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The Behrend Beacon
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BEHREND
Beacon
“Professionalism
with a personality’’
Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building,
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563.
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
Park somewhere else
It’s 2:30 a.m. and you’re driving back to your on-campus apartment from work.
You’re tired, it’s cold, and of course there is no place to park. You zip around the
banana lot hoping to see one open space; no such luck. You continue to the
apartment lot where you swear the same cars sit day after day and week after
week. As you speed through the maintenance lot you feel your blood pressure
start to rise. You resent the school for charging $230.00 for a parking permit that
has you parking somewhere over the rainbow. On to the Ohio lot, just to realize
that one car passed you and took the very last spot. Impossible? Not at all; it
happens.
Where do you park now? You contemplate parking in the grass or just creat
ing your own spot. Then you think about the towing charge and with that pro
ceed to the Jordan Road parking lot, better known as no man’s land. Your car
slides into an open spot and you bitterly tum off the engine. It’s now 2:43,
you’re at the very bottom of campus and have a long, lonely, irritating hike up to
your apartment.
Irritated? More like irate! Parking for resident students has gotten out of con
trol. Why would we park in the Jordan Road parking lot when we live in Ohio,
Almy, the apartments or even the suites? Why should freshmen, who apparently
have impeccable timing, be comfortably parked in the banana lot? This has to
stop!
The best part of this whole parking situation is that Penn State Behrend doesn’t
guarantee you a parking spot after you buy your permit. Obviously students
aren’t going to take time to read all of the parking regulations before buying one.
The parking regulations clearly state that Penn State Behrend doesn’t guarantee
the registrant a parking space, but all attempts are made to meet the parking
demands. Currently there are 850 parking spaces for on campus residents and
approximately 850 resident parking permits were sold for the semester. Parking
permits can still be purchased.
Can we use some logic here? If you live in Senat Hall don’t park in the Ohio
lot, park in the closer and spacious Jordan Road lot. In fact, let’s just say senior
ity rules. Meaning, if you’re an underclassman, park in the Jordan lot and if
you’re an upper classman, park wherever your 1985 Buick Park Avenue fits.
Edinboro University has a lot designated for freshmen only. When they buy
their parking permit they get a decal that signifies the lot where they can park.
Each university has different parking policies fit to meet the campus parking
needs. We just think it’s about time for Behrend to revamp the parking policy
and set some new ground rules.
by Zach Mentz/BEHREND 3EACON
Daniel J. Stasiewski, Editor in Chief
Amy Frizzell, Managing Editor
Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager
Alyssa Peconi, Public Relations Manager
Dr. Cathy Roan, Advisor
Student Life Editor
Lori DeFabio
News Editor
Brad Stewart
Opinion Page Editor Calendar Page Editor
Andy McNeil Rob Frank
Sports Editors Copy Editor
Sam Cibula Lacy Buzard
Sara Kamber j ean Haight
Beacon Assistant
Carolyn M. Tellers
In the Diversity Corner
By Fariha Andaleeb
editorial columnist
For a campus of its size, Penn State
Behrend seems to have a lot more cul
tural diversity than I had expected to see.
The international scene is both dynamic
and active.
Clubs at Behrend include the Asian
Students Organization, International Stu
dents Organization, the Association of
Black Collegians, the Irish American
Society, the Organization of African Stu
dents, and the Organization of Latin
American Students. These are only to
name a few of the clubs that promote di
versity on campus and cultural aware
ness.
Understanding other cultures is particu
larly important now, considering the cur
rent state of the world. After Sept. 11,
there seemed to be a spiked increase in
the public’s interest of international is
sues and understanding of how the ‘other
side’ thinks. But in a time when lines are
being blurred and boundaries being ob
scured, how do we define ‘the other side?’
Who are these people and what do they
represent?
Defining this group of people remains
the complicated task. After all, 8 million
Your alarm is going off
By Kristen Comstock
editorial columnist
The latest Gallup poll taken last Fri
day shows President Bush with 55 per
cent of the vote and Kerry with 42 per
cent. So my question is, hasn’t anyone
been paying attention to what has been
going on around them and throughout the
world for the past four years? If you are
still voting for Bush, it is time for you to
wake up!
I know you may not want to be lec
tured to by another “zealous liberal”. If
this is true, you can stop reading right
now... LUCKILY, this is still a free coun
try. Or is it?
Bush has racked up the highest deficit
in American history. Which means that
each American has approximately 4,500
dollars that we are going to have to pay
back in future taxes and reduced services.
As young Americans, this hurts us the
most. The Republican tax and education
policy forced our tuition to record highs
while completely abandoning any prom
ise to raise Pell grants and work-study.
Unemployment for college graduates
has doubled in the last four years, and
over thirty percent of us have no health
insurance, which, by the way, is the worst
Campus bookstore: Mission possible
By Aimee Pogson
editorial columnist
I really shouldn’t say this in a school
publication that everyone is going to
read, but over the summer I thought a
lot about breaking into the bookstore. I
thought about it in intricate detail, imag
ining the doorways, the windows, the
pipes that run along the ceiling. I thought
about all of those expensive books
locked inside, unguarded, lonely and
looking for a friend to come in and just
read them. I even started writing a fic
tional story about a student who makes
plans to rob his school bookstore. It is
amazing how that student resembles me.
I don’t know if my preoccupation is
good, bad, right or wrong. Many people
would say that my thoughts about rob
bing the bookstore are wrong and prob
ably even border on being illegal, but I’m
not sure. If I think about robbing a book
store, but actually have no intention of
committing the crime, is it still wrong?
Is it immoral to have bad thoughts about
a bookstore? That seems like the kind of
question that I would seriously ponder
if I only got about three hours of sleep.
As it stands now, I slept about four and
a half hours last night.
While I’m not sure about the philoso
phy behind bookstore robberies: the
question of what is worse, the thought
or the intention of robbing the bookstore,
I do know that thinking about robbing
the bookstore entertains me.
I think about it when I am driving in
my car. I think about it when I am eat
ing breakfast in the morning. There is
of the world’s Muslims are located in
North America, many of whom are
American
The Muslim community is internation
ally on the rise. In 1900, it comprised
approximately 12.4 percent of the glo
bal population. By 1980, this figure
grew to about 16.5 percent. The year
2000 brought the population to 19.2 per
cent, with a projected figure of 30per
cent by the year 2025. As the second
largest religion in the world, Islam is in
ternationally growing at a rate of 2.9
percent annually, which is greater than
the rate at which the world population is
growing (2.3 percent) in total.
According to similar recent demo
graphics, the Muslim population is grow
ing at a rate of 6 percent in the United
States alone, compared to the total popu
lation growth rate of the US which is
currently at .9 percent. It is no wonder
that people are taking a heightened in
terest in this particular group of people.
Behrend offers an introductory course
about Islam, which is being taken by a
diverse group of students. In my class
we have a Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Afri
can Americans, Bosnians, Caucasians,
etc. The religious range is equally var
ied. These people are far from religious
rate of any segment of the population.
The war in Iraq has cost over 1000 young
American lives, overstretched our mili
tary, and pushed us all towards a national
draft. Has anyone woken up yet?
Here are some more caffeine-filled
facts! Since Bush took office 3.3 mil
lion jobs have been lost, more than the
last 11 presidents combined. Bush is
likely to be the first president since
Herbert Hoover to show a net loss of jobs
at the end of his first term. I know I can’t
wait to start the job search knowing that!
The Bush Administration’s regressive
environmental policies have lowered
cleanliness standards for our air and wa
ter, while allowing utility companies to
profit off of the weakened regulations.
And here I thought I was being healthy
when I went for a run outside.
Don’t forget, Bush is under funding
education. Bush cut 200 million dollars
from his own No Child Left Behind Act,
eliminating crucial educational programs
for lower income children and cutting
professional training for more than
20,000 teachers.
More American children than ever are
pouring into already overcrowded
schools. America now faces the largest
wave of teacher retirements in our his
something about the challenge of break
ing into a building that intrigues me.
When I was younger and still a Girl
Scout, I told my Girl Scout leader that I
wanted to break into buildings someday.
“I don’t want to steal anything,” I told
her. “I just want to know that I am smart
enough to find a way in.”
She informed me that there are people
in the world who get paid to figure out
ways to break into buildings. People are
hired at prisons to try to think of pos
sible ways to escape from the building,
which is very similar to breaking into a
building, only backwards. This is a way
for prisons to improve their security.
When I heard that there were jobs like
this in the world, I was amazed.
When I was in high school and I got
bored in class, sometimes I would think
of ways to escape from the building. I
imagined hosting a TV show or writing
a book entitled Daring Escapes from
Northwestern Senior High. It would be
a fun, up-beat TV show or book, one that
teenagers would find “cool” and “hip”.
They too would want to escape from
school, if they didn’t want to escape al
ready.
And like my breaking out of school
dreams, maybe my breaking into the
bookstore dream is simply an escape, a
little detour from reality that makes me
feel like I am capable of doing daring,
exciting, and illegal things. All of my
life I have followed the rules, yet every
once in a while I feel a resounding urge
to break them. I get bored and I start to
think to myself, “Well, if there are pipes
on the ceiling, they must be connected
Friday, September 24, 2004
studies majors. The student base in
cludes psychology, biology, business,
education, and engineering majors.
Why then, I asked, are you taking this
course? “I feel that during these times
it is important to understand Islam and
those who follow it,” said one student.
“I just want to learn about 151am...1
was curious,” said another. Students are
opening their minds to new ideas, and
exposing themselves to concepts they
wish to understand, even if they don’t
necessarily promote them.
There is a general misconception of
Islam that is slowly beginning to break
as more people inform themselves. Be
ing Muslim and being American are not
mutually exclusive, as people are begin
ning to understand.
To understand ‘the other side,’ one
must begin by distinguishing between
religion and politics, Islam and culture,
theology and nationalism. We have to
recognize that the enemy is not a group
of people as much as it is a set of ideas
that separate us into sides in the first
place. The fact that so many clubs, or
ganizations, and individual students are
taking an initiative to learn more about
these issues and form opinions is a step
in the right direction.
tory, while young teachers leave the
classroom at alarming rates. Fourteen
million children are home alone after
school, but after-school programs are the
first to be cut in the current budget
crunch. It sounds like a great time to
start a family!
And if that is not enough, good old
Bush and his Administration established
the Patriot Act, which threatens our con
stitutional rights and civil liberties. The
Patriot Act expands the ability of law en
forcement to conduct secret searches and
engage in various forms of surveillance.
The FBI now has access to American
citizens’ medical, financial, mental
health and student records without noti
fication or permission. It allows them
to investigate individuals without prob
able cause of crime. And that’s not all!
It allows non-citizens to be jailed based
on mere suspicion and held indefinitely
without meaningful judicial review. I
don’t know about you, but I know I can
sleep soundly now!
So if you are still asleep, here is a re
cap! Bush is bad for the economy, bad
for the environment, bad for education
and bad for civil liberties! But go ahead
and hit that snooze for the next four years.
Who knows what you will wake up to!
to something else in the building. They
may even lead outside.” And so on.
Although I am currently the only per
son that I know of who is voicing her
desire to break into and out of buildings,
I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not
the only one who thinks about these
things. While I am busy contemplating
the tranquility of the bookstore, other
people are probably scoping out the lay
out of Bruno’s or the school post office,
imagining all of those nice goodies that
parents are sending to their kids. And
that’s okay.
Just don’t act on these fantasies. It
can be relaxing and fun to imagine your
self doing illegal things. lam a firm be
liever in the idea that expressing your
desires, however bad or illegal they may
be, in your imagination is a healthy al
ternative to actually carrying out your
desires. It’s never a good idea to bottle
up emotions. Look at Martha Stewart,
always calm, cool, collected, the perfect
hostess. She wasn’t in touch with her
true emotions and now she is going to
jail (Okay, so this is an exaggeration and
probably even a bad example, but some
how she just doesn’t seem emotional
enough to be human. I definitely see a
connection between her missing emo
tions and her terrible criminal activities).
So go ahead, imagine yourself being
crazy, daring, and criminal. Besides
being good for your emotional well be
ing, it s also fun. Just don’t get carried
away and act on any of your ideas. And
remember, I’ll be thinking of you when
the police and safety officials begin
questioning me.