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!