A View From The Lighthouse re we out of our minds. The time has come to get our priorities straight. Penn State is constantly advertising for and encouraging returning adult students and non-traditional students to attend school here. Then we take away something that they need to be able to go here. The Child Care Center is going to close. No matter what nice happy little spin the administration wants to put on it, there is no other way of saying it. As Dr. John Rossi put it so nicely at the PTO meeting, "the highway is coming through in July, and this center will be gone." Now the question is if we are going to get a new Child Care Center or if a great number of faculty, staff, and students will be left hanging, trying to find child care in a very uncertain market. Why is this such a hard decision? Shouldn't the needs of the students come first? The school currently provides a child care center, so why should they just take it away? We have many different programs on campus for various student groups, and while a student club may not be on par with the costs involved in a child care center, if the school tried to take them away the students would be up in arms. So why shouldn't we be up in. arms now? Last week the administration told the Child Care Center PTO organization that the only thing that they could do to save the Child Care Center was to e mail the people responsible for making the decisions and let their feelings be known. The PTO made it very clear. The Child Care Center should he saved, end of story. If the school wants to close the Child Care Center then they should answer to the people involved. The final decision on the fate of the Child Care Center lies with Provost and Dean John Lilley. But Lilley was noticeably absent from both meetings held last week. If he is going to make a decision of this magnitude, shouldn't he go out and hear first what the parents and students have to say? Lilley sits in his office getting second hand reports about the THE BEHREND BEACON published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Editor-in-Chief Jason Snyder Managing Editor Michael Frawley News Editor Liz Hayes Editorial & Health Page Editor Katie Galley Features Editors Karl Benacci Jermaine Hardy Arts & Entertainment Editor Deanna Symoski Sports Editor Doug Smith Abby Long (assistant) Wire Service Editor Rob Wynne Photo Editors Jeff Miller Becky Weindorf Associate Editor Christine Kleck Copy Editor Paige Miles 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. situation, then makes his decision without ever hearing how the people involved truly feel. While an e-mail or a letter might convey the basic information, the only way that Lilley will truly be able to understand the emotions involved is to talk to the parents of the children in the center. Now we understand that the number of students who use the center is comparatively small when compared with the rest of the student body, but doesn't that make them a minority group worthy of some special consideration? As it is, students with small children already have to make huge sacrifices to be able to attend college while raising their children. Why make it any harder on them? The school has the money to build a new center. They are getting a huge chunk of money for the old center, more than what they expected, and the university put up the money foi the first center, so why not a second? We have been told that there are higher priorities than the center, like sidewalks. So concrete slabs come before children. It's nice to see that the university has its priorities straight. So the administration says that they best way to save the center is to e-mail the people making the decision. Fine, then everyone should e-mail Lilley and tell him to save the center. Flood him with e-mail. While he might be able to brush aside the e-mails of just a few people, he won't be able to ignore the e-mails of 4000 faculty, staff, and students. Save the Child Care Center! - • Money Page Editor Amortya Sinha Advertising Manager Kim 2u( k Business Manager Kristine Harakal Office Manager Kevin Bruner Public Relations Manager Ainslie Ulmer Secretary Melissa Proba Advisor Robert Speel Letter Policy: The Beacon encourages letters to the editor. Letters should include the address, phone number, semester standing and major of the writer. Writers can mail letters to behrcoll2@aol.com. Letters must be received no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday for inclusion in that week's issue. .spacw. -...:.:.......:... :of 42 1.30:::.:::;.4 .. 01:1 Y'S@F C .....°l3„ aeLibrn7el.°"nes 12 °VS AND zoko s A-DAtiait4e. zillioN ~ •NIISAUGm TANTRUMS One final bash for Mike Frawley! Dear Edito I am writing in response to multiple articles by Mike Frawley. The most recent article that concerns me is the article about a sorority that was sanctioned for hazing. What concerns me the most is not the hazing / sanction issue, but the misleading nature of the article and its continued enforcement of a greek stereotype. Frawley's article concerns me not because I think he is a Greek basher, but because he wrote an article about hazing and only in the last few paragraphs of the article does he define hazing and state that other organizations (not just Greeks) can be charged with hazing too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing to critique somebody else's article. But I am concerned that the unfortunate structure of his article may mislead readers and entOrce Greek stereotypes. A common stereotype accuses Greek organiza tions of only heing for drinking and partying. Maybe sonic people would be naive enough to Snow removal 101 Has anyone else noticed all that crappy white stuff all over the ground outside? Yeah, this is Erie, so of course it's snow. And being not of Erie, I detest the time from when the snow starts until the time that the snow ends around the end of April. And the snov removal system here on campus does absolutely nothing to try and ease my pain. I brought sonic fun stories, of which to better illustrate. Ok, so I wrote that first paragraph about two days ago when there was , very little snow on the ground...and now there are about four inches on the ground. GRRRRRRR. And I had to walk to class this morning and do the job of the Penn State maintenance by creating my own path through the snow. Now I'm not sure if they were busy with something else, or it was break time, or whatever. The point is that most walkways were not clear by 10 a.m., and I won't even talk about the state the roads were in. So in order to better help the snow removal system here on campus, I will propose a few ideas of what are and are not good ways to remove snow. I'll try not to go too fast here 1. Pouring salt over the snow and ice and leaving it there does not equal proper snow removal. Now I thought that this was common knowledge, hut once again Behrend has proven me wrong. FYI, simply putting a bucket full of salt on one spot on a sidewalk and hoping that students will track it across the rest of the sidewalk with their feet is NOT proper snow removal 2. Taking a shovel and smashing the solid sheet of ice on the sidewalk into smaller pieces of ice is NOT proper snow removal. Just because it's in little pieces, doesn't mean that it's not slippery and dangerous! Hello! Remember that you have to remove those chunks of ice for the Tell us what you think about the Child Care Center or anything else that might be on your mind! Mail your letters to behrcoll2@aol.com iIuDTD c'eUr N T.. 5 A - RuLiNG LETTERS TO THE EDITOR join an organization for those reasons, but the reason they would remain in that organization must be different If you asked any senior Greek member what they will take away the most from their college experience, I guarantee they will say their brothers and sisters. One time I heard a group of friends talking and one of them said of their close friendship, 'I bet this is what a fraternity is like.'. They weren't even close. Close can't begin to describe the friendships that are fostered in a Greek organization. Maybe that is why we refer to each other as brother and sister. As a member of the Beta Sigma fraternity at Grove City College, I know that being a Greek has been the most rewarding experience of my college career. This may be hard to understand. It's even harder to explain. All I know to say is that I have many friends but I only have a small number of broth Detours and Small Potatoes Katie Galley . I " sidewalk to be clear. Throw it in the snow covered grass, throw it in the woods, I don't care, just don't leave it there for me to twist my ankle on! 3. Oh yeah, shoveling is a good thing, but not when you only shovel half a set of stairs. For example, when you are behind Bruno's have you ever noticed that they only shovel the one side of the steps going up to Perry Hall? What's the point of that? Then everyone has to cram onto the one side and the left over snow that is on the 'clear' side of the snow turns into ice from all the people walking on it. But then that goes back to dumping the bucket of salt on one place on the sidewalk. 4. Moguls. Ok, so you are probably wondering why I simply typed `moguls'...that's because we have to drive over moguls to get to the upper parking lots. It's crazy, I have never seen so much snow and ice built up in on the roads than in the upper lots. My car was going everywhere. If I wanted to master the moguls, I would go to Peak —n- Peek, or Seven Springs, not the 8.F.E.! Again, this is NOT proper snow removal. 5. Proper snow removal means NOT covering the road signs with seven-foot deep piles of snow. If we can't SEE the signs, then we can't obey them. Is everyone seeing the problem there? So between the moguls and the missing signs, it's a Sonny Bono tragedy waiting to happen. Also, knocking them down with the snowplows isn't FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 , 2000 In Ir. - *Mr VA AS"' ir SEE?.4EA:*, it•iw r AI - 0 It is incredibly easy to criticize something that You do not know or understand. I do not understand all the circumstances surrounding the sorority that has been sanctioned for hazing, and I do not know whether all the facts have been presented without bias. 1 do not understand what makes a person \year a shirt that says Frawley 3: 16. I do not understand why ballots must he counted more than once. So I will try not to criticize. tor who am Ito pass judgment on someone or something else'? If you want to understand what a Greek brother hood or sisterhood is like then I encourage you to join a fraternity or sorority or at least talk to their members to get a better idea of what I am talking about. Scott Snyder conducive to safe driving around campus Just remember that the next time you get `plow happy'. So, with all that said, what can they do to make the snow removal system on campus better? The best answer I have ever heard is to offer snow removal for credit. Seriously think about it, if Behrend was to offer this for credit, people would be eager to take the class. It can fulfill one of your ESACT credits, and yes, it can be taken more than once! You would meet once in the beginning of the semester to receive your shovel and bucket for salt. Then the only time you have to go out is when it snows. Sure beats going to gym class every other day. And it can be offered to both residents and commuters. The kids that live in Almy can shovel their walkway, the kids in the apartments get the quad area, and the kids in the dorms get the walkways going to the Academic building and behind Brunos. The commuter people can take care of the other side of campus and get the walkways for Hammermill, Science and the Nick Buildings. The idea is perfect! So there you have it, I figured out how to fix the problem. So let's get on it. It's not too hard. Maybe I'll actually be able to get my car out of the parking lot to leave for Christmas break. And that being said, I hope everyone has a great holiday, however you choose to celebrate it. Make time for family, and count your blessings. Have a safe break and hope to see everyone next year! I'll miss you Mike! Galley's column appears every three weeks
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