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Vol. XLVIII No. 6 16 pages
Behrend honor society hits early setback
Lambda Sigma starts school year with no national membership and negative balance
by Jason Snyder
editor-in-chief
Entering the 1999-2000 school year
at Penn State Behrend, the Lambda
Sigma Honor Society encountered a
major setback towards their plans for
the school year. The Behrend repre
sentatives for the sophomore honor
society have just received news that
none of the sophomores elected into
membership for the Lambda Sigma
Honor Society arc officially members,
according to national headquarters.
This year's representatives of
Lambda Sigma have been looking into
the situation to find out why they were
left in debt with no members actually
being recognized by national head
quarters.
President Lisa Lada commented on
the situation saying, "Lambda Sigma
is not concerned with passing the
blame onto anyone. We just want to
STUDENT FEES FOR ?
dministration
xplains use of fees
by Mike Frawley
IllilllilfllllL' c_Illlll"
While paying their tuition for this
semester, many Behrend students no
ticed that they were heing charged
additional fees to attend seltool. Two
of these tees are the Information
Technology Fee and the Transporta
tion Fee. While the Information
Technology Fee has hecn paid by stu
dents for the past few sears, the
Transportation Fee is a new fee for
students this semester. These tss o
fees are University-wide tees; all
Penn State students, regardless of
which campus they attend. pa, these
fees. Many students have been ques
tioning what these tees are for and
who decides how these fees are be
ing spent.
The Information Technology Fee
is the fee that students pay for any
computer use that they, as students,
have. Currently, the lee costs stu
dents $lOO per semester. Any com
puter on campus that is for student
use is paid for by the Information
Technology Fee. The fee is divided
into two parts; one part of the fee
stays at Behrend for our local use,
while the other half goes to Univer
sity Park as overhead for university
wide support services. Some items
that the fee is put toward are: library
computer services, the ACCESS
project (servers for e-mail and stu
dent Web sites), technology class
rooms, consulting services, and dis
abled student services.
The portion of the fee that goes to
University Park supports things that
are used by all students. A major part
of this is the Comprehensive Aca
demic Advising Information System,
also known as CAAIS. This system,
which is very heavily used by stu
dents, has been developed using In
formation Technology Fee funding
over the past few years. The CAAIS
system allows students to review
their grades, look at their transcript
or degree audit, late drop a class, or
WEEKEND WEATHER 0 ~
make sure that our society is an ac
tively functioning one. With no
money for dues or activities, this is
more difficult than we anticipated, but
we're all willing to work, so I am sure
the situation will he resolved. -
Lada and Vice President Sarah
Edwards, along with many of this
year's members told the Beacon that
the dues paid by this year's members
were never sent to national headquar
ters, thus nullifying Behrend as an
active chapter of the Lambda Sigma
Honor Society.
The responsibility of sending the
money to national headquarters was
left in the hands of last year's offic
ers. This group included President
Rachel Hinterlang, Vice President
Channasa Taylor, Treasurer Meghan
Snyder and Secretary Steph Nardello.
This group of officers was also re
sponsible for planning a banquet for
all their members along with the new
PHOTOS BY JEFFREY MILLER
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Students
utilizing the Blue Bus; new email kiosk in Aca
demic; expanded library computer lab
do interactive advising. This portion
of the fee also supports e-mail for the
entire University and a new softv, are
contract with Microsoft.
The new Microsoft contract will,
in theory, allow all Penn State loca
tions to have access to Microsoft soft
ware applications. This contract al
lows the University to provide soft
ware, without charge to students or
academic, service, and administration
departments. Students will he able
to get a certain amount of free
Microsoft software for their personal
use. Some of the programs that will
be available are Windows 98 SE, Of
fice 97, and various Microsoft word
processing programs.
The portion of the Information
Technology Fee that is retained for
local use by Behrend is dependent on
enrollment. Because semester enroll
ment figures will not be finalized until
October 1, the amount of money Be
hrend will receive from the fee for this
year is unknown. For fiscal year
1998, Behrend collected a total of
$555,480 from the Information Tech
nology Fee. 44% of this amount went
to University Park as overhead for all
students. The remaining 56% of the
fee stayed at Behrend, with an addi
tional amount in rollover from the
previous year.
Administration continued on p. 2
See page 2 for full FALL FESTIVAL PAGE 5
weekend forecast.
=ZIE
members that would represent Be
hrend this year. This year's members
were required to pay $25 to cover the
fee needed to become a member of
the Lambda Sigma Honor Society and
an additional $2O to cover the charge
of the banquet and a souvenir.
According to the records, 36 Be
hrend students have paid the fee.
However, both the fees due to national
headquarters and the fee for the ban
quet were used for only the banquet.
The cost of the banquet far exceeded
the expectations and the understand
ing of this year's chapter at Behrend.
The Beacon contacted Hinterlang
and Taylor and heard two different
stories. Hinterlang claimed that the
planning for the banquet was the re
sponsibility of Taylor, last year's vice
president. If all 36 of this year's mem
bers paid, which was confirmed by
Lada. then that would enable Taylor
to spend $720 on the banquet and sou
What's high-tech at Behrend this fall
Many technological improvements
have hit the Penn State Behrend cam
pus this fall. Much has been added
in the way of new hardware, such as
new computers, new monitors, and
new software packages. Checking e
mail, surfing the web, typing papers,
and even designing programs have all
become quicker processes, thanks to
the many upgrades. Some of the most
notable improvements have probably
been made in the library and
Hammermill computer labs.
The big talk in the library is about
the new high speed laser printers that
were added for fall. According to Dr.
Richard Hart, the library director, the
two lasers replaced eleven old dot
matrix printers, providing network
capabilities - many computer stations
can he linked to one printer - and up
to 24 pages per minute output. All of
MORE NEWS PAGE 2
EDITORIAL PAGE 6
CALENDAR PAGE 7
Friday, October 1, 1999
by Rob Wynne
staff writer
5....
..
. I.
venirs. Taylor's plans, however,
didn't keep within that price range.
The banquet alone, cost Lambda
Sigma $1,400. In addition to the cost
of the banquet, souvenir glasses were
bought for all 80 past and present
members. The glasses alone cost
$7OO.
When the glasses were being
passed out, many were broken or
blemished. Hinterlang claims that she
told Taylor to get refunded for those
glasses, hut nothing was ever re
solved, and no money was refunded.
Hinterlang has not heard from Taylor
Hinterlang claims that she knew
nothing of the debt that this year's
chapter was left in. She commented
on the event saying, "I feel so bad
about the situation."
Taylor, when contacted by the Bea
con about the overspending, com
mented, "I was told that there was
this is at no additional cost to the
students
Pive new Pentiums were also in
stalled in the library since summer,
bringing the number of LIAS termi
nals up from eleven to sixteen. The
library system itself (LIAS - Library
Information Access System) has
also been upgraded. This includes
the addition/expansion of the Penn
State databases. Only accessible
through a PSU terminal or account,
these databases contain full text
magazine articles, indexes, and en
cyclopedias dealing with various
subject matter. There are currently
130 databases on LIAS. "That's for
n0w...," chuckled Dr. Hart. He said
that there are always upgrades and
enhancements going on with the
system, and that Behrend has larger
databases than probably any of the
other area colleges.
High-tech continued on p. 4
• • ,;•-=,=:l7
money there."
In response to that comment made
by Taylor, Hinterlang stated that Tay
lor "should have known." She also
added that Taylor failed to attend the
society's meetings and failed to com
municate properly with the treasurer
Meghan Snyder. "She [Taylor) came
to none of the meetings." Hinterlang
added, "her major problem was mis
communication. She and Meghan
should have been talking."
Hinterlang also stated that she can
recall signing only one check involv
ing the banquet, which was for $4OO.
When asked if she signed either of the
remaining checks - $995 due to the
Marketplace Grill for the banquet and
$7OO for souvenir glasses - she said,
"I don't remember."
The Beacon tried to contact Snyder
for comment, but was not able to
reach her.
Because of the careless spending of
Student pleads for better
living conditions at Pizza
with the Provost
On Wednesday, September 22,
Niagara Hall hosted the first Pizza
with the Provost Meeting for the
1999-2000 school year. It was an
event that brought Provost and Dean
Dr. John Lilley and the students of
Behrend together to talk about issues
that affect the lives of everyone here
at the school.
Before beginning, Dean Lilley re
assured everyone in attendance that
the meeting would he beneficial to
everyone present. He stated that this
was "one of the major ways in which
I listen to students." Several issues
were raised, each dealing with a dif
ferent aspect of life here at Behrend,
and relating to each student in a dif
ferent way.
Among the first topics to be dis
cussed was earlier opening hours for
Bruno's on Saturday and Sunday
mornings during the football season.
This would give interested students
the opportunity to view the games on
the big screen inside of Bruno's. In
response, the Director of Housing
and Food Services stated that if a
crowd would be present that would
allow Bruno's to make money at
those hours, it would be possible to
create earlier opening hours on foot
ball weekends.
An important issue raised was the
condition of the residence halls, pay
ing particular attention to Niagara.
One student, Jeremy Abreu, a resi
dent of Niagara, made a fervent plea
to the Dean for better living condi
tions for the residents of Niagara. He
addressed Dean Lilley in an eloquent,
yet firm manner, recognizing the hall
as, "the worst building." He then
went on to express his concerns about
the residence hall, stating that it has
two broken doors and two non-work
ing lights, each of which have been
defunct for about a year. Residents
of Niagara have attempted to present
their problems before authorities, and
as Abreu stated, "our cries are not be
ing heard. This building is being
laughed at like it's some kind of joke.
Olt,
WIRE SERVICE PAGE 8
ADJUSTING TO BEHREND PAGE 11
FEATURES PAGE 12
SPORTS PAGE 14
by Nicole C. Greene
staff writer
4".„
„`~
A Penn State Erie Student Publication
last year's officers. this year's mem
bers will start off in debt with no
money able to he sent to national
headquarters.
Matt Heidecker. a member of the
Lambda Sigma Honor Society, com
mented on the events of last year say
ing, "there is no excuse for what has
happened." He added, "Lambda
Sigma was very poorly organized and
run last year, but that does not actu
ally reflect the true attitude of the
members past and present. All of the
current members have offered noth
ing hut help and time."
This year's officers are President
Lisa Lada, Vice-Presiderit Sarah
Edwards, Secretary Jessica Turos and
Treasurer Cecilia Casado. These of
ficers have already begun planning as
to how to go about fixing the prob
lems they have been faced with.
Lambda continued on p. 4
They don't care enough. -
Before addressing the question,
Dean Lilley commended Jeremy for
presenting his case in firm manner in
which he presented solid evidence to
support his claims. He then went on
to explain to everyone present, what
to do in terms of problem solving. "In
the future, when you have a problem
and people are not listening to you,
take it to the next level."
Also, he declared that "the Univer
sity has invested about $l3 million in
Housing and Food Services, and
doors, lights, and windows should not
he broken." As a result, he gave
Ahreu his card and told him to keep
him posted on the changes made to
the Niagara Building.
A question was also raised about
adding new majors to the school. The
Dean responded that several majors
arc being considered, and that Finance
has recently been added as a major
here at Behrend. Other possibilities
being considered are advertising,
which would he included in the Com
munications Major, as well as Com-
putcr Engineering.
Other issues that were discussed
included installing Lion Cash ma
chines into the residence halls, estab
lishing reserved parking spaces, add
ing BET to the list of television sta
tions currently available at the school,
and adding a football team to the Be
hrend Athletic Program.
Dean Lilley also gave attendees a
hit of "authentic biology." He ex
plained the difference between the
Behrend Lion and the Nitanny Lion.
To those who are not aware, the lion
roamed from Maryland to Michigan.
One roamed to Mt. Nitanny, and the
other roamed into the Behrend woods.
Therefore, the mascot of University
Park is the Nitanny Lion, and our
mascot is the Behrend Lion.
The meeting between the Dean and
the students appeared to he very suc
cessful. Both the Dean and the stu
dents expressed that it was helpful.
The only way to judge its effective
ness is to wait to see the outcome, and
the changes that take place as a result
of this informative conference.
41 ,1 •
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