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.
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