The Behrend Beacon Housing camp-out turns into chaos by Nicole McGee staff writer This Sunday night the Wintergarden was full of students waiting to submit their housing con tracts. Housing and Food Services be gan collecting them at 6:00 am Mon day morning. Eighteen hours beforehand, stu dents began lining up and waiting in front of the doors to the Reed Com mons. Students relocated all the fur niture from the first floor of Reed Union Building to accomodate their wait. They took the couches from the back lounge and the student organi zation lounge. They brought stereos, videogames, chairs, bean bags, books, cards, pillows, blankets, and even a few televisions with them. Traditionally the camp-out had taken place outside the office of Housing and Food Services, but this year it was moved to accomodate the students. Although the Office of Housing and Food Services doesn’t encourage this kind of sleeping out, they figured it would be more beneficial to com ply . Acting Associate Dean of Student The Future site of Gateway Rehabilitation Center on East 38th street Photo by Andrea Zaftino Owner puts 2 million price tag on Gateway Elizabeth Guelcher Layout Editor Although residents of Wesley ville and Haborcreek have been waiting out the drama of Gateway Rehabilitation for about the past three months, it seems that the end is in sight. With the victory of Gateway in the most recent appeal, all that stands between them and Kanty Prep is $2 million. The Gateway Rehabilitation Pro gram was created for inmates who have been recently released from State prisons as a drug and alcohol re habilitation center. This will be Gateway’s second facility with the other located in Alaquippa, Pennsyl vania. All of the residents of the Gate way facility would be Erie residents, which will house about SO men and women. The building is supposed to be leased to Gateway, but Ken Lochbaum, Affairs Linda Lombardi explains, “If students are choosing to sleep out, we want to make it safe for the students; we want to keep them warm.” Manager of Housing and Food Ser vices Ed Malftnger, adds, “Our plan was to open [the Commons] at 9:30 pm, and everyone could line up then.” The plan did not work excactly as planned though. With over two hun dred and fifty students, some esti mates over three hundred, in the Reed Building it was hard to keep control One problem was line cutting. Stu dents at the end of the line pushed their way to the front, stepping hundreds of places before those who had been waiting hours longer. Other students started chanting, yelling, pushing, and name-calling. This activity began as early asl eight hours before contract submission would even start. Lombardi says, “The students showed no regard or respect for the students who had stayed out since noon...they showed no membership and no respect for the Behrend com- munity.” Malfinger adds, “It was like a mini riot. I was very concerned about owner of the fromer Kanty Prep build ing, told residents at a meeting two weeks ago that the building is on the market for $2 million. At this point, buying the building is the only way community members can keep the re habilitation center out of their neigh borhood. The Haborcreek residents, who op pose Gateway occupying the former Kanty Prep building, cite sercurity is sues as their main concern. Gateway has stated that no resident of thier fa cility in Alaquippa has commited a crime while in the program. In con trast, four years ago, while 500 col lege students were housed in the build ing. There were a total of twelve ap pearances on front of the district jus tice. Greg Loyed, 08 engineering, is a member of the Sigma Kappa Nu fra ternity, whose house is located up the road from the proposed site said,”l think it will effect us but it could be Erie, PA 16563 Fights during the Housing Contract camp-out January 28, 1999 Volume XLVII No. 18 safety issues....! can’t believe stu dents would do that to each other.” Bryan Katzenmeyer, 02 Chem supports those who were pushed to the back, “”I feel bad for the people who were here before all them who cut. They probably had a legitimate shot at the suites until we had to move into the Commons; they lost their place.” These problems were not, how ever caused from disorganization. There had been planning and vari ous meetings beforehand. There was also student representation involved in the planning. Also at 7:30 (one and one half hours before the doors opened), Lombardi and Malfinger went down the line speaking to stu dents. They made sure students were aware of their place in line, and of which direction the line took. Lombardi notes, "People’s atti tudes completely changed irom ‘how ya doin’?’ to screaming, yelling, and name callling. It was really alarm- Eventually, students proceeded to Continued on Page 2 postive or negative. It’s a good op portunity for community service.” The building sits on property com pletely surrounded by land owned by Behrend. Lochbaum didn’t sell the Kanty Prep building to Behrend sim ply because school officals were not looking to buy. He stated that the col lege wanted the building donated, and that was not an option. Governor Tom Ridge has the power to prevent Gateway from occupying the building, but has made no efforts in that direction thus far. The Beacon contacted Ridge’s of fice; however, the Governor has no official statement. Jerry Feeser, Ridge’s representive on the issue only told us that the Govenor,”...has done everything he can to facilitate meetings between (the involved par ties), and that he will continue to do so until the situation comes to a close.” SGA UP AND RUNNING by Ayodele Jones managing editor It’s the third week of the se mester and now that classes have taken their usual course, students at Behrend can begin to ask what exactly is Student Government Association do ing? SGA has already begun plans for the spring semester. SGA, which meetson Thursdays at 6 P.M. In Reed 113, has started to transform the budget pro cess. The budget committee wants to make the budget pro cess shorter and quicker; this will save student clubs the hassles and aggravations nor mally associated with this pro cess. SGA also wants to improve student life; one particular as pect being the way in which housing contracts for the fol lowing year are accepted. Stu dents camped out in the Reed Commons on Sunday night in order to insure that they would receive the residence of their choice for next semester. Un fortunately, students who had spent the entire night in the Commons were skipped by people arriving at 6am. The SGA is especially proud of the "book co-op” that was held the first week of school. The book co-op provided stu dents an opportunity to buy books at a cheaper price than that of the book store. Of the sixty books that were dropped off for the sale over half of them were sold. SGA only hopes that, with the participation of more students, it will be more sue- The Beacon would like to run a correction in regards to the Clark family article The Clark family, owners of Snap-tite, INC. established an endowment of $850,000 in scholarships for the employees of Snap-tite and the employees’ children. Good home cookin’ at Chuck and Ginny’s n “ v , *V ‘ r ' >, I * . J % ' • r . ■ • cessful next semester. "I hope more people get involved in SGA, espe cially since there are going to be open ings on the SGA Senate, 1 hope that Lady Lio undefeat in AMC play iimlll "<■ . I. people participate in the upcomig elections. SGA wants to prove itself and do things for the students,” said Andrea DiPlacido, vice-president of SGA. , v; '4 .
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