole
purpose is to provide entertainment for the students. The other
entertainment organization, the Matchbox Players, have different
feelings concerning the funding process surrounding the concert.
“SAF is very frustrating for me as a former president of the
Matchbox Players. All of the bureaucracy on this campus prevents
things from getting done,” said Steven O’Donnell HIST 08. “They
do give you training courses to let you understand how it works, but
as an organization, they’re working against you. I’ve always had to
combat them to get things.”
O’Donnell felt that faculty and staff members who do not pay the
Student Activity Fee should not have access to the fund because
they initiate events, “for their pride because it gives them a better
name because they are looking for other work so it gives them a rep
utation that they can put together large events.”
Ticket sales have been slow with over 600 of the 2,500 sold.
However at $l5 a ticket, it is impossible for the event to break even.
“I see events sponsored and funded by SAF that are trying to break
even, when our events sell out and often make a profit.”
wood frames going along the road to the Reed
Building and the Science Building,” said Mentz.
The signs would have been made with bed sheets,
but Operations would not allow the candidates to
put up the large signs.
Mentz and Laird made mouse pads for the Reed
computers, purchased a large advertisement in the
Behrend Beacon, folded more than 100 table tents
with volunteers and had “Zack and Seth” T-shirts
made. Mentz was even prepared to e-mail every
on-campus student reminding them to vote on
Election Day. The campaign, however, came to
an end before the e-mails could even be sent.
out of the question
completed.
Amann explained that the command center that would
be needed to monitor parking lot cameras would have to
be very advanced. In addition to multiple displays, the
command center would need to have dispatch capabili
ties which would increase the price dramatically.
“[Cameras] are far too big of a ticket item for Police
Services,” said Amann. “They would have to be pur
chased through the university itself.”
The cameras now in use are monitored by Housing and
Food services. The footage from the cameras is fed into
a digital database that is accessed from a web-based pro
gram. Upon the report of criminal activity, camera
footage can be reviewed for the presence of criminal
activity.
Cameras in the Lawrence Hall lobby were recently
instrumental in catching a vandal. A vending machine in
the hall lobby was damaged along with a chair. Housing
provided Police and Safety with the footage of the inci
dent and Police and Safety was able to use the footage to
find the suspect.
“I don’t want to catch people and prosecute them; my
goal isn’t to play police officer,” said Randal Geering,
director of Housing and Food Services. “The cameras
are a deterrent.”
Housing bought its cameras from Best Access along
with seven digital video recorders (approximately $BOO
each) with website access. With the amount and size of
the parking lots, cameras to monitor them would be more
expensive.
Parking lots, however, are not under Housing’s jurisdic
tion. Both Amann and Geering agree that placing cam
eras in the lots would be an all-or-nothing task which
would cost upwards in the thousands of dollars.
Friday, April 29, 2005