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Vol. XLVIII No. 16 10 pages
Mehalso
family
gives
Behrend
$250,000
by Jason Snyder
editor-in-chief
Behrend alumnus Dr. Robert
Mehalso and his wife, Elizabeth, have
made a $250,000 gift to Behrend to
fund a new observatory, an advanced
telescope and a family scholarship en
dowment.
"Science is one of our greatest in
terests in life, so building a new ob
servatory is a perfect fit. We wanted
to advance the college's mission
through this facility and by providing
financial aid for students, - said Dr.
Mehalso.
Dr. Mehalso is a very successful
engineer and entrepreneur known
around the world. A 1964 graduate of
Penn State, Mehalso was named a
Penn State Behrend Alumni Fellow in
1989. The title is given by the univer
sity as a lifelong distinction for one's
outstanding leadership in his or her
field. He is currently a memher of the
college's Council of Fellows and the
president of MicroTec Associates in
Fairport, N.Y.
A portion of the gift —5107,500
will fund the new observatory and the
high-tech telescope, with the remain
ing balance establishing a scholarship
endowment for Behrend students.
The new observatory will be located
behind the Otto Behrend Science
Building, near where the current re
flecting telescope and dome were con
structed in 1978. Because of the gift,
Behrend will have a higher quality
telescope with a computer telescope
control, along with a 16-foot dome as
opposed to the current 10-foot dome.
The larger dome will accommodate
small classes or public presentations
involving 15 people at one time. There
will be two doors for more comfort
able entrances and departures, along
with handicap accessibility leading to
the dome. This accessibility will in
clude an area outside for wheelchairs
and portable computers so that those
unable to maneuver will be able to ac
cess the stars.
The new facility is expected to open
next fall and will be used to help en
hance undergraduate teaching and re
search. Local residents who attend
Behrend's Open House Nights in As
tronomy will also benefit.
Dr. Roger Knacke, director of the
School of Science, said, "the new ob
servatory will be a resource for science
and engineering students, and for the
public, for many years to come. It will
introduce thousands of people to the
wonders and mysteries of the sky."
The new telescope will ultimately,
through a charged-coupled detector
(CCD) and a computer, obtain images
of spiral arms of galaxies millions of
light years away.
Provost and Dean John Lilley com
mented on the scholarship endowment,
saying, "this generous gift by Bob and
Liz Mehalso will enhance the college's
ability to recruit and assist academi
cally talented, hard-working, and com
mitted students. We deeply appreci
ate their lift."
Promised
Behrend looks
for answers
during Martin
Luther King Jr
celebration
by Liz Hayes
wire service editor
This past week saw numerous
celebrations at Penn State Behrend in
honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday, which officially was on
Monday, January 17,2000. Numerous
campus organizations came forward in
sponsoring honorary events that
focused on the life, death,
accomplishments, and, especially, the
dreams of Rev. King.
On Sunday, Jan. 16, the college
sponsored a Candlelight Vigil, which
kicked off the week's celebrations. The
Vigil was held in the Reed Commons
and began at approximately 6 p.m. (the
service was slightly delayed, as it was
scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.).
After a brief introduction by student
Chris Buchanan, the gospel choir
Ultimate Praise took the stage with
their rendition of "Lift Every Voice and
Sing," during which the audience was
invited to join in. Ultimate Praise also
performed another musical number
later in the performance, just after
student Sean Mascoll delivered the
evening's invocation
Baena Cabiri, also a student at
Behrend, then introduced the evening's
highlighted speaker, Ms. Dorothy
Smith.
Smith is the president of the Erie
chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and is also a dedicated
community leader for the state of
Pennsylvania, as well as for Erie.
During her speech, Smith gave
much attention to the theme of this
year's MLK celebration: "1968-2000:
32 Years After Dr. King Have we
Reached the Promised Land?" As was
the opinion expressed by the majority
Students weigh their options when purchasing books
by Mike Frawley
managing editor
As students are returning to school,
many are faced with a choice: where
and how to buy their textbooks for the
upcoming semester. In the past few
years, this has become a much harder
choice than it may seem. Now, be
sides the usual set-up of buying ev
erything from your local campus
bookstore, a plethora of other options
has been presented to students. Now
students can use sources such as
online book dealers and special used
book sales to save money and time.
Up until recently all students could
do to buy texts was go to their cam
pus bookstore to wait in long lines to
purchase books that had been greatly
marked up in price. On larger cam
puses, where more than one bookstore
was located, students were able to get
Weekend
weather
outlook on
WORLD NEWS PAGE 3
page 2.
of speakers featured over the course of
the last few days, Smith believes that,
although society has progressed since
the days of and before Dr. King, it has
not reach the elusive "Promised Land."
"We are not yet at the Promised Land,
but we are at the crossing point with
the Promised Land in view," Smith
affirmed.
In her speech, Smith also stressed the
importance of the role students now,
and especially historically, have played
in the development of civil and human
rights. "It is still the college students
who continue to make the difference."
Following Smith's speech, the
college's Inspirational Mime Group,
consisting of students Jennifer Foulks
and Asia Horton, performed to an a
cappella solo sung by Danielle
Marshall.
Finally, Father John Santor of the
Catholic Campus Ministry delivered an
somewhat better prices. Students on
smaller campuses, such as Behrend,
only had one option available to them.
This made options for students in pur
chasing their books almost nonexist
ent.
But new competitors have appeared
on the scene to draw students' money
away from the campus bookstores.
One way that has recently appeared
on our campus is a used book sale.
This sale, which was recently spon
sored by the Student Government
Association (SGA), allows students to
sell their books to one another with
out having to deal with the very re
duced prices that the bookstore gives
during the book buyback program.
"Response from the students is in
credible, considering we received al
most five times the amount of books
as last year," said SGA president An
drea DiPlacido. Students came out
NEWS PAGE 1
POLICE AND SAFETY PAGE 2
CAMPUS NEWS PAGE 4
Janu:try 21, 2000
FF MILLER
inspirational address to the assembly,
though in a unique and unexpected
way: he rapped it.
On Monday, Jan. 17, the day's events
began early with a symbolic breakfast
in Bruno's. Dr. King traditionally
began celebrating his day of birth with
a breakfast held with friends and
family. Behrend emulated this
tradition with its own breakfast, held
from 7:15 to 8 a.m., hoping to generate
a communal spirit.
The events continued on Monday
with a writers session with guest Sonia
Sanchez. Sanchez is a frequently
lauded poet, activist, and lecturer, and
is well-known in international circles.
The session was held from 2 to 3:15
p.m. in Reed 114. A group of about 15
participants listened as Sanchez
referred to episodes from her youth in
New York City, of her vast experiences
in a college setting, both as a student
in record numbers for a chance to get
their books at a lower price.
The major new competitor for stu
dents' money has appeared on the
Internet as of late. Many new com
panies have started up that allow stu
dents to be able to buy their books
online at lower prices than those
charged by our bookstore. These sites
are currently growing in popularity,
with a major explosion in advertising
and special offers. Cable networks,
such as MTV and Comedy Central,
which draw major amounts of col
lege-age viewers, have been showing
a large amount of advertising for these
sites. Some sites feature celebrities
which appeal to college students, such
as Tom Green, who appears in com
mercials for bigwords.com.
There are a variety of sites from
Textbooks cont. on page 2
2000:
1968
After
Dr.
King
we Reached the
Have
Promised Land?
ABOVE: Sonia Sanchez addresses the
audience in the Reed Commons at the All-
College Celebration on Monday, January
17. LEFT: The panelists debate their
views on affirmative action at the MLK
Forum.
CALENDAR PAGE 5
EDITORIAL PAGE 6 PE NN STAFE
FEATURES PAGE 7
SPORTS PAGE 8
TMS ILLUSTRATION
32 Years
and as a teacher, and of her family life.
Sanchez also entertained questions
from those present about her writing
experiences and views.
Sanchez ended the session by
reading an excerpt from one of her
more recent books, Does Your House
Have Lions?, which dealt with her
brother's battle with and death from the
AIDS virus. Sanchez also mentioned
to the group that she has taken leave
from her teaching position at Temple
University in order to concentrate on
her writing.
Shortly after Sanchez spoke at the
Writer's Session, she appeared as the
featured speaker at the All-College
Celebration in the Reed Commons at
4 p.m. Sanchez entertained the
audience for almost the entire allotted
MLK cont. on page 2
The Behrend Bookstore is not the only option when buying books.
The Internet is gaining in popularity due to cheaper prices and easier
accesibili .
' , ti.deni Publication
=ICE
Former
student
pleads no
contest in
child porn
case
by Jason Snyder
editor-in-chief
Former Penn State Behrend student
Brian Scott Jackman pleaded no con
test to charges made against him in
volving the use of university comput
ers to collect and trade child pornog
raphy through the Internet. Jackman's
plea to Erie County Judge Stephanie
Domitrovich involved two felony
counts of sexual abuse of children and
one felony count of the unlawful use
of computers.
According to court records, the
charges made against Jackman
stemmed from the report of a Nevada
resident, who claimed to see an adver
tisement for child pornography in
1997. The ads were then traced to a
computer at Behrend.
On July 17, 1997, detectives found
disks that contained over 2,000 pho
tographs, most of which contained
child pornography. The images were
found to have been downloaded from
a computer in Behrend's biology lab
and a computer in Jackman's former
residence.
After a successful seven month at
tempt by a Provo, Utah, company to
break the passwords to the computer
files, the files were sent to the Erie
County District Attorney's Office,
which led to the arrest of Jackman in
October 1998.
Nine charges were dropped by the
district attorney's office as part of the
plea agreement. Four of the dropped
charges were misdemeanors, while the
rest were taken into account with the
other charges. The prosecution did not
object to the plea because the two
counts carry the same sentence.
Jackman will be sentenced by
Domitror ich on March 3, with a maxi
mum possible sentence of 24 years.
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..: Erie