Waft
94% 2000
1"414141** EAC ONI
A PENN STATE ERIE STUDENT PUBLICATION
FALL 2000
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PAGE 7
KNIGHT SETUP?
Bobby Knight questioned whether
or not his firing was setup by
Indiana University.
PAGE 8
ASTI(' OR PAPER?
Your Money and You debuts with
the always debated issue of credit
cards vs. cash
PAGE 10
it ST VOI E BF HR
Frawley has "new look" on politics
in Pay No Attention to the Man
Behind the Curtain
SECTION 2 - PAGE 3
(.'ROSS co U IN TRY
FEST I VA I .
Behrend Lions to host third annual
Penn State Behrend Cross Country
Festival this Saturday.
NEWS
AN 1 X1'111 , 12
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X.llo\ AL
EDITORIAL
‘I DiI'ORIA
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
11;1111* ' 1,11, DNR.
FEATURES
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SPORTS
BEHRFNI.) SPORTS
NATION Ai, SPORTS
NEWSROOM: 898-6488
FAX US: 898-6019
Offices are located downstairs in
Reed Union Building
XLVIII No. 4
'4 4 'K
Donna Shirley takes questions from the audience after her lecture
Speaker Series launched with
by Liz Hayes
news editor
Wednesday, September 13,
speaker Donna Shirley kicked off
the "American Dream in the New
Millennium" Speaker Series, which
is new to Behrend this year. Shirley
has been greatly involved with
NASA the past 30 years, and regaled
the audience assembled in the Reed
Commons with stories of her
experiences.
After Provost and Dean Dr. John
Lilley introduced her, Shirley began
her speech with some background
information on how she became
Students have problems with
Brookwood Village in Belle Valley
interested and involved in space and
engineering. Growing up in rural
Oklahoma, she always wanted to be
a pilot, and her dream came true at
the age of 15 when she began taking
pilot lessons.
Several years later she enrolled in
the aeronautical engineering program
at the University of Oklahoma, in
which she was the only woman. After
the presentation, Shirley was asked to
comment on the difficulty of her
minority status. She almost shrugged
off the difficulties she faced then, and
said that even now, in managerial
positions, there is a very solid glass
ceiling for anyone who does not fit
September 15, 2000
D T:,,,,,,„.7 (
Donna Shirley
the mold, not just for women.
Shirley proceeded to describe the
numerous projects she worked on. It
all began with the Mariner 10 project
in 1970-1973. Other projects she
spoke of included solar energy usage;
the Mission Design project which
focused on how to maneuver from
one planet to another; and several
different robotics projects,
particularly those involving
planetary rovers that gathering
geological data and specimens on
Mars.
Shirley continued on page 3
F MILLER
PHOTO
As the beginning of the new school year
approached this summer, many students had
to go through the tribulations of trying to find
off campus housing. Because Erie is a
college town with 4 major colleges in the
area, there is a myriad of different choices
that students could make. Most students had
very little problem in finding an apartment,
signing the lease, and getting settled in. But
some students were not as lucky in the realtor
that they chose to deal with.
A combination of wanting to have a place
to live away from school and a lack of
available housing drove many students to
look for alternative housing in the local area.
One company that had a variety of rental
properties in the area was Palermo Realty,
whose office is located at 3435 West Lake
Road in Millcreek. Palermo has apartments
for rent, among other locations, at
Brookwood Village at 5100 Clubhouse Drive
in Belle Valley and in downtown Erie at 407
West Bth Street.
Area's registration
office confused on
voter eligibility
by Jason Snyder
and Erin McCurdy
editor-in-chief and staff writer
During this past week two Beacon
reporters called the Erie County Voter
Registration Office (ECVRO) on
three different days in hopes of get
ting information on voter registration
for college students. The registration
office gave three different answers to
the same basic question of whether or
not Behrend students who live on
campus during the school year can
vote locally.
In the initial phone call made to the
ECVRO, the goal was simply to ob
tain about 200 registration forms so
Behrend students could register to
vote. After being transferred to an
other person, an unidentified woman
asked what will be done with the reg
istration forms. After explaining that
the forms would be given out so that
Behrend students could vote, she said
that this could not be done. She said,
"they have to register to vote in their
home district if they want to vote."
Dr. Robert Speel, associate profes
Behrend athletic facilities
growing rapidly
by Liz Hayes
news editor
Since school let out in May 2000,
much work has been completed on the
new Athletics and Recreation Center
(ARC) on Jordan Road. Although
most students have not had a chance
to see the construction on the ARC
up close, a lot has been done to the
internal structure.
Over the summer the most time
intensive project was installing the
walls of the building. There was a
delay in the completion of the walls,
which then set back the rest of the
construction. At deadline, the last
wall was set to be finished this Friday,
according to Athletic Director Brian
Streeter. After the walls are in place,
the last time-consuming project will
be putting in the gym floor, which
off-campus housing
by Mike Frawley
managing editor
) SECTIONS
sor of political science at Behrend was
then contacted to verify the informa
tion given by the registration office.
He said that according to the Penn
sylvania law on the secretary of state's
official website, to register in PA,
voters must be 18 years of age, have
lived in PA as a U.S. citizen for 30
days prior to the election, and have
not been in jail for conviction of a
felony in the past five years.
Nothing more is said about voter
registration eligibility.
He also pointed out that while at
tending the University of Pennsylva
nia, he registered over 1000 students
to vote at their on-campus addresses,
including himself. University Park's
College Republicans have also been
known for doing the same thing.
In addition, Dr. Speel points out that
"the U.S. Census just counted all stu
dents living on-campus as local resi
dents this past April. The large stu
dent population here is counted when
determining local representation in
Voting continued on page 3
should take from six to eight weeks
Right now, due to the wall delay,
the finish date is rather tentative. The
dedication ceremony for the building
has been scheduled for November 9
at 2:30, though the building probably
will not be quite ready for full use by
students. Streeter hopes that the ARC
will officially open its doors when
students return from Thanksgiving
Break.
ARC continued on page 3
Logan House
renovations, Chapel and
Bell Tower, Knowledge
Park
The next S years...
Behrend students who rented or tried to rent
from Palermo have reported a great variety of
problems with Palermo, from promised
apartments not materializing to threats of
never renting to students again for problems
not caused by students. Most of the students
involved declined to publicly comment on
their specific problems, but froma letter that
came into the Beacon's possession; Palermo
seems to be biased against college students.
One Behrend student, Tracy Hamm,
arranged to rent an apartment from Palermo
with a group of friends over the summer.
When she and her friends came into town and
showed up at the Palermo office to sign their
lease, the apartment that they had been
promised was suddenly not available, and they
were forced at the last minute to try and find
other accommodations for the school year.
Two other students, who asked not to be
identified, attempted to move into their
apartments in early August. When they
arrived at their new apartment, which Palermo
said was in living condition, they found the
Housing continued on page 3
18 PAGES