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The Behrend Beacon
WEEKEND WEATHER
OUTLOOK
SATURDAY SUNDAY
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Apply for tuition scholarship
Penn State students are invited to apply for the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship Program.
The foundation will award scholarships to students in the summer of 2002 for use during the
2002-2003 academic year. To be considered for the award, students must seek faculty nomi
nation. Awards will fund up to $30,000 or a year's tuition and fees. To be eligible for a
scholarship, students must have achieved sophomore or junior standing at the time of nomi
nation. Students must also have a high level of achievement as demonstrated by superioi
grades, academically rigorous courses and participation in challenging extracurricular ac
tivities. Deadline is March 11.
Students complete GE project
Three students in Robert Nelson's junior-level systems analysis class at Penn State Eri<
received high praise from officials at the Erie General Electric Federal Credit Union for <
project they completed in the fall semester. "The work done by these students surpassed oui
expectations,” said Jason Dietz, project specialist at the credit union. "Their efforts have
been a great asset to our information technology department. They presented tools that we
can use to help us run more efficiently and effectively."
Online applications increase
In another testament to the growing pervasiveness of the Web in all levels of education
online applications to Penn State for the next academic year have more than doubled tc
nearly 17,000 since this time last year, according to Geoffrey Harford, senior director oi
admissions services and evaluations. Penn State began offering Web applications in 1997
In that first year, nearly 750 students applied online using an electronic form that is other
wise identical to the paper one in terms of content and fee. With Internet usage on the rise
among high school students, and their perceptions of how "wired" a university is often beinf
counted among their reasons for choosing a college, Penn State frequently promotes thi
i convenience of the Wet) application to guidance counselors and paientlr*“''' : "’‘ J ‘' '' , ''‘ i '
Nominations sought for women
To honor the many accomplishments of women across the University, the Commission
for Women, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, wants to recognize women who have
achieved and excelled at Penn State and in their communities. The women selected will be
honored at the commission's banquet, March 19 at The Penn Stater Conference Center Ho
tel, University Park. Nomination forms are due Feb. 18 and available on the Web at http://
www.lions.psu.edu/cfw/ or by calling the Commission office at (814) 865-1683.
2/1/02 23:55 A complaint was reported that two individuals were smoking marijuana in
a parking lot. When the officer arrived, he was unable to locate the
subjects. The complainant stated they had gone into a building and she
had lost sight of them
2/4/02 14:30 A complainant reported harrassing phone cajls.
2/4/02 15:00 A complainant reported damage to his car.
2/5/02 16:00 A complainant reported receiving a call about a possible one car motor
vehicle accident on college drive.
Earn sl,ooo-$2,000 with the easy Campusfundraiser.com three houi
fundraising event. Does not involve credit card applications
Fundraising dates are filling quickly, so call today! Contact
Campusfundraiser.com at (888) 923-3238, or visil
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Benedictine Sisters of Erie
February 17,2002
Time: 9 a.m.
Place: Mount St. Benedict Monastery
6101 East Lake Road, Erie, PA 16511
Guests are invited to 9 a.m. Morning Praise and Community Lit
urgy at 10 a.m. followed by a presentation/tour and Sunday dinner
For more information or to make a reservation call Sr. Mary Ellen
Plumb -- 899-0614 Ext. 511 or e-mail: msbforma@erie.net
Cloudy
High: 35°
Low: 20°
BEHREND BRIEFS
CLASSIFIEDS
Fraternities * Sororities *
Clubs * Student Groups
MONDAY
Mostly Cloudy
High: 31°
Low: 24°
NEWS
- Friday, ; February 8, 2002
Beholding the merrymakers in the square below
What revelry is afoot below that has attracted so much attention? It’s the fifth annual Safer Sex Cabaret, held in the Reed
Commons Thursday evening. The event attracted many students, who enjoyed the unconventional demonstrations and got free
kits to take home.
PROVOST
baccalaureate education depends upon general
z -.education, because these courses increase a
stuidfent’s adaptability and enrich their lives.
Keen’s experience in this area is extensive
as he spent several years developing a general
education program at Cortland College. The
process involved whittling down a long list of
available courses and grouping the less
specialized courses according to category and
theme. It was introduced to students gradually
over a three-year period, starting with a core
group of 50 and eventually extended to the
whole student body.
“There is not a much more important
experience for a student than studying abroad,”
Keen said when asked about
internationalization. He called the Other
Cultures requirement a step.towards
cultivating a greater international program at
Behrend and said students must be able to
make academic advancement in some area of
international study. The most effective
component is sending students overseas and
bringing other students to Behrend from
abroad, then following these experiences up
by forming student groups wherein students
can share what they learned.
“It is very important to involve all of the
groups in a serious way,” said Keen of his
management approach. This involvement
Behrend Reads:
by Heather Fleming
staff writer
and
Becky Weindorf
managing editor
The annual “Behrend Reads” event that
took place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Smith
Chapel was a creative success. Every year
faculty members from the Humanities and
Social Sciences department get together to
read their works in progress or their already
completed works.
The crowded worship space held almost
100 people who turned up for this event. The
speakers who read their creative works
included nine Behrend faculty members: Dr.
Brad Comann; Ruth Pflueger; Dr. Sean
Thomas Dougherty: Dr. Gregory Fowler; Dr.
Diana Hume George; John Kerwin; George
Looney; Dr. Archie Loss; and Dr. Chet
Wolford. These talented writers elicited
many emotions from the large audience.
There were a wide variety of genres and
writing styles read. Comann, lecturer in
English, read a prose piece about the
significance of Converse shoes during the
days he played basketball. Pflueger, who
recently earned her M.B.A. and works in the
Learning Resource Center, read a selection
from her in-progress science fiction novel
about a futuristic population where people
FOCAL POINT
FROM FRONT PAGE
means listening to representatives of these
groups in addition to addressing them. He
said the goal would be to form as full a
consensus as possible after careful
deliberation. Ultimately, though, it would be
up to the senior administration to make the
final decision within a reasonable amount of
time.
Keen was asked to respond to an article
from “Newsday” which indicated that he had
halted the transfer of lands between Old
Westbury and a private organization which
had been well underway when he took his role
as the campus’ Interim President. Keen said
that he was unaware of the transfer when he
arrived on campus but that he opposed it when
he learned about it. His reaction stemmed
from the belief that such a transfer would not
be in compliance with the college’s mission.
He expressed overall satisfaction with the
work he accomplished at Old Westbury within
the confines of the college but said he was
less satisfied with what he accomplished with
external parties.
“Cultivating relationships with the
community is a long-term process,’’ Keen
said, calling fundraising a central concern of
the college. Within the college, he indicated
that building stronger recruitment and
retention programs for students would be of
No faking these creative works
could only die by an accident; they were,
by nature, immortal.
Dougherty, faculty member of the English
department, used rhythm and a recurring
motif of smoke and jazz music to read his
poem, which he described as “a long
complex love poem for my wife.” He also
read a poem he composed two days before
the reading. Looney also read an extended
poem from one of his published works,
creating vivid imagery and performing his
writing with enthusiasm and vigor.
Most of the pieces read were either satire
or creative non-fiction humor. Fowler read
an excerpt from his 190-page novel-in
progress about the life of an interracial
couple and their two sons, who grow up
together as brothers throughout their school
days.
George read from her satire called
“Coming Clean: The Truth About Sex,”
which drew many laughs from the audience
members due to its explicit and witty
content.
“This particular piece of writing is
formatted after John Gray’s ‘Men are from
Mars, Women are from Venus,” Dr. George
said. The particular selection she chose was
from the “She Said” section of the story and
discussed the funny (and often disastrous)
results of women and their struggles with
the infamous faking of an orgasm.
Erin McCarty, News Editor
behrco!ls @ aol.com
PHOTO BY BEN KUNDMAN / BEHREND BEACON
value. He then spoke of the need to keep up
on the trends among student populations,
including career orientation and greater
receptiveness to visual information.
Keen also discussed non-tenured faculty,
saying that many of them gain positive
experience by remaining untenured. The
danger he perceived was that some of these
faculty might be more concerned about
reaching the next level in their career than in
doing their job wholeheartedly. His solution
to reducing this risk was to assist non-tenured
faculty in any way possible.
“A good natural environment is part of a
nice-feeling campus,” Keen said, discussing
the need to preserve Behrend’s natural beauty
while promoting development. He said that
would need to be a consideration in any
development at Behrend.
The forum ended with a discussion of the
importance of out-of-class programs. Keen
considered these especially vital for residential
students but important for commuters, as well.
Extra-curricular activities allow students to see
faculty in a different setting and enrich their
academic environment.
The final provost candidate will present his
open forum at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Kerwin, professor of communications,
read an interesting, creative non-fiction piece
about teaching Shakespeare to prison inmates
and receiving their responses. The narrator
of the story challenged inmates to interpret
Shakespeare scenes and apply them to their
own lives in prison, often with humorous but
insightful results.
Loss read from his novel that is being
circulated by his agent among several
publishers. The humorous story was about
a boy band and was warmly received by the
listeners.
To end the one hour and forty-five minute
long event, Wolford read a comical piece he
wrote titled, “Dying for a Hip Replacement.”
“This is my first attempt at humor,”
Wolford said before he read his selection.
The piece, which went into great detail about
his stay at the hospital when he underwent
surgery for his hip replacement and physical
therapy, elicited laughs from the audience
several times during his reading.
“Behrend Reads” was part of the Smith
Creative Writing Series and sponsored by the
Eugene Smith Scholarship and the Creative
Writing Department at Behrend. '
The next upcoming event for this series
will be the Rosa Shand Fiction reading on
April 4 at 7 p.m. in the Reed Union Building
Lecture Hall.