Paige Miles, Editorial Page Editor |blbl I 1 The Behrend Beacon p.ihihlwJ weekly In- tin- ‘•tmietits ot Penn State l.rie. Ihe Heliiviul ( allege News Editor Erin McCarty Assistant News Editor Jen Henderson Sports Editor Scott Soltis Assistant Sports Editor Lauren Packer Editorial Page Editor Paige Miles BeaCOll Features Editor Karl Benacci “A newspaper by the Staff Photographers students f or the students " Jeff Hankey Heather Myers 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. Ground control to pop music In the movie “High Fidelity," John Cusack poses the question, “Do I listen to pop music because I’m miserable, or am I miserable because 1 listen to pop music?” All I know is that I’m miserable. Pop music always has cause to make me depressed, but I have even more reason these days. And that reason is punk wanna be and Canadian singer Avnl Lavigne. On Jan. 7 the always annoying 18-year-old Lavigne mispro nounced rock legend David Bowie’s name while announcing the nominees for best male rock performer. Now, I don’t really expect Canadians to prone correctly seeing as how they are from such a far and pronounce “about” as “a boot.” But to not who David Bowie is; that’s unacceptable. I gu< she never saw the movie “Labyrinth." But I am a boot fed up with this so-called m generation of rock stars. It just goes to show tl these stars know nothing about the roots of rock roll and are just prefabricated puppets of some ( rich guy in a suit. Some may argue that it doesn’t matter if an art.. knows the roots of the music they play. But it does. J£evill FallOll Artists are influenced by the work that came be- fore them. Elvis was influenced by black blues musicians. And the Beatles were influenced by Elvis. The legends of rock, such as the Rolling Stones and the Clash, took from those who came before them, added to it in some way to make it relevant and original. This is not to say that artists should just rip off someone else. There is a difference between having great influences and stealing a sound. But that’s what is being done in today’s money-hungry commer cialized pop-music world. Someone puts out a good record, (well usually it’s not good, it just sells a lot) and record companies scramble up their own version of what ever garbage is selling so they can Your advisor doesn’t know jack (or you). Unfortunately, for many students on might have learned a lot, but she would have campus this is an accurate statement. been wasting those expensive tuition More than enough times I’ve heard dollars. my classmates saying “I don’t And that’s just one example know why I’m in this class, my among the plethora of stories that I've advisor just stuck me in here." heard through my years at Behrend From this, I see two major Of course, there are a few professors problems. One, students are ißw who do know what they're apathetic about what it P doing, but that’s not enough, takes to get their In essence, it’s all about the degree from money. Unlike high- Behrend; and also, t V j school, where a teacher’s the fact that advisors V- \L '4 \ < / sole duty is to “teach." don’t really know | '1 colleges and universities what the hell they’re jo‘ " ' focus more heavily on the doing. WvntiP research that a P rofessor The inadequate JVUU 1U _ does training of advisors explains why a friend of mine, a second-semester-undecided student, ended up in my 400-level political science course at the beginning of the semester. For those who don’t know, 400- level classes are considered junior/senior level courses geared for students who have decided his/her major. She explained that her advisor was the one who put her in the class. I explained to her that the class was going to be in-depth and wouldn’t be of any value to her unless she eventually became a poli-sci major (or minor). Granted, she Editor-in-Chief Kevin Fallon Managing Editors Rebecca Weindorf Robert Wynne 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 and involvement on various committees or being an advisor of a student organization. So where does advising fit in? Exactly. Whenever he/she has a free moment from research, teaching, and other campus activities. So, I challenge you to advise yourself. I’ve scheduled my own classes since I was a freshman; not because my advisor sucked (actually, she was probably one of the professors that knew what she was doing), but because I wanted to be master of my own college destiny. I didn’t want an 8 a.m. Advertising Manager Christine Kleck Calendar Page Editor Erinn Hansen A&E Editor Daniel Stasiewski Humor Page Editor Mike Butala Associate Editor Courtney Straub Distribution Manager Scott Soltis that week’s issue cash in. That's how we end up with bands like C) Town Anyhow, back to punk princess Avril. Her whole gimmick is that she is this rad bad-ass skater chick who is the anit-Britney. She accomplishes this by sticking her tongue out every time some one puts a camera in her lace Man, talk about a bad ass. don t mess with Avril. That’s more punk than having the Hell’s Angels work security at your concerts. l.avigne has said her main rock influences are the Goo ioo Dolls and Alanis Morissette. And here I am trying to .ay she doesn’t know rock’s roots. What was 1 thinking? The Goo Goo Dolls and Alanis are rock legends! It’s sad to live in a world where the Goo Goo Dolls are better known than the New York Dolls and Morissette out it would lie probably be proclaimed as the most origi nal thing in 10 years. "Wow, no one has ripped off Bowie before! How creative.” That is how bad pop music is these days. I guess nothing can really be done about this situation because people continue to buy bad music. As an elitist rock writer I will not be watching the Grammys, which will be held Feb. 23, be cause 1 am above all those losers (except the Boss). Instead, I will be watching the real talent of the music industry on "Ameri can Idol.” Next, come teaching I'X&SIIJX. Friday, January 24, 2003 Send all thoughts, complaints, comments, praises, pro tests, objections, compliments, critiques, and Letters to the Editor to Behrcoll2@aol-com. Include your name, major, and semester standing* ranks Morrisey. This is the problem with pop music. Every one is a Xerox of everyone else. The worst part is the band that everyone is copying from usually isn't that good in the first place. Really, who gets together and says. "Man. it would be awesome if we started a band that sounds just like Creed." 1 mean, if you are going to rip off a band, you might as well rip off someone good. Actually, if someone ripped off David Bowie Fallon's column appears every three weeks. class, nor 9 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. 10 o’clock in the morning sounded fine to me. Also, since 1 am a commuter, 1 tried to minimize the number of days that 1 would have to drive out to school. The old adage holds truth. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” “But 1 don’t know which classes 1 need to graduate, everything is so confusing when it comes to scheduling!" you might say. This is how easy it actually is: First, visit the office of the school where there is information on your major. For example, business, management, etc., would be located in the school of business in the Turnbull Bam. Communications, history, etc. can be found in the H&SS office on the upper Boor of the Academic (Irvin Kochel) building. Next, pick-up a degree bulletin/ checksheet that is specialized for your major. These sheets list all of the courses you need to take in order to graduate. These sheets will have blanks on them for you to write the classes in that you’ve already taken. In addition, there will be abbreviations next to each blank (GQ, GH, GS, OF, etc.). These letters signify general education courses. For example, “GQ” mean General Quantification, which would be math classes. If the checksheet says you need 9 credits : m "NO DECISION HAS 866 N MADS..." The ‘misunderestimated’ Bush We are under subservient control by a man who can not speak. That’s right, President Bush. Has anyone really ever stopped to listen to the man? Have you heard him speak? If not, let me illumi nate you. During a CBS broadcast while he was running for President, Bush said this in referei cial policies of the Bob. versity, “The Bob Jones on interracial dating. I I spoke out on interracial ing. I spoke out against I I spoke out against intei cial dating. 1 mean, 1 si port inter-the policy of i terracial dating.” What. What the heck does that mean? Here's another one, during a speech in La Crosse, Wis., Bush made the claim that- and I quote- “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.” How about one more, the best yet? On Feb. 10,2000, Bush said in the New York Times, “A reformer with results is a conservative who has had compas sionate results in the state of Texas.” Hmm, maybe you should read that one again to make sure you got that right. OK, now that you did, on to my point. Here is a man in the most powerful position in the world, a man who is in control of one of the greatest people ever to exist, and he can’t even make comprehensible sense when he opens his mouth. 1 don’t know about anyone else, but it scares me just a little bit that Bush is trying to lead us in what could be the next big American war. Now all being said and done, I would have voted for Bush in the election. At least at the time G. W. appeared to be more of a competent person that A 1 “I invented the Internet” Gore. But then again, that’s saying something about our electoral possibilities. This is a tragic trend that I have noticed in re cent elections. It seems that no longer are we as American citizens presented of GQ, then you need to take three math classes. The next thing you’ll want to pick up is a paper copy of the Behrend scheduling guide (located at the RUB Desk), from which you will find classes. If you need one more math class for your gen eds., you would simply find classes that have the “GQ” abbreviation next to them. In essence, your degree checksheet and scheduling guide work hand-in-hand. Beware, though, of special graduating requirements, like the “diversity-focused” (DF) and “other cultures” courses. All students must take a DF course throughout their career at Behrend, as well as a combination of GI and “other cultures” courses, which vary for each school. The advantage to advising yourself is that you could possibly “double-up” a class. That is, a class that is labeled DF/GI may also with the best candidates possible to govern us- which is the intention be hind National Conventions, and Prima ries and so forth. Instead, we are lorced to choose the lesser of two evils. And even then, when the American people do make their desires known, the decides they go pend the popular nd go "by the The constitution Electoral Col- lege, because, at the time, governmental representa tives were more knowledgeable in the art of politics Now it is 2003, and all 1 see m the art of politics is how to use conned ions, earn money, and gain power for per sonal growth-none of which have any thing to do with running the United States. Something has to change, cause obviously the way our system works now; it is not fulfilling the needs of “the people.” Why don't we have a black president? Why don’t we have a female president? Why the hell docs this mo ronic and disappointing representation of the American public think that he can lead a nation into a war that it doesn’t want to fight? In all honesty. I do think there is some merit in what he w ants to achieve, and I think he may or may not have the best intentions. Be it as it may. one thing is for sure- to quote our presi dent one last time, “There is a lot ol speculation and I guess there is going to continue to be a lot of speculation until the speculation ends." fulfill another degree requirement m some circumstances. Or, a gen-ed class might fulfill a requirement for your minor In my case, 1 need Political Science 001 lor my Poli-Sci minor, but it also counts as a "(IS" in my gen-eds. Overlapping classes like that saves you money, as well as not taking extra classes. Don’t let your advisor just throw you inti a class, figure out if you really need it I)c however, check with your advisor tor an updates on course requirements (e g computer classes for H&SS majors) So. I sleep when 1 want, work when I w ant, ami I don’t schedule 8 a.m. classes. See how yin can have total control over your life by tirsi having control over your college career ' ( h get ‘em, tiger! The Behrend Beacon v states how the idential elections to he carried out, id the final result s to be decided b> the represenia lives in the Bledsoe’s column appears every three weeks Wynne’s column appears every three weeks Page
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers