THE BEHREND BEACON
The Behrend Beacon
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
News Editor
Shannon Weber
Features Editor
Deanna Symocki
Wire Services Editor
Angela Rush
Advertising Managers
Erin Edinger
Carer Smith
Photo Editors
Jeffrey Miller
Kevin Bruner (assistant)
Office Manager
Brad Wiertel
MID
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
Those were the days! The
semester in review.
Wars, rain, rape, and school spirit,
that pretty much sums up the semes
ter. Well, that's not everything that
happened, but those were the most
talked about things here at the Bea-
The semester started off with a war
between Perry and Niagara Halls. It
was an all out battle to the death for
the bench from the front porch of
Niagara. It was dirty and devious and
in the end it was a stalemate, each
side receiving a bench. Benches for
everyone!
The Floods of '99 were the best!
How many times can you say you slid
down the lawn behind Brunos's on
your belly?! Probably almost never.
Hope you weren't scared that the
campus was going to wash away be
cause here in the Beacon office it was
a virtual wave pool.
On a more serious note the infil
tration of 'The Real World' here on
campus shook up the campus com
munity. The alleged attempted sexual
assault was shocking to us all. It re
minded us that Behrend is not free
from real life problems.
Did you notice the sports teams
here at Behrend rocked this semes
ter?! The women's and men's soccer
teams and the women's tennis team
all won the AMCC titles. And the
men's basketball team is undefeated
so far this semester. The women's
basketball team is on their way to an
other AMCC title. And that leads us
into...school spirit!
School spirit is at an all time high
Letter to the Editor:
Dear Editor,
As President of Peek 'n Peak, I
commend the Beacon on its recent
article highlighting winter activities
at the resort. Staff writer Katie
Przepyszny did a fine job communi
cating all of the winter services and
restaurants our resort offers. The
Peek also has a variety of summer
activities, including two eighteen
hole golf courses, a new miniature
golf course, and a newly-installed
outdoor pool with a cabana bar and
Editor-in-Chief
Jason Snyder
Managing Editor
,Llic had Frawley
Advisors
Robert Speel
Jon O'Loughlin
Letter Polic
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 5 p.m. Tuesday for inclusion
in that week's issue.
rom the li
at Behrend! There are spirit stations
around every bend, and the new jazz
band and dance team are helping to
liven things up all the time.
So many famous people visited us
here on campus this fall. The come
dian/political satirist Al Franken came
and enlightened us with his witty re
marks about Dean Lilley and life in
general. There was also the heated
debate between Carville and
Buchanan.
One of the biggest things that hap
pened around here on campus was the
arrival of our new i Mac at the Beacon
office! This little baby can go from
zero to 60 in well under an hour! That
means that you, the students, get a bet
ter and more improved paper! Yeah!
Even though this is a relatively short
list, it shows some of the best and
worst of the semester. Thanks to ev
eryone for a great five months, hope
everyone survives Y2K and we'll see
you next year!
waterslide. Two golf pro shops and
restaurants are also open in the sum
mer. Please feel free to visit in the
spring and experience our summer
activities! Again, thank you for the
wonderful article on the resort. We
enjoy having the Behrend Ski Club
and ski class come to the Peek and
hope to see more Behrend students in
the coming year!
Editorial Page Editor
Katie Gallo•
Sports Editors
Matt Wiertel
Craig Hazelwood (assistant)
Calendar Page Editor
Kim All it
Business Manager
Kristine Hatakai
Associate Editor
Li; Haves
Distribution Manager
I( II Itt 111( r
The Beacon
hthouse
Sincerely,
Norbert J. Cross, President
Peek 'n Peak
EDITORIAL
Detours and
The nineties ruled! Or did they?
Can you believe that it is the end of
the 1990's already? I sure can't! It just
flew by. It seems like only yesterday
that I was graduating sixth grade, and
now it is almost the year 2000! All this
reflecting is making me think about
all the events that have happened in
the nineties. I think that I will use my
last editorial of the decade to talk
about some of the biggest things that
happened during the nineties. Of
course, these are some of the biggest
events according to me. You are
welcome to your own opinion, and I
encourage you to reflect and make
your own list, too! I have divided the
decade into ten categories and in each,
I will list the thing that most sticks out
in my mind. Here we go! These are in
no particular order, by the way.
Computers: The winner here has to
be the Internet! Now, I know that the
Internet was officially invented before
the nineties; however, it really took off
in popularity in the nineties. And look
how much it has changed our lives!
We can now 'chat' with people that
we have never met before at two in
the morning. We have a limitless
amount of information at the touch of
a button and the connection of a phone
jack. Who knew that the information
super highway would revolutionize
the way that we live? And here you
thought it was only good for playing
Quake.
Sports: This category was so easy
to decide on, the thing that
immediately popped into my head was
Join me in Reali
The human spirit alive in '99
If we were to look back over the
span of the last 100 years, we would
find one recurring theme that grabs the
attention of everyone with a heart.
The human spirit. We pick the mo
ments that tug at our emotions and
give us something we can take with
us into the future. And even though
we have come up with a way of mea
suring things in correspondence with
the millennium, we still can't leave out
the touching moments in 1999 that
gave us a perfect example of the hu
man spirit which seems to be so much
more difficult to come across these
days.
On April 20 of this year, an average
high school with normal students and
caring teachers experienced the trag
edy that opened up the eyes of
America to the scary fact that vio
lence is taking over our culture. In
the "safe" confines of the classroom,
two neglected high school students
opened fire on their peers in the quiet
and peaceful Columbine High school.
The details were exploited through
This Message On Media Ethics Brought To You By ..
by Terry Jackson
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
If the ringmaster of television's No.
1 rock 'em, sock 'em sleazefest should
ever decide to re-enter politics, he
used to be mayor of Cincinnati, that
could be his slogans.
Springer, in an ultraslick defense of
his syndicated Have-I-Got-A-Sur
prise-for-You TV show pitched to sev
eral hundred University of Miami stu
dents last week, said he's giving the
common man, woman and anyone
sexually in between their rightful shot
at being a momentary celebrity.
If Princess Diana could go on TV
and reveal intimate details of her eat
ing disorder and infidelity in her mar
riage, then why shouldn't an unsophis
ticated nobody from Nebraska be
given the same opportunity? He said
that. Really.
In a speech marginally devoted to
the topic of ethics in the media, he said
a lot of other things, too. He called
his show "stupid," "a Friday night frat
party' where people scratch and pull
DECEMBER 10 1999
the Homerun Race between Mark
McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Let's
face it, baseball pretty much sucked
after the strike until last year. And all
of a sudden there is this undying love
for the game again. America's
pastime indeed!
Entertainment: The Unsinkable
Titanic rises to win this category.
Now, as much as I would like to say
that the winner is the X-Files, I can't.
Titanic started off as a dream project
for James Cameron and ended up
being the highest grossing movie of
all time. Who knew, eh? And since
this category should also include
music, the winner is Wood Stock '99,
but not really because of the music.
The reason I picked this overrated
event is because of the fiery
culmination of it. Only in the nineties
could a celebration of peace and love
end in flames.
Religion: The death of Mother
Teresa. Too bad her funeral was not
as widely watched as Princess Diana's
Environment: The Exxon Valdez
the media who used the tragic events
of that day as their own tool to rake
in the dollars. Students, whose
friends were just killed, were shoved
in front of news cameras with micro
phones forced in their faces. The sad
ness really hit the country when they
looked at the next morning's news
paper to find teenagers and families
having to endure the most traumatic
times of their lives.
But shortly after the bodies were
laid to rest and the memorials were
complete, conversation turned to gun
control and safety in our schools. The
National Commentar
each other's hair, but then he praised
"The Jerry Springer Show" as a noble
blow against the white, upper-middle
class attitude that he says rules tele-
He said it's TV newscasts and
newspapers that unnecessarily hurt
people, exposing them to ridicule
against their wishes. He said that
doesn't happen on his show where,
in front of millions of viewers,
spouses learn their mates are cheat
ing on them or daughters tell their
mothers they are hookers.
He said that every guest is given a
checklist of 21 surprises they could
be hit with on his show, and buried
among them is the one real shocker.
"We don't exploit people," he said.
"No one goes on who doesn't check
yes next to every one of those items.
They agree they would be OK dis
cussing all those things. They beg to
be on the show."
He also said, and I believe, that
those people who beg to be on the
show are real, not actors or con art
ists, though it's depressing to think
mall Potatoes
oil spill takes the category, no
question. I know, it happened in 1989,
but the effects of it are still damaging
our ocean and wildlife to this day.
Congratulations Exxon!
Science: Baaaaaa! Okay, calm
down Dolly, we all know that you
were the most consequential
scientific accomplishment of the
nineties. Now we can clone anything!
Sheep, cows, people, whatever. Is that
a good thing or a bad thing, though?
Oh, that's another editorial all
together.
Education: Oh, where to start? So
much has happened...between
teachers bearing the children of
students to gay prom dates, I almost
don't know what to choose. However,
I think what takes the cake in this
category is all the school violence.
Mainly school shootings, and even
more specifically, Columbine. What
is going on with kids these days?
Please, don't get me started!
Media: I gave them their own
category just because of their
significance. And 1 promise I am not
biased because our newspaper is a
form of media. Look at all the media
have done for us lately. They
interrupt our favorite television
shows with a 'Special Report'; they
constantly beat into our heads the fact
that Jonßenet is still dead. And what
can I say about OJ? He is the media
king as far as I am concerned. Does
he know how to get the ratings or
what? But was the 12-hour coverage
community still mourned, but the
country was on to "bigger" issues.
The story ended with no real closure
and no happy ending. Until now. The
human spirit is alive and well at Col
umbine High School, with their foot
ball team winning the State Champi
onship just this past week.
Of course you can't judge the re
covery of such a tragedy with a
sport's accomplishment, but the sup
port of the school and faculty was
overwhelming. The horrific events
that happened can't be forgotten by
the students that witnessed them, but
the heart of the students at Colum
bine High School can't be questioned.
They are a perfect example of the
courage that Americans find so re
spectable and have honored since the
beginning of our time.
The idea of the human spirit con
tinued into the summer where the
year's most dynamic event occurred.
During a career that was headed for
many successes, Lance Armstrong
was told he had a disease that would
there are that many people out there
living "la vida" bizarre. He said those
who think his show is unconscionable
trash are "elitists" who ignore the real
pornography on the airwaves, the ly
ing politicians on C-SPAN, the un
necessary investigation into President
Clinton's sex life.
Then he wrapped his show up in a
Constitution argument for freedom,
if "The Jerry Springer Show" disap
pears, then "ER" and the evening
news will one day be in jeopardy. All
in all, Springer's tap dance on the
stage at UM's Gusman Hall was an
utterly disingenuous display by a man
who is laughing at his guests and au
dience, all the way to the bank.
He and his producers are making
millions of dollars by exploiting, yes,
Jerry, exploiting, an unfortunate psy
chotic need in some people to get on
television, no matter the conse
quences. He's also exploiting an
equally unfortunate need for his au
dience to be voyeurs on lives more
messed up than their own.
Springer justifies doing that by
of the Princess Diana funeral really
necessary? Also, I do NOT need to see
every moment of the search for JFK
Jr.'s plane!
Health: Okay, this one took serious
consideration. But after much debate
and deliberation I came up with
Viagra, um, no pun intended, I swear!
This was the miracle blue pill that so
many men were waiting for. Bob Dole
did a little happy dance when he heard
about it. In a close second was the
HMO system, but I don't need to go
there right now.
Government: Being an intern
rules...unless you intern at the White
House, and then you don't need any
actual skills, just a good pair of knee
pads. I can honestly say that the
Impeachment Scandal was the most
publicized government story of the
nineties. Sure, we were all sick of
hearing about it, but for once it was
nice to see Bill Clinton squirm under
pressure. By April he looked about a
hundred years old. And despite his
astronomically high acceptance
ratings, I would like to thank him for
bringing the presidency to an all time
low.
So there you have it, my list of top
ten influential things that happened in
the 1990 . 5. Disagree with my list? Tell
me about it, I'll listen! Or maybe I will
still he in hiding from the wackos that
will emerge during Y2K. Good Luck
and Happy New Year everyone!
most likely end his life. After surgery
and a successful recovery, Armstrong
began on his road back to the streets
of the Tour de France. Eventually he
would be leading the pack and pulling
away from the best bicyclists in the
world.
It had been a while since a story
where an individual defied all odds to
just get hack to where he once was.
But Armstrong went further and rees
tablished the idea that anything is pos
sible if you put your mind to it.
1999 might he a year unfortunate
enough to he caught in the hoopla of
the excitement of the new millennium.
Everything is being measured in re
spect to the century or the millennium,
but 1999 did continue to bring the
world events that touched the hearts
of many. The idea of human spirit
continues to live and will always prove
prevalent in the years, centuries and
millenniums to come.
. Jerry Springer?
pointing to other media excesses,
Howard Stern, sensationalized local
news, coverage of O.J. Simpson, and
saying he thinks his show is ethically
superior.
That's the argument children use
when they do something they know is
wrong, "Howie stole the candy bar at
the store and all I did was eat it." With
the promise of a plane ticket, a hotel
room, a few meals and a couple of
minutes on national TV, Springer gets
people to humiliate themselves and
others in the name of entertainment.
He told his UM audience it would
be elitist to suggest he's wrong to do
this just because his guests aren't well
educated or rich. Well, here's another
take on that argument: It's far more
elitist, and unethical, for a well-edu
cated, media sophisticate to make a
fortune off people willing to trade dig
nity and privacy for 15 minutes of air
time. Rather than lecturing anyone on
ethics, Springer should be trying to
adopt some.
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