The Behrend College
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UNARY
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Thursday, October 16, 1997
INSIDE...
World News
Gates gives Russia a taste of
high-tech.
National News
John Denver dies in plane
crash
Features
Playhouse honors The King
and I.
Sports
Mens' soccer team defeats
Carnegie Mellon 1-0.
I Editorial
Progress made toward
location of businesses in
campus area
Behrend welcomes
alumni
Brian Ashbaugh
associate editor
Homecoming 1997 hits Behrend
this weekend as alumni, students,
and families alike will join in the
fun and festivities. Many activities
are planned for the event such as
recording artists The Gathering
Field, soccer and volleyball games,
an Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner,
and the Admissions Open House.
Director of Student Activities,
Chris Rizzo, expects "around 500
to 600 people for the Open House
on Saturday and about 200 alumni
for the Hall of Fame Dinner."
The weekend kicks off on Friday
with a bonfire on the ski slope
during which the Homecoming
king and queen will be crowned.
Also Atlantic Record's recording
artists and Pittsburgh band The
Gathering Field will perform. The
event lasts from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.
On Saturday, breakfast will be
served in Bruno's from 8:00 to
10:00 a.m. At 10:00 a.m., an
alumni soccer match will be played
on the soccer field and an alumnae
volleyball game will be played in
Erie Hall. Also at 10:00 a.m., the
Mari R. Trenkle Lounge
dication ceremony will take.
place in the main lounge atthe
Ahny Hall Living and Learning
Center. From 10:00 a.m. to 2:30
p.m., a campus walking tour will
be held every half hour leaving
from the Reed Wintergarden.
New to the Homecoming
weekend will be an Admissions
Open House in the Reed Building.
Margaret Matlin brings "bimbos
and rambos" to Behrend
page 8
Seven percent of Seventeen
magazine is dedicated to self
development, while forty-six
percent is based on appearance. Dr.
Margaret Matlin who spoke in the
Reed Lecture Hall Monday night,
used this statistic as an example of
how both genders are represented in
the media.
page 7
Dr. Matlin explained the title of
the lecture, "Bimbos and Rambos:
A Cognitive Basis of Gender
Stereotypes" by telling the audience
of two comic books displayed next
to each other in a bookstore. One
was a "Veronica" comic book,
showing a scantily dressed Veronica
ice skating. The other, "The
Punisher" depicted an unusually
large muscled man who looked like
he was ready to destroy the city he
was towering over. The implication
was that these two comic books
represented the stereotypes that each
gender has of each other. These two
pictures were extreme opposites and
emphasized the perceived gap
between the genders.
page 9
page 12
Dr. Matlin is a professor of
psychology at SUNY ueneseo,
where she has taught for twenty six
years and won the Chancellors
Award for excellence in teaching.
Her major area of study involves
how gender is related to the
cognitive process. She has found
that each influences the other, and
page 4
the cognitive process perpetuates
and exaggerates stereotypes.
People tend to see everyone in one
and parents
Rizzo hopes "the addition of Open
House will drastically increase the
number of visitors." The Open
House will provide guests with an
opportunity to meet faculty and
staff, learn about majors, and
experience lab demonstrations
during the afternoon.
At noon on Saturday there will
be an Alumni Picnic and
Reception and an Annual Society
General Membership Meeting at
the Wilson Picnic Grove.
According to Rizzo, the goal of
Homecoming is to "accentuate
athletic teams and campus as a
whole." This will be achieved by
holding several volleyball and
soccer games throughout .
Saturday. Also, from 12:30 to 3:30
p.m., a Carnival will take place on
the Reed Front Lawn.
To wrap up the Saturday affairs,
several special events begin at COO
p.m. with the Athletic Hall of Fame
Reception and Dinner in the Reed
Commons. This year's class of
inductees includes Edward Bell,
Clifford Caldwell, Randall
Gorniak, Herbert Laurier, Gary
Manuel, Susan Holmes-Preston,
and Roger Sweeting.
At 7:00 p.m. in Bruno's is the
12me
Mystery Dinner and at
`IV
9:00 p.m. Bruno's presents
Comedy Night with comedian Rob
Paravonian. Rob was winner of
ABC's America's Funniest People.
Capping off the weekend is a
brunch held in Dobbins Hall from
11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. The meal
will be accompanied by an acoustic
guitar.
Anne Rajotte
managing editor
sex as similar, yet very different
from the other sex. For example we
refer to the other sex as the opposite
sex rather than the other, which
illustrates a gap; Matlin says it is an
artificial gap" which the genders put
between themselves.
Matlin also asserts that while male
behavior is considered normative,
female behavior is explained. Her
example was voter turnout. Women
are more likely to vote, but
emphasis is more likely to be placed
on explaining why women's voter
turnout is higher than the men's,
rather as seeing the men's as lower
than normal. Male behavior is seen
as the standard, while women's
behavior is compared to it.
Another example of gender
stereotyping that Matlin gave the
audience was based on a study
where a group of people were given
a passage to read about a successful
banker. Half of the participants were
told that the banker was a white
woman and the other half was told
that the banker was a white man.
When asked why the banker was
successful, the participants who
thought the banker was a woman
attributed her success to effort and
luck, while the male's success was
attributed to ability.
After giving this background on
gender stereotypes and
expectations, Matlin talked about
how genders are portrayed in the
media. She stated that women are
relatively invisible and inaudible
and, "women are much more likely
to be used as decoration."
The media often exaggerates the
Sea Grant
Andrea Zaffino
editor in chief
Earlier this month, Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College, was selected as
Pennsylvania's first site for the U.S.
Department of Commerce's Sea Grant
program. The Sea Grant program is a
plan involving colleges and
universities in states with coastline
along ocean or the great lakes. All
states that fit this category were a part
of the program, with the exception of
Pennsylvania, which makes this a
Pennsylvania will join the group of states involved in the Sea
Erie, PA 16563
Dr!Margaret Matlin, professor of psychology at SUNY, spoke
Reed Lecture Hall.
contrast between men and women.
African American women, Matlin
states, are often even more
exaggerated than white women,
while other women of color are
rarely shown at all.
Matlin showed a series of slides
comes to
particularly notable achievement for
the Behrend college.
The faculty and staff at Behrend
have taken the initiatives for brining
this program to the campus since the
1970'5. However, it was not even a
possibility until recently because in
the past, during the Reagan and Bush
administrations, there was not enough
funding from the Federal government
to support another state's involvement
in the Sea Grant program. It wasn't
until the Clinton administration that
Behrend was invited to make a formal
proposal and the idea was considered
Grant program
that were all reproductions of ads.
She pointed out the similarities in
the ads. There were several that just
showed a woman's body, her head
cropped out of the picture. She also
pointed out the fact that most
women in these ads were too thin
campus
by the federal government.
The program at Behrend will he
under the direction of the Associate
Provost and Associate Dean, Dr.
Robert Light Light said of Behrend's
acceptance into the program, "It's
hard to believe. It's rewarding that
we as Penn State Behrend achieved
this as opposed to some other
university ... we finally broke
through." The program kicks off in
February 1998. Light will serve as the
please see SEA page 2
Volume XLVI. No. 5
Monday night in the
to menstruate, and were often
portrayed looking as if they had a
heroin problem.
These series of ads showed the
audience consistencies, such as the
please see BIMBOS page 2
Choices
for rape
victims
Ray Morelli
stuff writer
"Rape isn't just a physical act, it's an
emotional attack with effects that can
last for years," says Angela Porfilio,
director of Victim Witness Services
on 18th Street in Erie. Rape is one of
the most invasive, emotionally
damaging crimes, and it can happen
to anyone
How damaging are the effects of rape?
"It depends on the individual, but the
effects can be extremely traumatic,"
Porfilio says. "Victims often tend to
blame themselves, which can lead to
their having very low self-esteem. It
can ruin someone's ability to trust
people, especially if their attacker is
someone they know." It can also
destroy a victim's ability to
communicate with others and prevent
them from having normal, healthy sex
lives.
The average rapist is certainly not
the shady looking character waiting
in a dark alley that is often portrayed
by television. Eighty-five percent of
all rapes are committed by someone
known to the victim. It's often a date,
acquaintance, co-worker, or family
member. The attacker usually isn't a
sexually frustrated individual. "Rape
is about power, not sex, "says Porfilio.
A rape victim, says Porfilio should
"Go to the hospital." Hospitals have
"rape kits" to examine victims.
Through an examination, doctors may
collect a semen sample, which may
he used in a later criminal trial as
evidence. Hospital staff ran also that
please see RAPE page 2