Page 4- The Behrend College Collegian Thursday, October 23, 1997
The Behrend College Collegian
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Features Editor
Kristi McKim
Business Manager
Dana Greenhouse
Photography Editor
Jessica Trzeciakowski
Assistant Photography Editor
John Hoderny
Assistant Sports Editor
Dylan Stewart
Office Manager
Gina Gaskey
Postal Information: The Collegian
is published weekly by the students
of Penn State Erie, The Behrend Col
lege; 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
Editorial
With the change of the editorial
staff cathe changes in the way the Col
legian is organized. One of our big
gest editorial decisions was how to
handle the opinion page.
According to some on this campus,
there is no opinion page in the Colle
gian. Anyone who even glances at
page four can see the obvious; our
opinion page is alive and well. The
name is different, but the content is
the same. •
The editorial page has columns
from nationally recognized journalists
who write for the Washington Post
and the Los Angeles Times. The edi
tors write a weekly staff editorial and
sometimes editors write their own edi
torials. Letters to the editors, such as
the one from IFC and the Panhellenic
Council in response to the article
Broadening of Ban on
Pornography Went Too
By Joan E. Bertin=Special to the Los Angeles
Times
The first round of papers has been filed in a
federal appeals court in San Francisco challeng
ing the constitutionality of the Child Pornogra
phy Prevention Act of 1996. At the same time,
the new movie version of Vladimir Nabokov's
book "Lolita," starring Jeremy Irons, is opening
all over Europe, even though it is not scheduled
for release here.
These events are connected.
The United States long has had laws prohibit
ing sexual abuse of minors and trafficking in child
pornography. The Supreme Court allows state and
federal officials wide authority to protect minors
from the sexual exploitation involved in making
pornographic material with actual children. In
1996, Congress decided that this wasn't enough,
so it added prohibitions. The new law outlaws
images that appear to be of children, even if they
are not. So even if a movie like "Lolita" was filmed
with an adult body double, it apparently would be
prohibited if it contains simulated sexual conduct
that appears to involve a minor. If you recall, that's
Editor in Chief
Andrea M. Zaffino
Managing Editor
Anne M. Rajone
Advertising Manager
Mike Valliere
Associate Editor
Brian Ashbaugh
r-t~r-~ ,
Letter Policy: The Collegian encour
ages letters to the editor on news cov
erage, editorial content and Univer
sity affairs. Letters should be no
longer than 400 words. Letters
should include the address, phone
number, semester standing and ma
jor of the writer.
"Greek rush time a hazy situation,"
are welcome and encouraged.
The main difference from last year
is student editorials. What is printed
in the Collegian reflects the editorial
staff. We feel that we have an obliga
tion to make sure the editorials are
responsible. The most effective way
to handle this is to train writers to
become good journalists before they
can editorialize on what they report.
Staff writers may write editorials af
ter meeting a requirement of three ar
ticles. The Collegian is dedicated to
responsible journalism and respon
sible journalism is a skill that has to
be learned.
The rumors of the missing opinion
page are simply false. We want to hear
what students have to say, as Ibng as
they can say it responsibly.
r- - ' 7 7... - -i 4--ill
News Editor
John Grolier
Sports Editor
Matt Plizga
Layout Editor
Nathan Mitchell
Advisors
Alan Parker
Robert Sped
what "Lolita" is about: a man's sexual obsession
with a pubescent girl.
The theory behind the law is that such images
encourage pedophilia. But sexual abuse of minors
is already illegal.
Human motivation is complicated. There's no
persuasive evidence of a causal relationship be
tween exposure to sexually explicit material and
rape or sexual abuse or between viewing violence
and committing violent crimes. Savage acts (sexual
and other, against children and adults) have been
undertaken under the influence and in the name of
religion, hut that doesn't mean religion causes sav
agery.
Disturbing images cannot be prohibited because
of the fear that they will induce someone to engage
in undesirable or criminal conduct. Otherwise, leg
islatures could decide that movies about armed re
sistance might encourage disaffected people to take
to the streets with guns or that pictures of lynching
might encourage bigots to act on their racist be
liefs. It is a basic tenet of our constitutional system
that government can control people's behavior, not
their thoughts.
There's no denying that words and images have
Editorials
Child Care For College
"Suffer" From Binge Drinking
By Froma Harrop
Providence Journal-Bulletin
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Ser
vices
Anyone suspicious the American
university experience has become a
four-year extension of childhood need
look no further than the colleges' lat
est response to the binge-drinking
"problem." Now, in a grownup world,
college administrators would tell stu
dents who down four or five stiff
drinks in a row they are jerks. If they
commit violent acts as a result, the
police get called. If they drive after
drinking, they go to the slammer. If
they die from alcohol poisoning, they
have nothing but their own stupidity
to blame.
But if they can drink responsibly,
then have a good time.
Forget about hearing any such
counsel, for that would turn students
into self-directing adults. Better to
blame the problem on all-purpose
"cultural attitudes" and "societal pres
sures" abetted by the villainous alco
hol industry.
Thus, demands grow for better
policing of off-campus liquor outlets.
That is, turn local businesses into
babysitters. There are calls to ban
sponsorship of college events by com
panies selling alcohol or the market
ing of such beverages on campus.
That is, protect their charges from evil
influences and trample on free speech.
One former college official has
suggested universities stop serving
champagne at parents' weekend
brunches or at fund-raising events.
Remove the bad example for the sake
of the children. (Somehow it is hard
to believe a college with any sense of
self-preservation would insist that its
big-check writers remain cold sober.)
The truth is, most Americans can
drink without,problem. Careful use of
alcohol relaxes and warms the drinker
with a sense of well-being. Winston
Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt
saved Western Civilization without
ever missing a cocktail hour. Students
have long enjoyed their own drink
ing traditions. Brahms's Academic
Overture, the stately piece heard over
and over again at college commence
ments, took its melody from a student
drinking song.
Where is there a campus drink
ing crisis, anyway? Six college stu
dents have supposedly died this year
from excessive drinking. These cases
are lamentable, but many more col
lege students died from sports-related
injuries or car accidents.
An even more interesting ques
tion is: How many noncollege people
in late teens or early 20s have died
from alcohol poisoning? Take note no
one is memorizing this particular sta
tistic even though the majority of high
school students do not go on to col
lege. That number is not etched on our
power to affect how people think and act. But
suppression of "bad" ideas or images, even if it
were possible to agree on what those might be,
does not result in the disappearance of those ideas
or of acts premised on them. Ironically, some op
ponents of pornography who endorse censorship
have had their own anti-pornography literature
censored.
Silencing stories like "Lolita" will not elimi
nate pedophilia, which has existed throughout
time, in permissive cultures and repressive ones.
The film could help us understand something
about sexual obsession. Will it? I wouldn't know.
I can't see it.
Not every sexual image involving a minor
should be suppressed. Some serve important and
legitimate goals. In its indiscriminate approach,
Congress may have opened the door to creating a
whole class of taboo subjects. It could sweep away
sex education materials, serious artistic work with
sexual content and pictures about other cultures
and eras. If it is upheld, Americans may have to
go to Europe to appreciate fully the value of the
First Amendment.
Bertin is executive director of the National Coa
lition Against Censorship
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national worry list for the following
strange reason: Our society considers
the 19-year-old who has a job an adult
while universities see the 19-year-old
pre-law student as a child. Working
people who cause trouble because
they drink are punished. College stu
dents are given others to blame.
College administrators should
know that, from a purely practical
point of view, playing hide-the-bottle
does no good when dealing with an
alcoholic. Indeed, anyone who has
hung around Alcoholics Anonymous
or Al-Alon can immediately identify
such behavior as "enabling." Rather
than allow the problem drinker to sink
into the mire of his addiction until he
can no longer stand it and takes steps
to straighten out, the enabler tries to
save him. Rest assured students inter
ested in getting smashed for the night
will find the booze.
Let us end here with yet another
Ey,eon
CIAL
by Anne Rajotte
managing editor
Recently, there has been more
and more attention given to
Behrend's surrounding area and the
possibility of attracting businesses
to Station Road. The
misconception has been, so far, that
Station Road is zoned as a
residential area and there is only a
small parcel of land zone for
business.
Donna Ntindek, the Harborcreek
Township supervisor and the
secretary- treasurer of the township
clarified the zoning question by
stating that Station Road has R 4
zoning. R 4 zoning means that
anything college related may be
built. This includes restaurants,
convenience stores, grocery stores,
video rentals, basically anything
that would be of student use.
Mindek, who is running for
reelection, said that the goal in
township planning' is to have low
density development. This means
about two houses per acre. Dean
Lilley was a part of the
development plan, and his
involvement resulted in the R 4
zoning for Station Road. Mindek
said that the Township takes the
college's needs into consideration
and is proud to have it in the
township.
Despite the zoning, businesses
have yet to move in because there
is no public water system on
Station Road. The Erie Water
Authority, Behrend officials and the
Greater Erie Industrial Developers
have combined efforts to get the
water system up to Behrend and
eventually to the 1-90 interchange.
It should reach Knowledge Park by
next June, and Mindek states,
"Hopefully we will have the
support of Tom Ridge behind the
effort."
proposition: that binge drinking is
more about binge than drinking. It
would seem that someone who gulps
five glasses of Jim Beam in five min
utes is not looking for a pleasant high.
Binge drinking is a stunt that has more
in common with diving off bridges or
swallowing goldfish than the quest for
inebriation.
What any increase in binge drink
ing probably indicates is the students
really don't know how to drink.
Binging may just be the latest evi
dence of decline in our nation's table
arts. Instead of savoring wine and
spirits in the course of a civilized
meal, young people are administering
it. The colleges' response is to put
condoms on bottles. Predictable if
simple- minded.
Froma Harrop is a Providence Jour
nal editorial writer and columnist
Students have great opportunities
to get involved with this project.
There are township meetings every
Wednesday and Planning
Commission meetings on the first
and third Thursdays of each month.
The public, including students are
welcome to attend these meetings.
Students can be a catalyst in the
changes by attending these
meetings and voting for candidates
who care about student issues.
Students can also write letters to
Dean Lilley, the water authority,
and Mindek to let them know the
importance of this issue to Behvend
students.
Mindek states, "It's a benefit for
all residents of the community to
have influence on decisions."
Behrend students are residents of
this community and can have just
as much influence as anyone else. If
you are sick of the food on campus,
if you don't have a car and can't go
into Wesleyville for food and videos
and groceries, if you think that
student life would improve with the
addition of outside businesses, then
it is time for you do something
about it. We all are in a very real
position to make a difference about
where we live.
Simply voting can start things in
the right direction. If we take our
own complaints seriously enough,
we can change things. The
township and the administration is
on our side, but the students have
to be the force that pushes them
along. Write letters, go to township
meetings and let the community
know what the students at Behrend
need. Students are by no means
powerless. As members of this
township, we have the opportunity
to change what we don't like.