The Behrend Beacon Knowledge Park to open in 1999 By Shannon Weber staff writer Late last summer Governor Tom Ridge announeed the release of $8.5 million of Pennyslvania Capital Bud get Redevelopement funds. This money will go toward the construc tion of Knowledge Park at Penn State Behrend. The purpose of Knowled*. Park is to attraei knowledge-t>aseu companies closet to the college so that the students will have increased op portunities for interaction and em ployment. At the same time, the com panies benefit from the expertise of the college faculty and research cen ters. "The states $8.5 million investment here is certainly significant,” said Bob Phoel, president of the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation (GEIDC), "but even more significant is the new direction that this invest ment allows Erie County to move in. We've long been known for our higher-than-average percentage of heavy manufacturing jobs in Erie. This park will enable us to continue our manufacturing leadership. Now, however, the research and develop ment will also be in Erie for products made in Erie. Knowledge Park will be beneficial in many ways. It will enable the stu dents to work and have internships. Employees of these companies would also construct classes. Students ma joring in business and communica tions will be able to do internships related to marketing. Management Information Systems majors will work with the companies on data Jerry of Ben & Jerry’s visits Behrend By Will Jordan news editor “What’s the Doughboy afraid of?” This past Tuesday, Jerry Greenfield, one half of the famous Ben and Jerry’s duo, came to Behrend. Though there were many perils of the Ben and Jerry’s Company, one that oc curred as the company began to grow involved the Pilsbury company. As Ben and Jerry’s began to sell their ice cream wholesale to supermarkets, the Pilsbury company, which owns Haagen-Daaz, began to issue threats to the supermar kets. Pilsbury said that if the supermar kets continued to carry and sell Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, they would no longer supply the supermarkets with Haagen- Daaz ice cream. Although what the Pilsbury company was doing was illegal, Ben and Jerry re alized that it would be pointless trying to sue this company that was so much larger than their own. So they began a campaign to fight the corporate giant by gaining the support of the public. They sold t-shirts that had a picture of a small container of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream being strangled by a pair of pudgy white hands on the front, and on the back was written “What’s the Doughboy afraid of?” Ben and Jerry took out ads in newspa pers and magazines trying to gain the support of the public. They also had an ad in Rolling Stone magazine which read, "Help two hippies from Vermont,” to help gain support in their fight against the Pilsbury company. Eventually there was enough pressure from the public to force the Pilsbury company to back down. Jerry Greenfield’s first job in the ice cream industry was in the cafeteria of his alma matar Oberlin College as a scooper. Erie, PA 16563 bases and communication. Science majors will work with Biotech and other science oriented companies. There will be many opportunities be yond engineering and engineering technology. The tenants will benefit from Knowledge Park by allowing access to graduate students, education, train ing programs and support. Tenants will also be able to utilize the tele conferencing and distance education technologies. "Knowledge Park is a research and development area which will allow knowledge-based high tech type companies to locate closer to and take full advantage of the in tellectual and physical resources of the college," according to Robert Light, Associate Provost and Associ ate Dean of Penn State Behrend. The tenants of Knowledge Park will include organizations and their employees which are likely to form strong knowledge-driven partnerships with Penn State Behrend and other institutions of higher education. The majority of tenants will relate to the use of engineering and business prac tices to promote the development and improvement of products and pro cesses. Knowledge Park is located on a mile-long stretch of Penn State Behrend's campus on the north side of Interstate 90. It resides on Exit 9 of Interstate 90 and is 25 minutes from the Erie International Airport. The Park is within five minutes of the ter minus of the Route 17 Southern Tier Expressway which is a direct link to New York City. The Park is also within two hours of Buffalo, Cleve land and Pittsbrugh. There are over twenty 4-acre sites At the original store in Burlington, Ver mont, he was also a scooper. However, Greenfield had a problem with “portion control.” “I would see the person on the other side of the counter smiling at me and so I would give them a large scoop,” Greenfield commented. Greenfield stated, “a business is a ma chine to make money.” After starting the business and as the business began to grow, Ben and Jerry started to feel more like businessmen and less like ice cream men. They almost sold their business. To become less like a business, Ben and Jerry’s company began to give to the community. They started the Ben and Jerry Foundation which donates 7.5 per cent of the company’s annual pre-tax profits to charity. This is the highest per centage of any publicly held company. Greenfield was introduced at his evening lecture by Ken Miller who is the acting dean of student affairs. Greenfield was sporting a stylish, light blue, Ben and Jerry’s staff t-shirt. His speech was en titled “An Evening of Entrepreneurial Spirit, Social Responsibility, and Radi cal Business Philosophy.” Greenfield began with when he met his longtime friend and partner, Ben Cohen, in their seventh grade gym class. “We were the two slowest and fattest kids in the class,” Greenfield said. Ben and Jerry remained good friends throughout jun ior high school and high school. When the time came to go to college, Cohen’s parents basically forced him to go. They filled out an application to Colgate Uni versity in upstate New York. “Ben thought that it was a cool place because it had fire places,” Greenfield stated. Eventually Cohen dropped out of Colgate as well as many other colleges. He also had many odd jobs within a span of two years. Greenfield was a premed major at for the buildings which will be 40,000 square feet or more in the Park. The sites are equipped with utilities. Three sites are available for immediate con struction. The first coporate multi tenant building is to be completed in January 0f1999. It will be a two-story, 70,000 square foot structure. The first tenant of Knowledge Park will be Aalborg Industries, which designs and markets steam boilers and generators. This company, which is Erie based, was purchased by a Danisl. company "We anticipate attraction of compa nies from outside the region and out side the state," stated Light. There are four phases in which Knowledge Park will be completed. GEIDC Chairman Mike Mead said that, "phase one is the construction underway on the first building and the Knowledge Parkway, which will be one of the most scenic roads in the county, with tall trees on both sides and in the middle of the divided park way." He also commented on the invest ment from Governor Ridge. The money will help fund phase two of Knowledge Park. Phase two includes an 8,000-square-foot, shared-use meeting center, a 36,000-square-foot training facility, site work, storm wa ter management, and numerous paved public pathways through the heavily forested Knowledge Park site. "Phase three will include development of the land west of Jordan Road to Ever green Gorge. And Phase four will complete development of infrastucture such as roads and utili ties on the final 40 acres of the Knowl edge Park site." Oberlin College. Two times he applied to 20 different medical schools and both times he was rejected. He and Cohen eventually decided to go into business together. They decided on a business that involved food because they both loved to eat very much. The first business that they thought of was the United Bagel Service which would deliver bagels door to door. This idea didn’t last very long and they decided to make ice cream. They took a correspondence course at Penn State to learn how to make ice cream. After passing the course, they decided that they wanted to open a store in a rural college town which was in a warm environment. They soon realized that all of the schools that were in the warm environment already had good ice cream stores and after much debate, de cided on Burlington, Vermont. Greenfield defined business as, “an en tity that produces a product or does a ser vice.” He stated that at Ben and Jerry’s, they were more involved with the spiri tual part of business. “As we help oth ers, we can’t help but help ourselves,” Greenfield said. Ben and Jerry’s rede fined the bottom line for business. Ben and Jerry’s was worried about “how much have we helped the quality of life in the community and how much money have we made?” After his speech, Greenfield opened directly from the container like her and the floor to any questions that people had. ier daughter do or is it better to scoop it One man stated that Ben and Jerry’s in- >ut as her husband does. Greenfield said, directly stopped a drilling operation in a ‘I recommend scooping because when wilderness area in Souther, i Pennsylva- /ou eat directly from the container you nia. Ben and Jerry’shad donated fifteen ire prone to eat the whole thing.” barrels of ice cream to the organization Greenfield then stated that, “it is better that was against the drilling and the drill- o eat ice cream with a fork instead of a ing operation was stopped. spoon because less metal touches the ice A woman asked how well Ben and ; ream and you get more flavor.” Jerry’s promoted women and minorities After the speech, Jay Fiorello, 03 Busi in the company. Greenfield said, “we do less Logistics, said, “it’s good to hear very well with women. Half of the com- hat two small town guys made it big. I pany’s managers are women. However, hink its great that they spend so much our record with minorities is between ime trying to give back.” Patrick Kiley, terrible and dismal. We think that this is J 5 Communications, said, “I thought he partially due to the location. Vermont is was a pretty cool cat. I thought that the a predominantly white state.” quote in Rolling Stone about the two hip- Another woman wanted to settle a dis- P> es from Vermont was funny." pute between herself, her daughter and Chad Warren, 01 MIS, said, “I thought October 15, 1998 Volume XLVII No. 8 SGA appoints one freshman senator By Anne Rajotte editor in chief Freshmen eleetions were post poned once again this week, at least partially. After delaying the elec tion for several weeks, Student Gov ernment Association voted to ap point one freshman senator this week. Mike Ames, the newly appointed senator, stated “I think I can help Behrend by working with SGA,” but added, “I don’t know too much about SGA.” Christopher Buchanan, the other candidate, was not present at the meeting. Due to his lack of atten dance at recent meetings, SGA voted to postpone appointing him one more week. President Buck Goedicke stated, “I don’t know how much time he has for SGA.” press confrence ier husband. She wanted to know whether it was best to eat the ice cream pennState A Knowledge Park building under construction Erie In other business, Goedicke com mented on his meeting with the Uni versity Faculty Senate: “I told them Behrend sucks.” He discussed problems with advising and the I told them Behrend sucks SGA President Buck Goedicke computer fee with the Faculty Sen- Another issue discussed was a banner that the Campus of Com monwealth Student Governments (CCSG) is requiring all Penn State campuses to purchase for All U Day. The banner costs $2OO and Vice President Andrea DiPlacido assured the senators that it can be used for events other than All U Day. In re he was great and an inspiration for any one going into the area of business. His ability to start the business without hav ing much knowledge is phenomenal.” Kim Moses, 05 Mechanical Engineering, said “Anybody able to do what he did the way he did it gets mad love from me.” Holly Ristau, 01 Chemistry, said, “1 thought he was very motivated. I think that it’s great that they give so much to the community.” Lee Ericson, 03 Com munications, said, “to see a man with his wealth and power be so humble brings a tear to my eye. If all people of his stat ure gave back what he does to the com munity, this country would be a fat bet ter place for our children to grow up in. I have seen the light and starting today I will strive to become more like Jerry Greenfield.” '-Hi photo by Andrea Zaffino sponse to Senator Doug Watkins’ question of the consequences of not buying the banner, Goedicke re plied, “We’re going to look very stu pid.” All nineteen Penn State campuses are required to purchase the banner, which will be carried at All U Day. SGA voted to reallocate money which was previously allocated to travel expenses to buy the banner. Watkins was the only senator to vote no. Finally, Senator Kelly Pahel sug gested that SGA buy a radio for their office. Goedicke first suggested that a CD player could be purchased for around $9O. Other senators objected to this because they felt that it was too much money. Pahel eventually moved to buy “a $lO clock-radio.” This motion was passed by the Sen ate. What's Inside Page 2 Police and Safety: Sick Groundhog Page^ SPC Movie: The Negotiator Calendar of Events Page 4 Editorial: SGA vio lates constitution Page 5 Campus News U. of Wyoming student dies Page 7 Behrend student lives in car Page 9 NBA Lockout ■ :VUt!
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers