The Behrend Beaoo
lm\ December 13,2002
Vol.L *'.3 Tewt State ‘Znc Student Tubliiiiti>.'fet*mcoLuu__
It’s not every day you see a car as big as this parked in the Erie Hall lot, but its great size doesn’t exempt it from parking tickets
New Ben Franklin Center of Excellence
benefits NWPA and Behrend
by Katie Hinman
staff writer
The new Ben Franklin Center of Excellence will
provide 1,500 jobs to Behrend students and the
Erie area in the next 10 years.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, GE
Transportation Systems (GETS), the Economic
Development Corporation of Erie County and
Penn State Erie are all working together to create
the new Ben Franklin Center of Excellence of
Northwest Pennsylvania (BFCOE), which will be
located in Knowledge Park.
“The BFCOE will promote e-business and
advanced information technology [IT] among
business and industry in northwest Pennsylvania
and throughout the Commonwealth. The ultimate
goal is to create a research-based organization that
accelerates economic development,” said , Dr.
Commencement
set for Dec. 21
Behrend's fall 2002 commencement will take
place on Dec. 21 at noon in the Junker Cen
ter. Dr. Peg Thoms, associate professor of
management, will give the commencement
address.
Faculty and staff will assemble in full aca
demic regalia in the Junker Center Confer
ence Room at 11:30 a.m. In the event of
stormy weather, the ceremony will be held
on Dec. 22.
Immediately following the program, a recep
tion will be held in the McGarvey Commons
for guests, faculty, and staff to honor gradu
ates.
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The bigger they are,
the harder the
INSIDE
Robert Light, Associate Dean for Research and
Outreach.
The center will help companies increase their
production rates.
The center will develop information technology
human resources, therefby, creating high-technology
jobs for graduates from Behrend and other colleges.
The new center’s main goals are to expand the use
of IT technologies in Pennsylvania business and
industry, further advance research and development
of IT, and provide education and training, using
intellectuals from various places, like GETS.
The center will also focus on research related to
remote monitoring and diagnostics. Along with
Carnegie Mellon University, Penn State Erie’s Center
for Navigation, Communication and Information
Systems, and other places create a many talented
computer programmers, and draw skilled IT people
from all over the United States.
Hume-George’s last Smith reading ce
accomplishments of former student
by Erin McCarty
news editor
Monday’s poetry reading by Dan Sargent in the
Logan House marked the end not only of this
semester’s Smith Creative Writing Speaker Series,
but also of English professor Dr. Diana Hume-
George's teaching career at Behrend.
As she introduced Sargent, Hume-George
explained to the audience, which was divided
between the dining hall and the living room, why
she had selected his reading to coincide with her
departure.
“He was the only student to whom I could
honestly say, ‘Go West, young man,”’ she said. Ever
since she first met him 10 years ago, she knew that
he was a poet, and after trying his hand at various
jobs after college, Sargent agreed that poetry was
his calling.
Hume-George went on to say how much she has
learned from Sargent, whom she described as
“among the most well-read people I know,” and how
much she appreciates the times when the monotony
of the messages on her voice mail has been broken
by his voice reading a newly written poem to her.
Once Sargent’s reading began, his familiarity with
a large variety of texts became apparent. Many
incorporated Eastern tradition, from his haiku to his
poem referencing the road Buddhists believe leads
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fall
PHOTO BY ERIN McCARTY / BEHREND BEACON
The center will benifit Penn State in many ways.
“BFCOE will help the college pursue its land-grant
mission by providing additional research and
technology transfer services to the community,"
said Light. “Among other things, it will lead to
wage, intern, and full-time employment
opportunities for our students; opportunities for
faculty, staff, and student research projects and class
projects; new material for existing courses and new
courses at the college.”
A website for the BFCOE will also be created
“(The center will] create a supply chain Web
portal that provides information and low-cost
reverse auction component,” said Light. The site
will contain information concerning topics such as
the center’s services, recommended products and
services, and research project reports. Links for
other websites, which pertain to the center, will also
be available.
from one life into another to translations of a 16th
century Indian saint who wrote love poems to the
god Vishnu. Sargent told the audience that he had
recently become very interested in doing
translations, and others he read included a poem
translated from Italian and another from Scottish
Gaelic.
The bulk of Sargent’s reading came from a 40-
page poem detailing the Finnish myth of the god
Vainamoinen (pronounced Vi - na - moy - nen) and
his rival, Joukahainen (U - ka - hi - nen). Towards
the end of the poem, Vainamoinen embarks on a
time-traveling journey in a sleigh with Sargent, and
the two eventually meet up with T.S. Eliot, Ezra
Pound, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Meanwhile,
Joukahainen pursues him in linear time, trapped in
the modem day.
After the reading, Hume-George teased Sargent
about the fact that he had been dining with gods
and deceased poets in his poetry ever since she had
known him.
“I just want to ask you,” she joked, “are you all
right?” But her high regard for Sargent was evident
throughout the reading, and the evening stood as a
testament to the influence a student and professor
can have on one another and a reminder of the
legacy that Hume-George leaves Behrend and the
greater world of poetry.
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at Behrend.