The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, March 23, 2007, Image 1

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ver the walls." uation presents,
- Kyle Lindey,- Nikki Kaschaue
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Read up on Chris
Brown's latest opinion
column, "This Week in
Politics," on page 4.
Check out Liz Cybulski's
Humor column about the
boys from Lawrence Hall
on page 6.
Mike Stetz is this week's
Athlete of the Week.
Read more about his
skills on page 10.
ontents
News..
Editorial.
Puzzle..
Humor
Student Life
Sports..
t :”.tiact
Newsroom
898-6488
Fax:
898-6019
E-mail: cslsoos@psu.edu
Our offices are located downstairs
in the Reed Union Building.
Multi Cultural Council flyers vandalized during diversity week
Signs were torn, tattered, and taken down during
Diversity Week at Penn State Behrend. Diversity Week
is a week of programs put on by the Multi Cultural
Council where students display different cultures.
There are programs every day that give insight to the
many cultures Behrend has on its campus.
However, the week's events were abruptly interrupt
ed by intentional vandalism. "Someone was going
around tearing up the signs, spitting on signs, changing
the words of the signs and worst of all someone
changed it from saying Culture Week to Creature
Week," states the MCC President Nadine Granjean.
Nevertheless, this was not the only issue; the signs that
were being vandalized belonged to the organizations
Association of Black Collegians (ABC) , Organization
of African Students (OAS), and National Society of
Black Engineers (NSBE), all of which are African
American organizations. The MCC consists of 12
organizations for all types of people.
According to Granjean. the African American com
munities on the Behrend campus are very upset that
nothing has been done, "It's as if our needs are not
being met. We're not asking for upheaval and drama,
but we have been blatantly disrespected and no one has
come to our aid."
Other than the posters that wer changed to "Creature
Week," the defacement of NSBE's posters were
strongly offensive and have some students claiming it
may be due to racism. NSBE has a program called
"Black Jeopardy" where the students ask questions on
past and current figures in the African American com
munity. According to MCC' representatives someone
scratched, the word black off the paper and wrote
white instead. In fact, the organizations claim that all
the "black organizations" had posters and fliers that
Students workload expands beyond
the classroom due to part-time jobs
For many Penn State Behrend students the day does not end when their last
class is over. Many students go back to their dorms and houses to work on their
homework or just hang out with their friends. But others are on their way to their
other responsibility: their job. Some of these working students are just working
for extra money, but others are working to pay rent, their tuition and other living
expenses.
Behrend junior Greg Rothenberg says he works 35 to 40 hours a week to pay
rent and for the part of his tuition that isn't covered by financial aid. Rothenberg
says that working does make going to school more difficult, but it does help him
develop good time management skills. "Working while going to school has real
ly made me learn how to better manage my time. I didn't work when I first start
ed school, and it was hard to get used to at first." He also says that working lim
its the amount of time he has to work on school work. He has to fit in projects
and assignments between classes and work, which can sometimes be a difficult
task. While he says this is an obstacle, he does, however, manage to maintain
good grades. "It would be nicer to do some work in the afternoon or evenings,
but overall I still do well in school."
Continued on page 2.
Travel delays leave some Behrend students stranded
As temperatures in Erie finally
began to show signs of spring, Penn
State Behrend students made they
way back to campus this week aft(
spring break. However, for some stu
dents, 'made their way back' does not
begin to describe the frustrating ends
to many spring break vacations. No
matter where Behrend students trav
eled to over break, whether it was
home, Mexico, or the Caribbean, it
seems as if everyone has a story
about their trip back to school.
7-8
...9-10
Last weekend, winter struck the
Northeast with another powerful
storm. The storm consisted of sleet,
freezing rain, and snow which ulti
mately froze all Northeastern travel.
Airlines, such as US Airways, had as
many as 100,000 stranded passengers
system wide.
According to US Airways, comput-
Behrend students experienced delays and waited anxiously in airports like the people above
er problems, airline staffing rules, and
throw-up all
A Penn State Behrend Student Publication
By Adell Coleman
contributing writer
By Jason Juniewicz
contributing writer
By Lenny Smith
assistant news editor
changed in sim
ilar ways.
think the
students have a
right to be
upset," states
Andres Herrera
MCC Adult
advisor as well
as the Director
of Educational
Equity
Diversity
Programs in the
Division of
Student Affairs.
don't think it
should have
come down to
this. The stu-
dents are simply
trying to give
insight to who
they are and
where they
come from."
However,
Herrera makes
the argument
that even though this is not fair, the students may be
making it into a bigger deal than it is. "I don't think
that it is an attack on the African American students
alone, I think it is an attack on the whole organization
and this is something that diversity brings out of peo
ple." According to Herrera, the bigger problem is that
most of the student body believes the MCC is only for
students of color, and it is not, it is for everyone.
"We are a family. We stick together no matter what the sit-
The message board outside the Multi Cultural room lists organizations and their events
Behrend Residence Halls suffer repeated
damages during spring semester
Niagara Hall has had problems with damages all year long. These damages have
ranged from minor things such as garbage not being taken out to major things such as
broken glass. It will be the residents of the hall who will end up paying for these dam-
Each damage on average gives the entire hall a $25 charge. The cost of the damage
is split up between all the residents of the hall, so one damage on its own does not cost
each resident much money. However, there are so many damages that Niagara Hall
residents will end up paying quite a bit at the end of the semester. As of March 6th,
there was $4,117.50 in damages, which comes out to a cost of about $19.80 per per-
Niagara Hall second floor resident assistant Kyle Lindey says some of the damages
have been bizarre. He mentioned an instance of sauerkraut being found in the sink.
"Who has sauerkraut?" he said. He also mentioned some damages which he says he
finds disgusting, including the "removal of puke, urine and beer from a recycling bin,"
which was another charge to the hall. "There's been a lot of vomit," he said. "There
has been throw-up all over the walls."
Continued on page 2.
Nothing has been done since the discovery of the
"Creature Week" flyers; there has been talk of protests
and sit-ins, but nothing final. Some students have con
tacted local news stations. "I don't want anything big
to come from this," Cranjean said, "I just want us to he
heard fairly. I just want students, teachers, faculty, staff
and everyone else to not just say we have a voice, but
actually hear our voice. "
By Tommy Phillips
staff writer
Vol. LIII No. XX
other problems slowed US
Airways' attempts to clear the
backlog. In addition, the air
line's flights on Sunday were
already nearly sold out with
275,000 passengers booked.
Spokeswoman for the
Allegheny County Airport
Authority JoAnn Jenny said,
"It's just a busy time of year
with spring break, and then with
that storm, that really put a
wrench in the works for a lot of
folks"
Numerous Behrend students
were among the thousands of
people that were stuck on planes
for up to nine-and-a-half hours
or slept in terminals with dis
posable pillows and blankets.
Junior Danielle Brown trav
eled to Jamaica for an all-inclu
sive trip through expedia.com.
Brown was scheduled to return
to the states on Friday, but
Continued on page 2.