National Cam
page 6 - The Behrend College Beacon - Thursday, February 4, 1999 j
Generation X-ers’ indifference could cost more than they think
By Elsa C. Arnett
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Young people are notoriously
doubtful that they will get a cent of
their Social Security benefits. Many
think they’ll see a UFO before they
see a Social Security check, or that a
pro wrestler will become president
before they collect all of their benefits.
So it’s not surprising that at a time
when President Clinton, the Congress
and much of the nation are furiously
debating how to reform Social
Security, young people are largely
absent from that discussion.
They don’t vote, they don’t pressure
their lawmakers, they don’t learn
about different alternatives - many
don’t even seem to care what happens.
"I’m sure they’ll find a way to phase
it out by the time I’m ready to retire
in 2050,’’ said Amanda Green, 19, a
sophomore at Bates College in
Lewiston, Maine. “And if I do get any
money, it won’t be nearly what I
worked so hard for and what they took
out of my paycheck my whole life.”
The problem is that young people
are likely to be the ones most affected
by the Social Security debate, and
their indifference could cost them
more than they think. Influential older
Young
By Lini S. Kadaba
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
He was born a Daniel. But the
nickname Danny more becomes a
baby, and so he was called that, until
he outgrew it. Then, as a teen, he
answered to a simple Dan, a
comfortable, casual fit, like a pair of
well-worn jeans. Now, Dan is a
college man. And Dan, simple, casual
Dan, isn’t the first impression he
wants to make. He wants a proper
name, one with heft, complexity, one
that signifies a certain maturity.
Daniel has arrived, as in Daniel
Immerwahr, 18, a freshman at
Columbia University who hails from
Swarthmore, Pa, outside Philadelphia.
Like buying dorm-room sheets or
cramming for finals, shedding a
nickname is a time-honored rite of
Police Blotter:
campus crime briefs
By Peter Levine
Campus Correspondent
University of Wisconsin
College Press Exchange
TUCSON, Ariz. (CPX) - And you
think your roommate gives you
problems.
Campus police at the University of
Arizona were surprised to receive a
call from a young woman who
suspected her roommate of stashing
marijuana in their dorm room and
selling it. According to the Daily
Wildcat, police searched the room
Jan. 18 and found a small bag of what
appeared to be marijuana in a purse
belonging to the suspect.
When the suspect returned home,
police asked if there was marijuana
elsewhere in the room. According to
reports, she admitted having some
and turned it over to investigators.
Police reported that the suspect said
she paid $l5O for the green, leafy
substance she handed them and
explained that she sells it to her
friends on a “casual basis.”
The roommate who summoned
police said she did so after finding
what she thought was marijuana in
the suspect’s purse. She said she also
had fielded visits from people who
had come to the room looking to buy
the drug.
CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, 111.
(CPX) - Police arrested two fraternity
members who were trying to settle
an old score with a rival fraternity at
the University of Illinois.
According to the Daily Illini, an
officer saw two men running from
the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house
on Jan. 4 with a total of seven
trophies under their arms. Police
stopped the men, who said they had
taken the trophies to get back at Phi
Kappa Tau members believed to have
stolen the charter from their
voters will make younger workers by mutual fund company and many arc expected to work more compared with just 3 p
“pay through the nose,” predicts Oppenheimer Funds Inc., polled 804 years, retiring at 67, not 65. government bon s.
Richard Thau, of Third Millennium, adults and had a margin of error of “What they see, correctly, is that the alternati ve> sug ® e * te y . S ° mC
a "Generation X” advocacy group, plus or minus 3.5 percent. But many rate of return that they will achieve Republicans, wou eo a e some
Changing the system could make a young people remain very skeptical on their payments ol taxes and their Social Security money out o t e
dramatic^difference in the futures of about the chances of bringing rca, employes' is very low.
Americans now under 30. Smarter change to the system. especially compared to what you P L P . . .
investing of Social Security taxes “All I know is that Social Security could now get even in aU S. Treasury contributions in the stock market
could significantly reduce their taxes is in a crisis, which means it is not Bond." Federal Reserve Chairman 1 emselves.
and increase the amounts available working well, so I have no hopes Alan Greenspan test.lied before Most people would do a lot better
tater'fonheir benefits. about getting any of u,” said Francisco Congress this month. The best that w,Uj. n compared
Some proposed reforms, permitting Acosta, a 24-year-old bus boy for a younger people can hope lor is that . M , vnnQ ' h
private investment of a share of the pizzeria in Arlington, Va. There are the baby boomers don t destroy the economis y ’
Social Security lax money, also would good masons forlhc pessimism. Righ. Social Sccurhy sysicn,.' void youlh
Dlav to the computer skills and now, there are three workers paying advocate Ihau. F , .
piay w inc tumpuici r - a n h a i.-ism the “But there are almost certain to be
communications savvy of young taxes to support each beneficiary. By Despite such skepticism, the
people. The tradeoff is they involve about 2030, after 71 million baby president and Republicans in C P, p . concern fo ,
much more risk and uncertainty, boomers retire, only two workers will Congress have raised the possibility •- ® f . oserisks most
Financial experts believe young be supporting each beneficiary. of making things belter lor young . he g overnme nt
people would be willing to accept By then, Social Security taxes are people, both by making adjustments some kind of
those odds. “Even with the risks, I expected to cover only about 72 around the edges, lowering benefits, s baS eline guarantee of
think they would still feel better off percent of benefits. And because raising the retirement age hiking ’ in ‘ forthatbasicsupport
having control over their money than senior citizens write and call their taxes or slowing eost-oM.vmg PP indi vidual
reiving on big government,” said lawmakers and vote, they are likely adjustments, and by increasing the P . , 8 , , iff .
Susan A. MacManus, a professor at to have the political power to demand Social Security trust fund with pens say
University of South Florida, in 100 percent of their benefits, at great nontrad.t.onal investments. JBB » new nublic private form
Tampa, and an expert on generational cost to younger workers, who would President Clinton suggested last ’ P
conflicts. have to shoulder tha, wilh higher week lha, ,l,c fi.vcrnincn, could
Indeed, a recen, survey found that taxes. At the same time, young people mvesl some Social Seem ,ly nuurcy in ' a|
84 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds are right in expecting to receive less the stock market to improve the .ate P opportunitv to
favor giving workers a choice of from Social Security than previous of return. From the 1960 s through the 1 y P , .
idvur giving WUIMJIS j r „ , ~ , L ,„.„i h,c vi,.i,i,.,t m be much more actively involved in
where to invest their Social Security generations because working people 1990 s he stock ma ke has.yieldedan ur fu(ureandyourretirementsaid
taxes The study, released this month now pay higher taxes into the system annual leiuin ol about 6.75 pereent, y
adults nix those childhood nicknames
passage for college students, and a
way to gain an edge in the game of
life. Andy becomes a more
distinguished Andrew. Candy
becomes a more respectable Luz, a
popular Spanish name. Kip becomes
a more interesting Kaivon.
"I was coming to a new point in my
life,” Daniel says. “I tried to imagine
myself years down the line and being
called Dan, and it didn’t quite jell. So
I thought I should use Daniel. I think
Daniel is a more mature name.” Over
the recent winter holidays, though,
Daniel, like many of his fellow name
changers, found his new appellation
deflated to Dan by his high school
friends, proving that nicknames, like
glue, stick.
What’s in a nickname? Names
declare our identity to all the world.
They have power, the power to change
their owners’ lives, argue Justin
A weekly look at
fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi.
According to police reports,
investigators found no sings of forced
entry, indicating that the fraternity
house’s door could have been
unlocked, and no other damage. The
two students were arrested in
connection with the incident and
charged with residential burglary.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (CPX) - Police
in Lawrence, Kan., found more than
they expected while investigating a
reported break-in at the Alpha Tau
Omega fraternity house at the
University of Kansas.
According to the Daily Kansan,
police were summoned on Jan. 15
when fraternity members noticed that
the back door to their house had been
pried open and that items worth
thousands of dollars, including TVs
and electronic equipment, were
missing.
While investigating the scene,
police found several Kansas driver’s
licenses that appeared to be bogus
and equipment, including laminating
supplies, glossy computer paper and
Polaroid photographs, that could be
used to make fake IDs.
Craig Hartman, the chapter’s
president, told the Daily Kansan
neither he nor the fraternity’s
leadership board were aware of the
covert operation. The chapter already
has removed one member suspected
of manufacturing the fake IDs from
the fraternity, he said.
‘This was not a house activity,”
Hartman said. “It appears to be
confined to a few people.” Police are
continuing to investigate. So far, no
charges have been filed.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CPX) -
Pepper proves once again that it adds
spice to life.
According to the Michigan Daily,
two male students at the University
Kaplan and Anne Bernays, authors of
"The Language of Names: What We
Call Ourselves and Why It Matters.”
Nicknames, too, bare souls. “We tend
to think of nicknames as being slightly
frivolous,” the authors write, “even
though they carry more freight than
birth names; they describe, record,
imply, deride, or deplore something
specific about the person to whom
they are attached. Birth names, on the
other hand, mainly say something
about the people who attach them.”
No wonder these young men and
women, on the cusp of adulthood,
give such thought to these matters. "I
think it sounds more distinguished,
more intelligent,” says Andrew James
Bennett, formerly Andy, an 18-year
old freshman from Lansdowne, Pa.,
who attends Vassar College. “Any
name that ends in y or ie doesn't have
the dignity of a word without it,” says
of Michigan started brawling in a
campus dining hall on Jan. 20 after
one student poured pepper into the
other’s hair.
Students hoping to eat their dinner
in peace stared wide-eyed as the
fighters punched each other in the
face. According to the Daily, one
student was taken to the university’s
hospital with what appeared to have
been a broken nose.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (CPX) - A
student at Drexel University was the
victim of flimflam last week when
he gave an unspecified amount of
money to two men who apparently
hoodwinked him near the University
of Pennsylvania on Jan. 13.
According to police reports, the
student said he was approached by a
man claiming to be a visitor from
South Africa and in need of help. The
student said he stopped to talk to the
foreigner when they were
approached by another man who
offered to take the foreigner to a
support organization that could offer
assistance.
The foreigner asked the student to
look after his money while the man
took him to a bus station where he
could retrieve his passport from a
locker. The foreigner told the student
that he wanted to make sure he would
get his money back, so he asked the
student and the man to put some of
their own money in with his pile of
bills.
The man and the student agreed,
and the foreigner wrapped the money
is a red bandanna and gave it to the
student to hold. The men drove away.
When the student opened the
bandana, he found only a pile of
paper. It is unclear what happened to
the money.
Bernays, who. ii should be noted,
answers to Annie. The coming-of-age
ritual is common enough to earn a
mention bv Miss Manners, who
understands, as described by Kaplan
and Berna\ s, "that names, like Jell
0, are fluid until they finally set.”
Miss Manners tolerates a certain
amount ol experimentation with
names, but the survival ol modern
civilization, it would seem, demands
certain rules and regulations: Prom
birth to age 17, children should be
allowed to call themselves anything
they want. But when they graduate
from high school, they should choose
a first name and stick with it. At birth,
Luz Gon/ale/. w as bestowed with the
popular Spanish name that means
light. But her older brother thought
her sweet, and soon, her mother
dubbed her Candy. "It stuck." says
Luz, 2d, a communications science
2 UC-Santa Cruz students fail robbery 101
College Press Exchange
SANTA CRUZ. Calif. (CPX) - Two
college siiklents allegedly robbed two
businesses at gunpoint with hopes that
they could steal enough money to
support them through college.
Anthonv Louis Cristolani. a senior
majoring in philosophy, and Ireshman
Emma Rose Freeman, were arrested
and could be expelled Irom the
University of California at Santa
Cruz.
The duo is charged with robbing a
local hair salon on Jan. 16 and a
warehouse store live days later. An
elementary school teacher's aide,
Craig Dickson, is accused ol driving
the get-away car. "I’m devastated,”
Linda Freeman. Emma Rose
Freeman's mother, told the Santa Cruz
Sentinel. "This is a girl who was a
Couple hopes to overturn ban on
co-ed residency
College Press Exchange
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CPX) - Two
first-year students at George
Washington University have sought
help from the American Civil
Liberties Union with hopes of
overturning a university policy that
prohibits them from living together.
Clark Harding and Kathy Rooney
are bucking school rules that prevent
co-ed couples from cohabitating
because they say they're old enough
to make their own decisions.
Univeisity guidelines specifically
state that "private and/or intimate
behavior is not acceptable in a group
living situation, which is necessarily
semi-public. Cohabitation is not
permitted.”
Rooney and Harding told the
campus newspaper, The Hatchet, that
the university shouldn’t worry about
them engaging in intimate contact
because Harding is homosexual.
"Because of our sexual orientation,
that just wouldn’t happen,” Rooney
said. "It didn’t have to apply to our
us News
major at Temple University in
Philadelphia.
Throughout high school, she says,
she liked the sobriquet well enough.
But as she entered the work world, “I
felt funny using it. It reminded me of
a floozy kind of name.”
So Candy saw the light, reclaiming
Luz. The older brother, though, cannot
quite swear off Candy, still calling his
sweet sister that sweet name.
Sometimes a proper name is too plain-
Jane.
Jessica Kraft, of Columbus, Ohio,
was always Jessica Kraft. Then she
entered Swarthmore College, a new,
exciting beginning that screamed for
a new, exciting name.
Jessica, 20, traded her first name for
her middle name, Carew, as in Rod
Carew, he of baseball fame. “I didn’t
want to be known by the second most
popular name,” reasons Jessica turned
national merit scholar. Her only
offense was to brake for a squirrel.
Then there was a total change after
she went to college.”
Detectives said they suspected UC-
Santa Cruz students pulled off the
heists because witnesses described the
thieves as young, nicely groomed and
nicely dressed. In the first robbery, a
young man and woman walked into a
hair salon. As he whistled, she pointed
a gun at a stylist. “Tell her what you
want, honey,” the man reportedly said
to his female companion.
They fled with less than $lOO.
During the second robbery, the man
and woman were seen leaving with
several electronic goods. Dickson and
Cristofani, both 23, posted bail.
Freeman, 18, is being held on a
$25,000 bond.
situation.”
According to The Hatchet,
financial and personal reasons
prevent the pair from looking for
housing off campus. Rooney and
Harding are the first students to
challenge the university’s residential
policy in five years. It’s a policy
university administrators say they’ll
stick with until more students contest
the issue or until co-ed rooming
arrangements become more socially
acceptable by the general public and
at other universities.
The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Wesleyan University
in Middleton, Conn., allow students
of the opposite sex to room together.
MIT requires those couples to consult
with a campus adviser before they
move in together, and Wesleyan
reserves such living arrangements for
students who have completed their
first year.
Michael Petro, an expert at the
Committee for Economic
Development, a nonpartisan
Washington research organization. “It
gives you choices. Those choices
could help to quell the enormous
uncertainty many young people feel
about their economic futures.
The Oppenheimer Funds survey
found that 80 percent of 18- to 34-
year-olds say they are very concerned
or somewhat concerned over whether
they will have a financially secure
retirement. Some 53 percent think
they will outlive Social Security, and
many think they’d get a better return
on their money by betting $l,OOO on
the Super Bowl than by paying it into
the Social Security system. But thus
far they don’t seem to believe the
chances for improvement make it
worth getting involved in the political
debate.
“I volunteer in a legal aid office,
and I see all the ways that the
government lets people down. I’m
certainly not going to rely on the
government,” said Becky O’Brien,
24, a second-year-law student at
Catholic University in Washington.
“Most people tend to find a public
policy discussion about retirement
remarkably boring,” lamented Thau.
Carew, an anthropology major. “I was
trying to craft a new identity, a
complete break from the past.”
Kip Paroo of Ardmore, Pa., also
desired a new identity, but one that
bound him to his rich cultural
heritage. When he started Vassar in
the fall, he gave up Kip, actually an
acronym for his first, middle and last
names, and embraced his Persian
roots through his given name: Kaivon
Iqbal Paroo.
"Kaivon is a more interesting name,
and it’s more representative of who 1
am and my culture. It has more depth
to it,” says the 19-year-old freshman
whose first name means “seventh
star.” “Kip was a silly name.” But
nicknames, those monikers of
familiarity, are impossible to elude.
Kaivon’s college friends have started
calling him Kai.
Foul
mouthed
professor
fights
suspension
;e Press Exchange
WARREN, Mich. (CPX) - English
professor John Bonnell’s way with
words could cost him his job, but he
says he’s going to fight for his rights
to free speech. Administrators at
Macomb Community College
warned Bonnell to clean up his potty
mouth and imposed a three-day
suspension that will begin on
Monday. While school officials say
they won’t specifically discuss
Bonnell’s case, they have said that
the use of four-letter words and crude
phrases in class is considered
obscene under the college’s sexual
harassment policy.
Bonnell, who has taught at the
college for 32 years, received a
notice of his suspension after a
student filed a complaint in
November, stating that the
professor’s daily use of crude
language was “dehumanizing,
degrading and sexually explicit.”
“If they (the college) don’t cease
and desist, I’m history,” Bonnell told
The Detroit News. “There’s no
question in my mind that I’ll
continue to use the words. The
reason is because it is vernacular;
American English. This is the normal
speech of my clients, my students.”