DEIIREIID D IICOII Friday, September 7, 2007 Find out what's new with the Apple iPhone and iPod on page 2. Read about the changing nature of war on page 3. Find out the scoop on Penn State football. Turn to page 10. Contents News Opinion Humor Student Life.. Sports Contact Us Newsroom 898-6488 Fax: 898-6019 E-mail: cslsoos@psu.edu Our offices are located downstairs in the Reed Union Building. Suite life is a pretty sweet life, say Behrend students By Connor Sattely staff writer cisso6o@psu.edu Like most incoming freshmen, Jason Hudson was nervous about what his first dorm room would be like. Imagine his surprise when he discovered his rooming arrangement would include his own double-size bed, private housekeeping twice a week, his own bath room, Wi-Fi Internet and a 27-inch TV. His room, however, would be located several miles down the road at the nearby Days Inn. Hudson, a freshman from Franklin, PA, arrived at Penn State Behrend in July to schedule his classes, and found out that the campus had about 330 students who had no place to stay on campus. He quickly became part of a long waiting list including many confused freshmen. It wasn't until the FTCAP meetings that Hudson found what became his only option a nearby hotel, the Days Inn. Tony Bruno, of Scott Enterprises, Days Inn's parent company, offered the students on the waiting list a different solution to the prob lem "Early one week I received a phone call from a frustrated woman," he recalls, "who needed alternative for housing her daughter." After that, says Bruno, the calls began to flood in. Days Inn first contacted the school with only around a month left before the start of classes. Bruno and Scott Enterprises decided to offer what became almost an entire floor of the Days Inn hotel to students with no on-cam- there could be as many as 1,600 freshmen in just pus housing contracts. a few years. So, on move-in day, Hudson found himself - Randall Leering, the Director of Housing at CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Behrend, says that the recent trend of high in a group of 32 students who would be living, A shuttle service runs twice a day to transport students between at least temporarily, in a hotel room for col-demand must continue before a new residence campus and the Days Inn Hotel, located near Behrend's campus. hall can be built. Continued on Page 2 Gaffigan to take Erie Beyond the Pale By Jeff Deßello staff writer jjdso4s@psu.edu On Dec. 7, comedian Jim Gaffigan will be coming to Behrend to perform his comedy act. The performance will be held in the Junker Center. The doors are sched uled to open at 7:30 p.m. His shows have been selling out very quickly in his recent acts and shows have been added to accommodate the increased demand. If the show sells out quickly, there may be a second show scheduled after his first set. There will be an opening act and Gaffigan will follow. Gaffigan is scheduled to perform an approximately hour long set. Jim Gaffigan is one of the funniest men on the plan et and his comedic works have been featured in vari ous types of media. Gaffigan's one hour routine; Beyond the Pale, was featured as a Comedy Central Special and the Beyond the Pale comedy tour has been selling out all over the country. The DVD of the act went gold within the first six months. The tour has pro pelled Gaffigan to be recognized as one of the premier comedians in the country. Gaffigan's comedic genius was identified very early in his career. After his first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, the host personally enlist ed Gaffigan's service to develop a sitcom for World Wide Pants. The show was titled Welcome to New York, and it came with great critical acclaim. He has, since that time, appeared countless times on The Late Show with David Letterman, and also appeared many Influx of new students causes parking problems ...5-6 ...7-8 By Libby Pascuzzi staff writer eaps 107 @psu.edu Upon returning to Penn State Behrend this semester, students may notice the slightly more crowded cafeteria, library, classroom, and parking lots. If you find yourself circling Erie Hall for a parking spot or the "Banana lot" and come up short-handed, you are not alone. Most commuters and residents with cars have noticed that these more popular places fill up quickly. According to Police and Safety, spaces in the Junker Center lot and the Western lots are available. Even during peak hour, which is around 10 in the morning, places in the Ohio lot are also readily available. You may find the distance to your classes an inconcovenience to traverse, esepecially with the approaching winter season, but a little walk never hurt any one. Some students and staff members find the fact that freshmen are permitted to have cars on campus a controversial subject. Many colleges, including University Park, do not allow freshmen to have cars. This is due to the fact that the resources a student may find themselves needing are not within a short walk. There are no convenience stores around the corner and, while the bookstore in Reed does offer some very limited items, it doesn't meet the needs of most. Some options include riding the bus. The bus schedule, although available, is quite confusing, making stops and causing more trouble than having a car. Some speculate that people are receiving reserved spaces. To clear up this mis- A Penn State Behrend Student Publication lege. Each morning, a 15-person van leaves the hotel at 7:30 a.m. to transport the students to the campus. Another leaves the Reed parking lot almost thirteen hours later at 8 p.m. to drive them back to the hotel. Between the two shuttles, the students are unable to return to their rooms, unless they can find an alterna tive ride. That, says Hudson, is fine with him. "It's not that bad having to stay at the campus all day," Hudson says. "I spend most of my time at the gym, lifting and getting sidetracked there. I study when I have to, and I definitely have extra time to do it." Mikhail Cooperberg, a junior who also elected to live in the hotel, couldn't disagree more. times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Over the fol lowing years, Gaffigan has co-starred with Ellen DeGeneres on her sitcom The Ellen Show. Also, over the two years following his work on The Ellen Show, Gaffigan had recurring roles on the popular sitcoms Ed and That 70's Show. He had smaller parts on a lot of other shows on all different networks, including: all three of the Law and Orders, Sex and the City, and Third Watch. Currently, he is featured in a starring role on TBS's hit show My Boys. Some of Gaffigan's best work has been done as sup porting roles in major motion pictures. A couple of the movies where he makes memorable appearances include 13 Going on 30 and Three Kings. One of his funniest supporting roles is in the movie Super Troopers, where he played the unsuspecting victim of the "meow" prank of the state troopers where Gaffigan was assaulted by an onslaught of "meows." The consensus around campus is that the Dec. 7 per formance is sure to be, "ridiculously funny" and stu dents say, "anyone who can attend, should attend." Assistance is needed from the student body to help fill the different committees used to set up and keep the show in order including security and production. Anyone interested in helping make the show a suc cess, should contact Concert Committee Chair Brad Kovalcik (BCKsol3@psu.edu) or Associate Advisor of Student Activities, Jill Caldwell (JMP3o@psu.edu). conception, no one at Behrend has a reserved space or special treatment. It's every person for themself when it comes to finding a place to park their car. According to John Ream, the Senior Director of Business and Operations, there have been no complaints of the current parking situation. Ream has been a mem ber of the Behrend community since 1984. He made the statement that the park ing situation has actually greatly improved over the past few years. Three years ago, parking was so bad, police had to direct traffic to try to get rid of the conges tion from the people leaving campus and those trying to get onto campus. Since then they have added more lots and more spaces. Ream states that parking is, "not maxing out". Growth that was also felt in the classroom was solved with the con structin of the REDC. Parking is available in the Junker Center lots for those who have classes in the REDC. According to Ream, there are currently no future building plans. If more lots were built, the costs would fall on the staff and the students. Those in charge of the decision making about the Behrend campus also strive to keep the aesthetic appeal of the campus. Next time you walk to your psychology class or your anthro pology class, or over to Bruno's, be sure to look around you and notice the lush vegetation and the trees that offer you shade. Behrend was designed to be a pedes trian campus, meant to be walked through. However convenient it would be to have a big concrete parking lot behind every building, designers try to conserve the "green space." .LE :.Y "It sucks," states Cooperberg, who roomed in Niagara and Ohio his first two years at Behrend. "My first class isn't until one o'clock on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. hut I still need to wake up at six-thirty to come to the campus and do nothing. - Cooperberg found out about the Days Inn's offer by contacting an advisor who works with international students. The advisor suggested the hotel as an alter native option to on-campus housing. Cooperberg, who was out of options at that point, had to seriously con sider it. The owners of Scott Enterprises felt that since they owned several hotels in the area, they could accommodate the school by providing this option for the students. They evaluated the cost of rooming on campus and, considering the benefits of a hotel room, such as housekeeping, amenities and food, tried their best to create a price which was com parable to on-campus housing. The resulting effect, claims Cooperberg, is a charge of around $l,OOO per month for a single room, and a cost of $7OO for each roommate for a double room. For a double room in Lawrence, Niagara, and Perry, the total cost for a full semes ter only comes to $1,910, equaling about $477 per month. So, what is Behrend doing about the lack of space on campus? Everyone has heard about the record-size freshman class this year, which topped 1,000 students. Applications were up 15 percent for the fall semester and the number of students committed is up 21 percent over this time last year. If this increasing trend continues, Comedian Jim Gaffigan will make Behrend students roar with laughter at the Junker Center on Dec. 7th. Vol. LIV No. II CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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