Page 6
The Behrend Beacon
Number of Baylor mascots draws scrutiny
Baylor University student Adam Ylitalo watches as Lady, the university's mascot,
plays with a stuffed horse at a game against Texas Tech.
by Troy Phillips
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Baylor's high rate of mascot turnover has kept its live
mascot program under attack from animal-rights groups
and conservationists.
Including current mascots Joy and Lady, senior bear
trainer Adam Ylitalo said Baylor has had more than 50
mascots in 80 years
Asked if an oil icial university record of every Baylor
mascot through the years could be produced, Eileen
Hulme, the mascot program's adviser, deferred to Ylitalo.
He said the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, a student
organization in charge of the bears, has no such records.
"Here Come the Bears," a 1996 book by Eugene W.
Baker, details 53 Baylor mascots from 1917 to 1996 but
does not specify an exact number. Counting four mas
cots since Baker's book came out, Baylor appears to have
had 57.
Carol Asvestas of the 112-acre Wild Animal Orphan
age in San Antonio said her facility took in a Baylor
mascot, Scotty, in 1990.
"We asked them when we took it that they not take
any more bears in," Asvestas said. "We were under the
impression they agreed to it. They have a reputation of
handing them over once they get to a certain age. It's a
recycling problem."
Ilulme said Baylor wants its new planned habitat to
house bears for the rest of their lives, with one caveat.
Baylor will continue to find new homes for adult bears
that become too temperamental or dangerous.
Such was the case with Bobby, adopted by the Austin
Zoo in 1996. The zoo's director, Cindy Carroccio, has
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been one of Baylor's harshest critics, after Bobby re
quired $B,OOO worth of dental work. She says Bobby is
gentle now and was just mishandled by his Baylor train
ers, which the school denies.
One animal-rights group, Showing Animals Respect
and Kindness, has accused Baylor of concealing the on
campus death of a 2-year-old bear, Ginny, in the late
19905. SHARK's Web site suggests Baylor had the body
secretly removed after midnight.
According to Baylor, Ginny was adopted very much
alive by Bear World wildlife park in Idaho. This week,
Bear World owner Mike Ferguson and U.S. Department
of Agriculture inspector Earnest Johnson both verified
Ginny's transport in the spring of 1999 from Baylor to
Idaho, where she died of cancer not long afterward.
"She appeared to be in good health, but we noticed
she was a little slow," Ferguson said. "She seemed to be
an awfully young bear to die of cancer. I don't know
what caused it."
SHARK has also accused Baylor of sending some
bears to substandard sanctuaries or parks. Hulme said
Baylor does its homework, but inspection records show
that 6-year-old Bear World was not fully compliant with
USDA standards until October 2001.
Bear World was cited at times for substandard shelter
areas, inadequate feeding and veterinary care, exposed
wiring near animals, contaminated water, incomplete
records and a lack of containment between incompat
ible animals. Bear World has since become fully com
pliant.
"We don't return a bear into an untenable situation,"
Hulme said. "We've been portrayed as not being sensi
tive to these bears, and it's just not true."
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Despite staggering cost, experts
say college worth the investment
by Joel Dresang
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If money were everything, many parents would
want their children to go to college and become
doctors and lawyers. Earnings are the surest way
to wealth, and higher education is the most direct
course to big bucks.
According to the non profit College Board, a
kid who grows up and gets a bachelor's (degree)
earns $1 million more over a lifetime than a child
hood playmate who stops education after high
school.
Affording college, though, that's the rub.
"Overpriced" is what Jenny Otto, of Burlington,
Wis., calls college costs. Still, she has been sock
ing away college money since her daughter Kaitlyn
was born three years ago. She plans to do the same
for her son, Chase, who's 5 weeks old and drifting
off to sleep in his stroller outside the downtown
Milwaukee law office where Otto works.
Otto saves and plans. Her husband, a carpenter,
has been able to make a living without a college
(degree) so far, but she's attending college part
time at Milwaukee Area Technical College to get
an associate (degree) as a paralegal. She says she
already does more and earns more than a parale
gal, but she sees education as a necessary invest
ment that someday will pay off.
"That's probably why they can charge so much
for it," she said.
The numbers are numbing. Sending a newborn
to a four-year private college 18 years from now
would cost $279,000 if the average cost of tuition,
fees, room and board rose 5 percent a year. Four
years at a public school would exceed $llO,OOO.
But financial planners say parents need to get
past the daunting price tags and get off the dime
to help their children prepare for higher educa
tion. They say children can't afford to not advance
their learning.
"You can't support a family on a high school
education," says Paula Hogan, a certified finan
cial planner in Glendale, Wis. Ten years ago,
Hogan rarely heard new parents ask about college
savings. Now it's commonplace. That's recogni
tion of the financial value of college and the need
to plan ahead.
"There's no one right way," says June Schroeder,
a certified financial planner in Elm Grove, Wis.
"The fear comes when people wait too long."
College officials say too many people get para
lyzed by sticker shock when, in fact, most fami
lies don't pay the full price, thanks to government
assistance and private support.
Two reports released recently by the College
Board show that although the average cost jumped
10 percent this year for four-year public colleges
and 6 percent for private, student aid rose 15 per
cent, including grants, loans, work-study arrange
ments and tax credits. The result would mean the
net cost of college actually dropped. It was the
first time in the education association's 103 years
that it examined the average net expense of col
lege.
Subtracting the average student's aid from the
average college cost, the report found the net cost
of a four-year public university to be about $7,300
last year and about $lB,OOO for a four-year pri
vate college both nearly 30 percent less than the
total cost.
Indeed, even as the cost of higher education es
calates, attendance keeps climbing. The Depart
ment of Education has projected that as many as
18.2 million Americans will be enrolled in col
lege by 2012, up 43 percent since 1987. Among
20- to 24-year-olds, more than a third go to school
now, up from about one-fifth 30 years ago.
Ideally, college planning should begin not by
looking at price tags but considering what's best
for the child.
"Harvard is not the answer for every student.
That's where it starts. And recognizing that price
does not equal quality," says Travis Reindl, policy
analyst for the American Association of State Col
leges and Universities. "It comes back to an indi
vidual fit."
Only when students have narrowed their choices
based on how a school fits the student's educa
tional objectives, career aspirations, lifestyle pref
erences and so on only then should cost-shopping
occur. And even then, look beyond the sticker price
and ask the school about financial aid.
"Don't rule anything out until you really know
what the deals are," Hogan advises.
James Boyle, president of the 2,000-member
College Parents of America, says families of little
means shouldn't feel priced out of higher educa
tion; nor should well-heeled families feel entitled
to assistance.
"Families have to decide what is important to
them," Boyle says. "In the best cases, families dis
cuss it and figure out "How are we going to do
this?' and "How important is this to our family?"'