page 4, The Behrend Beacon, April 7, 2000
Speaker explains the
‘Art of Front Yards’
by Valerie Hammond
staff writer
The Pennsylvania Humanities
Council attempted to give some in
sight on why front yards across the
nation are usually designed similarly.
On Wednesday night, Dr. Kevin
Melchionne spoke about The Art of
Front Yards, focusing mainly on how
the front-yard became such an impor
tant aspect of the suburban lifestyle.
Part of the presentation by
Melchionne included a slide show that
featured the front yards of a regular
suburban neighborhood. In the slides,
many of the yards demonstrated con
formity to the pattern of a traditional
front yard. Melchionne said that the
features of a traditional front yard in
cluded, “a neat lawn without visible
division between neighbors’ yards,
planting or shrubbery at the founda
tion of the house that does not obscure
the view of the house, a specimen or
namental tree, and a shade tree by the
road.” Most front yards do have these
basic essentials, but some even have
a bit more to offer, such as lawn or
naments. "But," Melchionne pointed
out, "lawn ornaments aren’t as com
mon as you w'ould think. Pink fla
mingos just aren't all that popular in
today’s society."
Melchionne also said, "the front
yard has become a cultural practice."
It is almost a tradition due to the fact
that in some cases "it enhances the
value of the property."
The basic idea of the American
front lawn originally came from the
aesthetic English garden. These gar
dens feature meandering paths, odd
shaped ponds or streams, and some
type of shrubbery. English gardens
were initially imitated in public parks
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Intramural & Recreation Programs EquipiCortifying Instructors/Wages
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Humanities & Social Sciences Logan Wintorgarden Concert Series
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Amount held for monthly disbursements beginning Scptcraber/Gctobef 2000;
Dr. Kevin Melchionne speaks in the Reed Commons about the practice of decorating front yards
and eventually became a pai l of ev
eryday life, in the formul a front lawn.
The reason the front lawn is still an
important part of American culture is
because it isn't too hard, according to
Melchionne. "Its success lies in rela
tively easy maintenance," said
Melchionne. indicating that all you
have to do to keep it looking good is
mow. prune, and weed flower gardens
2000 - 2001 PROPOSALS FUNDED THROUGH THE
STUDENT ACTIVITY FEE
tjosal
Volleyball Tournaments
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Total amount funded:
from time to time
One thing that has changed in the
front yard in the past decade is the size
and placement of new trees and shrub
bery. Back in the fifties, when subur
ban life became popular, the lawns
were prefabricated just like the
houses. Each lawn was given a few
trees and shrubs that came right from
the greenhouse. Today’s new houses
roposal Title
News
are provided with trees and shrubs that
look like they have been growing
there for a while, almost like the house
was built around them. This, of
course, is not the case. Just like the
trees and shrubs of the fifties, these
newer ones are shipped in and planted
to look like they have been there for
ten to fifteen years.
$9OO
$ 17,946
$969
$ 37,179
$1,200
$ 14,399
$ 2,500
$ 18,180
$ 2,500
$ 2,600
$ 2,300
$875
$ 9,000
$ 9,500
$ 4,000
$ 3,750
$750
$ 1,000
$ 300
$ 24,000
$ 2,000
$ 2,500
$ 5,346
$ 4,000
$ 2,850
$ 1,800
$ 51,150
15JM
$228,844
$ 24,316
Landslide continued from front page
a term that will not end until
November.
Several weeks ago, opposing
candidate Blair brought up the fact
that Skillen’s GPA was under 2.5 to
the elections committee. Sheroskv
attempted to verify this rule, but could
not find note of it in the constitution
or in the bylaws. She also tried to find
record of the vote in the club’s
minutes, but was unsuccessful in
finding all of the minutes and
therefore could not verify that SGA
had in fact voted in the rule. Therefore
, at the March 29 meeting, the
members declared Ski lien eligible to
However, before this week's
meeting, the missing minutes were
found, and the members had to decide
what to do. Several suggestions were
made: the entire ticket of both Miles
and Skillen could be vetoed. Or,
Skillen could be removed from the
ticket. Also, the ticket could be left
as it was. and if Miles won the
election, she could then choose a new
vice president, with the approval of
the senators. After much heated
debate, it was decided that Skillen
should be allowed to run, as elections
were already in progress.
Due to a loophole in the earlier
decision, SGA is now left with the
decision of whether or not Skillen
should receive the stipend. The rule
says that anyone on the executive
board receiving a stipend must have
the specified GPA; it says nothing
about such a requirement for board
members not receiving a stipend.
Therefore, it was decided at the hist
meeting that SGA would wait to see
if Skillen and Miles actually won, and
then the members would decide what
to do about the stipend. It is possible
that Skillen will not be allowed to
receive the stipend. No mention was
made about further pursuit of the fact
that Skillen is currently ZBT
president, with a term that will overlap
with his vice presidency.
Also discussed in the last meeting
was the fact that a net send was sent
to all networked computers at
Behrend last week. The message
encouraged readers to vote for Blair,
and gave the URL for his web page.
Students had to click OK in order for
the message to disappear. While this
was not a disturbance to some
students, it appeared on Power Point
presentations in classes, some people
thought that by clicking OK they had
voted for Blair, and some students’
computers were said to have frozen.
It is still under scrutiny whether or not
this action was a violation of
University Policy.
Guidelines state that students may
not send out mass emails or
new sposts, but it does not specifically
mention net sends. SGA has no
authority to punish Blair judicially for
this action. In fact, Blair never
officially admitted that he was the
author of the net send. SGA
determined that this action, along with
the questionable practice of
distributing large amounts of flyers in
resilience halls (a practice which falls
under the University's policy of
solicitation and is illegal) would not
affect Blair's candidacy for president.
SGA did, however, pass a motion that
implored Blair to write a letter ol
apology to the campus for any
inconvenience caused by his actions,
a-letter to be sent to the Beacon and
published in the editorial section of
the paper.
“Because it’s the first contested
election in awhile, there’s been a lot
of controversy over what are legal and
not legal running procedures,’’ said
Sheroskv before the results were
known. "No matter what happens I
can honestly sav the no matter who
wins we'll have an excellent Senate
next semester with the variety ot
majors and personalities of new
members."
The positions for senators were also
contested this year. Pleven students
were voted in: Sunny Webb, Chad
Warren, Jennie Lllison, Brandi Hovis.
Keenan Hansen, Traci Hamm.
Melody Sherosky, Melissa Davis,
Aaron Braun, Dawn Hartman, and
Timothy Meyers. Matthew Wiertel
and Jennifer Foulks were not elected.
Michelle Benjamin won the secretary
position, which was not contested.
At the last meeting, Ken Miller,
dean of students and an advisor to
SGA. implored the organization to
form a new elections committee to
clear up the discrepancies in the
elections procedures before elections
for first year senators in the fall.