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THE BEHREND BEACON
Friday, November 12, 2004
New signs installed to
sharpen campus image
By Annie Sevin
staff writer
There are some changes being made
on the campus that should make things
less confusing. A project called
“Wayfinding and Signage Plan” has been
in the works since 2001 and the campus
is finally getting a glimpse of Phase I of
the project. Directional signs for cam
pus buildings have been created by
Corbin Design and are being erected in
nine different locations.
“[These signs] are part of a campus
wide signage plan. We want to have all
buildings identified and directional signs
to help visitors,” said CEO Dr. John
Burke. He is a member of a campus
wide committee that worked with Corbin
Design to develop the “Wayfinding and
Signage Plan.”
John Ream, director of operations at
Behrend said that currently there are
mock-ups up around campus to gain
feedback on the size of the letters and
the location of the sign itself. The ac
tual signs will be made of aluminum and
are about nine by six feet. They will
stand on the stone bases that have already
been put into place around the campus.
Ream also stated that, “The signs are
for the benefit of first time or prospec
tive students and their families, but also
for current student’s families or visitors
that don’t know their way around the
campus.”
Eventually there will also be signs di
recting people to the residence halls,
roadway, and parking lots. There will
also be campus maps constructed in stra-
Young voters hit polls
By Daniel J. Stasiewski
editor in chief
National exit polls showed that youth
voter turnout was at its highest point in
more than a decade during the 2004 elec
tion, but Deepti Soni didn’t need a poll
to tell her that.
Soni, the SGA governmental affairs
committee chair, was one of a number
of students who helped organize the most
successful Behrend college voting ini
tiative in recent memory.
The program culminated on Nov. 2
with rides to the Brookside Fire Hall
Inside
The Incredibles review,
STUDENT LIFE, Page 8
Rising college costs,
STUDENT LIFE, Page 7
Dodgeball winners,
SPORTS, Page 11
CONTENTS
News 1-4
Editorial 5
Student Life 7-9
Sports 10-12
CONTACT US
Newsroom: 898-6488
Fax: 898-6019
E-mall: behrendbeacon@aol.com
Our offices are located down
stalrs In the Reed Union Building.
tegic places to help visitors get to their
destinations.
Director of Athletics Brain Streeter
says that any type of signage is going to
“allow people to feel comfortable and
welcome.” He says that he is excited
about this project, “It will give the cam
pus a professional touch.”
In addition to new directional signs,
there will also be banners put up on ex
isting lampposts leading the way to the
Junker Center and the athletic fields. The
banners will feature a giant paw print and
will read Behrend Lions, according to
Ream. These banners, too, will serve as
guides for visitors to athletic events, even
visiting teams who may lose their way.
“There should eventually be banners
for all buildings, the library, the dining
hall...they will all have different pic
tures,” commented Streeter.
This “Wayfmding and Signage Plan”
is not a major reconstruction project, but
it is a long and presumably an expen
sive process. Ream thought it would take
several years to fmish all phases of the
project. Mostly it will take awhile be
cause it is based on a priority of funds
and the development of the campus.
Ream says, “It’s an interesting
project.. .there’s no perfect way to do it.”
Some of the signage project has al
ready been completed, but only off cam
pus; there are signs telling people where
the campus is located along Interstate 90
and the Bay front Connector. Also, ac
cording to Ream, Penn DOT paid for the
signs alongside the East Side Access
Highway.
polling place. The van trips took place
every 20 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to the
time the polls closed.
Soni estimates that between 25 and 30
students packed the vans every hour. For
her it was the pay off for a more than a
year’s worth of hard work.
“We worked really hard both this year
and last year and we just wanted to make
sure the turnout was good,” she said.
SGA Senator Zack Mentz helped out
with the advertising the day before the
election, placing two bed sheets around
the campus. One sheet hung near the
entrance to the Reed Union Building and
the other on the tennis court fence.
Mentz also said the group placed five
wooden signs in high traffic areas to re
mind people of the rides to the polls.
Voter registration was also a major part
of the voting initiative with drives go
ing on last year and this year. Registra
tion forms were also placed inside ori-
entation packets.
On Nov. 2, however, registration time
was over. Soni and the governmental
affairs committee made sure that those
students who were registered to vote had
no excuse not to.
“Usually the polling booths have to be
in walking distance, and if you know
Brookside, it’s kind of hard to walk down
with all the hills,” she said.
Even the kids with cars may have
found it easier to take advantage of the
ride to the polls, according to Soni.
Nationally, voter turnout for the 18 to
30 age group was up 9.3 percent com
pared to the 2000 presidential election.
Exit polls have estimated that it may
have been even higher in swing states
like Pennsylvania.
Many national voting groups includ
ing the WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote,
Youth Vote Coalition, Citizens Change
and the League of Women Voters were
able to surpass their goal of 20 million
18- to 30-year-old voters. According to
the National Election Pool, 20.9 million
young voters turned out at the polls.
Director of Student Affairs Ken Miller,
who has been on staff since 1988, said
the Behrend showing was encouraging.
“This is hands down the most involved
VOTING, continued on Page 3
A Penn State Erie Student Publication
irpen . campus image as we
installing signs along Jordan and Station Rds.
Ream also said, “There are a number
of sources contributing funds: Building
Projects, college money and construction
funds for the Junker Center.”
Streeter remarked that, “The signs are
considered movable equipment, so the
movable equipment fund for the Junker
Center helped to pay for the ‘ Wayfinding
Engineering students
Program highlights opportunities in technical fields
The SEET department held a pro
gram called Engineering Ideas In Ac
tion last Thursday in Roche Hall. The
event, which was held from five to
seven, was designed to show students
different engineering projects from the
seniors with faculty members talking
about engineering opportunities right
here at Penn State Behrend.
Each table at the event had its own
project to show off to students. The
computer engineering department
showed off a robot they built that used
motion sensors to recognize when a
person could walk by and it could even
talk to that person. The electrical engi
neering technology department showed
off a machine that could levitate a metal
ball using electricity. The software en
gineering department showed off how
applying software to a remote control
car could make it move.
Overall each table had something in-
P&S carry
firearms
College campuses, like any commu
nity, are subject to crime. Behrend is
certainly no exception, which is why
some members of Behrend’s highly
trained Police and Safety staff are armed.
“Behrend has six full time, sworn po
lice officers,” said James Amann, man
ager of Police and Safety Services,
“Many students don’t realize that they
are actual police and therefore should be
equipped as actual police.”
Along with the six full time police of
ficers, Behrend also has two full time
property guards who are authorized to
issue parking tickets and other citations.
Police and Safety also has a student aux
iliary staff with many of the same respon
sibilities as the property guards. Of these
POLICE, continued on Page 4
By Jeff Smen
staff writer
By Dan Snedden
assitant news editor
as provi
Project.’ Those funds were given to the
campus by the state when the Junker
center was built.... Money from the
Junker Center will benefit the entire cam
pus, not just the Junker Center.”
Streeter also said, “Operational funds
will probably help pay for the rest of the
phases of the project, which may likely
teresting to see or someone to talk to
about any kind of engineering available
at Behrend. Many of Behrend’s engi
neering clubs like Society of Women
Engineers and Society of Automotive
Engineers could be seen at the event
trying to recruit new members. The So
ciety of Automotive Engineers showed
off their car at the event which has been
in the SMV Competition since 2002.
When asked about the event, Troy
Tancraitor, EEBD 07, at the show said,
“Well I think it’s a good opportunity to
basically allow the various engineering
branches to introduce themselves bet
ter to students and to see what kind of
opportunities are available to first-year
undergraduate students, and I’d say it’s
kind of encouraging to show that there
are many opportunities here at Behrend
compared to University Park.”
Amy McCullough, ME 07 the presi
dent of the Society of Women Engi
neers, helped make this event possible.
McCullough said that the women en-
Safety officers.
Vol. LII No. 12
ised commuters with direction, B
come from University Park, so the stu
dents here shouldn’t be affected.”
Even though the entire “Wayfinding
and Signage Plan” will take several years
to complete, according to Dr. Burke, the
first phase regarding the nine directional
signs should be “completed shortly,
within a week, weather permitting.”
in action
gineers came up with the idea to hold
the event in order to help socialize all
of the engineers at the school, and the
school has been meaning to have some
thing like this event for a while now.
At the event McCullough said, “We had
an excellent turnout. We ran out of food
in the first twenty minutes and we
planned enough for approximately 150
students so we had a really good turn
out and I was really pleased with that.
The entire faculty was very helpful,
getting everything together, setting
their displays set up, and staying in
contact with me.”
Jim Lloyd, PLET 01, said, “I thought
it was very helpful and interesting in
choosing my major. If they have this
event again next year I would definitely
recommend all freshmen going.”
After the big turnout to the event last
Thursday, it appears the event did go
very well. It wouldn’t be surprising if
Behrend’s engineering department did
this event every year.