Page 8 - The Behrend College Collegian Thursday,May 1, 1997 Smoking again Jennifer Reisenweber Collegian Staff Blackened lungs, chronic coughing, and the possibility of developing cancer. If these things sound just a little risky, they are. Smoking has become a habit to much of the world. Even with the surgeon general's warnings, most people ignore the, "hazardous to your health" labels and continue this nasty practice. Smoking has been seen for many years as a sign of being distinguished, or in today's terms, "being cool." The problem today is people have become so addicted they car:i quit. Most importantly young adults smoke. The law demands that until children reach the age 18, they are not permitted to purchase cigarettes. Take a look at the average social event such a? a concert. More than 80% of teenagers attending concerts, more than half of the audience, smoked cigarettes. This was proven to me Rebuttal on racism Joneatra Henry Collegian Staff Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Where I come from, if the shoe fits wear it. Being that I am a writer, the best way for me to communicate is through words. Words are concrete evidence of one's feelings and are not as easy to change as spoken words. My article, "Racism in America" was not a lashing out at white men or white people. I was merely expressing my personal opinion against the Ku Klux Klan. Now, if one took heed to the overall content of the article, one could see that I do not blame white males solely for my oppression. I am past that stage. I agree to take responsibility for past mistakes, that is why I am pursuing a college education. White people, who feel like John Amorose, want the past to fade away because they feel guilty of what their ancestors have done. Their easiest answer to current problems is to "leave them alone." John Amorose wants concrete facts on racism. Well, there are many discrimination cases on the record. One can investigate the court system and find errors. Also, take a deep look at the American government. What other facts does one need to prove that racism exists in America? I'm not going to do the research for you. I can only speak from personal experience. One solution John Amorose gave was to not participate in the KKK rally. In my opinion, if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. The answer is not to ignore the KKK but Letter to the editor Dear Editor, I would like to clarify the opportunities available to students at WPSE. Students may gain broadcasting and business experience with the station through the Commu 003 Radio Practicum, internship, independent study, work study, and volunteering. Experiences include interviewing, editing for broadcast, production, sports broadcasting, and marketing. WPSE has expanded the opportunities a available to students beyond the previous activities of running the board and reading the weather. Our goal in automating the on-air functions was to eliminate the wage payroll coast which became a drain on the station's budget, and to allow students to participate in a range of activities which better parallels the actual work of today's radio stations. Graduates entering the broadcasting field will, in fact , will that many stations today are automated, and the most prevalent equipment in use throughout the country is the Arrakis system which is in operation at WPSE. Because the station was charged with achieving financial independence, the focus of the management this year was to create a niche for the station among the competing local stations. The "WPSE Partners for Business" program has gained acceptance and financial support from the community. Students may now gain broadcasting and business experience in an environment which parallels the companies in which they may later be employed. The opportunity for students to meet the corporate executives and business owners which the station interviews can be extremely valuable when students begin marketing themselves to potential employers. Students of all majors may benefit from this unique experience. Presently an engineering student, a political science student, an MIS major, and a communications student are interning or volunteering with the station. Students may see production Manager Marji Alexa or me and get started at any time. WPSE's future will include a wide range of educational experiences for students. Sincerely, Ron Slomski General Manager at the Dave Matthews-Tim Reynolds concert at the Warner Theater months ago. Some smokers can't even go an hour without having a drag. It is developing more into an issue of the cigarette being a necessity as opposed to wanting to be cool. This unhealthy fixation has the probability of taking years off the addicts' lives. According to statistics, adults smoke more today and are under more pressure to start smoking. What they also do not realize is that with each inhalation they are decreasing their lung and heart capacity, their blood circulation slows, and causes other damage. People are beginning to get the hint and quit. If statistics can't persuade people to quit then what will? But the opposite question is: even though this is a bad habit and causes risks, is it other people's decision to make them quit? Shouldn't smokers have a mind of their of their own? stand up against them. But that is hard to do when they wear white sheets. John Amorose equated the KKK rally with the Million Man March. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the latter may have been a bit more positive. Organized hate and organized unity are two different issues. John Amorose believes that I generalized the white race. I can't help it if one identifies with the statements that were made. Again it may be a sign of guilt. Ido not remember calling all white males homophobic or sexist and I do not believe that I am racist. According to Henry Gonzalez, in his essay "Reverse Racism", racism is ". . . fear, hatred and prejudice combined into a poison that divides men who under their skin are identical: it causes some to believe they are superior to others: racism gives us all a burden of dishonor, guilt and grief." (Faces of America, 24). lam not racist. Ido not believe my race is superior to others. Ido not feel dishonor, guilt, or grief. I just want to be seen as equal, so how can I be guilty of the crime of racism. As I said before, I will keep tearing down the brick wall that society has helped me build for as long as I live. lam alking America. including the media, government, and educational institutions, not only white males, to help overcome racism. As long as I am able to write, I will continue to be outspoken and voice my opinion on social issues that I feel need public attention. In the end, I hope to find a solution to help America become a nation of equals. Since this is probably the last cartoon that I will be doing for the Collegian, I would just like to thank all of you readers for checking out my cartoon each week. The feedback I got was great. If you would like to see the cartoon back next year email rdcll9@psu.edu and say that you want Behrend Life to return. And as Bartles and James say, "Thank you for you support!!" To the Collegian, thank you for letting me try to do a cartoon and then sticking with me. I really appreciate it. And finally to all of my friends at the Collegian, we have been through some tough times and some great times. I just wanted to thank all of you for the memories. It's been real. To those of you graduating Good Luck i life, and to those who will be here next ear, I will see you around. Behrend Life... WA I rip* Roo M oFFieli4l. PittexpixeirSr 0 p TME P 9.4 - SC/OSW PLAsnci, • After finishing the last issue and handing the paper to the new staff, the old Collegian staff decided to take one more trip together. in►on By Colleen Fromknecht Opinion Editor On Wednesday, April 9, 1997 I attended a meeting of the Student Newspaper Advisory Board. I was there because I was being interviewed for the Editor-In-Chief position of the Collegian for next year. Present at that meeting beside myself were Jennifer Colvin and Danielle Murphy, the present Editors of the Collegian, Dr. Rob Speel and Dr. Ursula Davis the Collegian's advisors, Chris Rizzo, the Director of Student Activities, Dr. Roberta Salper, Dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr. Chris Reber, Dean of Student Affairs. SGA President Kim Epps was unable to attend due to illness. I applied for the position with Sheila Bickel, the current Entertainment Editor of the Collegian. What I thought was a routine interview to help the Advisory Board learn about Ms. Bickel's and my qualifications was actually a farce orchestrated by Chris Reber. When Reber asked us to sit "in the hot seats" he was not joking like I assumed him to be. He was deadly serious During the interview Reber pulled out a copy of the Collegian's constitution and lead a passage from it. The passage concerned objectivity in reporting news and in editorial content. Then he asked me how I felt the Collegian had done this school year. I said "Excellent." and left it at that. (Each of the other three candidates was not asked that question.) As soon as I saw Reber reading from the Techno By C. Caldwell Collegian Staff The end of the semester is fast approaching. Yes, the time of term papers and comprehensive-take-home finals is here. As we all enter this season of stress and sweat allow me to relay a warning-Entering the library computer lab is the equivalent of journeying to one of Dante's levels of Hell. Abandon all hope ye who enter here... The library computer lab has several problems. Of these, the lack of printers is paramount. Quite frankly, the lab printers are archaic. With a page output of one page every three to four minutes, even small files require a tedious amount of time to print. Resolution on these outdated printers is poor, and proper pagination is out of the question. These printers are a bottle neck for any information processed through the lab. They are already insufficient to handle the workload. The Computer Center has graciously allowed us to pay extra to use the one decent laser printer. How nice. Fourteen cents a page makes for some expensive term papers. 4 1 4, Rte+► t Assoc.ams P Roaut4S. AlbIN. Wilulu% lAN S F Mike DeSantis : EXITO. A story constitution I knew we did not have a snowball's chance in a volcano to obtain the position. You see, this was not about the new editor for the Collegian, this was about punishment. I know this is getting boring, but bear with me. On February 13, 1997 the Collegian printed an editorial I wrote which complained about the way the meetings of the Student Activity Allocation Fee Committee ran its meetings. In the article I said "I don't know about you, but I don't want anyone with cheesy ethics, or bad judgment for that matter, playing with our money." This statement set Reber off; early the next morning, the day after the issue appeared on campus, Reber accosted me in the Gorge (in front of my friend's ten year old son) and accused me of acting unethically and irresponsibly. He implied that the members of the Collegian staff agreed with him. He even went so far as to begin to tell me how I should run my column, but stopped when I asked him, "Are you trying to tell me what I can or cannot print?". Reber claimed that I did not contact any member of the Committee to verify my allegations. By this he means that I did not attempt to interview Reber. I did not need to, I read the releases he sent out concerning the Committee and I talked to at least one member who attended the meetings. In the February 20, 1997 issue of the trouble The terminals are linked under an older Operating System (0/S), Workgroups for Windows. This system is problematic and terminals lock frequently, erasing any unsaved information (like student papers). This 16-bit 0/S is accessible to students with programming knowledge and malignant intentions. Their planting of viruses adds to terminal lock-up and other software malfunctions. Thank you MIS/Comp-Sci students with too much spare time. Perhaps you should spend that time trying to adjust socially? The Computer Center has already proposed that the improvements installed in other labs be made to the library over the summer, pending funding from University Park. The funds will be used to upgrade one lab on campus with Pentium based terminals equipped with a new 32-bit O/S, Windows NT. Unfortunately, this will not help those of us who are paying computer fees for an operational computer lab this semester. If you have an option, use the other main lab this semester. Better yet, use a friend's computer! If, however, you are a humanities student who has to use the library information resources to do research, best wishes. You can come down and join me as I rant and rave and lose major portions of my senior thesis, again, again, again... Friends ? Ayodele Jones Political Science, 02 As the school year comes to a close, I always like to reflect upon what has happened during this time. I have gained knowledge, communication and leadership skills. But most importantly, my life has been enriched by the addition of friends. Some of us will part and continue our educational careers at other Penn State campuses, and some of us will return in the fall and resume the ones we already have. I am the first one to say that I am not perfect by any means and by saying this I readily admit to having made some wrong choices. I have chosen people who I thought were my friends, but yet they turned out to be nothing of the sort. These same people turn and talk about your imperfections (according to them) to any willing ear eager to listen. They may call you immature, selfish, and they may say you are a part of a clique and other ridiculous accusations to assure their own self-worth. But as I have already learned, friends are a valuable commodity and a few words said by a jealous and insecure person can in no way destroy the relationships you have already developed. It is often said that the friends you make in college are often your friends for life. So be careful who you proclaim as you friend, becaus" some people are so unsure of themselves that they feel the need to tear others down to build themselves up and then wonder why they have few or no friends in the end. As the year comes to a close, I hope all can reflect upon the last year and say with a smile that it has been a learning experience. For I have truly learned that friends are few but acquaintances are many. As the song says, I have no time for fake... Collegian I printed a letter from Reber protesting my article. What the reader is not aware of is that it was an amended letter. The first letter also mentioned an article another reporter had written which Reber also objected to. By amending his letter, Reber turned a protest about articles written in the paper to a personal attack on the Collegian's Opinion Editor. That's okay. That is his opinion. But he let his opinion rule his good sense at the Student Newspaper Advisory Board interview on Wednesday. Reber arbitrarily extended the deadline for applications for the Editor-In-Chief position when he learned I was the only candidate who applied. He and other members of the Committee actively recruited the other candidates for the position. One candidate was told that it did not matter the person had no experience because the person was more responsible and can get things done. Then he stacked the deck against us; if there was any chance to vote fairly at all, he sabotaged it. One member of the committee was not told there was only one original applicant and was unaware that other Committee members were heavily recruiting candidates for the position. All in all it stinks. I'm not stupid. I know some administration members do not particularly care for me. ("She's the older student with the big mouth who likes all that multi-cultural stuff.") That's okay, too. I guess I was naive when I walked into that meeting expecting objectivity from the members. I thought that they would elect the person who they felt would serve the students' interests best. Am I bitter? You bet. I didn't have a chance! The irony of the situation is that my original complaint about letting students attend the Student Activity Allocation Fee Committee meetings was valid. Each campus in the Penn State University system received an E-mail on March 6, 1997 which states "All SAF meetings will be open to students..." So although I won the battle, I lost the war. Reber punished me because I was right and he knew it. I do not have anything against the new Editor. She seems perfectly competent. What concerned me was when I met her she was telling me about some suggestions she had on how to improve the paper that Reber had given her. What he probably didn't tell her is that these are the same ideas I presented to the Committee when I was interviewed. My question is this: if I am not good enough to be Editor, why did you pass my ideas on to the new Editor? Oh yeah, Reber still hasn't officially notified me that we did not get the position. He told us after our interview that he would notify us Wednesday night or Thursday at the latest whether or not we got the position. I'm still waiting and wondering. Why? The Behrend College Collegian published weekly by the students of Editors in Chief Jennifer V. Colvin Danielle M. Murphy Business Manager Carley Gwin News Editors Doreen Foutz Sara Prosser Sports Editors Brian Gregory Matt Plizga Entertainment Editor Sheila Bickel Tim Holsopple, Assistant Photography Editor Colleen Gritzen Opinion Editor Colleen Fromknecht John Amorose, Assistant Copy Editor Michael DeSantis Advertising Manager Tom Keefe Office Manager Crystal Dehart Postal Intormatiot The Collegian 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 Collegian can be reached by calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898.6019 (fax). ISSN 1071-9288 Letter Plater The Collegian encourages letters to the editor on news coverage, editorial content and University affairs. Letters should be typewritten, double spaced and signed. Letters should be no longer than 400 words. Letters should include the semester standing and major of the writer. All letters should provide the address and phone number of the writer for verification of the letter. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters. Letters submitted to The Collegian become the orooertv of the 118W8DaDer.
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