Du :Icon
Friday, December 7, 2007
ongressiona
candidate Foust
campaigns at
B ehrend
By Rachel Reeves
copy editor
who had served for six years previous.
During that term. he re-established the
Human Relations Commission for Erie, and
stabilized the county library system. Foust
says that one of his top priorities was to
"attend two meetings of every principality
and borough I represent. - This is something
that he is completing for his term on
Council, and plans to carry into his next
political position.
Foust supported the smoking ban, which
prevents people from smoking cigarettes in
public buildings. As a former smoker, he
believes that while people have the right to
smoke they also have the right to refrain
from smoking. and he protected from sec
ond-hand smoke. He is against the potential
tire plant in Erie. which would burn tires to
recycle them. Foust says that "the plant
would burn 80(X)0 tires per day. and would
need to keep a four-or five-day supply on
site. This would mean somewhere around
400,0(X) tires. - He is also against pollutants
that would he released into the air from the
Concerning major national issues, one of
Foust's priorities is to bring the troops in
from Iraq as soon as possible, preferably
within the year. Also, he would like to see
universal healthcare, which could he funded
by money currently spent on the War in Iraq
and on Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy. He
supports the HR6 hill, which would mandate
a gas mileage of 35 mph and rollback tax
cuts. Having studied education for his bach
elors degree, he advocates the No Child Left
Behind but would like to see some major
changes, like more funding (the program is
currently $3O million underfunded), accom
modate the learning levels for various stu
dents, and make the evaluation process more
in-depth for the students.
As far as higher education is concerned,
he does not believe that America is ready for
universal collegiate education. However, he
does want to focus on making two-year
degrees more accessible to potential stu
dents, he sees it as a good way for someone
to learn a new skill and add to the work
force.
He is running against Phil English, a
Republican. Other candidates running for
the position are Democrats Kathy
Dahlkemper, Tom Myers. Mike Waltner ,
and Independent Steve Porter.
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Fuller joined the Army National
Guard Alpha Company Infantry when
he was 25 years old. He said he mainly
joined the Guard to pay for school, but
some nudging from his friend got him
to go through with it. After signing up,
Fuller volunteered to take his first tour
of Iraq in December 2004. He said that
he chose to go now rather than later so
that it wouldn't stop his progress in
E-mail: cslsoos@psu.edu I school.
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Behrend blacked out... again
By Lenny Smith
nett's editor
1r550460 psu.edu
A power outage left Penn State Behrend in the dark
for the second time in three weeks after high winds
took down two electricity poles on Dec. 3.
At approximately 1:40 p.m. students were surprised
when dorm rooms. classrooms and cafeterias went
black. This most recent power outage again forced
campus administrators to cancel classes. The
PSUTXT system alerted students at 2:25 p.m.,
informing them that classes would be canceled until 6
As with the power outage on Nov. 13. Penelec's
estimate as to when the power would be restored was
incorrect and a new message was sent to students.
This message said that campus was closed for the rest
of the day, but would reopen again on Dec. 4.
Although most students enjoyed their day off on
Nov. 13. this time it was different. As dusk quickly
came over the campus, students realized that they
were forced to sit in their black rooms.
Just War theory discussed at Iraq war forum
The Iraq war tests the limits of the Just War theory daily. An explosion in Iraq is a threat to troops
By Scott R. Muska
student life editor
srmsoB2o psu.edu
There was a panel discussion held Wednesday night
at the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel concerning the
justification of the war in Iraq.
The members of the panel that spoke at the event to
a number of students, faculty and members of the gen
eral public were Penn State Behrend Distinguished
Professor of Political Science and International Law,
Dr. John Gamble; Behrend Assistant Professor of
Philosophy. Joshua Shaw; and Mercyhurst Assistant
Professor of Religious Studies, Dr. Daniel McFee.
The discussion opened with a lecture from Gamble,
Behrend student prepares for second tour of duty
By Brianne Lilly
contributing writer
belsWOOPpsu.edu
While many Behrend students aren't
even thinking about what they will be
doing the next school year, Justin Fuller
is trying not to think about going back
to Iraq. Fuller, a 29-year-old
Communications and Media Studies
sophomore, will be serving his second
tour in Iraq sometime in 2008. The tour
will last 18 months, which includes six
months of training before serving over
seas for 12 months.
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..9-10
Before going off to fight, Fuller had
to go through six months of training,
which consisted mostly of situations
that their company could encounter. He
also said that they went over lots of first
aid tips because "that's big." His com
pany was then shipped off to Tikrit,
Iraq, located in the green zone of the
A Penn State Behrend Student Publication
country. Because of this, Fuller said, his
company was "rarely in any engage
ments."
When he wasn't in the field, Fuller
spent most of his time with his compa
ny on the base. Bases to present day are
more like cities and less like having to
rough it out in the wilderness. During
his time on the base, Fuller said he and
the other members of his company
could watch television, enjoy football
games, surf the Internet, and use the
provided telephone service to call loved
ones back home. They also had full
access to the same coverage of the war
that we would see on the news.
However, Fuller could tell what was
shown and what wasn't.
However, everything was not all fun
and games while Fuller was in Iraq. A
member of his company died, which to
him was a big wake-up call. "You see
someone that day," Fuller said, "and
they don't come back. It's real." While
his friend's death was a shock, Fuller
said that death is something that you
have to accept before one goes over
because of the nature of what was going
on. Fuller said, "I had accepted the fact
that I wasn't coming back."
By the end of his first tour in Iraq,
Fuller knew that there was a good
chance he would be making a return
Continued on page 2.
"When the power went out I decided it would be a
good time to take a nap, - sophomore Michael Buesink
said. "But then when I woke up it was terrible because
my whole apartment was dark and I couldn't see any
thing.-
Buesink, who lives at University Gates, decided to
leave U Gates and go to a friend's house that had elec
tricity.
Students found it particularly annoying that they
could not even make use of their time to study.
"It was ridiculous." sophomore Kim Maier said. "I
had to go to Starhucks so I had the Internet so I could
study for my exam that was scheduled for 8 a.m. on
Tuesday. -
More than academics were affected during the black
out. The Behrend men's basketball team was forced to
practice in the dark.
Senior Dan Zeigler said. "We had to practice in the
Junker renter] which was only lit by the emergency
lights." The Lions generally only have two days
between games. so a day off was out of the question.
"Coach wanted us to nm a little bit and we went over
some plays for our game against Hilbert, - Zeigler said.
which detailed his beliefs and concerns about the War
in Iraq. He began by saying that he was not going to
talk about whether or not the war was wise. "That
seems too easy. The answer seems to clear." Gamble
said. "Instead, I'm going to try to explain whether or
not the war is legal."
Gamble said. "You can ask what right there is to
enter a war, and then once you're in you can ask what
is appropriate to conduct the war."
He went on to explain several laws that had been put
into place by the United Nations concerning the
entrance into and conduct during war. He stressed a
need for definite laws to be passed that can set the bar
at a point where destruction and loss of life would
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Chris Brown/THE BEHREND BEACO
A student walks along the snowy sidewalks Tuesday on her way to class.
Vol. LIV No. XIV
The power was restored to campus at about S:4O
p.m., seven hours later. Maier thinks it took way too
long. "There is no reason why it should have taken
seven hours to get the power back." she said.
"Penelec officials were immediately called."
Director of Operations John Ream said. "They really
responded. They needed to install two new poles and
move the wires from the old to the new poles.-
"It takes time and the weather conditions made it
longer," Ream said. "They could only keep someone
in the bucket for so long. - •
Two extended power outages in less than a month
worry both students and administrators. Behrend is
powered by a single electrical feed, so when that feed
is interrupted, the campus is left without power.
"We've had discussions with Penelec to see if it is
possible for them to provide another feed that we
could switch over to while the primary feed is being
repaired, - Ream said. "[However] it would require the
installation of new lines.-
Ream said that this is revisited every time there is a
power outage. "Penelec has no good solution, - he
said.
warrant a legal entrance into a war, and that it needed
to be concrete enough that countries would be unable
to abuse it
He closed by saying that, "The only way to prevent
unjust wars is to make better use of international insti
tutions.-
Next to address the crowd was Shaw, who spoke
about the Just War Theory, which he described as
"how war and morality come together. It's a middle
road between realism and pacifism."
He was the only one of the three who vehemently
stated his opposition to the war in the opening state
ments. He spoke about how he wrote letters to the rep
resentatives in his area stating his opposition at the
beginning of the war, and he participated in numerous
public protests against the war.
"The reason I protested the war was that I felt there
was an absence of proper authority," Shaw said.
"What terrified me was that there was no public debate
over whether or not we should go to war before we
"It seemed as though the decision to go to war was
made for us before we were allowed to make the deci
sion for ourselves," he said.
He made it very clear during his speech that his
viewpoint on the war was not automatically correct
and that the entire discussion could he controversial.
He stated that arguments saying that the war was
morally justified could he made, but he "finds them
unconvincing."
The last to open preliminary discussions was
McFee. He approached the discussion from a reli
gious Christian standpoint. He spoke about President
Bush's willingness to have members of the Catholic
Church (a number of bishops) brief him on whether or
not the war was religiously justified, but did not men
tion what conclusion they had reached.
He said that the war could be justified if the
American soldiers discriminated between combatants
Continued on page 2