page 4 - The Behrend College Collegian. Thursday, January /5, 1998
The Behrend College Collegian
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Features Editor
Krim McKim
Layout Editor
Nathan Mitchell
Business Manager
Donn Greenhouse
Assistant Layout Editor
John Groper
Office Manager
Gina Gaskey
Postal Information: 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,
Eric, PA 16563. The Collegian can
be reached by calling (814) 898-6488
or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN
1071-9288.
Alternatives to
bookstore prices
The beginning of each semester
welcomes the students of Behrend
with a slap in the face from the rigid,
calloused hand of book prices. It is
understood that this is not entirely
attributed to our bookstore's local
management. They are constrained
by Barnes and Nobles, the company
in control of the prices of books sold
on campus. The bookstore's outra
geous prices come as a result of a situ
ation similar to the one students face
with food prices and Housing and
Food Service. Barnes and Nobles
bookstore is soley in charge of the
books sold at the campus bookstore,
and therefore is at liberty to make
such markups on the book's prices.
University Park has two bookstores
in addition to the Penn State Book
store. Competition between book
stores would lead to competitive pric
ing. Students seem to have few
choices when it comes to buying
books. There is the option of buying
books from students who have had
the class previously. However, since
professors often change editions and
textbooks, usually most books have
to he purchased at the bookstore.
Student Government is looking
into creating some sort of student-run
alternative such as a book coopera
tive or book swap. A book coopera-
Time to
the IRS?
by Fred Hiatt=(c) 1998 Washington
Post
With President Clinton having ap
propriated so many Republican is
sues - the balanced budget, caring
about families and so on - you might
think thßepublicans would be in a
bind as this election year begins. But
Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y., their tele
genic rising star, thinks he has a so
lution. Americans don't like paying
taxes, right? Okay, let's abolish
them. Americans don't like the IRS,
either - so let's abolish that, too.
A bad joke, you say? A parody of
political pandering? Not at all. Paxon
in September introduced a bill that
"prohibits the imposition of any tax
by the Internal Revenue Code" after
Dec. 31, 2000. It exempts - in an
unexplained moment of weakness -
Social Security taxes. It already has
garnered 87 co-sponsors in the
House.
"We (would) eliminate the over
whelming majority of the 5.5 mil
lion words in that Tax Code," Paxon
said, "and, frankly" - please note that
frankness - "eliminate the need for
most, if not all, of the 113,000 folks
who work at the Internal Revenue
Service."
You may recall Paxon as the hus
band of ex-congresswoman Susan
Molinari, now a television person
ality, and the father of baby Suzie,
one of the stars of the 1996 Republi
can convention. In case you don't,
Paxon would like to remind you, fre-
Editor in Chief
Andrea Al Zedrant
Managing Editor
Anne IN Rajotte
Sports Editor
Dylan Stewart
Associate Editor
Brian Ashbaugh
Advertising Manager
HI Freltn
Photography Editor
Jason Blake
Assistant Photography Editor
John Hotlernv
Advisors
Alan Parker
Robert Speel
Letter Policy: The Collegian
encourages tenets to the editor on
news coverage, editorial content and
University affairs. Letters should be
no longer than 400 words. Letters
should include the address, phone
number, semester standing and major
of the writer. Writers can mail their
letters to behrcoll2@aol.com.
tive might involve Student Govern
ment or a student organization buy
ing books from the publishers and
selling them without making a profit.
Also, with the extension of the pub
lic water system to Behrend, it is pos
sible for an independent bookstore to
open near campus. The competition
this would create between the two
would be a great benefit for students.
Another, lesser known alternative
is buying books over the internet.
There are sites that sell used books,
and publishers or distributors may
also sell books on the web. The cam
pus bookstore would have to recon
sider its prices if buying online be
came popular.
The bookstore is yet another mo
nopoly on this campus. Students are
forced to eat what is available from
Housing and Food Services, use only
one type of computer operating sys
tem at the computer center and have
only one way to obtain hooks. In ad
dition we pay high tuition and room
and board fees without having a great
deal of choice over what we get in
return.
Books cost in the range of $2OO to
$4OO for a semester. To have some
alternative to paying these outrageous
prices would be a benefit to all stu
dents.
Abolish
quently. When he introduced his bill
to abolish the tax code, he happened
to mention that "my wife Susan and
I are very proud parents of a 16-
month-old daughter, little Suzie. And
every night, as she is sleeping' look
in and feel that it is our job to make
certain that her future is better than
the ones that our parents handed to
us."
How will Suzie's future be more
secure without federal taxes?
Doesn't Suzie want America to have
an army, a border patrol, a national
cancer institute?
It turns out that Suzie's father isn't
really against those things, nor
against collecting taxes. He just
wants a different system of taxes, one
"that allows the greatness of this
country to flow from the American
people, not from Washington, D.C."
How this new and improved tax sys
tem would be administered without
the help of some of those "113,000
folks" at the doomed IRS Paxon,
frankly, doesn't make clear.
Now, no one would disagree that
the tax code is too complicated and
the IRS is too often rude, inefficient
and even abusive. Everyone wants
tax reform, everyone wants tax sim
plification. But very few taxpayers
favor abolishinthe tax deductions
and tax credits that benefit them.
That applies to Republicans like
Paxon, who, for example, have fa
vored taxing capital gains at a dif
ferent rate from other income. It ap-
Taking a wife, and her name
By Paula Span=(c) 1998, The Wash
ington Post
I'd like to propose a toast -
those champagne flutes, please -
Brande and David Stellings.
Not just because they're hotshot
young lawyers who, trailing Ivy
League degrees and academic honors,
are working at two of New York's
most prestigious firms.
Not just because they were married
recently at the TrißeCa Grill in Man
hattan, where 105 guests ate fabulous
pasta with goat cheese and wild mush-
No, this toast commemorates a
single sentence that appeared in their
wedding announcement on the New
York Times's society page the follow
ing day: - Mr. Soskin will take Ms.
Stellings's surname."
David Soskin is now David
Stellings, relinquishing his ... well,
there isn't a term, no male equivalent
of a woman's "maiden name." The
Encouraging development
around Behrend
by Anne Rajotte
managing editor
Before the semester break, plans for
extending the the public water system
to areas surrounding Behrend were
redrawn. The new plans, which ex
tend the water system past Behrend
to 1-90 were approved by the
Harborcreek Township Board of Su
pervisors.
There was opposition to this deci
sion from many local residents. Sur
rounding areas would like to preserve
what they call the "rural atmosphere."
By allowing businesses, especially
businesses that would profit from col
lege students, such as convienence
stores and fast food restaurants, to
move in, the look of Station Road
would he drastically altered. Under
standably, this would upset some of
the people that live on Station Road.
However, over one thousand Behrend
students also iiv c along Station Road,
plies to Democrats like Clinton, who
every other day seems to propose
amending the tax code to promote
child care, college education or some
other social goal. It applies to
businesinterests, whose contribu
tions Paxon spends so much time so
liciting °behalf of his GOP col
leagues, and it applies to his ordinary
constituents, who treasure their
home mortgage deductions, their
charitable contribution deductions
and so on.
Paxon acknowledges that Con
gress is responsible for having made
the tax code so complicated. That's
why, he says, the only way to get true
reform is to blow the whole thing up
and force Congress to start from
scratch.
But blowing up the system, and
pandering to people's natural dislike
of the tax collector, carries risks of
its own. Consider Russia, where few
people honestly declare their income
or willingly pay their taxes. In the
first six months of last year (the most
recent period for which figures are
available), 10 Russian tax collectors
were killed in the line of duty, 40
were injured and two were missing
not to mention 520 cases of arson,
death threats, document thefts and
other crimes against the Russian IRS.
Russia, as a result, can barely func
tion as a state. Its soldiers are under
fed. Its teachers go for months with
out being paid. Its nuclear power
plantsdeteriorate day by day.
Russia is an extreme case, but
many other countries struggle to pro
mote tax compliance. In the United
States, 83 percent of taxpayers file
honestly and on time, never having
run-ins with the IRS, a record that is
"pretty much the envy" of other
countries, says Rep. Rob Portman,
R-Ohio, who spent a year soberly
studying the IRS and how it can be
improved. The American compli
ance record stems from a combina
tion of civic obligation, fear of audit
Editorial
point is, instead of Brande Stellings
changing her name to Soskin, or both
parties keeping their last names,
David Soskin changed his to hers. He
says he likes Stellings better anyway.
This is a bold act for a man - and
apt to prompt shock and snickers, as
David Stellings is learning. "They
said, 'What are you, crazy?' People
invariably thought I was joking," he
reports. They warned "that it would
be really annoying, having to change
my credit cards. change my business
cards. Flow would people \\ ho knew
me before find Of course. these
are the very annoyances new brides
are supposed to be delighted to en
counter.
Less-approving colleagues deemed
him thoroughly whipped. "They view
it as an assault on patriarchy," David
Stellings says.
Almost 30 years after contempo
rary feminism bulldozed the social
landscape, the proportion of women
rgirmq
and the appearance of stores and res- The addition of business in the area
taurants within walking distance would be such an advantage to recruit
would be a welcome sight. ing and retaining students. Behrend
It is inevitable that where college students transfer to University Park
students and full time residents live mainly for their major, but also be
together, there will he conflict. In cause there arc so many things to do
State College, there are numerous dis- right off campus. One of the biggest
putes every year regarding student complaints about this campus is the
housing and the downtown area. State lack of social life. It isn't that there
College residents don't seem to want aren't things to do on campus, but
to yield to students' demands and staying on campus every night ohvi
don't want student housing oust leads to boredom. Students con
neighb.orcioc4s. Becage of Behr tAing
conidcf - aNy smaller and luck of' at the academic aspects of this school.
„ , , I N such a I)k_! (il look-
housing, the conflicts have heen feww.
With Behrend's growing size, and the
plans for Knowledge Park, there will
probably be some dispute about the
future of Station Road.
The extension of the water system
will hopefully attract businesses to our
area. The administration should back
this with all of the power they can.
and confidence that everyone else on
the block is chipping in, too. Remove
any one of those, and you could
quickly undermine the whole sys
tem.
Portman and Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-
Neb., led a commission that roundly
and justifiably criticized the IRS and
produced a series of recommenda
tions to make it "fair, efficient and
friendly." Paxon, on the other hand,
proposes no alternative.
"Some of us make choices and
take sides in the debate," he noted,
and then added - with apparent and
inexplicable pride - "I do not."
Some people like the idea of a flat
tax, he observed, while others cham
pion a national sales tax. "Now, those
are two good ideas," Paxon toler
antly allowed. "I am sure there are
many more out there out across this
C
k
4 11 0eAtC.4
who don't adopt their husbands'
names is about 10 percent, according
to a study done for American Demo
graphics magazine. (That includes
those who hyphenate or adopt com
binations like Hillary Rodham
Clinton.) The young and the college
educated are more likely to keep their
names, hut even among women with
post-graduate degrees, more than
three-quarters change their names.
This supposedly romantic tradition
he "gives" her his name - reflects
the British and American common
law of "coverture," under which a
woman lost any legal identity the
moment she married. She could no
longer own property, enter contracts,
sue or be sued," explains Deborah
Ellis, who teaches the course "Women
and the Law" at New York Univer
sity law school. "She had no right to
custody of her children. And taking
his name exemplified that." American
legislatures began dismantling cover-
ing for a college that the administra
tion should do everything it possibly
can to encourage the development
around Behrend.
"That Strange House on Station
Road" will appear every three weeks
in The Collegian.
country." So Paxon's proposal (to
stretch that word) is to let the Ameri
can people ("our employers") de
cide.
How exactly would this abdication
of leadership work? Again, Paxon
isn't clear. "The only solution is the
solution that moves this country for
ward to give ourselves a better fu
ture," he said. Can't argue with that.
As for fleshing it out a bit - well,
maybe Suzie has some thoughts.
Letters to the Editor should be no longer than 400
words long and must include the name, phone
number, semester standing and major of the writer.
Letters can be mailed to the Collegian office or
sent via e mail to Behrcoll2@aol.com
ture 150 years ago, but we're still
stuck with this name business.
And of course, there are pragmatic
career considerations for sticking with
your name
Understand that I'm not unsympa
thetic to the rationale people usually
offer for a name change: two individu
als, one name, symbol of commitment
and unity, etc., etc. It's the unidirec
tional nature of the change that bugs
me. If a shared surname is about one
ness, why don't half the guys who get
mai ricd chance their names?
I also acknowledge that we haven't
come up with an entirely satisfactory
answer to the question: What are you
going to name the children? Hyphen
ating is a short-term solution, un
wieldy for one generation and impos
sible after two. My family's approach
is scrupulously egalitarian: We agreed
to give a son his surname and a daugh
ter mine, with the other parent's name
as a middle name. Thus, our daughter
and only child is Emma Katz Span.
But I have to say this idea never
caught on with other couples, perhaps
because of having siblings with dif
ferent names. Most separate-surname
couples throw in the towel and give
the kids the husband's name.
Hence this toast to the pioneering
Ms. and Mr. Stellings.
One could grow morose about how
rarely that happens - rethinking out
dated traditions - but this is supposed
to be a happy occasion.
More champagne?
TO THE
To the Editor,
I would like to respond to a letter
that Jonathan Kolbe wrote to join the
Collegian on December 4,1997. I feel
very sorry fpr.,Mr. Kolbe because he
has closed himself off from a large
segment of our society and he obvi
ous!), has .1 lot of anger built up in
side of himself. Often when people
arc not doing as well as they wish to
they want to blame other people or
take it out on other people. In this
case Mr. Kolbe seems to be taking his
anger out on an entire race. He should
not be trying to point the finger or lay
blame, he should be trying to take
action to make his own life better.
Maybe he is having a very difficult
time trying to make the grades he
needs to be a chemical engineering
major. If that is the case then maybe
he should walk over to the office of
the National Society of Black Engi
neers and see if they might be able to
help him with some tutoring. They
are always willing to help.
Thank you for your time,
Heather E. Jones
Operations Management