Dean Lilley
by Jenny Zhang
staff writer
Gathered by the fireplace in Almy
Hall lobby, Provost and Dean Dr.
John Lilley shared thoughts and in
sights with students at the second
Pizza with the Provost on Thursday,
February 15.
“Pizza with the Provost is the
greatest opportunity for me to have
contact with the students,” said Dr.
Lilley. “1 like students; and I want
to be able to talk to them and to hear
their thoughts and concerns.” Lilley
pointed out that action has been taken
in response to these discussions. One
of the larger visions generated by this
program was the Behrend instrumen
tal music program.
Students raised questions about the
Almy Hall heating system, future
campus constructions, vandalism,
and student transfers.
One of the highlighted topics dur
ing the program concerned the po
tential social pressure for students to
transfer to University Park. Accord
ing to Admissions reports, about 80%
of incoming students put Behrend as
their first choice. But Dr. Lilley said:
“we are still losing some of our stu
dents for different reasons. I under
stand some need to transfer for their
majors, but I wonder if there is any
social pressure on campus that urges
students to transfer?”
While many students responded
that they are planning to stay at
Behrend to continue their education,
only a few are transferring to Uni
versity Park to complete their majors.
The answer to Behrend’s traffic problems?
The planned Eastside Access Highway will reroute campus traffic patterns
by John Federowicz
staff writer
There’s good news and bad
news for Behrend students. The
good news: getting in and out of
the campus, in the years to come,
will be much easier. The bad
news? It comes with a hefty price
tag, and a long wait during the
construction phase which starts
this summer, 2001, while the
Eastside Access Highway is
being constructed.
In a major move to reroute
local traffic, the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation’s
plans are in the works for the
Bayfront Highway extension.
Running from Interstate 90 to
McClelland Avenue, the future
addition of the Bayfront, which
is being installed piecemeal,
would traverse the Wintergreen
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gives students answers and pizza
They expressed the opinion that they
feel comfortable and happy at
Behrend, and love the beautiful scen
ery on campus and the smaller class
size. Fourth semester international
student Sundeep Bhatia from India
said: “I was attracted to the MIS ma
jor here. During my first semester
here, being a long way from home, I
was trying to adapt to the American
culture. It was a difficult learning
process to adjust to the different cul
ture here; from the way people speak,
to the stuff that people talk about and
how they have fun.
The Indian community is very
small here. As I am getting more used
to adjustment, I am making more
friends, and that makes college life
much easier and happier. So I de
cided to stay here. ” Dr. Lilley men
tioned that the family next door to
him is an Indian family, so he can
help Sundeep to make a connection
with them to relieve homesickness.
Dr. Lilley emphasized the benefit
and the opportunities in a smaller
college environment; he shared the
story of how two of his children
transferred to University Park and
explained to students about the pros
and cons of transferring. He said, “it
is a very personal and important de
cision, one should not be talked into
it by any other person.”
While answering students’ ques
tions, Dr. Lilley also updated them
about all the future changes on cam
pus. Some of these changes are the
Eastside Access Highway that will
provide easier entrances to the col
lege. And Perry Hall will be ex-
Gorge and literally run through
the Behrend campus. This poses
a number of benefits for Behrend
students, as well as a few
drawbacks.
The most obvious among the
drawbacks initiated by the plans
is the sacrifice of the former
girl’s softball field. In
preparation for PennDOT’s
plans, the field has been replaced
with a new complex adjacent to
the old location.
The loss of the field is balanced
out by the side-benefit of more
expedient and safer traffic
patterns. With double, separated
lanes of inbound and outbound
traffic regulated by a traffic light,
the new entranceway to Behrend
will mean that students no longer
will have to wait while exiting
the campus. Right now, pulling
out of Behrend onto Station Road
, S : '• s 4
; v"f
Provost and Dean Dr. John Lilley talks pizza with Senior Assistant
Manager of Housing and Food Services James Bowen.
panded to bring its level to the Reed
Union Building for handicap excess.
Dr. Lilley encouraged students to
take advantage of the technology on
campus. He was delighted to see the
stair tower elevator is in use.
Staff members that attended the
meeting along with the students in
cluded Chris Rizzo, director of Stu
can be a vexing hassle with
traffic. Named the Dombrowski
Highway, this stretch of S.R.
4034 Erie Eastside Access
Highway will in theory facilitate
more efficient traffic flow.
In addition to the Dombrowski
Highway extension to the
Bayfront, there are other road
plans for the Behrend area.
Station Road will branch off to
the south, connecting with
Knowledge Parkway; Hannon
Road, too. will be rerouted to
meet up with this main artery.
The Child Care Center will also
be transplanted to Knowledge
Parkway.
Station Road will also be
reconfigured to flank Behrend’s
rear and there will be new roads
that will link the campus together
in a more refined network of
transit
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dent Activities, Dan Schiesser, a co
ordinator of Residence Life, and
James Bowen, senior assistant man
ager of Housing and Food Services,
to answer housing questions. The
next Pizza with the Provost will be
on Wednesday, March 21, at 7:00
p.m. in the Lawrence Hall lobby.
The project that will join
Dombrowski Highway to both I
-90 and McClelland Avenue will
cost $6O million. The clearing of
trees and grading processes will
begin in mid-summer of this year
along with the construction of
storm water retention ponds and
wetland placements. Bids to
pave the road with clearing and
grading contractors will be held
in December 2001.
Finally, the construction of the
Four Mile Creek Bridge that will
run through the Gorge and link
the Bayfront will be bid on in
October. Construction of the
bridge should commence in early
2002. The Dombrowski
highway’s completion is
tentatively scheduled for fall of
that year.
lit It? call Marty at 898-7219.
Business students
cautioned to pay attention
to prerequisites
by Michael Grooms
staff writer
If you are a Penn State Behrend
business student, subjects like cost
control, resource planning, and
making a profit are the keys that open
the door to success. Behrend offers a
Management 470 W course that is
geared towards these topics.
Management 470 W is the capstone
class for all business majors, and
usually the last course business
majors register for if they can get
in. Most Behrend students eventually
come across one or more prerequisites
that are needed, and must be
completed successfully in order to
register for this required upper level
courses. If students have completed
the prerequisites, and are in their final
semester, they are usually granted a
spot in Management 470 W.
Dr. Diane Parente, assistant
professor of management, explained
that if the proper precautions are
taken, students should have no
problems taking the class. “To my
knowledge, this [students getting a
spot] is without exception. I have been
personally involved in making sure
that all students who have the
prerequisites, and are legitimately
graduating, are accommodated.
Students run into trouble when they
fail a prerequisite, and want to retake
the failure along with 470 W. That is
not fulfilling the prerequisite, and in
this situation, students are denied
entry.” According to Dr. Parente,
“enforcing prerequisites has, in fact,
allowed us to be sure to accommodate
any student who has the prerequisites
into 470 W in their last semester.”
A capstone course refers to putting
the final stone in place; to do so the
fundamentals must be in place. The
focus of the capstone course in
Business is Strategic Planning. The
official course prerequisites are
MRRTG 300, Marketing; MANGT
300, Management; MANGT 310,
Operations Management; and
FNC3OO, Finance. However,
prerequisites to the four courses above
require the student successfully
complete Acctg2ll, Accounting;
MSIS 200, Business Statistics; and
ECON 002 & 004, Micro and Macro
Economics.
All prerequisite concepts must be
at the students’ disposal at the
beginning of the MANGT 470 W
course. In order to help students be
successful and meet the challenges of
the real world, some professors who
teach MANGT 470 W are giving the
students the Competency Exam. The
students are given four chances to
pass this exam. Dr. Parente, who
created the test when she worked at
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2001
the University of Buffalo, states, “the
goal of the test is to make students
aware that there is a base level of
knowledge necessary in order to go
“Students run into
trouble when they fail a
prerequisite, and want to
retake the failure along
with 470 W. That is not
fulfilling the prerequisite,
and in this situation,
students are denied
entiy.”
assistant professor of management
beyond the class. We want students
to be able to apply the knowledge they
have gained in prior classes. That
requires having a firm grip on the
basics.”
Enterprise resource planning, cost
benefit analysis, net present value,
break-even analysis these are all
things that become very important in
all businesses. In order to be
successful, students need to learn
these concepts, and bring all their
knowledge together. Corporate
Finance is another major area on the
exam, as are weighted average cost
of capital, return on assets, net present
value, and return on owners’ equity.
The exam also tests a student’s
working knowledge of fundamental
business definitions. Understanding
the basic concepts of supply and
demand, and aggregate production
planning using forecast tools,
production, shipments and inventory
analysis and capacity planning issues
are other issues that may be on the
There is obviously a lot of
knowledge that needs to be retained
to take MANGT 470 W. According to
Dr. Parente, “the exam signals the
expectations of all business students;
it is like a wake up call”. Dr. Tim
Smaby, associate professor of and in
charge faculty for finance, is working
with Dr. Parente by coordinating the
“terminology” used in prior finance
classes with that used in the exam.
This semester, Dr. Smaby also held
tutorials for students that were having
difficulty with the test. Dr. Smaby
thought that “the sessions went well
they were full every time.”
A good piece of advice that Dr.
Smaby and Dr. Parente offer is “do
not sell your book back if they pertain
to your major, it may come back to
haunt you.”
Dr. Diane Parente,