page 4 - The Rehrend College Collegian. Thursday, January 15. 1998 The Behrend College Collegian published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Features Editor Kr; vu cKim Layout Editor ,Vallutet Mitchell Business Manager Pam/ Gwen/1010'e Office Manager Gina Gds./a., Postal latormation: 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 16561 The Collegian can he reached by calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN 1071-9288. Alternatives to housing campout Last Monday evening, many of Behrend's on campus residents camped out on the stairs in Dobbins Dining Flail to ensure that they would have the first chance at housing. Some of the students arrived as early as 6:30 pm with sleeping bags and pillows in hand. Around fifty students stayed all night on the wet, slushy steps. wait ing for the housing office to open at 8 am the next morning There is no reason to collect the housing contracts in Dobbins. The conditions the students endure are completely unnecessary. They aren't entered into the computes immedi ately and there is nothing done with the contracts that seems to necessitate the use of.the housing office. It seems that a placc like the Reed Commons or any place with adequate heat and space would he an option for collect ing the contracts. Students would he a little more comfortable and might c en get a few hours of sleep. fu the editor Fin writing this letter in response to an article in the last Collegian by Pat Morrison of the LA. Times re garding abortion. Prankly. I'd rather not start any laborious debates over the rights or wrongs of abortion, but rather, I'd like to discuss why in fact this article was presented in the Col legian without an opposing viewpoint, or at the very least an article that was a hit less. .well prejudiced? After all, isn't branding nearly 409 of those Americans who happen to he Pro-Life as "zealots'', or "self righteous" a hit extreme? Lest I imagine what the re sponse would he had you published an article branding Pro-Choicers as "baby killers", or "liberal prigs"? Cer tainly neither viewpoint is very pleas ant. Nly point is that if the Collegian decides to print such rather distaste ful articles in the future. that it would The stigma is always on trial By Park Dietz Special to Los Angeles Schizophrenia is a terrible disease that can profoundly alter aperson's perception of reality. In the paranoid form of theillness, the patient may experience frightening hallucinations ordclusions. A family member, a neighbor or a passing stranger may heperceived as a malevolent impos tor. a threatening robot or anattacking demon. Some patients believe that their thoughts arebeing broadcast to others, that transmitters have been placed intheir bodies or that they are under electronic surveilienecwherever they go. A burnt slice of toast, an un lucky number on thelicense plate of a passing car or a frown from the boss are notonly taken as intentional harass ment, but are cited as clues to Editor in Chief .Ifultea :t/ Nianaging Editor Anne Al ROI( 'tie Sports Editor Dv hin Stec ar t Associate Editor nuan t hlnrrreA Advertising Manager Photography Editor Advisors Alan Parker Ruben Speel Letter Polio encourages letters to the editor. Letters should include the address. phone number, semester standing and major 14 the writer. Writers can mail their letters to behrcoll2Qeaol.com. Letters must he received no later than spm Tuesday for inclusion in that week's issue. Another possible change in the sys tem is the day of the week the con tracts are collected. It is true that many students go home on the weekends, hut these same students will stay a weekend and line up for popular con cert tickets, such as Garth Brooks. In light of how important housing is to students, staying on campus for the weekend doesn't seem to be an un reasonable request. In addition. stu dents with 8 am classes either have to miss class or miss out on the best housing if contracts arc collected on weekday mornings. Until the system of collecting hous ing contacts is revaluated. the loca tion of the event has to chance. ,i i:lll of the students had to make it through the next day of classes with littlt; or no sleep. It isn't fair to students to expect them to stay awake all night, sitting on dirty steps. merely to get housing at least publish an opposing viewpoint in attempting to maintain a semblance of fair journalism. Of course an even more desirable option would be to simply choose articles from both ends of the political spectrum that avoid such blatant prejudicial statements as the ones mentioned above. An in creased effort on the part of the Col legian to he a hit more discriminating in the future would he greatly appre ciated by those Pro-Lifers who don't wish to he branded as zealots. and those Pro Choicers who don't wish to he seen as bigots. Hopefully the Collegian's future attempts at politi cal "journalism - will he a hit more successful. The piece referred to above was a guest editorial by a writer for the LA theidentity of a persecutor and evi dence of the conspiratorsomnipotence For many patients. it is like living in a horror film. Althoughmost man age to avoid lethal violence, as many as 10 percentultimately kill them selves, often to escape an intolerableexistence. and a smaller percentage kill others, often to protectthemselves from a perceived attack. A young security guard baby-sitting his 3-year-old nephewhallucinated that the boy had transformed into a red eyed vampire. Terrified by what he saw and believing he was killing a vam pire, hekilled his sleeping nephew, then tried to protect himself fromcontinued attack by cutting the heart from the body and burning RI I frlin The Collegian Sincerely, Micah Merrick 02 Finance Improving the academic building Bchrend's most recent addition to higher learning, the Academic Build ing,is set to undergo renovations sometime in the near future. The project, approved only in principle, is on hold pending the availability of funds and no date is set for initiation or completion. As of now, the build ing, opened in the fall of 1994, has the look and feel of a federal correc tions facility on the inside. The current plan is to make the building more socially appealing to students, faculty, staff, and the like. Among the changes being considered are: formica counter tops opposite the vending machines, display cases con taining campus news, and tables and chairs near the coffee machine. One of the problems being addressed is the inclusion of an on-campus phone. Currently, the only phones in the building are pay phones with the near est on-campus phone is in the Reed Building. Also, the Academic Build ing is in dire need of color and deco ration. Attempts will be made to dis play student artwork on the walls and hang banners from the rafters. Scandalous coverage? By Geneva Overholser=(c) 1998, The Washington Post WASHINGTON Restrain your selves! We don't care! Those were the feelings pouring through the phone into this office last week a tumul tuous week during which I found my own judgment differing somewhat from that of readers. We don't care about President Clinton's sex life, said the callers. We knew he played around. Presidents often have had unsavory private lives. We care that the nation is in good shape. We're tired of these constant investigations, these constant attempts to bring him down. "I'm just totally appalled. Who cares? Presidents fool around. Men fool around. Who cares? Let's focus on health, taxes, war," said one v, ()limn "It's been taken too far. Too much money has been spent on all these in- vestigations. The U.S. is the laugh ingstock of other countries," said an other. "The Post needs to be more re sponsible. Everybody knew Clinton had these troubles before he came into office. Yet this got more coverage than the pope in Cuba, a much more his toric event." "I'm calling for a little bit of rea son and rationalism to stop this hys teria. Would somebody grow up somewhere? We're desperate for adult leadership," said a third." "I am upset with The Post disre specting the president and the people of this country," said one woman. "Why do you keep worrying about his private life'? Why are you trying to bring down the president?" "The media... are destroying this country, destroying democracy and destroying the Constitution just to get at Clinton. And we're fed up with it. FED UP! FED UP!" said another. "Enough is enough. I think he is doing a good job. This is ridiculous. Enough is enough. And the indepen dent counsel should get off the man's theremains in the fireplace. I found him to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and to beinsane not responsible for the crime. He was in sane not becausehe was schizophrenic or because his crime was bizarre, but hecausehis illness caused him to be lieve at that time that he was killinga vampire. Thus, he did not know he was killing a human and did notknow that what he was doing was wrong. In contrast, consider the case of John E. duPont, who helddelusional beliefs that there were hidden tunnels in his estate,that his mansion moved me chanically and that people were hid ing inthe walls and the trees to spy on him. He acted on these delusionsby excavating the grounds in search of tunnels, insisting that hisemployees spend countless hours observing vid- Editorial To socialize the students between classes, more benches will be placed throughout the interior and plans are being made to build a conservatory style enclosure outside the library with refreshments served. A new di rectory will also be drawn-up to in clude the names and office numbers Among the changes being considered are: formica counter tops opposite the vending machines, dis play cases containing campus news, and tables and chairs near the coffee machine. of the faculty The idea for these renovations were deliberated last summer by a joint group of students, faculty, and staff. Included were students Shannon Haslett; Roxzana Kelly; Jim Carroll, head of MISC; and Rick Hart, head of the library; and faculty Dr. Roberta Salper, Director of the School of Hu manities and Social Sciences; and Dr. Dean Baldwin, Professor of English. The need for these renovations are back. Enough is enough!" one man said. "It is time the citizens spoke up: I believe what is going on is a witch hunt by the Republicans and also by Kenneth Starr, who has brought noth ing forward in Whitewater, and he's simply wasting the taxpayers' money," said one woman. "And he had no business giving the lady a de vice for entrapment. This is ridicu lous. It's just ridiculous!" "President Kennedy had more problems sexually Marilyn Mon roe and all his other affairs that were never publicized until after he left of fice! Can't the media wait until after the president leaves office to bring out his dirty laundry? We want to hear about the real issues, not garbage like this. Monitor yourself, please." "I'm calling from Canada, and I'm really shocked at the way the news or even your justice system is working with President Clinton. Kenneth Starr eotapes of the mansionthat allegedly showed movement of the building, placing barbed wireinto the spaces in the walls and shooting into the trees. Althoughthere was some debate as to his diagnosis, paranoid schizophreniawas the most popular finding among the experts at his trial. DuPont never said why he shot and killed Olympic wrestler David Schultz, claiming he had not been there or done that, despite twowitnesses. The de fense contended that DuPont must have thought Schultz was a Russian ter rorist who was about to kill him and wastherefore not responsible because he thought he was doing the rightthing in defending himself in an act of war. The prosecution contended that the murder was motivated byDuPont's envy of the high esteem in which Schultz was held by the wrestling com munity and by anger toward Schultz for befriendinganother wrestler who was harming DuPont's reputation in the highestranks of Olympic wrestling evident considering the pale blue, cin der block walls and the lack of social atmosphere. With an ever expanding student population, the changes will be welcome to current and future stu dents. Hopefully, these renovations will lead to more improvements around campus such as better drain- age, parking lot repairs, and a climate controlled environment in Turnbull. Unfortunately, architectural changes cannot be made to the Aca demic Building. There are many flaws in the construction of the build ing. Not necessarily structural flaws, but the facility is not conducive to learning. Most of the rooms do not have any windows. Professors could hold students in there for two weeks without any clue of what is going on I think you can call him the "Star Chamber' -- he's out to get the presi dent, and I think it's pretty shocking." And this is just a sampling. I have to say, I sometimes left these conver sations feeling that people were driven overmuch by an unwillingness to confront this most unpleasant pos sibility: That the president may have conducted an affair with a 21-year old intern in the White House and then somehow told her to lie about it. This is not only a shocking possibility -- it is surely news. And the story was not insubstantial; there was much to go on. There were numerous anony mous sources, hut they were testable assertions of fact, not judgment or characterization. Still, I share the sick feeling with which readers received the story. And giving ear to their reactions is criti cal. We should focus on the questions readers raise: What is this about be sides sex? Is it right that Starr is han- by disclosing DuPont's instability. Itestified that DuPont's actions in threatening the witnesses,fleeing the scene and telling his staff, "If the po lice come,don't let them in," all showed that he knew what he had done and knew that it was wrong. Thus, de spite his illness, he was responsible for the crime. Having schizophrenia does not eliminate responsibility forcriminal actions unless, at the very moment of the crime, symptomsof the illness cause the person to meet the legal test of insanity.ln most jurisdictions, only a killer who does not know what he is doing, who did not know it was wrong or who couldn't control his actions is insane under the law. Even people with untreated schizophrenia usually know what they are doing and whether it is wrong. And while the person with schizophrenia may have littlecontrol over his symptoms, he has consider able control over hisactions. Thus, with rare exceptions, even people with outside. This condition only adds to the banality of the learning process and decreased motivation can result. When the money becomes avail able and the project commences, the students, faculty, and staff inside the building should he rather pleased with the results. A new and refurbished Academic Building and a sense of belonging will hopefully be evident. But maybe this is only one step in the restructuring of campus. Prospective students will see that they will be given a Penn State education while having the solace of their local hang out. Sometimes, students are forced to accept the conditions they are given and deal with it accordingly. That is why this project takes on a new mean ing. With the inclusion of students in the decision making process, our col lective voice is heard. "Make my edu cation as comfortable as possible." Congratulations to those who recog nize this problem and arc trying to look out for our best interests. dling it? And we should heed the calls for restraint. When a story has about it the quality of a dam bursting, it's all the more essential to apply critical Judgments continually. For example, it seems that additional women's names may continue to emerge; deci sions about their use should be made with great care. A final note of interest is the im pact of electronic media on this story. Newsweek killed a story on this mat ter days before it broke _ and then posted much of the information on its Web site, along with an explanation - of - itsdecisions. Access to informa tion Eke-this about the inner workings of the media can help readers make judgments about which newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets have conducted themselves with the kind of restraint that many readers are pleading for. Overholser is ombudsman for The Washington Post schizophreniaare responsible for their bad acts. Each time a notorious criminal claims schizophrenia, a public debate erupts around the issues of responsi bility and punishment. I admit these are fascinating issues, hut these con troversies have a tragic side effect: They associate the schizophrenia la bel with notorious criminals, which adds to the stigma of mental illness, making it even more difficult to get patients the help they need. Whether Ted Kaczynski was correctly diag nosed as suffering schizophrenia is now less important than the resolve not to punish sufferers for the crimes of one extremist. Every time a notorious criminal claims to have schizophrenia, it hurts the law-abiding majority of sufferers. Dietz, a consultant in the Theodore Kaczynski case, is a forensic psychia trist and professor of psychiatry at UCLA School ofitledicitze.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers