Thursday, February 26, 1998 INSIDE... News Student views on Iraq Police and Safety Hit and run Calendar Weekend movie: The Devil's Advocate page 3 Editorial Police and safety and student page 4 Campus News privacy Harvard University sued World & Nation Anthrax scare Features NSBE Fashion Show Sports Basketball teams on way to AMCC playoffs ...page 9 Spirit Committee works to build Behrend pride by Kristin Schmid MO' writer In an attempt to bring more pride. to Behrend, Dr. Chris Reber, Dean of Student Affairs, and eight other fac ulty members have collaborated with students to form a Spirit Committee. These students represent a broad base of student life and attempt to bring more excitement to campus. Not only do their plans have major effects on next year but to get the ball rolling the committee has already put some plans for this semester into action. Dean of Student Affairs Chris Reber CeThe Behrend College 011 e gr ian ...page 2 Due to University Park's continual growth, other Penn State campuses have been undergoing major changes. Behrend has been a four year school for twenty-five years and other campuses have recently fol lowed by offering four-year degrees. Penn State University would like to expand its campuses, including Be hrend, which will bring about an in crease in students and facilities. page 2 According to "Penn State Cam puses: A Plan for the Future," Penn State University, in July of 1997, re designed the Commonwealth Edu cational System (CES), which in cluded giving each of the 17 under graduate campuses a college home, changing the reporting line for the Great Valley Graduate Center, and merging four campuses into two units. This will also eliminate the CES. This plan seeks to improve the disciplinary unity across the Univer sity, provide quality control, and en sure modest, planned growth within existing and planned capacity. There were no plans to restrict lower-divi sion students who may choose to page 5 page 6 page 7 move from any campus to an upper division campus (including Univer sity Park). However, to meet enroll- Some of these plans include a formal dance, a spring band event, which will be somewhat similar to a Battle of the Bands, and performances of the Be hrend Gospel Choir at basketball games during half time. The committee has met four times this semester and has been brain storming for ideas. They have come up with numerous ideas, and have considered many options on what activities they want to bring to cam- S • irit continued on 'ilitto 01 11 ; 1 1 114111114 A Students, Dean Lilley the future of Behrend by Abigail Mouyard staff writer photo by Jason Blake ment objectives, it is a working goal that each of the campuses outside of University Park will try to maintain but not exceed the number of stu dents that transfer there. All cam puses are encouraged to transfer more students to upper-division cam puses other than University Park, including Erie and Harrisburg. "I like the chance to be able to get to know many students and faculty because of the size of Behrend's campus." Aaron Lundberg 01, Communications Behrend College intends to keep the percentage of students that trans fer to University Park steady at about 25%. Behrend has 3200 students cur rently and the University would like to see an increase in the future to be tween 5000 and 7000 students. Behrend's future plans, other than in creasing enrollment, are to expand on the unused acres of the campus. This includes a multipurpose build ing that will contain an indoor track Behrend admission standards becoming more selective by Andrea Zaffino editor in chief Penn State University is a name recognized on at least a national scale. It has been equated with a certain level of pride and prestige among its alumni, and those who obtain degrees from the University are for the most part respected for them. Yet for a stu dent who earns his or her degree from the Behrend College, there is a ques tion of whether or not that same level of respect is attached to their accom plishment. This question begins with the stan dards of admissions at the Behrend College and how they compare, not only with the standards of University Park, and the other Commonwealth campuses but to other school outside the Penn State system. When a prospective student's ap plication is reviewed for admission to Behrend, several factors are weighed. Of those, the most impor tant are a student's cumulative grade point average (GPA) for grades 9-11 and their SAT or ACT test scores, ei ther of which is acceptable. A stu dent can take and retake these exami nations as many times as they like and their highest score is the one which receives evaluation by the College. Mary Ellen Madigan, The Direc tor of Admissions at Behrend, said, "In the admissions process, we look for students with strong academic preparation. Because the University is so large and we process so many Students prepare for trips to Washington and Spain by Anne Rajotte managing editor During Spring Break, when most students are heading home or to sun nier climate, about 40 students will be going to Spain or Washington DC as part of academic courses being of fered at Behrend. Twenty one students and two fac ulty members will be visiting Wash ington DC as part of political science 297 D. The students on this trip will. Erie, PA 16563 Published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Beh;vhcl College discuss and a swimming pool, and is sched- WNW C°l.l-161- uled to be finished in the summer of UNARY 2000. What makes 75% of Behrend stu dents stay on campus for the full four years? Aaron Lundberg, 01 communica tions, stated, "I like the chance to be able to get to know many students and faculty because of the size of Behrend's campus." John Lilley, Provost and Dean, would like Behrend to, "retain its in spiring quality and continue to be an inspiration to students." However, he does want students to keep certain things in mind as Behrend grows larger: "What do we want to protect at Behrend as we grow larger, and what are the values we need to iden tify and stick with as we grow?" Most students think that Behrend needs to maintain its small, personal atmosphere. Kristi Wilson, 04 busi ness, commented, "I like Behrend's small classes and personal attention from teachers." Thien Tran, 09 plas tics, agreed, stating, "I enjoy Behrend's faculty and their immedi ate assistance when you need help. They hold an attitude of wanting to help students." applications, we have a very quanti tative process. Basically we consider a student's high school GPA and scores on the SAT and ACT." About 3 / 4 of the decision to allow a student admission is placed on their GPA. Melissa Grimm, The Assistant Director of Admissions at Behrend, said that a student's "rough average" GPA, in order to gain acceptance into Behrend, is anywhere between a 2.9 and a 3.32, however Grimm also said that a fair number of students that apply fall above this average and a "The admission criteria for Penn State University Park is higher than it is at Penn State Behrend." few fall below it The other quarter of the decision is the student's score on either their SAT or ACT depending on which they took. The rough average SAT score falls somewhere between a 25% and 75% range which is inside 1010 and 1170. The average ACT scores falls between a middle 50% range which is a score between 21 -26. In comparison to University Park, these standards fall a little bit short. Madigan confirms this by saying, "The admission criteria for Penn State University Park is higher than it is at Penn State Behrend." The average GPA given consider- have the opportunity to take a tour of the State Department, the FBI, the Capitol and the Library of Congress. There will also be trips to the vari ous monuments and museums around the city. In addition, the group will be able to meet with Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and Senator Arlen Specter's legislative assistant, Molly Birmingham. They will also meet with Phil English, the House Repre- FEB 2 6 1998 Provost and Dean John Lilley ation there ranges between 3.36 and 3.76 and the average SAT scores ad mitted are between 1150 and 1330. These figures are rough averages as well. When compared with other Com monwealth campuses within the Penn State System, Behrend does have a more rigorous selection process. The average GPA of an incoming student at any one of the branch campuses is between a 2.66 and a 3.2. The SAT scores range roughly from a total score of 930-1120. Mary Ellen Madigan Director (f Admissions at Behrend Factors such as class rank (when given by a high school) are used mainly as a "bonus factor", said Me lissa Grimm, along with things like extracurricular activities. However, the importance of involvement in things outside of schoolwork does not go unnoticed in the selection process. In the Erie region, Gannon seems to have similar standards as Behrend. Christine Elliott, the Assistant Direc tor of Admissions at Gannon said that the average GPA of incoming stu dents to Gannon is about a 3.4, the average SAT score is around an 1110 and ACT score is about 24. For which of these three criteria is held in high- sentative from the Erie area. International Studies 497 C has been meeting most Mondays since the beginning of the semester to learn about the history and culture of Spain before spending a week in Madrid and other cities. The class will spend a few days in Madrid where they will visit the Prado art museum and other sites in the city. They will spend the remainder of the week traveling around the southern part of Spain as Volume XLVI. No. 19 0" 41. est regard by the Admissions Depart ment at Gannon, Elliott commented, "SAT and ACT scores are weighed along the same lines as [a prospec tive student's] GPA and class rank." There are more noticeable lines drawn between a comparison of Behrend's admission standards and that of ivy league school Cornell University, where a student's GPA is intermingled within a profile that shows whether or not a student has graduated from high school within the top 10% of his class. Of all the entering freshmen students admitted to Cornell for the 1997 academic year, 82% of the students ranked by their high school were in the top 10% of their class. However, this number can be deceiving as 35% of the total first year undergrads' class ranks were never reported. The SAT's are reviewed very se lectively at Cornell. It is done by a ranking system divided by verbal and mathematical scores. 30% of the stu dents admitted receive a verbal score of between a 700-800, twenty-seven percent have scores ranging from 650-699 and 23% have between 600- 649. Of the Math section 48% are between 700-800, 25% are between 650-699 and sixteen percent are in the 600-649 range. This is deceiving as well because even though a larger percentage of students score higher on the math, a Admission continued on •a far as the Mediterranean Sea. They will also visit Dr. Juan Fernandez' hometown of Escanuela, in the prov ince of Andalusia. Fernandez is the professor teaching the class and ac companying the students on the trip, This is the first time that Behrend has offered these particular trips, though there are plans to repeat them regularly in the future. photo by Jason Blake
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