C The Behrend College ollegian Thursday, April 23, 1998 Library funding falls short of request The Behrend library will not receive the $500,000 hoped for. Greeks take over Student Government by Andrea ZafTino editor in chief The results are in for the Student Government Association (SGA) elections tor the Fall 1998 semester. As always in an election, the results were disheartening for some and tri umphant for others. Less than one percent of the entire campus turned out to vole. The total number of votes received was 237. The student Senate was almost overwhelmingly taken over by fra ternity and sorority members. This is primarily due to a list floating around both Tuesday and Wednes day of this week with the names of all eleven Greek candidates running. One sorority member, Stacey Erzen, 02 International Politics, was reluc tant to say exactly who was respon sible for putting the list together. She did, however, explain what Greeks will do if they do take over the Sen ate, "Mostly. Greeks are trying to get more interest in SGA and more in- terest from everyone on campus. There isn't a lot of cooperation among all the organizations on cam- Channasa Taylor, 02 Marketing, was the only non-Greek to win elec tion as senator. She beat out Carl Grande, 04 Accounting, by only one vote. Grande was the only Greek candidate running that did not win election. Andrea DiPlacido, 02 DUS, who has been a Freshman Senator for the past year, won the position of Vice President. She was running unop posed. Looking forward to the Fall semester, DiPlacido said, “I’m inter ested in improving relations between students and this organization and working with new members of the Senate.” Buck Goedicke, 06 Electrical Engineering, who will be picking up where Mike Zampetti leaves off as SGA President, was also running un opposed. Of the job he hopes to do, Goedicke said, “I would like to see Mike’s [Zampetti] efforts contin ued.” This will be Goedicke’s sec ond experience with SGA, as he was a senator this past year as well. Zampetti, with one more week to go before leaving the chief position, is confident of next year’s leaders, “Good luck to them, I think they’ll both do a good job.” Besides DiPlacido and Goedicke, Julie Meyers, 03 Biology, was re elected to the Senate. Meyers al ready plays a part in a few commit tees and plans to do more with them next year. She said of her involve ment, “Currently, I’m on the Student Life committee and the Homecom ing committee. There is a lot of work to be done, especially with Home coming.” Meyers went on to say, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do for next year, I want to be on a couple “l would like to see Mike’s [Zampetti] efforts continued.” Buck Goedicke 06, Electrical Engineering SGA President-elect more committees.” The only other returning member will be Secretary Michelle Benjamin who won reelection. She also was faced with no opposing candidate. Of the Senate votes, Christa Bucholtz, the Elections Committee Chair, said, “It was a slaughter, I was a little surprised by some of the people left off the [winner’s] list.” Namely, SGA Senator Charles Testrake, 04 Political Science. Testrake was a favorite among some of the SGA officers for this year. He has worked on SGA the past two years, and had this to say about his loss, “Well, I was kind of surprised. I really thought I was going to win, but I think the people that did win will do a good job. I may be a repre sentative for the Student Program ing Council, and maybe I’ll stay on the Student Life Committee.” Full results of the SGA elections appear on page 3. photo by Jasort Blake Sea Grant program underway by Abigail Mouyard staff water In October of 1997, Behrend Col lege was chosen to be Pennsylvania's first site for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Sea Grant Program. The Sea Grant Program involves any state that borders an ocean or one of the Great Lakes, and the program focus in Pennsylvania will be Lake Erie's Watershed. Dr. Robert Light, Associate Provost and Dean at Behrend, will serve as the program’s director for the first two years. Light is very qualified to un dergo this commitment because of his ten years of research administration experience and Ph.D. in Ecology. Dr. Light says, “’The Sea Grant program’s short term goals are to create public awareness and provide research funds for faculty, also to get some students involved in doing background re search. The program’s long term goals mean more money for research opportunities and helping other col leges in the area.” Some steps for the Sea Grant’s pro gram development in Pennsylvania include: 1. Establish office modeled after ag ricultural and engineering extension programs 2. Set up Advisory Council of in fluential and knowledgeable people 3. Become partner with other Sea Grant programs in the Great Lakes region 4. Recruit extension agents based on local needs and potential to assist neighboring New York and Ohio Sea Grant programs Marijuana forum lacked participation by Ayodele Jones staff writer On Monday, April 20, 1998, stu dents from Behrend and the Commu nications 305 class debated the legal ization of marijuana. At the start of the forum, the music and images of Bob Marley and movie stars Cheech and Chong, Chris Tucker and Ice Cube smoking and indulging in the effects of marijuana filled the huge screen in Reed 117 Students of Communications 305 began the forum by giving basic in formation and discouraging the pre conceived myths about marijuana: marijuana could be detected in the human body for over thirty days after consumption, private and public em ployees spend between one and two billion dollars on drug testing annu- Erie, PA 16563 Published weekly by the students of Penn Suite Erie, The Behrend College by Anne Rajotte A common complaint among Be hrend students is that the library just doesn't have the resources essential to do the sort of research required for many classes. Often, students head to the Gannon or Mercyhurst libraries to find books or periodicals that aren’t available here. Nancy Eaton, the new Dean of Li braries at Penn State, also felt that the Behrend library may not have the amount of holdings that a school of this size should. Rick Hart, Director of the Library at Behrend, submitted a proposal at her request outlining what kind of holdings Behrend would need to acquire to raise it to the stan dard that would be acceptable to fac ulty and students. Hart submitted a request for roughly $500,000 that would be spent over the next several years to eventually im prove the quality of the library. This was a higher figure than Eaton had in mind, and she made only a $25,000 commitment for next year. According to Hart, “We will have further discus sions... the door is still open." 5. Provide a modest number of de velopment grants in support of rel evant applied research projects The Sea Grant Program’s staffing plan includes hiring: 1. A Coastal Environmental Qual ity Specialist, whose job would in clude evaluating Presque Isle Bay Sediment Contamination, Fish Advi sory Standardization, and Increased Clarity of Bay and Lake Water Associate Provost and Dean Dr. Robert Light directs the Sea Grant program at Behrend. ally, one to three joints equates to the same amount of lung damage that five cigarettes would incur, and the aver age person can expect to undergo ten to a hundred random drug tests in their lifetime. The growing demand for marijuana has increased its worth, one ounce of marijuana is equal to the price of one ounce of gold. Over 90% of illegal drug use in the United States is mari juana use, it is often given the moni ker "the king drug”. The forum included an ABC news documentary on the illegal growth of marijuana in the continental United States. There is an increasing demand for marijuana and the supply is being met by suppliers on our own home turf. Marijuana is one of the largest cash crops in the United States, be- editor The $25,000 is a one-time alloca tion that is in addition to the regular budget. Hart stated that he is “optimis tic that our situation will improve." The regular budget has been steadily increasing in the past several years. The budget was roughly $207,000 in 1994 and has risen to roughly “The library is improving. The budget has let us buy more books, but a half million dollars would sure help us improve. It would give more depth to the collection.” Rick Hart Director of the Library $300,000 for this past year. “The li brary is improving. The budget has let us buy more books,” said Hart, “but a half million dollars would sure help us improve. It would give more depth to the collection." 2. A Coastal Tourism and Economic Development Specialist, whose job would include Recruitment, Reten tion, and Expansion of Coastal-and- Tourism-Related Business and Indus try 3. A part-time Stall Assistant The Sea Grant's program period is March 1, 1998 - February 28, 2001. The program’s budget for the first year includes $159,313 from federal tween twenty and forty billion dollars is produced yearly in profit. Legislation on the possession and use of marijuana varies among states. In some states, the possession of a small amount of marijuana entitles a person to a year of jail time while in other states the production of large amounts of marijuana does not require jail time. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is an organization which was created in 1970 by Keith Stroup, dedicated solely to marijuana law re form. “NORML supports the removal of all penalties for the private posses sion of marijuana, cultivation for per sonal use, and the casual non-profit transfers of small amounts. Large scale cultivation and distribution should be regulated and taxed, as with Volume XLVI. No. 26 If the library had gotten the addi tional funds they had requested, buildl ing a “core collection” would be a priA ority, according to Dr. Dan Frank-j forter. Professor of Medieval History and chair of the Library Committee. The Library Committee and the library staff did an inventory of the library holdings and compared it to a model collection that The Library Associa tion published. The library would like to go back and build a collection of materials that would be found at most small college libraries. Frankforter staled that in the past, space limitations restricted Behrend from building a large library collec tion. Since the new library was built a few years ago, Behrend has attempted to catch up with other libraries in terms of the quality of the library holdings. According to Frankforter, Behrend was led to believe that they may get the money they requested. He went on to say that it was a disappointment when only $25,000 of the money was actually allocated, and that, “Behrend has usually had to solve problems on its own.” funds and $122,186 from other sources (Pennsylvania Sea Grant Pro posal). If anyone is interested in do ing research through the internet or creating a web page for Pennsylvania’s Sea Grant program please contact Dr. Robert Light via e mail at rwl2@psu.edu. photo by Jason Blake alcohol and tobacco.” Many supporters of the legalization of marijuana argue that the strict laws and penalties assessed with the pos session and use of marijuana should be revoked. They claim that these stringent policies often end the pro spective careers of young people. Many argue that the legalization of marijuana would generate revenue for the national government if it was taxed and it could perhaps balance the national budget. In the northwest part of Washington state there is nearly one marijuana grower on every block, and 90% of them are never caught. A wife and husband in northwest Washing ton enjoy growing marijuana because it gives them time and money. They Marijuana continued on page 2
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers