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THE BEHREND REAcoN
Friday, March 31, 2006
Soni withdraws from Presidential Election
By Robert Frank
distribution manager
The 2006 2007 Student Government Association
election continues to be filled with surprises. This started
two weeks ago when the Elections Committee found
Deepti Soni's runningmate Ross Zambanini, ineligible to
run for vice president. This decision was subsequently
overturned by a closed vote of the Senate of the Student
Government Association two weeks ago 10-7-1.
After a week of campaigning and debating, the
Soni/Zambinini ticket withdrew from the election. This
came as a quite a surprise to many students who were in
support of the Soni/Zambinini ticket. "We decided to
remove our ticket after the Thursday debate," said Soni.
When asked why they removed ticket so late in the race,
Soni replied, "I received a letter last Thursday notifying
me that I was accepted into one of the best programs that
I was interested in pursuing." In reaching her decision
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Finding funds,
Though a number of proposals have been turned in to
the Student Activity Fee (SAF) committee, many may
not be funded. The Penn State Student Activity Fee
proposals have reached their all time high totaling
$826,636,000 this year. However, the budget for fund
ing these requests is only $260,000 because there is
only $20,000 a month available. Last year, the total
asked for was $335,000, which was a decrease from the
year before at $456,000.
The most important events, according to Ken Miller,
the Director of Student Affairs, that occur all year long
will be funded first. These events are the Lion
Entertainment Board (LEB), The Behrend Beacon, the
Speaker Series, Intramurals and events that occur dur
ing orientation to welcome incoming students.
There are other events that have been requested to be
funded but the SAF committee will have to sort
through them. "We do look at the quality of the propos-
Students select single ceremony
Students on campus have elected to have the graduation ceremony at The Tullio
Arena this spring. An e-mail survey sent out to seniors asked for student preferences
and requests for upcoming graduation. The survey included concerns such as the
demand for unlimited seating and for all students to graduate together. According to
Kris Torok, a member of the commencement committee, "Two ceremonies would have
been divided by schools in the Junker Center...the problem that arose with this would
be that people who had minors, or possibly friends in other majors could not attend
their ceremony."
...4-5
...7-8
.9-10
Several students have no problem with a potential split, and in fact many were
"excited to hear that they were splitting up the ceremony." This cuts the time to rough
ly two hours, allowing students and families to remain comfortable.
While administration is in favor of the idea to hold one ceremony, Seraina Naef, a
graduating senior this year, thought dividing the ceremony would have been conven
ient. She would have "preferred to have a shorter ceremony, considering that the full
ceremony the last few years was well over four hours." She added, "What about stu
dents with elderly family who will have trouble parking, walking, and sitting for four
hours?"
Jayne Simon, Director of Special Events, believes that the choice is much better,
"There are a lot of negatives in two ceremonies." While it does allow more freedom
for tickets, it doesn't allow as much as people would like.
A Penn State Erie Student Publication ft 3 i 200 e
Soni said, "This is and was one of the hardest decisions I
have ever had to make in my life."
The decision led to an uncontested election for the pres
ident and vice president positions. Meredith Straub, SGA
president elect, said, "I wanted a fair competitive race for
the position, and I really don't feel that students should be
handed a president." She reaffirmed her platform position
by stating, "We ran because I felt that my ticket would
serve the student body best."
Many students felt uncomfortable having an election
with no contest. "Do I get to vote or do I get a president?"
asked Jerry Pohl at the SGA meeting two weeks ago. Dr.
Ken Miller, the advisor for SGA as well as the director of
Student Affairs, said, "Well, I always prefer to see a con
tested election. We had one this year it just did not finish
that way." He also added that there are no provisions for
a re-election in the event of an uncontested race.
Despite being the Straub/Middlemiss opponent, Soni
added, "I am confident that SGA will be fine next year.
The next leaders will fight for the students as stated in
their platform. They both possess
leadership qualities and I am confi
dent that with the help of returning
members and of new ideas that the
students will present, SGA will be
By Miranda Krause
staff writer
trilk3 19 Or psu edu
By Greg Lanich
staff writer
gdlllB@psu.edu
Commencement
strong next year."
Straub also added her thoughts on
the SGA as a whole, saying, "Ken
and I will perform our duties despite
the circumstances of the election; fur
thermore, if any student does have a
suggestion or comment, please come
and speak to me about it."
Despite the praise of the process
Zambinini said, "The election
showed a lot of character and also
showed a lot of ugliness. I feel that
several students made it personal
rather than professional."
a factor for SAF committee
al," says Miller. Therefore, the best way to ensure a
proposal will be approved is to have all the information
clearly listed on the proposal.
The committee consists of seven students who carry
a lot of weight on their shoulders as to which events get
approved. Miller says, the committee has to ask, "Is
this event something the students are going to go to?"
The committee also has to review the proposals with
other questions such as: Are these fundable'? If this
event has been funded before how was the money
used? Does it fit the criteria and guidelines by the Penn
State University?
After these proposals are weeded through, the com
mittee is able to make approval decisions easier.
Seraina Naef, a student here at Behrend, is part of this
committee. Naef states, "Personally, I love being on
the committee because I love having my voice heard. I
love being able to have a say. We can actually put more
money in the hands of the students organizations."
"This process works," says Miller, "It's evolved to a
point that it's just unavoidable. There has to be a crite
ria."
continued, page 2
Salary soMflons considered
In the aftermath of the Penn State Senate's release of the salary data tables, Dr. Jack Burke
and a working group of three faculty members from the school of Humanities and Social
Sciences, including the department director, met on Tuesday. March 28 to discuss the possi
ble problems and solutions that are a result of the evident salary disparity. The first step that
Burke addressed was identifying the problem at Behrend. "We need to identify a problem,
draft a plan and fix the problems, - Burke said.
Even with the administration's recognition of the evident salary disparity, there are profes
sors who feel that a change needs to take place. Many professors are frustrated due to two
key concepts. The first concept is that some Behrend salaries are the lowest within the Penn
State system. According to the information released by the senate, Assistant Professors in the
school of Humanities and Social Sciences earn a median salary of just under $49,000 a year,
the lowest figure of any branch campus.
The second concept is that the Humanities and Social Sciences department ranks the low
est in median salary in Penn State Erie's campus. Professors in the School of Humanities earn
almost 50 percent less than those in the Business program. Many knew that there was a dis
crepancy in salaries; however, they were not aware of the extent of the inconsistencies. Some
professors at Behrend feel that this discrepancy is bad for morale. According to Eric Corty,
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, said. "Recognizing that we are being paid half of
another professor makes me feel like a chump. It feels like we are being underappreciated."
Burke and his working group have identified the problem of salary disparities; however, he
says that the process will be long. The problem that was encountered was the action of anoth
er Penn State campus dealing with a raise in wages. This raise in employee pay moved the
target for median salary. While developing a plan for adjustment, there are some avenues for
resources that Burke and his staff may choose. A possible solution for the administration to
pursue is asking University Park for money to compensate for the disparity and to close the
gap between campuses and individual schools.
Another aspect that may affect the expedience of this project is the factors that go into a
salary modification. Some of the subjects that come into consideration when formatting
salaries are years of service and a merit system that takes into account the quality of work
completed by each professor. Regardless of the circumstance, it will be a difficult task to
account for the money that is needed to make an apparent change.
Even with the efforts of the administration. there are still professors that are confused by
the Senate release. Dr. John Champagne, Associate Professor of English and Program Chair,
said, "We are still trying to make sense of the figures in the Faculty Senate Report. But if, in
fact, professors in Humanities and Social Sciences at Behrend are among the most poorly paid
in the Penn State System, we have to work together to address the problem."
oiMMINFIRMIMWMTRM.ge 'so • " .8 . I • • lei
By Christopher LaFuria
sports editor
Although many proposals may have to be looked
over, Miller says he likes to see that students are pro
posing to do so much on campus. The only aspect
Miller would like to see is more students involved in
the SAF committee.
Miller believes that most students tend to not get
involved because they may believe that SAF is more
for students who are majoring in business. The reality
is that it "attracts all students who care what is going on
at the campus," says Miller.
Some students are leaving this year so there will be
positions open for other students to get involved; how
ever, if you are in an elected position in SGA, you can
not become part of SAF. Miller says, "It is a really
good opportunity."
Although, this program continues to evolve into a
system that other Penn State Campuses admire, Naef
would like to have a bigger budget, "A lot of programs
come in with really good ideas, but we really don't
have enough to fund them."
Vol. LIII No. 25