m Behrend
Beacon
Irwin addresses Kosovo crisis
by Mike Coursey
staff writer
Dr. Zachary Irwin, professor of
Political Science, gave a talk on the
crisis in Kosovo on Tuesday,
April 6th in the Reed Commons. Dr.
Irwin's presentation had been origi
nally designated for Reed room num
ber three; but a overflow crowd of
approximately 75 people necessitated
moving it to the Commons.
Dr. Irwin’s talk consisted of a brief
historical overview of the Balkan area
and the implications of the tensions
in the area. Dr. Irwin stated that, “Two
weeks into the conflict misperceptions
have emerged on both sides. NATO
overestimated the effect of the bomb
ing and Serbia underestimated the
coherence of NATO."
Irwin used a map to show that
Kosovo is between the size ot Rhode
Island and Connecticut; and has a
population of 1.2 million. Dr. Irwin
said that the West feared that the
Undergraduate Research Conference held at Behrend
by Will Jordan
editor in chief
On March 27 Behrend hosted the
eighth annual Undergraduate Student
Research and Creative Accomplish
ment Conference. Students and fac
ulty from SUNY Fredonia, Grove
City, Mercyhurst College, Edinboro
University, and Behrend received
awards for their outstanding work,
which were given at a luncheon fol
lowing the conference.
The event was sponsored by Be
hrend and the northwestern Pennsyl
vania chapter of Sigma XI, which is
the national scientific research soci
ety.
Over 100 students presented their
Mice in dorms
Katie Galley
wire service editor
Monday morning, March 1, 5:45
am: the students in Almy Hall room
403 were rudely awaken to a
mysterious scratching and tapping
noise. Upon switching on the light the
students were astonished to see a
brown mouse scurry across their floor
and disappear under the door into the
central study area.
Both students screamed and ran
down to the ground floor in Almy to
their supervisor’s apartment. Dan
Schiesser, Almy Hall Supervisor,
accompanied the students back to
their room to help them look for the
mouse. After an extensive search
throughout the room the trio came up
empty-handed. Schiesser advised the
girls to contact Housing and Food
/A /
Erie, PA 16563
Kosovars would form a “greater Alba
nia with Macedonian Albanians and
other Albanians. Such a state could lead
to indefinite conflict in Serbia."
Irwin went on to say that the "KLA
(Kosovar Liberation Army) was orga
nized in the 1980’s as a Marxist
Leninist political force and that gradu
photo by Will Jordan
Dr. Zachary Irwin outlined the
crisis in Kosovo on Tuesday
work in the form of posters and oral
presentations which were the result of
several semesters of research. There
were two categories in which students
could win awards. The two categories
are the poster category and the oral pre
“I was surprised to win
first place but I knew that
I was going to win some
thing. Allyson Cuccia, 08
Busi Ec.
sentations category,
In the poster category, posters by Eric
Fink, biology, and Shannon Lenze,
Banchi Dessalegn, and Andrea Furman,
psychology, from Behrend tied for first
place. A poster by Shital Patel and
Chad Stolz, chemistry, from Behrend
Services to come up and investigate the
situation
Both of the students called the
Housing and Food Services office and
left messages because it was still only
6:30 am. Thinking that Housing may
not take them seriously, both girls
called their parents and had them call
Housing as well.
Housing responded quickly to the
problem, at first. Bigfoot, the
extermination company that Behrend
uses promptly reported to room 403
and placed sticky glue mouse traps in
the room. Returning to their rooms after
classes that afternoon, the students
noticed that the traps had been placed,
but the location of the traps worried
the students.
The traps were placed right by the
students beds. The students were
worried that the mice would escape the
traps and move onto their beds. They
realized that the glue traps may not
Keg party in
apartment Tessaro’s Bar and Grill
April 8, 1999 Volume XLVII No. 26
ally the KLA became a major factor
after the repression and killings of
Milosevic.’
Dr. Irwin had a tough task squeez
ing enough of the pertinent informa
tion into a fourty five minute talk,
being that the Balkan situation is one
of the most politically complicated
in the world. Dr. Irwin went on to
describe how the Albanians remain
a tribal people in that they depend
on an extended kinship and stay in
touch with their village and neigh
bors and have a small degree of sepa-
Dr. Irwin went on to field some
questions and talked about how the
West would react to NATO's re
sponse to Milosevic.
The Kosovo area propelled
Milosevic into power in 1989. Dr.
Irwin went on to show how much of
a "ripple effect" the situation in the
Balkans could and will have on Tur
key. Greece and other concerned
countries.
was the runner-up.
In the oral presentations category,
in the division of chemistry, physics,
mathematics and computer engineer
ing. Matt Behan from Behrend was
a runner up.
In the oral presentations category,
in the division of business and his
tory, the winner was Allyson Cuccia,
08 Busi Ec, from Behrend. Cuccia
said, "I was surprised to win first
place but 1 knew that I was going to
win something." Cuccia did her oral
presentation on the effects of team
cohesion.
The runners- up were Christopher
Cairns and Kim Thurston, Matt
Roche, Joe Angello, and John
Linvile, all of Behrend.
Cairns, 04 Pol. Sci., stated, "My
cause problems for students
necessarily he strong enough to hold traps into the central study area. The
down the mice and they moved the students called Housing again to ask
Students found the talk informa
tive. Jackson Connor, 06 English,
“Dr. Irwin’s speech was informative.
It evoked a curiosity in me to learn
more on the subject”.
Another student, Athena
Farantzos,o4 psych, added, “It was a
very interesting speech that gave me
insight into the situation in Kosovo.
It also made me realize how differ
ent people are around the world.”
The talk was very well received
by the faculty, students and visitors
in attendance. Dr. Fernandez, Profes
sor of Spanish, at Behrend, “He gave
different points on the enormity of
conflict and tried to tie historical
background solutions accepted to
everyone involved". There were also
two local news stations covering the
talk. Channel 12 (NBC affiliate) and
Channel 24 (ABC affiliate). Dr.
Irwin's insight on the Balkan crisis
gave some constructive perspective
on very complex situation that is ris-
ing to crisis proportion
presentaiion was on the U.S. and the
Chinese revolutions from 1910 -
1912. 1 was surprised to win because
every speech w as of high quality and
each one deserved to win. It was an
honored to be recognized.” Cairns
added. “I can’t take full credit for it
because Dr. Rossi edited my presen
tation last minute so that I wouldn’t
go over the time limit.”
The winner for the oral presenta
tion in the division of biology was
J.K. Patel of Behrend. Runners- up
from Behrend were John Magenau
and Kevin Wellejus.
Sigma Xi presented Dr. Mary
Chisholm, associate professor of
chemistry, with the faculty mentoring
ward. Other professors from
Edinboro and Mercyhurst also re
ceived awards.
Restaurant
review:
PENN
More books for Behrend:
Behrend library to purchase new books
by Mike Frawley
assistant editor
A great boon was provided to our
library by Provost and Dean Dr.
John Lilley and the Penn State Dean
of University Libraries Nancy
Eaton. They have agreed to provide
an additional $ 100,000 a year for the
next five years for the purchase of
new books for the library. Behrend
will put up $50,000 of the grant,
while the University Libraries will
match that amount.
Decisions on new book purchases
will be made by the Behrend Library
Committee. The members of the
Library Committee are committee
chair Dr. Chuck Yeung, assistant
professor of physics; Dr. Susan
Chinn, assistant professor of MIS;
Dr. Daniel Frankforter, professor of
history; Dr. Ken L. Saunders,
assistant professor of mechanical
engineering; Dr. Paul Barney,
lecturer in biology; Dr. Stephen
Ferruci, lecturer in English; Bradley
Johnson, lecturer in engineering; Dr.
Mary Beth Pinto, assistant professor
of marketing; Dr. Rick Hart, director
First floor reading area of the Behrend library
why they had choose to use the glue
traps and not the traditional snap-
Edward Mulfinger, Director of
Housing and Food Services, says that,
“The glue traps are more humane for
the animals and they put students in
less danger of being pinched or
snapped by traditional traps.” The
students, however protested to
Housing that the snap-traps would
work better and they would be
perfectly safe as long as Housing
informed them where the traps were
placed ahead of time. Housing
allegedly told them that the glue traps
would be enough.
Highly doubting Housings points
the students paid for and set
themselves a traditional snap-trap to
catch the mice in. Since mice are
nocturnal creatures the students
waited to see the results of both the
glue trap and the snap-trap in the
Track a
field
compe
at Gene
of the Library; and Michael j
Zampetti, student representative. j
Dr. Hart already has a plan in |
motion to purchase books with this
year’s $lOO,OOO allocation. He has
asked each school on campus to
submit requests for $lB,OO in books
they would like purchased. Dr. Hart
has also sent out Choice cards,
giving briefs reviews of new books,
to faculty members, and contacted
a new book supplier, Academic
Book Center, to help with the !
selection process for the new books
to be purchased.
$lO,OOO of the allocated funds
have already been used to purchase
books that have been requested by
interlibrary loan more than once in
recent years, thus making these
books readily accessible to Behrend
faculty and students. $20,000 more
has been set aside for members of
the library staff to select books that
will cover all subject areas.
In the coming years that the funds
w ill be available, the money will be
added into the money used for the
regular book selection process. ,
morning
The next day the students were
shocked to see that neither trap had
worked, and that the bait on the snap
trap had been eaten. Furious, they
tried again the next night with the
same results. The bait from the snap
trap was gone and the glue trap had
proven completely ineffective. The
mice had gone from being a nuisance
to a threat. The students started
finding droppings on their desks and
in the kitchen area. One of the
students found holes eaten in their
shirt. The students again contacted
Housing for help.
The students asked for the building
to be exterminated and for
compensation on the ruined shirts.
However, their requests fell on deaf
cars. Housing told the students that
extermination would be impossible
Mice cont. pg. 2