DEIIREIID D IICOII
Friday, September 7, 2007
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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