Page 2 - The Behrend College Collegian Thursday, March 6. 1997
LOCAL...
Pre-teens targeted to
curb violence
ERIE-Children who commit violent crimes are most likely to
do so between the ages of 13 and 14, said District Attorney
Joseph Conti on Tuesday.
Considering those statistics, a new program was
announced Tuesday to teach violence prevention and
conflict resolution to children under age 12.
The program, "Beat The Streets Program," is a
collaborative effort among the District Attorney's Office, the
Boys and Girls Club of Erie and Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
The one-year program, scheduled for March 1997 to
March 1998, is meant to deter violence among children. It
will target 500 children through education and activities,
including guest speakers, club assemblies, role-playing, art
activities, group games and worksheets.
STATE...
Ridge's plan may boost
school standards
HARRISBURG-A $10.4 million incentive will hopefully
entice schools to improve academics, attendance, and
graduation rates. Gov. Tom Ridge's overall plan is to make
improvements in education standards statewide, said
Education Secretary Eugene Hickok.
Ridge's proposal will give school districts either a $lOO
million hike or a 3 percent increase for basic education.
Each school district will receive a minimum 1 percent
increase, with the less wealthy districts and those
experiencing a large enrollment growth receiving
supplemental funding.
Ridge has also allocated $1.85 million to enhance
Pennsylvania's System of School Assessment.
Recommendations for new academic standards are
expected in the next two weeks.
NATIONAL...
The Ohio River rages
OHIO-The Ohio River is flooded from West Virginia to Ohio,
leaving the highest water along the river in 30 years.
Thousands have been evacuated and many other residents
are trying to wait it out for as long as possible.
This unexpected flooding is due to runoff and record
downpours that occurred , over themeekend. , President Canton
hat declared 14 OM "Counties and nine in Kentucky' disaster
areas, making them eligible for federal assistance.
A total of 50 deaths have been blamed on the flooding and
tornadoes that have swept through the state.
Third grader faces felony
charges
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA- A third grader was arrested, strip
searched, and charged with a felony for etching his name in
wet cement. Jeremy Anderson and a group of his friends
were walking home from school when they passed by the
newly poured cement. Jeremy says that they only played in
the cement after a construction worker asked if they wanted to
write in it.
After the incident, a contractor from the Plaster
Development Co. called Jeremy's mother and demanded
$ll,OOO for a new sidewalk. She refused.
Two months later, the police took Jeremy out of school,
booked and strip searched him at juvenile hall. The company
is not commenting on the incident.
INTERNATIONAL...
DANNENBERG, GERMANY-Antinuclear protesters hurled
rocks and fire bombs at police that were trying to seize control
of a road that was used for atomic waste transport.
Hundreds of activists rushed the riot police who attempted
to secure the road that links Dannenberg to the site of the
nuclear waste storage facility. 250 arrests were reported, and
30,000 officers have been sent to protect the waste shipment.
Weekend weather
with Joey Stevens
Thursday: Windy, cold, and cloudy with some flurries.
There could be some lake effect snow showers late in the
day. High 34 degrees.
Thursday night: Windy and cold with lake effect snow.
Low 22 degrees.
Friday: Windy and cold with clouds and flurried. Lake
effect snow should taper off. High 36 degrees.
Saturday: Mainly cloudy and cold with a chance of, snow
showers. High 38 degrees.
Sunday: Mainly cloudy with a chance of showers. High 44
degrees.
Human clones unethica
By SCOTT PERRY
and KELLY RUOFF
Collegian Staff Writers
University Park, PA
While sending yourself out for
pizza may sound appealing, some
experts think using biotechnology
to clone human beings may be
unethical.
The recent cloning of Dolly, the
sheep in Scotland, and the cloning
of rhesus monkeys here in the
United States has forced researchers
to look at some of the ethical
issues underlying the biotechnology
industry.
Cloning animals is ethical as
long as the animals are treated in
accordance with the rules set up by
Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee (lACUC), said Dick
Frisque, professor of molecular
virology.
If rules regarding animal
treatment and care are followed as
they would be for other animal
experimentation, he said, then
cloning technology should not
require new guidelines.
However, one concern among
scientists is biodiversity in the
animal population, Frisque said. If
too many clones are made of a
single sample the diversity of the
species is reduced. This could cause
the species to become susceptible
to the weaknesses the original
animal had, he said.
So if one prize animal were
cloned a number of times by a
farmer and the farmer did not know
that the animal was especially
vulnerable to a certain disease,
Frisque said, the farmer's entire
population of that animal could be
wiped out.
The diversity in the population
may allow some animals to survive
a catastrophe that other animals
would not be able to adapt to.
Experimentation on animals at
universities must be approved by
lACUC, Frisque said, adding that
problems occur when
THERE'S NO EXCUSE
for Domestic Violence.
New
Psych
faculty
by Nathan Muhanna
Collegian Staff
Doctor Charisse Nixon is
Behrend's newest member of
the psychology department.
Nixon has actually been at
Behrend on a part-time basis
since last semester, in which
she taught courses on
introductory psychology. She is
currently instructing courses on
the psychology of women and
developmental psychology.
Nixon was born in upstate
New York in the town of New
Hartford. She received her
undergraduate degrees, a B.S.
in biology and a B.A. in
psychology, from Marietta
College in Ohio.
_She went on to attend
Bowling Green State
University, where she obtained
her M.A. in Guidance and
Counseling and her teacher's
certification. She will be
receiving her Ph.D. in
developmental psychology from
West Virginia University this
May.
Dr. Charisse Nixon's husband
Ed works as an administrator at
Edinboro University. She also
has a nine-month-old daughter
named Katie.
She spends her leisure time
biking and skiing, and describes
her transition into her position
here at Behrend as a very
smooth one, attributing this to
the friendly students and helpful
faculty and staff here.
experimentation is moved to the
private sector where there may be
but instead would be for the benefit
of the researcher conducting the
experiment," Frisque said.
Esther Siegfried, assistant
professor of biology, biochemistry
and molecular biology, said there
is a fine line between animal and
human experiments.
"For myself, I don't think we
should apply this to humans. I
think I'd be prepared to say that I
would support continued, monitored
studies on animals," she said.
"Splitting embryos is something
that has already been done in animal
species. But applying it to humans
brings up a set of philosophical
effects."
Cloning human beings would
diminish the value of human life,
said Ming Tien, professor of
biochemistry.
Tien compares cloning humans
to ant and bee colonies where many
of the animals are clones.
Losing one ant or one bee out of
the thousands in the hive would
have little consequence because they
are all essentially the same. If
human beings were to be cloned en
masse then it may have a similar
effect, he said.
"It would change the definition of
an individual human life in a
negative way," he said.
If the technology were used to
generate many clones it may make
racist thoughts easier to propagate,
Tien said. During the Vietnam War
era sayings like "They all look the
same" came to light, he said. These
thoughts allowed people to devalue
human life and justify racist
thoughts. If this technology were to
be used, it may make this
perception even more common.
Although many people view this
technology negatively when applied
to humans, Tien said some people
may be tempted to still make use of
it. Wealthy individuals may be
tempted to try to clone themselves.
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If there is money to be made, there
may be groups ready to cash in on
it. After all, there are companies
that will cryogenically freeze people
in an attempt to extend life, he said.
One reason to do this would be to
determine whether the embryo had
any genetic defects, Frisque said. If
the embryo did have any defects,
then the researchers could decide not
to use the embryo for implantation,
he said.
Ethics of this type of
experimentation must be decided
upon by our society as a whole,
Frisque said. But he said there are
already limits on what can be done
with human embryonic tissue.
The National Institutes of Health
has not funded this type of
experimentation with human tissue
in the past. Recently though, an
NIH ethics panel recommended that
some embryo research be funded.
It has been proposed that at day
14 these embryonic cells must not
be experimented on lists of issues
to decide upon their morality.
Police Log
2-26-97: Two non-students were escorted from Erie Hall
by Police and Safety officers.
2-27-97: A staff member reported that someone had tried
to take a VCR from one of the campus classrooms.
3-03-97: A student reported receiving two obscene
telephone calls from someone who said he was conducting
a health survey. An investigation into this incident is being
conducted.
3-04-97: Criminal charges including public drunkenness
are being filed against a non-student who was found
passed out at the Wilson Picnic Grove.
Not good with any other offer
"As a society we need to decide if
we want taxpayer's money to go to
this kind of research," Siegfried
said. "I think it's important to have
some sort of discussion. These am
complicated experiments.
Obviously something will go on in
Congress."
The United States has not
presented the greatest opposition to
this technology, Frisque said.
Germany and Switzerland have large
"Green" movements that are
opposed to any type of genetic
engineering, he said. A few
biotechnology companies have had
to move out of those two countries
because of opposition to the
research.
While the opposition in these
countries is strong, Frisque said he
believes people in the United States
would probably be just as strongly
opposed tc ..coning people.
Courtesy The Digital Collegian located at
http://www.collegian.psu.edu
Copyright 0 1997