The Behrend Beacon A View From The Lighthouse Hello, Goodbye As Behrend’s 1999-2000 school year winds down to a close, an array of mixed emotions has just opened up. Oh yes, it’s spring fever time and chances are there’s a bit of love in the air. But along with love, it’s a fair bet that many people on campus are feeling excitement, joy, pride, suspense, and perhaps just a touch of sadness all at the same time. It’s time to honor our seniors with a “good-bye." and wish a warm welcome to some fresh faces. It is obvious that Behrend has truly grown, and will continue to grow. Whether you’re ready to leave or you’re just settling in, each and every one of you has made this campus a more pleasant place to be. This week, we at the Beacon decided that we would refrain from stating our strong viewpoints on topics such as Elian, gays, talk radio hosts, smoking, and computers, among other things. Instead, we invite you to look back with us at some of the accomplishments that have improved life here on campus, as well as take a peak at what lies ahead in the not too distant future. To the graduating seniors: “Do you remember your first day on campus?" If so, you remember that registering your vehicle on campus only cost about S3O, and that the lot outside Erie Hall wasn't nearly as big as it is now. Erie Hall was cool to watch a basketball game at, and there weren’t so many restaurants to pick from over by the mall. You remember that before- Bruno’s, there was something called a “cafeteria” that fed your hunger needs, although you probably preferred to live off of mom and dad’s care packages. You’ll remember that there was no Aimy Hall or Ohio Hall, and the words “kiosk,” "e-mail," and “internet” became part of your everyday vocabulary. You’ll remember that when you needed to drop or add a class, you had to wait in a mile long line that wrapped around the old Registar's office in the Science building. Adding and dropping classes by phone and internet evolved to make your lives easier, but the information technology fee pulled a few more bucks out of your pocket. Hey, it was only like 525 then! The only computer labs were in Hammermill, and you could The Behrend Beacon published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Hell rend College Advertising Manager Kim Zuck Business Manager Kristine Harakat Office Manager Brad Wiertel Distribution Manager Jeff Miller Advisors Robert Spec I Jim V ljiughtin 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. actually use coins in the copy machines. Your school ID card wasn't nearly as cool, and no one cared to read the school newspaper. My, how times have changed! Well, to the current freshmen as well as the incoming ones, there is definitely a lot to look forward to. As you arc taking the first steps in your college career, there will be many new paths to discover. Construction will begin on the Research Economic Development Center and the new Trippc 1 lull. as construction will be finishing on the new Athletic complex. Obviously in this computer age you will be awarded w ith faster and faster computers, as well as with faster and faster internet connections However, the technology fee as well as the price of books will go up, as your textbook refund can be counted in mere pocket change. Fashion will change for the girls once again as their shirts and pants get tighter and skimpier. The guys will remain in their 20 year trend of plain t-shirts and blue jeans. Oh yeah, everyone will read the Beacon and completely agree with our opinions. Well, we might need a little more time on that one. To the seniors: Congratulations. you’ve made it! It's now time to start another chapter in your li\ es! To the freshmen: Goodjob. you’ve made it this far! There is a faint light at the end of the long tunnel. t>o net it 1 * 1 i Editor-in-Chief Jason Snyder Managing Editor Michael Frawles News Kditors /./; Hu\(‘S Karl Honied Editorial Page Editor Katie Galley Features Editors Katie Pr:ep\szn\ Don}’ Small Sports Editor Mull U'/i rh / Calendar Page Editor ■V/o'/r (in . ur Photo Editors Jeff M liter Kevin Bruner (assistant) Associate Editors Lihhie Johnson Becks Weindorf Bob Wynne encourages letters to the editor. Letters should include the address, phone number, semester standing and major of the writer. Writers can mail letters tobehrcoll2@aol.com. Letters must be received no later than 5 p in. Tuesday for inclusion in that week’s issue. Editorial The Voice Of Reason The Behrend review, Frawley style Well the \cai is finally over. I get to | mi my pi-n down and try to have a '■onii's hat normal life for the summer and maybe u-gain some of the sanity that I have f. >st over the course of this seal Bui I thought that I would use tin-, hi-' i Omim of the year to talk ab. hi! e\ci \ 1 1,mg that has gone on this vc.ti. NK ow n little "year in review” ol all ol the things I've talked about in 1 1 1 \ m limes this year, just to see if it was 'tally worth all of the head. idles that I went throueh. So what should I start with? Well the vei> Insi thing that I talked about thus sear was the computer center, so that is a-, eoo.l a place as any to begin. The computer center has become more responsive to the students and much more helpful in general. And w bile there is siill a wavs to go, I think that there has been a marked inipr.H ement theie. So hats off to the computer center for all of its work this Now let s more on to SGA. My head hurts iin thinking about SGA. cm time that 1 think SGA is imploring as an organization, something happens to make my opinion .Imp even further. At the bcgimtim: of the school year, SGA \r as an uniesponsir e organization that no one cared about. With a little prodding. NGA Hied to reform itself This 1$ Earth. Have We Met? Generation indifferent Hoi yeais now the members of my generation have been listening to our "elders" call im "Generation X.” Then, a few .ears back, it was deteiiumcd t hat the youth of today w a . not part of the oi iginal Gen Xers, ami we rc.eired the label of “(ieneretion h though no one seems to know what is tire difference between ilk- two Idlers. Bill, after we u ere labeled w ill) this rather insulting ami mu ■ompltnienlary phrase, what did we do about ii 7 Nothing. There li;,n been no real outpouring of grtev.nai mei this label, and no one seem- m : o.' 11 s muni if anyone moi,- ~pi i..|vl that ean he given to us It- ; inoiiuin Indifferent.’' 1 1 .ai'i Is out tooount the arguments I've uad with friends or have witnessed that haw ended w'ith the nuiliomaiive "Who cares?” The arguuivii! -.eons to lie progressing aii mi’ ins! imi. but then someone runs out oi -to. lino: icalizes that the other So. o. it a t beiiei way to win an aigumetit than In simply stating "who cares A a that point, the other person The View From Ui The freshman homecoming I s.iii'i wait until the end of the semester. 'ies. I have enough to do with all m\ finals and all my papers, i mi the end ol the semester means the big homecoming, '['lie homecoming of the class I graduated with from McDowell High School. (And the only reason I really care is because I'm curious to see how they held up.) Actually, it will be nice to see the other ss(i+ people I graduated with, because we all had time to mature in our 1 1 rst y ears on our own -at college, at a job. about whatever. The cl l ll erences that separated the cliques ali seemed to dissipate quickly after graduation. That's the way it should be; alter all. I will be guaranteed a M, Dowell alumnus sighting at least onw a day. if not more. Bn: the real reason 1 want the semester to end is because all my The Beacon April 28, 2000 .*• ii.it it implied in the first Wind: i' v, hy I think there is a ltc.h pom: that they can’t argue Have a great summer, andremember to tell us your beef In the falll We 'll 0111 be here. Send dll letters to the editor to: behrcoll2@aol. com and made great strides to become a better organization. And while they were still a little rough around the edges, and sometimes going to a meeting was like having teeth pulled, things seemed to be looking up for the organization as a whole. Then came election time, and what should have been the highlight of the year has turned into the biggest fiasco I have ever seen. For once there was actually a contested election, and we had the biggest voter turnout at this school that anyone can remember; the percentage of voter turnout here at Behrend was even bigger than what University Park had for their student government elections. And while I have my own thoughts as to why the turnout was so big, it still was very encouraging to see. But now the entire thing is marred by scandal. The election process was so badly handled usually agrees that no one cares, and the discussion moves on. I think part of the problem is that no one really knows enough about anything to firmly state an opinion. Or more to the point, no one cares enough or is motivated enough to learn more about a topic. It would require work, after all, work that would not be rewarded with a letter grade or a salary, so it is not worth our valuable time. “Why didn’t you vote in last week’s SGA elections?” “Oh, I didn’t know there were elections. Did you vote?” “No, I didn’t know any of the people running, so I didn’t bother.” "I hear ya. Besides, who cares it’s friends from high school will be home. Especially my best friend Becky (yes, we have the same name) because she can actually find something fun to do in Erie during the summers. Not only do we hit the beach and drive around in her big beat-up white van, we pull all-nighters and talk about who’s pregnant and who’s rich already from my that the entire thing is starting to resemble a circus. And instead of just sitting down and figuring out how to handle the problems immediately after the election, it has now dragged on for three weeks. In my humble opinion this entire problem could be handled with two quick questions: A. Are you eligible to hold your office? (None of this “well you can serve but not have the stipend" crap, that just drags down the entire organization. “Well I’m not qualified but who cares?") B. And if you are not eligible, are you willing to step down? Problem solved. Everyone involved knew what the requirements were, and if SGA as an organization allows someone who does not meet them to hold office, what kind of example are they setting? I hope that next year’s SGA runs and works much better than this year’s, but I guess we will just have to wait and see. And last but not least, I can’t forget about the Greeks. Now everybody relax, I’m not going to bash Greeks, I just want to point a few things out. The Beacon is constantly being accused of being anti-Greek, yet the only things negative that have been written about the Greeks were 3 editorials throughout the entire year. only SGA.” “Exactly.” Sound familiar? Not just the SGA part, but the overall gist? 1 can think of various arguments about all sorts of things that have ended similarly. Presidential candidates (Bush is a shrub), Elian Gonzalez (phone home), organized religion (weak minded fools), campus organizations (down with the Greeks), Erie (ghetto suburb of Pittsburgh)... all have been the subject of numerous debates between myself and some friends, but we never reach a point where we at least see the other's point, if not agree. Why? Because no one knows what is really being discussed, for one thing. Also, no one believes in anything enough to defend it. The Beacon receives all sorts of verbal comments from people every week mostly from people in organizations that an editorial columnist has offended. But how many actually have enough to say about something that they can scrape together 300 words and write a letter to the editor? The paper gets maybe one letter every two weeks, and they are rarely longer than 150 words. No Here graduating class. Between the two of us, we could dish the dirt on anyone after an all-nighter. Summers mean showing off the “new you” after your first grueling year of college. The questions come flying right and left, especially from me to some of my friends: for example, “You pierced your what?” Warm weather means lots of time to stay out late, go dancing, go to the dock (as if there’s anything to do at the dock but sit in a lawn chair and eat watermelon) or just bond with a friend who’s come back from college. Where is the downside, though? Everything seems so wonderful, with your high school friends coming home, that we remember that we’re losing our “other half’: the people you met go home too. Nobody looks forward to losing their group of * s while we have printed many good articles about what the Greeks have done. Three weeks ago we gave the Greeks almost the entire front page, and anytime they ask us to, we cover their events, yet we are anti-Greek. And I'm sorry to disappoint everyone, but I don't consider myself anti-Greek. I just see some problems that need to be addressed so the Greeks can overcome their reputation, and I point them out. If you don’t want people stereotyping you, do something to overcome the stereotype — don’t just whine and cry that you have one. So have I served a purpose this year? I think that I have. By pointing out the problems on campus and making them public, it forces people to deal with them. And isn’t that the w hole point of the media ? We are here to let the public know what is going on in the world around them so that they can make informed choices about various issues. And with all of the bitching and moaning that you hear about what we write maybe people will be motivated to try and change things. And don't worry 1 will be back next year to keep life interesting for everyone around here, and I’m sure that Bitchin’ by Mike will make another appearance. wonder our generation isn’t taken seriously —not only can we not write articulately about a topic, we can’t even pull 300 words of crap out of our butts! And all those people who tell the columnists that they agree completely (who, by the way, usually outnumber those who don’t like the paper), who ever hears from them? What’s my point? Who cares? No one will be able to conjure up a sound argument, anyway. And no one will really care. Actually, it is rather depressing to be sitting here writing this editorial knowing that. However, I do have one suggestion for anyone who does care. Find a cause and learn everything you cun about it. It doesn’t matter if you decide to join an anti affirmative action league, a midgets’ rights coalition, or a save the earthworms group. Just pick something to believe in. It’ll make the world a better place. That way, in one hundred years, maybe the image people have of us won’t be of a bunch of plastic people sitting around in khakis and earth tones singing "Mellow Yellow.” friends after their first year of finals, midterms, gallons of coffee, sleepless nights, and being on your own. It’s hard to give up that pocket of security one finds when it’s their first time away from home. And that means a complete “role reversal”: instead of keeping in touch with alumni through email, people will keep in touch with their current classmates/ roommates through email. High school friends will be right up the street now; roommates and classmates will be a postcard or long distance phone call away. And the cycle will occur all over again in the fall: the tearful good-byes and the joyful hellos. And with summer coming, I get to fill in all my friends on what happened in Erie this year - as if that’s worthy gossip material to begin with. PAGE 10
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