Paige Miles, Editorial Page Editor
The Behrend Beacon
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News Editor
Erin McCarty
Sports Editors
Scott Soltis
Zoe Rose
Editorial Page Editor
Paige Miles
Features Editor
Karl Benacci
Staff Photographers
Jeff Hankey
Heather Myers
Office Manager
Jason Alward
4. Beiain
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.
Campus journalism: take a look at our audience
Recently I walked into the Beacon
office, cleaned of last semester's collec
tion of pizza boxes, wax stains, ink
smudges and wholesome oaths that we
would sometimes let float past our lips
(the damn G 4 crashed
again?!).
But taped to the wall with
thick pieces of yellow mask
ing tape was a recent issue
of the Beacon with the words
"who reads this sh*t?!"
marked in black permanent
marker.
There is always the as-
sumption that someone •n•
Becky W e i ndorf
who doesn't know an bet-
ter decided to do it for
laughs. But in the past, as
the semesters wore on, we would post
nasty notes to each other and generally
do it to relieve the insanity that we call
layout night. So it could be a former or
current member doing it for a joke.
But for the sake of argument, and be-
cause no one knows who did it, I am as
suming that a few of you are really won
dering, who reads the Beacon?
Start with you. Duh. It is important
to realize that it is YOU who is sitting
The lesson we forgot
Before it happened, most of us
acted as we do now—uncaring,
selfish, impersonal, and insin
cere. However, for a few weeks,
and maybe even a few months,
many of us acted selfless and
kind.
It's hard to believe the
tragedy of September 11
occurred nearly a year
ago. Time flies, eh?
Don't jump to
conclusions—this
editorial isn't ex
clusively about
what happene • t at •
day, but rather the
manner in which Ameri- cans
treated one another after the ca
tastrophe.
America's hearts were soft
ened after witnessing the hero
ism of the firefighters and po
lice offers, along with the hu
man suffering that was dis
played upon the television set.
What happened next? Quite
simply—Americans were nice
to one another. Their tolerance
for annoyance went out the win
dow and everyone tried to be
their best iii a time of sadness.
A few days after the attack, I re
Editor-in-Chief
Robert Wynne
Managing Editor
Rebecca Weindorf
Asst. Managing Editor
Kevin Fallon
Professional Publication Mgr
Dave Richards
Advisor
Cathy Roan
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. Monday for inclusion in
on one of those brand-new couches in
front of the RUB desk, kicking back with
your bookbag resting at your feet and
cruising the Beacon's assortment of
news, entertainment and sports. As one
of the several students that
could care about where your
SAF money goes, you're
looking at it. (There. Now
you know where that $4O is
going whether or not you
think it's worth it is your
own opinion that you can
express properly in a let
ter to the editor.)
We'll go to faculty
next. Yes, the faculty here
read the Beacon, even if
it's just for the funnies.
Some faculty even come to us with story
ideas. It is a way to keep up with what's
happening on campus just like USA
Today is a way to keep up with the
United States. Same concept, different
I kid you not about this audience: there
are Beacons usually strewn around the
guy's bathroom by the middle of the se
mester. I don't care HOW they decide
to utilize the campus paper, but I guar-
member observing a few cars at
a four way stop. Instead of the
usual routine, people were shoo
ing one another to go, as if to say,
"After you."
Everyone was nicer to one an
other, and people were
good—they went to
church, showed their
patriotism, and donated
money and items to
various 9/11 funds.
However, little by
little, the typical
American returned
to his/her former self.
Why? Human nature!
I admit, I am one of the people
who has returned to their prior
self. I do find it sad, though. It
takes a huge tragedy to make the
general population act kind to
ward one another, and it still
eventually wears off.
Unfortunately, I have no anti
dote for this problem other than
telling people to be nicer. How
ever, it would be hypocritical for
me to say this, since I'm not ex
actly "Mr. Sunshine."
Perhaps the one-year anniver
sary of September 11 will some
how affect us in a positive way
Karl Benacci
Advertising Managers
Melissa Powell
Christine Kleck
Calendar Page Editor
Erinn Hansen
Humor Page Editor
Ross Lockwood
Associate Editor
Jen Henderson
Technical Support
Doug Butterworth
"Professionalism
with a Persona
that week's issue
Friday, September 6, 2002
BACK
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Want to be heard?
Be an editorial columnist for the Beacon!
antee that several are being read. (And
no, I do not do my own research on that.
I get it from dependable resources.)
As for other audiences that we are
reaching, I can tell you that other cam
pus journalists are checking out our pa
per and wanting what we've got. The
Merciad (Mercyhurt's paper) is switch
ing from tabloid size paper to the broad
sheet size that you're holding at this mo
ment. Check out the competition.
You'll see why. .
As for what we write: it doesn't mat
ter if we don't cover "important" events
like the World Summit (which may hap
pen later on thts semester), but what
matters is that we. cover news on cam
pus. Because we are a CAMPUS pa
per. Which I clarify: not an Erie paper
or local paper.
If you decide that what is happening
on this campus is sh*t, then that is your
fine opinion. But since most of you are
sticking around for a few years, that's
why you should start reading. It's the
only life you're going to know for the
next four (or more) years.
Weindorf's column
appears every three weekc
and remind us that it's better to
be nice to one another. If ev-
eryone was nice to one another,
tragedies like September 11
would occur with less frequency
across the world.
If everyone learned from their
mistakes (myself included) the
world would be a better place.
But like I said before, it is hu
man nature that makes us stu
pid.
In closing, I have some advice
to everyone. Try to be a nice per
son, because you might make
someone's day and make him or
her 2 happy that they will be
nice to people, also. So the next
time the waitress drops ice
cream on you or the Jehovah's
Witness knocks on your door at
8 a.m., remember—be the bet
ter person, and be happy with
what you have and whom you
have to share it with.
Benacci's column
appears every three weeks.
Send a 500-word sample to:
Behrcoll2@aol..com
Living the campus
high life
Bluto and the "Animal House"
frat boys would have loved to see
their alma mater top-ranked in .a list
of the nation's best party schools.
But for parents now packing their
teen-agers off to college, the latest
poll results are a sobering reminder
that not all campus activities in
volve slide rules and long hours at
the library.
The rankings published by a pri
vate college-preparation company
are a result of an annual survey of
university students all over the
country who graded their schools
on everything from quality of cam
pus life to the political ideology of
the student bodies.
The poll made its biggest splash,
though, with rankings in the cat
egory for the wildest party atmo
sphere, stirring up a minor contro
versy among critics who say the as
sessment ends up glamorizing
binge drinking and substance
abuse.
The empirical merits of the re
port card by the Princeton Review
which is not related to Princeton
University-are highly dubious. The
results are collected in a non-ran
dom sample and are far from sci
entific, as any first-year statistics
student could deduce.
Indiana University didn't even
make the list last year. This time it
captured the top party spot, rock
eting past some more established
swingers. Clemson University won
the title in the "Reefer Madness"
category, but there's no way to tell
if Clemson students exaggerated
their high times in a misguided bid
for glory.
Scientific or not, the survey pro
voked a broad reaction, from tit
ters to outrage. The American
Medical Association, concerned
that the survey promotes unhealthy
behavior, called on the publisher of
the guide to eliminate the party
school category from its annual
guide to U.S. colleges and univer
sities.
There is, though, some benefit to
such a survey. It draws attention to
an extremely serious problem on
many college campuses. According
I,' i
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SCHOOL
Originally appeared in
The Chicago Tribune on
August 29, 2002
The Behrend Beacon
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to the Harvard School of Public
Health, 44 percent of U.S. college
students say they "binge" drink.
A top spot on such an A-list tends
to get parents riled up, and that, in
turn, is the magic ingredient that
gets schools to take serious steps
toward reducing substance ablise
on campus.
Parental concern and the embar
rassment of publicity, for instance,
helped push Southern Illinois Uni
versity into giving students a
weeklong October break to cut off
the raucous, liquor-soaked reverie
the annual Halloween party had
become.
Indiana University officials note
that five fraternities have been ex
pelled from campus for alcohol-re
lated violations since 2000, and
that parents are now notified when
their offspring commit a serious
alcohol violation.
Many schools now offer sub
stance-free dormitories, or stage
university-sponsored parties that
are billed as alcohol-free. State
lawmakers are getting into the act,
too. Starting this school year, un
derage drinkers caught buying
package liquor or drinking at a bar
or tavern in Illinois will forfeit that
thing they value the most-their
driver's license.
Parents shouldn't breathe a sigh
of relief just because their young
scholars aren't satisfying their thirst
for knowledge at one of the Big
Keg schools. There are drinking
parties at virtually every campus,
and plentiful opportunities to in
hale and imbibe to excess.
When students are choosing a
school, parents should put tough
questions to university officials
about campus policies on substance
abuse. What is the campus crime
rate? Will I be notified if my child
violates the drinking policy? How
vigorously is the policy enforced?
Parents can also do what moth
ers and fathers do best: lecture their
kids. Talk about how responsible
adults use, or abstain from, mind
altering substances. It works espe
cially well in a mandatory-listen
ing environment, such as a station
wagon packed to the brim with
winter clothes and headed toward
campus.
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