FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2000
The classes
you never
knew you took
Hooray! It’s scheduling time once again.
Pull out the guide, check the internet, and
wait until your day comes to dial that magic
phone number so you can have an in-depth
conversation with the automated voice
system. “Press 1 to add a course, press 2 to
drop a course” will be in your mind all day.
Oh yeah, don’t forget to meet with your
adviser for your semesterly meeting so you
know what classes to take.
Here’s where I have to make the buck
stop. In discussing scheduling matters with
my friends, I have come to the conclusion
that they rely on their advisers too much for
their class planning. “Nah, I’ll let my
advisor tell me what I need to take” is a
common response to the age-old question
“Ya schedule yet?” We’re in college now
folks! Aren’t we supposed to be masters of
our own destiny or something? Well, pick
up a degree bulletin and hold on, because
there are many classes that you haven’t
signed up for but already take, which should
aid you in becoming a more street-smart
person that is capable of doing things
independently. The following classes will
soon be added to your transcript:
♦Time Management 401 (TMBD)
Instructor: Father Time, professor of clock
studies. Meeting time: anytime. Course
goals: experimentation in cramming 6 hours
worth of homework into 2.5.
♦Toilet Studies 001 (TSBD) Instructor:
Dr. A 1 Cohol, professor of fluid studies
(holds various degrees including an A.A.
and a D.U.1.). Meeting time: generally
early morning, but not limited to. Course
goals: students will experiment with each
other to see how much “fluid" can be put
into a person’s body before failute. Note:
Cost of “materials” will be split amongst the
class.
*Lame excuses 002 (LEBD) Instructor:
Ms. Alotta (I didn't receive my PhD
because my dog ate my dissertation)
Fiction. Meeting time: only when needed,
generally a few times a week. Course
goals: Students will hopefully learn how to
explain themselves better through a series of
creative writing exercises.
*The Fine Art ofBS 101 (BSBD)
Instructor: Mr. Ful Ofit, professor of mostly
anything (holds a B.S. in BS from BSU).
Meeting Time: usually after a big test, or
when a paper is handed in late. Course
goals: to master an ancient form of commu
nication to better prepare students involved
in any kind of writing course. Also, to learn
how to “write” a 5 page paper in under an
hour. Prerequisite: Lame Excuses 002.
♦Motion Studies 230 (MSBD) Instruc
tors: Dr. Walker Strut, professor of legs
(distinguished walking award from Johns
Hop’kins), and Dr. Katie Galley, lecturer in
motion theory. Meeting time: Whenever
needed. Course goals: to allow students to
study the phenomenon behind randomly
stopping in hallways, walking in front of
other people, and what happens when two
people collide when turning a comer. An
in-depth study of “How many people can
logically fit in Bruno’s lunch lines” will be
the final paper. Note: Students already
enrolled in The Fine Art of BS may not
schedule this course.
♦Relationships 222 (REBD) This class
broke up due to a general lack of interest.
♦Chemistry 420 (CHEMBD) Instructor:
Dr. Mary Janes, professor of plant studies,
(U. of Mary.) Meeting time: Whenever you
and your friends feel feisty. Course goals,
students will “experiment” in growing
certain types of plants that can be used for
medicinal purposes; students will be
expected to participate heavily in this class.
Lots of “paper” will be needed.
♦Music Studies 000 (DMXBD) Instruc
tor: Dr. Dre, professor of communications.
Course goals: Students will learn how to
express themselves though rapid speech and
incoherent sentence fragments. Special
project will include students walking around
campus and sitting through classes with
Discman player on high volume. Students
wearing puffy coat to class will receive 1
extra class credit.
So there it is. While all of these classes
may not apply to your major, they do
strengthen your decision making abilities,
making it easier to handle such tasks like
scheduling for next semester. If you have
passed at least one of the classes above,
you’re well on your way to receiving that
well rounded college degree.
Wynne’s column appears every three weeks.
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\jdeiA,A-r ueAsr He's hov&st!
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behrcoll2@aol.com
Stress: the unavoidable result of life!
How many of you out there are feeling
the effects of stress this far into the
semester? Yes, here starts the tail end of
the semester. The time of year when
every professor demands a research
paper, a presentation, a performance, a
lecture, or the last and most valuable test
of the semester.
For many students, this time in the
semester brings on much more stress
than normal for many reasons. Recently
students have been plagued with
advising, scheduling, graduation plans,
finding a major to declare next semester,
interviews formed from job fairs,
holiday break traveling arrangements,
and the infamous insane holiday
shopping crowds. For those students
who have chosen to work in retail or
services dealing with the crazy angry
mobs of Christmas shoppers, much
more stress is included trying to satisfy
the customer when what you really feel
are the effects of no sleep and little time
for all the work needed to be completed
before the semester is out.
Recently I watched a television
program on the effects of stress on
individuals in what were called “high
test” jobs. These jobs consisted of
What’s up with diversity representation?
What’s up Behrend? And when I ask
what’s up, I really want to know what’s
up. If you read this newspaper regu
larly, especially the editorial section,
then you probably picked up on the
recent controversy concerning the
representation of minority groups on
campus, in campus programs and
various campus media such as the
Beacon. And being a minority student
myself, I am asking, “what’s up?”
I am asking what’s up for a number
of reasons. For one, I am asking what’s
up because the Beacon has been facing
a lot of opposition lately from many
who feel that the paper does not reflect
all genders, races, and sexual orienta
tions on campus.
As one of the only minority journal
ists for the Beacon, I feel that I can
safely say that the Beacon does attempt
to be a publication that is not biased. If
it were biased, then the controversy at
hand actually wouldn’t be a contro-
versy because writers like myself and
concerned readers, who write letters to
EDITORIAL
U6O ro US ?
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Editor!
fl Kristin Rod
I
W I’ doctors,
r* lawyers, CEOs
of companies, and
most workers of jobs where high
competition between companies can
mean their job. I was fairly
disappointed in the fact that students
were not mentioned as being candidates
for high stress. Granted, I’ve not entered
the real world yet where mom and dad
don’t pay for my airfare home, but
sometimes I feel stressed so I decided I
would research the levels of stress
experienced by college students.
What 1 found from my research was
that students are included on “who’s
stressed” lists. In fact, students
sometimes were listed first. In a few
studies I looked at, students were ranked
number one on the list. A few others
listed “young adults” as the most
stressed individuals. Of course there
were many factors why people get
f welcome all types of feed-
My Society back, our paper would appre-
Jermaine Hardy
l.<‘<thu:es coedi lot f ore those who feel a change
should be made should consider
joining the Beacon to make this
L change. If more members of
underrepresented groups become
involved with the Beacon, then more
minority views are likely to be re
flected in the newspaper. The Beacon
is encouraging all minorities and others
to get involved with the various cam
pus mediums (especially the newspa
per), which they feel are not justly and
accurately representing them. This is
how the greatest change can be made.
Thus, when I ask what’s up I am
supporting the concerns of the readers,
whatever they may be. When 1 ask
what’s up I am asking that you con
tinue to voice your views, but even
more so when I ask what’s up, I am
asking that you do more than voice
complaints. I am asking that you take
the editor, would not have been able to
address this controversy. Yet and still,
I do acknowledge this campus’s need
for a more diverse representation of its
students in programs as well as in the
various media. While I don’t believe
the Beacon has intentions to produce a
biased newspaper, I do believe that we
are not perfect.
When we came up with the idea for
the boy/girl column for example, we
honestly didn’t think it would be
offensive to gay and lesbian readers.
Thus, as we are open-minded to our
reader’s points of view, we would also
like the same open-mindedness in
return from our readers. While we
the
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‘The Hot Debate of The Week’
Where is my five bucks going?
Should there be a fee charged for Napster?
Now I know that no one wants to
have to pay for Napster, me for one. 1
enjoyed countless hours of downloading
my favorite music for free, but is this
really fair?
First of all, the new Napster fee is not
going t' mam ■ft* sgpwhere
around jBLjPI R^yiPelt,that will
the
system. ®nd the music
quality will be much better. I think that
we all have had the fun of downloading
a song that just didn’t live up to the
quality you thought it would. Under the
new system, Napster will only be
posting CD quality recordings.
Also, this new deal will put an end to
the lawsuits by various artists that have
paralyzed Napster and other services.
With the way that people have been
suing, it was only a matter of time
before Napster was wiped off the
Internet, and the other sites like Napster
would soon be under assault. This
seems like a way that a compromise can
somewhat satisfy all people involved.
In a perfect world, it would be great
to be able to get our music for free, but
we all know that in our world today,
nothing is free. We need to just accept
the fact that the fun is over and it's time
to accept reality.
Every week, two editors from the staff will debate
a topic that is hot. Students, faculty and staff are
encouraged to email suggestions for the hot topic.
Send ideas to behrcoll2@aol.com
stressed, but the reason we
experience stress is the result of
actions against a threat. What
_ students may find threatening to them
is why they commonly “stress out.”
For example, the threat could be
failing a course due to a huge exam
tomorrow. Having this exam means
how your course grade will appear on
your transcripts then in turn how your
transcripts, affect your chances of a job
or entrance to graduate schools. Living
and looking at life from a long-term
perspective can be dangerous.
So what physically happens to our
bodies when we are stressed?
Physically, our bodies react to meet the
demands of stress. When stressed, our
heart, lungs, and circulation speed up
tremendously. In times of stress, we
arelikely to experience dry mouth,
clammy skin, or even digestive
problems. Remember that cramping
stomach ten minutes before a
presentation? More than likely, you
were stressed about the results.
Psychological effects may actually be
more harmful to our bodies than
physical effects. Some common
psychological effects that may occur
Bertlesmann finally got Shawn Fanning,
the creator of Napster, to agree to fees so
that the popular trading service will no
longer be free. Well you can imagine the
reaction of college students around the
nation when they heard the news. Many
were shocked and basical Fanning
had sold out ' f
Napster should always rerrtain free of
charge. Many statistics show that programs
like Napster did not really hurt the record
industry. Ask N’Sync. They released songs
prior to the release of their last album, No
Strings Attached, and somehow those songs
ended up on Napster. Still the album shot
straight to the top of the charts and stayed
there for weeks on end. Not to mention the
entire recording industry does not
necessarily agree with making Napster a
paid service. Limp Bizkit, who used
Napster for a free tour over the summer and
continues to make large sums of money off
of album sales and the popular Anger
Management Tour, freely puts its songs on
Napster.
What the recording industry doesn’t
understand is that not everyone that has
Napster has a burner to make the so-called
pirated CDs. CD burners are rather
expensive, and some brands are prone to be
failures. On top of that, there are many
other programs that allow the free swapping
of music over the Internet. There are way
too many for the recording industry to
attack, so everyone that had Napster can
easily find a way around the fee.
over a long period of a stressful lifestyle
are depression, relationship problems,
loneliness, and tendencies toward
substance abuse, including smoking.
Many more studies are currently being
researched to find a link between stress
and heart disease, sudden death, obesity,
and cancer.
From studies, the most accurate
removal of stress from one’s lifestyle is
the cognitive-behavioral method. This
is the idea of recognizing what stresses
us out, reorganizing our priorities, and
finding approaches to reducing this
stress. It becomes very important for us
as students to remember that stress is not
healthy and that trying to remain relaxed
gives our minds more of a chance to
think clearly.
One study left me with words I felt
were appropriate to try and tackle stress:
“Grant me the courage to change the
things 1 can change, the serenity to
accept the things I can’t change, and the
wisdom to know the difference.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
Rodgers ’ column appears every three
weeks.
the next step in getting involved. And
if you’re not interested in being a part
of the Beacon, this is perfectly fine, but
there is still opportunity to make that
change you want by taking part in
more serious efforts to increase minor
ity representation. The first step you
can take in doing so is attending a
forum, which will be co-sponsored by
the Behrend Beacon and The National
Society of Black Engineers.
The forum will address the issue of
representing diversity on campus. I
encourage everyone to attend the up
and coming Representing Diversity
Forum and take part in a discussion
between students of all races, genders,
and sexual orientations, which will
attempt to get to the bottom of this
controversy and make a change that
will best suit everyone. Students
should look out for ads and more
information about this forum to be held
within the coming weeks.
Hardy’s column appears every three
weeks