KMnQI ■ ■ Chocolate, ’Pa#? Me// track, wKOj^^^KSS^KKKj^^E^B^^^m Pfjgf V^BH^^lfflaßMlßll^^^^B THE BEHREND BEACON Friday, April 15, 2005 Olympics empowers kids community volunteers sought Special Student, By Greg Hackett contributing writer Behrend is hosting its fourth annual Special Olympics Track Meet on April 27 in the Junker Center. The event will begin at 9 a.m. and will conclude at 2 p.m. The Special Olympics is an inter national organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellec tual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition. In the past three years this event has grown substantially and because of this, it is much harder to get enough volun teers to aid every athlete. Students do not need to have any prior knowledge of track and field to assist with the event. Volunteers are there to assist with events and also to encourage the athletes as they perform in their many different events including the softball throw, broad jump and many sprinting events. Past meets have been very successful but could have used much more help. Most volunteers came from the Behrend sports teams. The teams are a great help but cannot always make it because of game scheduling conflicts. This year the campus community, not just the athletic community, is being asked to help out as much as possible. Every extra volunteer present at the meet makes the athletes that much more excited to be competing. “I’ve always had a blast helping out at the meets,” said Behrend alumni and former track and field captain Dave Masilunas. “I always found the time to go. It gave me a much greater appreci- Inside “ c c°; m “ ‘Sahara’ review, STUDENT LIFE, Page 8 Week in rock, STUDENT LIFE, Page 7 Sports commentary, SPORTS, Page 9 Contents News 1-3 Editorial 4 Humor. 6 Student Life 7-8 Sports 9-10 Contact Us Newsroom: 898-6488 Fax: 898-6019 E-mail: Behrendßeacon @ aol.com Our offices are located down stairs in the Reed Union Building. ation for what I was given and if I did n’t have a job right now I’d be coming back to help out again.” “It’s great to see the look on the ath letes’ faces while they compete and you know you helped put it there by cheer ing them on,” said Staci Banaszek, ACNTG 06. “It also feels good to help out the community.” Everyone is welcome to volunteer and the athletes and families of the ath letes are extremely grateful to anyone who does. For more information or to volunteer to help out, please visit the receptionist’s desk in the athletic office at the Junker Center or e-mail Greg Hackett at gmhl4l@psu.edu. Two Special Olympian youngsters race around the track in the Junker Center. The goal of the event is to empower individuals with disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society. relief funds By Contributing Writers Food flew and funds grew as the American Red Cross - Greater Erie County Chapter held a fundraiser Wednesday. The first annual “Chow Down for Charity” event was sponsored by Jimmy Z’s Timeout Tavern to raise funds for disaster relief for local families. The relay-style eating contest raised near ly $5OO. Chow Down for Charity was created by two interns at the Red Cross, Katie Butler, MRKTG, 08 and Jenna Dominick, COMBA, 07. This is just one of the sev eral events the interns helped with this spring. Three co-ed fraternities from Penn State Behrend participated: Alpha Phi Omega, Delta Sigma Pi and Omicron Delta Kappa. Alpha Phi Omega is a national service fraternity based on the principles of scout ing. Each member has to perform 20 hours of service each semester. APhiO had 12 members participate and cheer on teammates. Delta Sigma Pi, an international busi ness fraternity, had 25 members attend. DSP sponsors service, fellowship and pro fessional events year-round. Omicron Delta Kappa also participated with Lisa Jacobs, Kyle Woodside and Catherine Franklin. ODK is a national honor society at Behrend and participates in various community service events throughout the year. There were two teams of seven people each. It was a relay eating contest, so the first person had to finish his food before tagging the next person’s start. Food items, provided by Jimmy Z’s, included Fat Chic sandwiches and Fat Boy hot dogs. “Last year the Greater Erie County Chapter of the American Red Cross was able to help 119 families who were hit with a disaster,” said Butler. “It’s a great feeling knowing that we were able to add to the aid that the Red Cross is able to pro vide. Overall, I would say that the event was a success. Especially considering it was the first of its kind.” A Penn State Erie Student Publicati<j)^^ y CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Student IT fee Every year Behrend students pay their tuition and housing fees, but they also are billed for other fees such as the Student Activity and the Information Technology (IT) fees. The IT fee was implemented for the ’9B - ’99 school year and has been around ever since. All students, including commuters, are billed for the IT fee, but most of that money stays at University Park. Less than half of that fee is returned to Behrend. According to the Penn State (http://www.psu.edu/itfee/), the IT fee funds such services as “Access Account, e-mail, high-speed Internet access, computer labs, Penn State’s Google search engine, comput er consultants and Help Desks, the Penn State Portal, per sonal Web space, eLion, LIAS and online library databases and research materials, Web storage space via [the] PASS or U-Drive, anti-virus software and m0re....” Behrend students pay $175 a semester. Less than half of the fee stays on campus The Help Desk support that is funded by the fee is not the same service as the student consultants for campus housing, according to Ron Hoffman, manager of College IT services. He says the fee does not pay for the service provided by the Residence Halls Technicians because not all Behrend stu dents (i.e. commuters) can take advantage of it. Over the years, the amount of the fee has risen slightly. During its first year of implementation, the fee was less than $lOO per semester. Currently, the fee sits at about $175 per semester. Hoffman says the increases have been staying at UP. The amount Behrend receives is sufficient “enough to get us by, but we can always use more,” said Hoffman. He said Behrend gets enough money “to provide good public lab resources for the students.” By Annie Sevin staff writer sent elsewhere Behrend is allotted fee money according to the number of registered students each year. Even though this is a small campus, keeping the IT services running is still rather expensive. There’s “not a lot of money to play around with,” said Scott Soltis, SGA President. “A lot is tied up in keeping things running.” Although Soltis thinks the distribution of the fee needs to be reexamined, he says “the money is being spent well down at UP; we have tangible results at Behrend because of [the fee].” Although all of the IT fee is sent to University Park every year, Dr. Jack Burke estimates that Behrend receives about 37 percent of the total back. For the ‘O3 - ‘O4 fiscal year, Behrend received $399,186. The campus was provided with less for the ‘O4 - ‘O5 fiscal year: $375,524. University Park Budget Committee members were unavailable to release actual dollar amounts sent by Behrend for the past two years. No one at Behrend could confirm those amounts either because a few years ago, UP central ized the IT budget, according to a Bursar office staff mem ber. website Centralizing the budget means that UP is the only campus that has access to the budget figures. Although no student enjoys paying these fees, Hoffman says he has received very few complaints about it. In fact, Todd Say, manager of IT Support Services, Hoffman and Soltis wish that more students would become involved in the decision-making process regarding Behrend’s portion of the IT fee. Soltis, concurring with Hoffman, says that a student com mittee would be tremendously helpful for the decision-mak ers regarding appropriating the fee. He says it’s a large fee (approximately three times the amount of the SAF fee), but the students do not seem interested in knowing where the money is going. Hoffman and Soltis are very interested in hearing any stu dent feedback regarding the IT fee. They asked that any stu dent interested in the committee or submitting feedback in general contact them: Scott Soltis at smss2o@psu.edu; and Ron Hoffman at ronh@psu.edu, (x 6250). Vol. LII No. 28 Soltis wins Tolerance award By Sarah Weber staff writer Scott Soltis received the Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award, one of four university-wide awards that honor student achievement. Soltis is the only one of this year’s recipients not from the University Park campus. This is the third consecutive year a Penn State Erie student has won one of these awards. Edalia George won the Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award for the 2003-2004 school year and Brandi Hovis won the John W. Oswald Award, a leadership award, for the 2002-2003 school year. The Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award is given “to bring recognition to broad-minded students who openly promote responsible citizenship and SOLTIS, continued on Page 3
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