page 4 - The Behrend College Beacon. Thursday, April 22, 1999
The Behrend College Beacon
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Editor in Chief
Will Jordan
News Editor
Shannon Weber
Features Editor
Jon Stubbs
Business Manager
Jaime Davis
Photography Editors
Jason Blake
Andrea ZuJJino
Layout Editor
Mike Perkins
Wire Services Editor
Katie Galley
Assistant Editors
Mike Frawley
Elizabeth Guelcher
Postal Information: The Beacon is
published weekly by the students of
Penn State Erie, The Behrend
College; First Floor, The J. Elmer
Reed Union Building, Station Road,
Erie, PA 16563. The Beacon can be
reached by calling (814) 898-6488
or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN
1071-9288.
A view from the lighthouse
Nothing’s new
Several days ago, Housing and
Food Services passed out a list of
“charges associated with the end of
the semester closing" to all students
living on campus. This list was com
prised of over twenty things residents
are required to do to their rooms be
fore leaving, such as sweeping the
floor, cleaning the microwave and
microfridge, cleaning the windows,
etc. If these chores are not completed,
Housing and Food Services plans on
charging students a set fee plus labor
(if applicable).
Just when we all thought Hous
ing couldn’t piss us off even more,
we were proved wrong when we re
ceived these. First of all, when we
first arrived, the rooms were not
clean. Weren’t we always told by our
parents to leave things the way we
found them'.’ Well we should leave
our rooms the way we found them,
without being penalized. Second of
all, the charges are ludicrous. For
example, there is a $6B charge to re
move one piece of furniture, and a
$25 charge for not cleaning windows.
Puh-lease, in reality, it doesn’t cost
Letters to the editor:
t>ehrco!l2 @ aol.com
Managing Editor
Ayodele Jones
Editorial Page Editor
Natalie Galliano
Advertising Managers
Enn
Carey Smith
Associate Editors
Angela Rush
Jessica Tucci
Distribution Manager
Mark Greenbank
Letter Policy: The Beacon
encourages letters to the editor.
Letters should include the address,
phone number, semester standing
and major of the writer. Writers can
mail letters to behrcoll2@aol.com.
Letters must be received no later
than spni Tuesday for inclusion in
that week’s issue.
25 cents, let alone $25, to clean a
window, and last time we checked,
it sure doesn't cost $6B to pick up a
chair and throw it out. Where Hous
ing pulled these charges from is be
yond comprehending at this point.
It is insane to expect residents to pay
this much money for such petty
things as not taking the trash out or
not cleaning the microwave.
And on top of all this, on the bot
tom of the memo, Housing wrote,
"Have a good summer.!!’’ How
ironic; you dump on us and then tell
us to have a good summer.
Sports Editor
Jason Snyder
Copy Editor
Rose Forrest
Advisors
Robert Speei
Jim O'Loufzhlin
Live From
I was only
During the course of this year, as
managing editor of The Beacon, I de
cided to use my editorial column as a
forum to express my grievances with
school and well, basically life in gen
eral. I have taken this opportunity to
voice my opinions about a wide array
of subjects, such as racial discrimina
tion, marijuana, friendships and of
course my travels and follies aboard
the wonderful and spectacular Grey
hound bus. Live from Guyana was cre
ated to be a voice - MY voice. As an
African-American woman of
Guyanese parentage, I was hoping to
enlighten you, my fellow readers with
my quips and complaints and if I
didn't, oh well. I’m not losing any
sleep.
This semester has been somewhat
of an evolution, for 1 am not the same
person that I was when I first started
The Lobster and the Music to the Dance o
History and all that jazz
Being that this is my last column
of the year, I feel that it is time to un
veil the story behind the title, The Lob
ster and the Music to the Dance of Life.
Before I continue I must warn the eas
ily bored and those with short atten
tion spans that this story is bad and
corny. While I will attempt to explain,
you will not find the inside joke funny
in any way at all. Now that you have
all been properly warned, let us con
tinue.
Flash back to my senior year of high
school (everything gets wavy, and that
cool dream sequence music plays
now). Most of high school is over, and
neither my friends nor I care much
about the rest of the year. We decide
to have fun at the expense of our school
which was terrible for the entire twelve
years I spent there. My school is on
Guest Column:
A choice: international adoption
Sooner than we think, many of us
will settle down, get married, and start
a family of our own. Having a child of
your own is said to he one of the great
est things a person will experienee. Un
fortunately, one out of every six
couples experiences some sort of in
fertility. Today, couples have many
choices: fertility drugs, artificial in
semination, test-tube technique, ovu
lation induction, egg donation, or
adoption, to help them have a child of
their own. Approximately 130,000 an
nual adoptions occur in the United
States. Only 11.340 of these children
were adopted from other countries.
International adoption is slowly grow
ing as more couples and single parents
become aware of the benefits and
availability of orphan children.
Adopting internationally provides
a wonderful opportunity to start a fam
ily. In areas such as China and other
Asian countries, the overpopulation
problem is leaving an excessive
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Editorial
45 minutes late tonight
writing this column in August. I have
more wrinkles around my eyes due
to the many sleepless nights I have
endured because of the layout of this
paper (and to think I am only a young
lass of 20!!!). I have a heavy heart
because I now know my friends from
my acquaintances (and it took me a
year to figure it out). I have a genu
ine appreciation for my family (even
if they do drive me up the kazoo). I
have some knowledge of how to
work a Macintosh computer (okay, I
don’t know jack). I finally realized
that I am not growing anymore (but
there’s always hope). But most im
portantly, I have realized the ben
efits of hard work, the gifts of friend
ship and the fruits of love.
I only have two more weeks as
managing editor and there are some
things I’m gonna miss. Clyde and
the edge of the city, so we don’t have
police patrolling the halls - we have
sweep aides. Think 80 year old re
tired women with a bad attitude and
a walkie talkie trying to keep kids out
of the halls during class.
We decided to see how much
havoc we could cause by leaving
class, avoiding the sweep aides and
“hitting" other classrooms by run
ning in and doing something child
ish, immature and stupid. Things like
dancing on the teacher’s desk or just
running in and shouting “poopie”.
This would naturally outrage teach
ers, kids would start laughing and
class was disrupted. Mission
achieved right? Nope, we still had to
escape back to the safe haven of an
empty classroom, while the sweep
aides began to look for the evil per-
amount of children without a home
and family. Compared to adopting in
the United States, international adop
tion is time effective and less risky.
Adoption within the United States
can take several months to many
years depending on sex, race, age and
health of the child. It would only take
a family 10 to 15 months to adopt a
child internationally. In a majority of
the states, birth mothers have be
tween 90 to 120 days after the child
is born to lake him or her back from
the adoptive parents. This would
never occur if parents decided to
adopt from a country like China. It
is illegal for birth parents to abandon
their child. If a birth parent went back
for the child, they would be arrested.
The parents’ requirements are also
more relaxed when adopting interna
tionally. China’s law requires the
parent(s) to be between the ages of
35 and 50 to adopt a healthy child. It
is easier for gays, lesbians, and single
ana
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Calvin the delivery guys from Corry,
the late night talks about nothing and
everything, Dr. Speei hitting his head
with a metal ruler, Mike’s dental
dam, Will’s blue chair, but most of
all I’ll miss the paper, the Beacon and
the Bacon.
I know some of you complained
about the quality of the paper, but you
weren’t there at 6 in the morning,
when everything just seemed to fail
and the computers crashed or the
printers had a mind of their own. The
Beacon is a product of diligence and
patience; whatever it was lacking in
appearance or content, the hard work
of the staff made up for it.
The most important thing I’ve
learned this semester is that the devil
is a liar and with God anything and
everything is possible. For it was
during my trials and pains, that HE
petrators of disruption
This action continued for awhile
until we decided to spice things up a
bit. We decided to bring our idols
(sarcasm) into the hits. We now con
tinued our fun shouting inspirational
phrases from Milt Thompson (used
to play for the Phillies and looked
exactly like a chimpanzee, I mean he
really did, we’re talking mirror im
age.) as well as from our former
chemistry teacher, Robert J.
McCartney. An old guy who really
tried to teach but no one understood
anything he said. This comes to the
point of my story. My title is one of
his inspirational quotes. He was once
quoted in our local newspaper as say
ing “I lit the candle, and that student
lit another student and I told them
about the lobster and the music to the
people to adopt internationally. Gov
ernments welcome the opportunity to
ensure a future for their orphaned and
abandoned children.
Several confusing and complex
steps are necessary before a foreign
child can be adopted. Many countries
require that the adopting parents use
an agency to help them successfully
complete the process. After the par
ents have been accepted and assigned
a child they must travel to the coun
try. Visas will not be issued for the
child unless at least one parent trav
els to the country. This would be
costly depending on the country trav
eling to. Airfare to China is approxi
mately $l,OOO per person. The pro
cess may seem long and complex, but
it will be worth it when your new
family is on the plane home to the
United States.
When the child arrives in the
United States they will receive a
green card. This is necessary before
AYODELE JONES
was there and it was during the joy
and laughter that HE was there. HE
was always THERE and that is
why I am HERE.
I want to say thank you. Thank
you for this opportunity, an oppor
tunity to grow with you, an oppor
tunity to learn with you, an oppor
tunity to hurt with you and the op
portunity to love with you.
Ayodele - my name is Nigerian
and it means, “Joy comes home”;
and home, is where I must return.
Gotta go, see ya when I see ya.
Always and forever one love, God
bless.
Ayodele Jones is the managing editor of the
Beacon Her column appeared every three
MIKE PERKINS
dance of life.” If anyone under
stands what this guy was talking
about, please contact me because
to this day no one understands this
guy-
Well I told you this story was
going to be bad, and it was but be
lieve me you had to be there. We
had a lot of fun in school: some that
involved Jackie Chan’s TV/VCR
repair, a super soaker, silly string,
bananas, spray paint and our prin
cipal. I shouldn’t go there but it was
fun. So good luck on finals and
may the lobster be with you.
Mike Perkins is the layout editor of the Bea
con. His column appeared every three
applying for the child’s social se
curity card and birth certificate.
Eventually, the green card will be
traded in for a Certificate of Citi
zenship.
The new parents not only have
to deal with the pressures of rais
ing a child, but they also have to
deal with teaching the child about
their background without making
them feel different or unwanted.
There are many specialists avail
able for helping parents and chil
dren learn more about their birth
country.
With the growing numbers of
international adoptions, most of us
will know someone that has
adopted a child overseas. Some
day, we may even decide to save
an orphan child and take them into
our loving home.
Carrie Lesh is an eighth semester account
ing major. She is scheduled to graduate this
May.