page 4 - The Behrend College Collegian, Thursday, November 13, 1997
The Behrend College Collegian
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Features Editor
Krisii McKim
News Layout Editor
John Grolier
Business Manager
Dana Greenhouse
Photography Editor
Jessica Trzeciakowski
Assistant Photography Editor
John Hoderny
Office Manager
Gina Gaskey
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Editorial
When Behrend students and faculty
returned to the Behrend campus this
fall, they may at first glance have
been overwhelmed by the architec
tural improvements made to what
used to be known as the Wintergreen,
but is now Bruno's cafeteria. First
there is the coffee bar which offers
not only a much larger selection than
last year's regular or decaf and other
small things like frozen yogurt or a
bagel, but also a more convenient
outlet for purchasing with its location
not more than twenty feet from the
back entrance to the Reed building.
The decor of the seating area gives
the same pleasant surprise through the
much needed improvements it re
ceived over the summer.
However, all the improvements
made to Bruno's since last year leave
out certain qualities in, perhaps, the
most vital areas of food service.
These include things like the overall
food selection, the difference between
the advertised time of closing and the
actual time things begin to shut down,
and price.
Burgers, french fries, pizza and
chicken wraps are regular features,
Avoid The
Credit
Monsters
Beware of the cost of
that free T-shirt
Ed Fletcher
The Digest
Southern University
Students nationwide are
suckered into signing up for stu
dent-rate credit cards for the candy,
T-shirt, or other cheap gifts. After
all, getting credit it so easy, plus
you get free stuff.
Free? To pay off a debt of $l,OOO
over one year at 21 percent annual
finance rate, which is typical
among credit companies that fre
quent colleges, you could buy 30
shirts at $7 per T-shin, or $2lO to
tal.
Many students fail to realize
what long-term damage they can
do to their credit record by abus
ing a credit card. Your credit record
is permanent and follows you
where ever you may go.
Why do so many students end up
in credit hell?
1. Many students lie about their
income. Since the company, rarely
Editor in Chief
Andrea M. Zaffino
Managing Editor
Anne M. Rajotte
Sports Editor
Matt Plizga
Layout Editor
Nathan Mitchell
Advertisin Manager
Mike Va lliere
Associate Editor
Brian Ashbaugh
Assistant Sports Editor
Dylan Stewart
Advisors
Alan Parker
Robert Speel
but for those interested in avoiding
fat and cholesterol, there is little to
choose from. The salad bar is no
longer offered and other than the
apples and oranges in the refrigera
tor section there is little else in the
way of fruits and vegetables.
Also, Bruno's advertises that it stays
open and serves food until 11:00 pm
on a nightly basis, however, most
nights the submarine sandwich buf
fet line is shut down between 10:00
and 10:30 and the only things left out
to be purchased are the bags of pret
zels and chips in the racks at the far
side of the kitchen area. This does
not qualify as remaining open.
The final problem which has been
under much discussion during the
current semester is the issue of the
food's price. The prices of the food
are not paying for the renovations
made over the summer, so they can
not be justified by this.
The renovations at Bruno's seem
to be appreciated by the students, but
the diminished convenience and va
riety and the higher prices will be a
complaint until they are properly ad
dressed.
if ever check your information, it
is easy to slip buy. Since the em
ployees get paid based on the num
ber of forms people sign up they
don't care if you really can't pay the
bill.
2. Students don't read the fine
print. Many cards offer an "intro
ductory rate." Introductory means
that rate will end, and the perma
nent rate usually will rise after this
period is over.
3. Students don't shop around.
Other companies offer better rates
but they
won't find them knocking down
your door to give you a card.
Companies that seek college stu
dents often charge exorbitant inter
est rates. They figure students are
not smart enough to shop around
or don't have enough income for
another company to issue them a
card.
4. Companies figure that most
parents will pick up the bill if their
kids fall into debt.
Why do colleges allow credit
companies to set up their lair? Uni
versities get paid.
Republicans
look more
and more like
Clinton
By Marie Cocco=(c) 1997, Newsday
Election results in the few high
profile contests decided on Tuesday
say everything about where the
United States might be headed
politically as the 1990 s draw to a
close.
Mostly, they confirmed three of the
most familiar aphorisms in politics:
when times are good, incumbents
win. All politics is local. Money talks.
More intriguing than the results is
the subtext to be found in voter
attitudes as depicted in exit polls and
other surveys. They reveal an
electorate still deeply divided- by
class, race and sex- just as it hasbeen
throughout the Clinton era. And these
divisions seem best negotiated by
candidates who, like the president
they so often have reviled, manage
to maneuver within them.
That Republicans held the two
governorships that were up for grabs
is no surprise, given that voters in
Virginia and New Jersey expressed
satisfaction with the economy. It
matters not whether the good times
were brought about by the economic
stewardshin of Democrat Bill
Clinton, the incumbent Republican
governors or the mysterious hand of
the marketplace. Why rock the boat
when the tide seems to be rising?
As always in sleepy election years,
quirky local issues came to the fore.
In Virginia, Republican Jim Gilmore
led what amounted to a populist
revolt against a state property tax on
cars that te,osts average families
hundreds of dollars- and just happens
to be due four weeks before Election
Day. In New Jersey, an obscure
Democrat, Jim McGreevey, came
from nowhere to within an eyelash
of toppling Republican Gov.
Christine Todd Whitman by, of all
things, making high car-insurance
rates a dominant issue.
Amid this local mayhem, one
certainty emerged. This election
obliterated any hope for meaningful
campaign-finance reform.
Unregulated soft money from
national Republicans and from
Republican interest groups poured
LETTER
THE
Dear Editors,
While I applaud the efforts of the Collegian to
report responsibly on the dangers of STD's, I would
want to draw attention to Sandra M. Decker's
statement in the article "Avoiding STD's" that AIDS
is often contracted "through high-risk behavior like
gay sex." 'his statement is not only homophobic; it
is empirically wrong, and gives people dangerous
misinformation about the HIV virus.
First, one cannot contract AIDS, as it is a syndrome,
not a disease. One can, however, contract the HIV
virus. The distinction may seem irrelevant; it is not.
For example, the symptoms of a syndrome are
sometimes visible to the naked eye; the presence of
a virus in the bloodstream is not. People should not
be fooled into thinking, for example, that they don't
need to use condoms just because their partners
appear to be physically healthy. A person can have
the HIV virus and exhibit no external symptoms.
Second: gay sex is in itself and of itself not high
Editorial
into New Jersey, Virginia and
especially the New York
congressional race in which
Republican Vito Fossella easily beat
conservative Democrat Eric
Vitaliano. Nationally, Republicans
outspent the debt-burdened
Democrats by about 5-1. Union
muscle flexed on behalf of Democrats
proved an insufficient counterweight.
With Republicans who seek to retain
their narrow hold on the House in the
1998 congressional elections
enjoying such a huge advantage, there
isn't a chance their leaders in
Congress will throw it away in a
spasm of civic duty. The triumph of
dollars is the only undiluted message
of this election.
Notwithstanding Republican boasts
of clear ideological hegemony, there
is ample evidence that blurring
ideological differences helped their
candidates substantially.
The most obvious example is found
in New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, a Republican who describes
himself as being closest, politically,
to a "moderate Democrat." He has
supported not only rent control but
Mario Cuomo, too. He is tough on
crime and welfare mothers, but easier
on immigrants and sometimes even
unions.
In New Jersey, where Whitman
came under assault from social
conservatives for her refusal to sign
a ban on certain late-term abortions,
exit polls show support from self
described liberal voters gave her a
helpful edge. TWenty-seven percent
of liberals cast their ballots for
Whitman, and she won among white
women- a showing that helped her all
but erase the gender gap that usually
benefits Democrats. McGreevey,
meanwhile, won among moderates
and independents.
In Virginia, where Gilmore ran, and
won, on the signature Republican
issue of lower taxes, he cannily left
out the other part of the equation
calls for dramatically less
government. In fact, Gilmore's other
campaign promise was a pledge to
hire 4,000 new schoolteachers and
reduce public-school class sizes- a
EDITOR
risk behavior. Like heterosexuals, gay and lesbian
people engage in a variety of different sexual acts.
Some of these are more capable that others of
transmitting the HIV virus. Gay sex is not
intrinsically "diseased," and heterosexuals are not
immune to contracting HIV, as the unfortunate
situation in nearby Mayville reminds us. Given that
particular sex acts are more likely to transmit the
virus than others, people need to be aware of these
behaviors, and protect themselves and their partners
accordingly. As the co-advisor of TRIGON,
Behrend's group for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
people and their allies, I am particularly troubled
that some young gay or lesbian person might read
Decker's comments and conclude that there is
something "diseased" in homosexual activity. What
makes Decker's statement homophobic is that it
equates gay sex with AIDS, despite the fact that the
HIV virus can be transmitted through heterosexual
activity, too. Why, then, doesn't Decker call
eon
tiAot
Racism
in Erie
by Nathan Mitchell
layout editor
Violence is a universal problem.
However when it occurs close to
home and as a result of racial preju
dice and hatred, people become de
sensitized to the issue.
Gary Horton, who is an African
American and the assistant to Erie
Mayor Joyce Savocchio, was called
a "nigger" by a white man in a wheel
Their lack of
experience doesn't
allow them to put
themselves in other
people's shoes
Greg Fowler
Behrend Lecturer
chair who came to the mayor's office
to dispute a ticket.
Greg Fowler is a lecturer of English
at Behrend and an African American
who addresses issues of race and
ethnicity in his classes. He finds that
there is a frustration among his stu
dents, particularly the freshman class,
when facing racial issues.
"Their lack of experience doesn't
allow them to put themselves in other
gambit meant to offset Democrat Don
Beyer's overwhelming support
among voters who said education was
their chief concern.
Gilmore didn't dent education
minded voters' support for Beyer. But
he did keep most moderate
suburbanites- who like their tax cuts
and their government services, too
from being spooked. He never did
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people's shoes," comments Fowler.
For the most part, Fowler believes
that trends among students regarding
their understanding and perceptions
of racism are changing for the better.
He considers their intentions good
and their writing optimistic. "The
ultimate trend seems to be towards
improvement. The hard part for a lot
of them to understand is that in gen
eral, most people are good people."
Tommie Stoval, an African Ameri
can student at Behrend, has lived in
Erie his entire life. In reference to
racial tension, Stoval comments, "I
really haven't experienced that much.
My high school was really diverse."
Stoval attended Central High School
before coming to Behrend. Because
of its more than two thousand stu
dents, the school accommodated
people from Hispanic, Asian, and
African American cultures. Stoval
believes that growing up with so
many different races help people get
along and that other schools in Erie
are in the same position.
For a lot of'minorities living in the
Erie community, life has not been as
accepting as it was in Stoval's case.
As we can see in Hortom's case, rac
ism is prevelent in Erie, even though
it may not be as obvious at Behrend.
explain how he would spend more on
schools while simultaneously cutting
taxes. But presumably, he'll bring to
bear all the Clintonesque skills he
showed in his campaign. That is,
apparently, what voters now expect.
Distributed by the Los Angeles
Times-Washington Post News
Service Cocco is a columnist for
Newsday.
heterosexual activity a "high risk behavior"?
Given the fact that unprotected anal sex is a
particularly "efficient" means of spreading HIV,
could Decker be both assuming incorrectly that
gay sex equals unprotected anal sex, and denying
that some heterosexual engage in anal sex, too?
AIDS educators like Decker must stop burying
their heads in the sand: both homosexuals and
heterosexuals engage in a variety of sexual
practices, some of which carry greater risk that
others for transmitting HIV. Luckily, Decker's
ignorance is off-set by the wisdom, candor and
grace of our own Patty McMahon, who has
worked diligently to convey to the Behrend
community the truth about HIV disease, including
the ways its spread might be prevented.
Sincerely,
John Champagne
Assistant Professor of English
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