CThe Behrend College mann Colle 1 • mARS o 4 g . an Thursday, March 5, 1998 INSIDE... News "The Clouds of Jupiter" Police and Safet Two rottweilers running loose in the apartments ..page 2 Calendar Feminist scholar: Alda Blanco tonight Editorial Pot smoking Prof. at University Park ..page 4 Campus News Freshmen expelled after hanging black mannequin World & Nation Hunters and farmers protest in Britain ...page 6 Features Rap goes back to basics Sports Women's softball, men's baseball previews ...page 8 No pets in Penn by Damion Miller who know about this policy are the staff writer students that have pets, want pets, or The possession of any sort of ani- know someone with a pet. Others mal besides fish is prohibited in all really don't know what the policy is. Penn State housing. Most students Penn State's policy on pets states photo by Jason Blake High flying guard Kim Moses heads to the basket for another of her patented finger roll layups last Thursday against Lake Erie college at Erie Hall in the first round of the AMCC play offs. The Behrend women lost in the AMCC finals, but were invited to participate in the ECAC playoffs which start this weekend. The men's basketball team won their AMCC cham pionship and will also be participating in the ECAC tourney. Stories pages 11 and 12. Student involvement a letdown in SGA open forum page 2 The Student Government Associa tion (SGA) Open Forum last night adjourned in less than ten minutes. After nobody showed up to the Fo rum in the scheduled room, Michelle Benjamin, SGA secretary, suggested to move the group to Bruno's in an attempt to involve students. Mike Zampetti, SGA President, led the Senators to the stage in Bruno's cafeteria, where he picked up the mi crophone and announced that the meeting was going to take place. There were not many students in the cafeteria to begin with, but despite the lack of attendance, Zampetti tried to get the attention of those who were there by asking what they thought of the raise in the Student Activity Fee. No one had a reply to his query, ex cept for one onlooker who suggested to Zampetti that he "dance". Zampetti made light of the comment and suggested that he himself, "sing something" and followed up with a verse of "Singing in the Rain". Even these antics were not enough to provoke student involvement in the forum. Some who were eating even got up to leave. After this, Zampetti attempted to attract stu dents by bringing up the inadequate size of Bruno's hamburgers, a sub ject discussed in jest during the busi ness portion of the SGA meeting. Still, no one bothered to make a com ment or participate in any way. page 3 page 5 page 7 allowed State dorms by Andrea Zaffino editor in chief Rob Ring, the president of the Stu dent Programing Council, took the microphone from Zampetti to an nounce that Thursday night in Bruno's there would be a comedian, Robbie Printz, performing at 8:30 pm. By this time more students had left the cafeteria. In one last attempt to grab student's interest Benjamin got on stage to ask if anyone had any complaints about the amount of tests professors nor mally give the week before Spring Break. Following in the style of the rest of the meeting, no one answered or gave any impression that they cared at all. As a whole, Student Government was upset with the turnout and poor participation on the part of the stu dents. Zampetti had this to say, "It sucked! I can't believe people actu ally got up and left ... I'm flabber gasted." Karl Gressly, the president of the Commuter Council, also took a mo- ment to express his disappointment in apathy on the students' part, "My big complaint is that people claim there's nothing to do [on campus] and SGA holds forums to discuss this but no one even attends them." This apa thy seems to be extending into Gressly's organization, Commuter Council. "Right now, I'm the only person running my council- it's re ally discouraging." that, "For reasons of sanitation and safety, pet animals, with the excep tion of tropical fish and goldfish, are not permitted in residence halls, apart ments, dining halls, or other Univer sity buildings." Some students have expressed responses to that policy. When asked, Brandon Abate, 02 Civil Engineering, stated, "I guess that's alright, I mean you can get a dog when you're off campus, I mean 'cause some of them smell." Nicole Curry, 02 DUS, said, "It's cool with me, I've got allergies." On the other hand, Craig Plummer, 02 Communications, says, "something small, like a ham ster, or a turtle that doesn't bother anybody on the floor, they shouldn't have a problem with that." Claudia Vila, 02 DUS, thought that the policy should be extended to allow turtles, iguanas, and parrots. Ed Mulfinger, Manager of Housing and Food Services, wants students to know what has happened in the past due to students keeping certain pets on campus. Mulfinger pointed out that about 14 years ago, a boa constrictor got loose in Perry for months. In an other incident a pet hamster was run ning around a hall, scaring its resi dents. There are numerous amounts of stray cats around due to abandon ment. This is another issue when it comes to the pet policy. The owners leave them because they graduate, they are moving, or they simply don't want them anymore. The abandoned pets either are found and sent out for adoption or they die. On one occa sion, Housing went to clean up an apartment during the semester break and found a dead piranha that left a pungent odor. Mulfinger pointed out that it cost sloos to fumigate and clean rooms that once had pets. Based on that statement, Vila said, "OK then, it's cool, it's fine, I mean, we can't all have our own dogs run ning around. Imagine the chaos, the noise, and the smell, of having 30 dogs room to room on a floor." Four main reasons the University has a P -ts con inued on •a Erie, PA 16563 Published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Volume XLVI. No. 20 Barrels of plastic resin create an eyesore off of Jordan Road Behrend attempts garbage dumping by Melissa Roberts Several weeks ago, a nice walk on a dirt road off Jordan Road would have lead you to a clearing in the woods. Unfortunately, the clearing was filled with tires, blue barrels, some of which were overturned, wooden palletes and other miscella neous trash. Today, the former eye sore still needs some work, but has improved remarkably. Earlier this year, the University took it u.on them- selves to clean up an area on their prop erty off Jordan Road above the last parking lot. The area had been the former site of an old barn, which had burned down about 5 years ago. The barn had housed donated bags full of plastic resin, used by the plastics en gineering department. After the barn burned down, the plastic resin was put into blue barrels and left on the land. Over time people have found this area and vandalized and pushed over the barrels, spilling the plastic resin on the ground. In addition, they added their own trash to the area. These actions caused the area to be Students starve themselves for charity On February 27, students from the Behrend community began a thirty hour famine to raise awareness about world hunger. The famine began at 12:00 Friday afternoon and ended the following evening at 6:00 pm. The Thirty Hour famine was sponsored by The Newman Asso ciation. The Thirty Hour famine is an idea created by World Vision, one of the largest funded Christian nonprofit relief and development organiza tions in the United States. It is dedi cated to aAressing the needs of children and families in need of nu trition around the world. World Vi sion was started forty seven years ago and they help about fifty mil lion people each year. The students who participated in the thirty hour famine were only a few of the mil lion others who participated around the world. One weekend each year, a million people go without food to staff writer "Sometimes you have to store items back there because it saves the University thousands of dollars in dumping." by Ayodele Jones staff writer • * an eyesore and a potentially danger ous situation. The University used this area to store such things as the barrels of plastic resin, wooden palettes, tires, cinder blocks, metal and other or ganic trash. Dean Lilley said that this area was needed to store these items because, "sometimes you have to store items back there because it saves the University thousands of dollars in dumping." The problem of these overturned barrels and garbage was brought to the attention of some students at the last Coffee With The Provost in Perry Hall. At this time the Dean said that the problem was being taken care of. There was some concern that the plastic in the barrels and lying on the ground was toxic, so the University sent samples to an industrial hygien ist at University Park and Dean Lilley stated that the plastic was "not in any way toxic." Lucy Lenhardt, a plastics lah re- demonstrate the human ability to raise funds for medical and emer gency care. Last year 400,000 people in the United States partici pated in this nationwide event to end hunger in places like Angola, India and even the United States itself. The students at Behrend passed "I thought it was interesting to see life through someone else's eyes. You don't realize how much you have until it's gone." the thirty hours by doing local com munity projects and learning about world hunger. On Friday students met at 5:00 pm, and they partici pated in activities that dealt with the famine and watched a video which problem search assistant at Behrend, ex plained that the plastic resin that was stored in the barrels was donated to the school eight years ago and is used in teaching labs for plastics engineer ing majors. The resin is used to make different kinds of plastic materials. Director of Operations John Ream, said that "the problem has been taken care of." He explained the material that was off Jordan Road has been relocated to under the water tower behind Almy Hall. Dean Lilley said that putting the barrels of plastic resin under the water tower would keep the vandals out of them because the water tower is sur rounded by fence with barbed wire at the top. Ream explains why the entire area hasn't been cleaned up yet and why there are still remnants of plastic and other trash. "(The) plastic material has been moved the best we could with the weather we've had. - They tried their best to clean up the area by burning the piles of wooden palettes, they took the tires to the landfill and cov ered most of the plastic resin that they couldn't get of the ground with dirt so that animals wouldn't eat them and die. Provost and Dean John Lillev showcased the effects of hunger on third world children, so that they would know or see the people they were actually helping during their sacrifice. On Saturday, four groups of Be hrend students participated in ser vice projects in the Erie community. Three groups spent the day at a lo cal home where mentally chal lenged adults and children lived. The remaining group went to assist the second grade communion class at St. Marks. After their projects students ended their fast with din ners donated by Old Country Buf fet. Jennifer Sloka, 04 Communi cations, described the thirty hour famine as "a great way to get to know people on campus because it is a good cause that addresses the different needs of countries." Lisa Perrette, 04 Political Science, said "I thought it was interesting to see life through someone else's eyes. You don't realize how much you have until it's gone.- Lisa Perret te 04 Political Science COLLEGE IRV photo by Melissa Roberts remedy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers