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