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Friday, November 9, 2007
Rising video game
costs are troubling
for students.
Will students still
buy them?
Find out on page 7.
Behrend Volleyball
loses to Altoona in
AMCC semifinals.
Details on page 10.
Students upset over
Writers Guild of
America strike.
Read their reactions
on page 7.
Student-run
program focuses on
a cleaner campus.
Find out how on
page 3.
I . 'ontents
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898-6488
Fax:
898-6019
E-mail: cslsoos@psu.edu
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
Our offices are located downstairs
in the Reed Union Building.
m.r
Erie was hit by the first lake effect storm of the year. The heavy snowfall made driving conditions difficult and classes were cancelled
Wet and heavy snowfall
brings down power lines,
closes Behrend's campus
By Lenny Smith
news editor
1r55046@ psu edu
The first snow fall of the season
brought some unwanted companions
along with it. Penn State Behrend was
left without power forcing administra
tors to shut down campus on Tuesday,
Nov. 6.
A wet and heavy three and a hall
inches of snow fell over the Erie area,
according to meteorologists at MET
TV. The snow quickly accumulated in
the morning hours and brought down
power lines all over the area. Behrend
was included in the over 15.000 cus
tomers that were without electricity
Tuesday.
Senior Director of Business and
Operations. John Ream, said that
Behrend lost power around 7 a.m. and
by 7:15 a.m. the administration was on
the phone with Penelec. "When we
reported the outage to Penelec they told
us it would he an estimated two hours
before power would he restored to cam
pus,- Ream said. It's a group decision
where a lot of different aspects have to
be looked at, Ream said, and at 8:05
a.m. they made the call to delay classes
until noon, expecting the power would
return in time for afternoon classes to
still take place.
As soon as the decision to delay
classes was made, Behrend officials
were getting the word out to the com
munity. "We had a live person at the
phone," Ream said. Anyone who had
registered for the PSUTXT emergency
The Clarks play to a packed Erie Hall
1-3
By Liz Carey
staff writer
eacsllo@ .su.edu
On Thursday, Nov. 8, Erie Hall was jammed full of
people as they all rocked out to the hit band, The
Clarks. The Lion Entertainment Board and Theta
Phi Alpha were extremely excited to present all
Behrend Student with the opportuni
ty to see The Clarks with Zox as the
opener.
7-8
...9-10
These are four members of The
Clarks, Scott Blasey on the guitar and
lead vocals, Robert James also on
guitar and vocals, Greg Joseph on the
bass and vocals and Dave Minarik on
drums and vocals. The members of
the band met at Indiana University of
Pennsylvania and realized how good
they sounded together, so as they
slowly gained popularity they quit
their part-time jobs and began to play
up and down the east coast. Although
these four guys began as simply a
college band, 21 years and a quar
ter-million albums later they are
having the time of their life, and The Clarks played to a pack house of students playing fan favorites like, "On Saturday.-
A Penn State Behrend Student Publication
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text messaging service were notified at
8:45 a.m. "Things happened pretty
quickly and there really wasn't time to
get anything out for the 8 a.m. classes,"
Ream said. Many professors and stu
dents with 8 a.m. classes went to their
classrooms only to find them dark and
unable in which to teach.
"As late at 11:30 a.m.. Penelec had
not been able to find the fault on the
line and they told us it would be anoth
er two hours. - Ream said. "At that
point the decision was made to cancel
classes for the day and evening. - At
that point. another message was sent
out to students and professors via text
message, the school's status was
changed on the wehsite. and local news
media outlets were notified. Each indi
vidual school was also notified by
phone. Ream said.
The School of Humanities and Social
Sciences just happened to have a cou
ple administrators in the office when
the cancellation call came. "We made
an attempt to reach them (professors)
by phone because we don't know who
has that text messaging and who does
n't.'' said Administrative Specialist
Diane Nowacinski. "We left messages
and we did catch some of them, but
some were already en route. We just
did it as a courtesy. We weren't under
any obligation to call." Each individual
school has its own procedures on noti
fying its faculty and staff. The H&SS
Department also hung signs throughout
the Kochel Building to notify those
who showed up for classes.
agree they would never want to change what they do,
break up the band or stop playing. Two members
confess to never having touched a guitar before col
lege, but they all agree that they were musicians
from birth, having a deep love for music.
The concert was packed full of The Clarks hit
songs such as "Sh;mmy Low", "On Saturday", "Let
It Go", and "Penny on the Floor". The concert's
Students have mixed reactions,
concerns after campus closure
By Lenny Smith
new.s editor
1rN5046(a psu.edu
Even though the Penn State Behrend
campus closure on Nov. 6 was due to a
power outage. many students looked at
their day off as a "snow day. - Students
could be seen playing "snow football"
and building snowmen throughout the
campus. But with this fun, students had
mixed emotions over the closure.
With so many people to contact. it is
impossible to catch everyone before
they leave for classes if they are not
signed up for the PSUTXT system.
Many students had no one but them
selves to blame for going to class after
the campus was closed. "I wish I would
have signed up for the test messaging
thing. I had no idea classes were can
celed,- Sophomore Andrew Harmon
said. "I am definitely going to sign-up
for that now. - With the power out all
over campus, the emergency text mes
saging system was the only way for
campus administrators to contact stu
dents. Behrend officials updated the
school's status on the website, hung
signs throughout campus and notified
local news media to broadcast the clo
sure. However, for those in the area
without power, which would he almost
everyone, a text message was his or her
only source of information.
Students with exams scheduled for
Tuesday were particularly excited about
the cancellation. Sophomore Brad
Troyan said, "I was glad (classes were
cancelled) because I got an extra two
days to study for my exams that were
supposed to be on Tuesday." Professors
who had exams scheduled weren't as
`•} Vol. LIV No. XI
waumpur f
Kee an McGre
excited. Dr. Archie Loss called himself
lucky because he didn't have any exams
scheduled for Tuesday. "(The cancella
tion) threw me off a little hit. (but) I'm
not making any changes as a result of
it. - Loss said. "If I would have had an
exam scheduled. it would have been
more of a problem.-
Students that braved the cold to get
food were not short of complaints about
the state of the campus. "I think the
sidewalks were pretty had: Freshman
Minds' Geihel said. Geihel said that she
was not happy about the snow and slush
on the campus sidewalk. "I got water all
through my shoes." she complained.
Sophomore Amber Wilks said. "The
sidewalks were a big inconvenience for
those of us who forgot our hoots at
home. It was a real big problem for
those who are handicapped or on
crutches. - Calls for comment to the
maintenance department were not
returned by press time on Thursday
evening
Students were left with not much to
do but find something to do outside
since the campus was without electrici
ty for about six hours. - I was very
annoyed with the outage. - Troyan said.
"I couldn't do anything that I needed to
get done. - Students were met with
another let down when the power came
back on. the cable was out. Time Warner
Cable said the cable television service
was out because two feeds on Jordan
Road were dead. Service was returned
to students on Wednesday night.
With all the inconveniences that came
with the closure of campus on Nov. 6.
students could all agree on one thing. It
was great surprise to have a day off.
audience varied from students who knew every word
of every song and were really rocking out to adults
from throughout the community. Brittany Sexton, a
freshman communications major said this about the
concert, "Even though I had never heard of the
Clarks previous to this concert I really enjoyed their
music." To order a CD or find more information
visit their website, clarksonline.com.
The band that opened, The Zox.
consisted of Dan Edinberg on
bass, John Zox on drums. Eli
Miller on guitar and vocals and
Spencer Swain on violin. The
concert they performed was the
first of a tour for their new record
coming out in January 2008
which is titled "Line in the
Sand'', it is the follow-up record
to their debut record.
- SideOneDummy - . The new
record is described as "a huge
leap forward in both musical
maturity and potential for reach
ing audiences world wide." For
more information on the band
visit the website zoxband.com
NEE
'or/THE BE - AREND BEACON