Eileen Falkenberg, Editorial Page Editor
„
The Behrend Beacon
/vrhl ni I(/ t ti I I) 111 Nul (II
Editor-in-Chief
Lauren Packer
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Robert Wynne
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Scott Soltis
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Ryan Russell
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Kevin Fiorenzo
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111/01 Calendar Page Editor
Amy Wilczynski
AM Editor
Amy
Daniel J.Stasiewski
Editorial Page Editor
Healthy Living Editors
Courtney Straub
Eileen Falkenberg
Erika Jarvis
Features Editor
Erika Jarvis Adviser
T4E BENRE,
,
Greek Life Editor Beacon Cathy L.Roan, Ph.D.
Eileen Falkenberg Copy Editors
Staff Photographers "A newspaper by the Carolyn M. Tellers
Jeff Hankey students for the students" Kristin Bowers
Heather Myers
mose•milm•...••■•■•....
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reserves the right to edit
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spelling and grammar.
Look, this is how it's really done
by Erika Jarvis
features editor
I was asked to write an editorial.
After all, I don't have enough to do
with being the features editor of the
Beacon, social chair of AEA, RA in
Niagara, caterer and oh yeah--a stu
dent, too. Yet, I do need some ar
ticles for my portfolio and realized
that sleep is just too overrated.
I wasn't too sure what to write
about as an editorial so I flipped
through some past issues of the Bea
con to try and find ideas. I came
across a few things that made me
start to think.
I saw the box on top of the Edito
rial page talking about our rights as
journalists. As one of the editors on
this paper we have the right to edit
any article. We are allowed to edit
any article we receive for content,
length, libel, spelling and grammar.
Well, we have the right to, and we
often do edit.
Lately, Beacon editing has be
come controversial. We all work
really hard on the paper for the stu
dents here at Behrend and we are
starting to get tired of being attacked
for every little edit we make.
It's hard trying not to get screwed
by Amy Wilczynski
calendar page editor
Last April, the Career Development
Center (CDC) sent out a mass e-mail
about a job opening at a local Erie busi
ness. I was in need of a job that would
provide me some experience in , Any re
lated field of study: Communications.
The e-mail stated that this was only a
"temporary, 2-3 week position." I sent
my resume, got an interview, and was
hired on the spot. The communication
related job turned out to be telesales. I
initially thought to myself, "I didn't go
to college for 3 years to learn how to
make phone calls." Regardless, I took
the job and it ended up lasting 4 months.
Lfelt like a real professional at the com
pany; well, for the first 2 weeks.
During these 4 months, I learned
This brings to me to another thing.
The content of the Beacon has also
been talked about. I often hear how
The Behrend Beacon content isn't
up to par with other publications. I
encourage those who find the pa
per not up to snuff to feel free to
come to a meeting. We're always
looking for more staff writers and
even contributing writers.
It's not always fun for us to cover
the Speaker Series or the newest
event at McGarvey Commons. I
personally flip through U►tiversity
Park's paper The Collegian and
wish that we had more exciting
events and on goings here at
Behrend. Yet, that's the role of the
journalist; you deal with what you
have and you try to make your ar
ticle seem interesting and newswor
thy.
Feel free to come on down and
visit us in the Beacon Office. When
we're not in class or have a free
moment we all can be found down
there. We're even there late into the
night on Thursdays laying out the
paper and sending it to the press. Oh
yeah we get free dinner then, too!
As I work hard on the Beacon and
attempt to get my degree in jour-
many valuable lessons about working
for a company—things I never would
have even thought of. Here is the big
gest lesson I learned while being in
volved with this company. This is im
portant for anyone entering into the
workforce. I learned the hard way and
will never forget:
GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING.
As an employee, request that your sal
ary, wages, commission value and any
other pertinent information be written
in a formal document that is signed by
whoever the agreement was set be
tween.
I got screwed out of this work deal
but I am, a firm believer that we learn
from our mistakes. I did not get any
thing in writing because I have never
been in a situation like that. I figured
they would stay true to their word and
Friday, October 3, 2003
Letters to the Editor
The hassles of having the
name Mohammed
Dear Editor,
The name Mohammed is probably the
most prevalent in the muslim world. At
least 2 million Muslims in this world go
by the name Mohammed. Not all of them
accept and practice the guidance, com
mands or leadership accurately of the
prophet, Mohammed (PBUH), the
prophet of Islam.
After the 9/11 attack, the condemna
tion for that act was not only confined to
the hijackers and their sponsors, but also
the religion they demanded to have en
tered and practiced, which by the way, is
the religion of 1/5 population of this
world . Threatening criticism of Islam
and misinterpretation of the Quran (the
holy book for Muslims) are now com
mon topics in all the news media. This
effort of news media to mislead people
by falsifying information about Islam has
put all the Muslims in the world in an
awkward position, particularly the ones
living in the United States.
People are injected with so much bit
terness towards Islam that Muslims are
now hesitant to name their kids
MohamMed. Some people with that
name are considering changing their
names to something else to avoid dis
crimination towards Muslims, if it exists.
I, myself as .4 graduating senior, am con
cerned about whether my first name
Mohammed will create a negative impact
to employers.
Worst of all, my name literally took
away my freedom of speech. After 9/11,
I have been advised by my well wishers
to be cautious about my opinions. My
sympathy towards those innocent Iraqi
nalism, I'm also starting to get tired
of hearing people make fun of any
kind of communication major. I'm
not sure if all other majors realize
this, but your world depends on
communication.
I know it's funny to make fun of
us, but do you make fun of the re
porters who travel overseas to re
port about the war in Iraq? They
have degrees in journalism, broad
casting and other realms of commu
nication. Think of it. Everything
from the daily paper to the nightly
news even to MTV's TRL took the
hard work of journalists and com
munication majors. You don't real
ize how much of your life is affected
by communication of all sorts.
I do realize that the communica-
tion majors sound easy compared to
something like plastic engineering,
and Lord knows I could never do
engineering. Yet, I'm not sure ev
eryone can handle an interview and
writing an article and striving to
make it appealing to the mass pub
lic. I'm not bashing other majors; I
just don't think that it's fair to judge
communication majors because
we're not slaving over calculus. I'm
taking Math 21 and Meteorology
pay me what was promised. They gave
me an office, my own phone line with
extension and computer. When I told
them school would be starting up again,
they made arrangements for me to work
remotely from home. I was given a com
pany cell phone and was able to do my
work away from the office.
Sounds pretty good, huh? That's what
I thought. As it turned out, they expected
me to still be available at any time of
the business day. I explained and wrote
out my schedule for them, but they still
seemed not to understand that my life
consisted of more than just telesales.
Realizing just how much time this job
was taking up in my very busy sched
ule, I decided it was time to call it quits.
On Monday, Sept. 8, I met with my boss
and told him I was having a hard time
handling the workload of school and my
cent Iraqi people who died in a war
based on no proof, may portray terror
ism, and make people fail to notice my
tears for those fire fighters of 9/11.
But I am optimistic that in a place like
United States where diversity is always
appreciated, a volatile situation like that
will not persist for long. Normal people
will gradually be interested to derive
knowledge from authentic sources in
stead of tuning biased TV channels for
truth. I myself will be comfortable con
veying an opinion knowing that it is not
judged as an opinion coming from a
Muslim, rather from a human being.
My prayer to god everyday is
Dear God,
Grant the media wisdom and cour
age and guard them from pomposity and
megalomania.
Remind them of the moral practical
value of the simple truth of humility,
liveliness and humor so that they may
serve as the spirit of all living things and
abandon the need to have power over
us. Grant them the common and uncom
mon touch in perfect proportion and
guide them to aspects of life which are
truly important.
Protect too the earth and the crea
tures from all harm of the media, so that
we may continue to read and listen to
the nature, our most reliable source of
truth.
Amen
Mohammed E. Hogue
Computer Engineering, 07
right now for general education
credit. Sound easy? Yeah, it defi
nitely is. I'm banking on a good
GPA this semester. Good luck with
Physics 824 or whatever it is you
take.
See, I don't even know what other
majors require, class wise. I do,
however, totally applaud other ma
jors for their hard work and dedi
cation to those classes, they would
put me straight to sleep.
I guess I'm not mad that I get
made fun of for being a journalism
major or being called bland, it's just
so repetitive. I mean I interned for
VHI this summer. Not many Psych
or Engineering majors can land that
one, so I'm pretty happy with where
I'm going.
So, I said my piece--this is a hard
gig, just like everyone else's ma
jor. Yet, if you still don't believe
me, our office is in the bottom of
Reed by Boiler Hall. Listen, Guy,
this is how it REALLY is, my ar
ticle is about 800 words and took
me all of 20 minutes to write! I hope
I made you proud and that I showed
you how it's done by a
professional...next time, I'm say
ing "no!"
job. He replied, "Yeah, no kidding. I
knew from the beginning you wouldn't
be able to do it." I told him that I gave
it an honest effort but felt the best way
to handle it was to tell him my situa
tion. He then replied, "I already put an
ad in the newspaper." I can't help but
wonder where his work morals are.
How can he post my job when I haven't
even quit or been fired yet?
The whole point of this editorial is
to let everyone know that there are
people in the work world who can re
ally screw you over if you are not care
ful. Hopefully by reading this, you will
be more aware of similar situations that
many of us will run into someday in
our careers. If you remember anything
from this editorial, remember this: GET
EVERYTHING IN WRITING!
The Behrend Beacon
Behrend
failing at
education?
Dear Editor,
I would like to comment on Guy
Reschenthaler's column that appeared
on the September 12 issue of The
Behrend Beacon. I am not going to dis
agree with him about the fact that "di
versity" is sometimes carried too far.
With "too far" I mean to the point that it
starts splintering the strength of a na
tion, instead of coloring it with differ
ent hues.
But I strongly resent his statement that
basically every other country "sucks."
As a professor at Behrend, this statement
makes me feel that we fail to educate
our students, if they can make statements
like this after spending several years
with us. Either that, or on some people
education is just wasted.
As an immigrant, yes, I come from
Italy, that "sucked even more and still
does," I feel that Mr. Reschenthaler just
does not know what he is talking about.
Has he been in the countries he
trashed? Has he learned about them
more than the average American press/
books present to him? And what does
he know about the reasons that make
people leave their country of birth (even
if it sucks) to live in a completely dif
ferent place? Some of these people in
the past had to choose between mere sur
vival and family, between freedom of
speech and thought and the places they
loved. Today the issues behind immigra
tion are in some cases even more subtle
and the choices are just as hard.
Mr. Reschenthaler's final conclusion
that America has "the best culture" is in
contradiction with most of what he
writes and it is extremely shortsighted.
America has a lot to offer and it has a
great culture, but it is hardly "the best,"
and it has been built on the diversity of
its people.
If American culture is the best, how
can he accuse people of not knowing his
tory? Why so few American people
vote? Why so few people get involved
in politics that he has to talk about
Arnold Schwarzenegger? This man,
who is upheld in the article as an ex
ample of a man with a social conscience,
was born in one of the countries that
suck. So, how can he be a decent per
son (whether you agree or not with him)
who would even consider "giving back
to his nation"?
How can Mr. Reschenthaler feel that
American culture is so great when he
write "I am surprised that I'm the first
editorialist to point out to this hypoc
risy, on our campus and in our nation"?
How can a society as blind and timid as
the one he describes have "the best" cul
ture? How can a society that accepts a
press afraid of pointing out the short
comings of multiculturalism have "the
best" culture? This society has a great
culture that gives most of the people who
want to voice an opinion a chance to do
so. but the title of "best" is still a far cry.
The stereotypes that "enrich" Mr.
Reschenthaler's article end up reinforc
ing the stereotypical figure of the swash
buckling, coarse, and uneducated
American that people in the countries
that suck have, the American who has a
lot of money (that they might want to
share) but cannot see past his cowboy
hat. And this is a real disservice to the
many Americans who are truly part of
the great aspects of American culture,
the ones Mr. Reschenthaler left out when
he decided to use the "hamburger" as
his example of American ability to as
similate other civilizations.
Antonella Cupillari
Associate Professor of Mathematics
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