Friday, October 17, 2008
Behrend students celebrate
In Connor Sattelv
managing editor
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Painted bodies, human bowl
ine. and chariot races all became
the norm around Behrend this
week as members of the fraterni-
ty anil sorority community cele
brated "Greek Week."
With one event planned every
night. ending w ith Friday night's
annual chariot race, the Behrend
Greek Week is an honored tradi
tion in which fraternities and
sororities meet to compete and
ha\c fun
Monday featured a pie eating
content; on Tuesday, fraternities
and sororities competed in
human bowling: Wednesday fea
tured the annual Greek Sing: a
relay race was held on Thursday
on the steps between Reed and
Perry Hall: on Friday. Greek
Week will wrap tip with a chariot
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“It seemed the world was divided into
good and bad people. The good ones
slept better... while the bad ones seemed
to enjoy the waking hours much more. ”
- Woody Allen
Greek Week
The event is designed to not
only show the public the fun that
being in a Greek organization can
be. but also to provide partici
pants of the program an opportu
nity to simply enjoy each others'
company.
Sonia Rosales, a member of
Alpha Sigma Tan sorority, says
that one of the best parts is sup
porting other people in the frater
nity and sorority community.
It's very competitive, but
there's also some great sports
manship." says Rosales, a sopho
more at Behrend. "It's a lot of
fun. and it brings all the Greeks
together."
Alanna Stecura. president of
Alpha Sigma Tail, explained the
importance of having people to
relate to
"It's a family away from fami
ly." she says. "If you don't get to
see your family a lot. then you
can rely on your friends to sup
port you."
Contact Rachel Reeves at
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Campus News
The events required well-coor
dinated organizations, and all of
the programs' participants spoke
highly of Liz Warheit and
Andrew Varis. who were part of
the organization of Greek Week.
Varis. the vice president of spe
cial events for the inter-fraternity
council, said that the process
started with a few people sitting
down and thinking about what
was truly important for students.
"What mattered is that we have
programs that are both fun for its
participants and interesting for
people that stop to watch." he
said. "We have some programs
that we have had for years, like
the chariot race, and some new
ones like the human bowling."
Varis says that while the events
are a great chance for fraternities
and sororities to recruit, it's even
better for them to get to know
each other and compete as
friends
Residents of Erie and Edinboro
struggle with student neighbors
continued from front page.
equal balance between students
and neighbors."
The city of Erie is looking into
a new system that would affect
all of the colleges and universi
ties in the area, including
Behrend. Called “student housing
overlay zones," it would allow an
exception to the law limiting
three unrelated people to one
“We want to find an equal
balance between students
and neighbors. ”
- James Thompson
Winer anti Housing Authority
of the Erie City Council
rental. In the areas directly sur
rounding the colleges and univer
sities in Erie, as many as five or
six students would be able to rent
together in one house. However,
this would mean that in the rest of
the city, no student rentals would
be allowed.
This process has already been
instated in areas by the Indiana
University of Pennsylvania.
Thompson says that Erie will be
carefully studying how the new'
system works in Indiana, Pa.,
because so many of the condi
tions are similar to those in Erie.
The zoning laws are the same,
originally limiting three unrelat
ed people to one rental. Indiana
was also experiencing similar
problems with taxes and neigh
bor-to-student relations. Indiana
operates under the same national
and state laws as Erie.
The city of Erie will also be
paying close attention to the chal
lenges against the separately gov
erned borough of Edinboro.
Some residents are fighting a new
ordinance that was passed over
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Ordinance 563 serves mainly
to decrease the density of student
houses in neighborhoods in
Edinboro. The law say s that any
tw/o student houses must be a dis-
tance equivalent to twenty single
family homes away from each
other. It also says that no neigh
borhood lot can contain more
than one student house, or that
any duplex can contain no more
than one student rental unit.
Many residents and students
were confused as to what consti
tutes a student house. Ordinance
563 defines a student house as
one rental unit occupied by peo
ple unrelated by marriage, blood,
or adoption, and who are attend
ing or about to attend a college or
university. The same ordinance
also defines a family: any number
of individuals living together in
one residence, not including
more than three people not relat
ed by marriage, blood, or adop
tion.
Manager T. Jemetz of
Edinboro says that the neighbor
hoods are "being overrun by stu
dents." 70 percent of residences
in Edinboro are rental units, and
students rent out 90 percent of
those houses. In an interview.
Jemetz said that the problem with
student houses are not the stu
dents themselves, but with a tax
system. Rental units pay fewer
taxes than residence units, and
the increasing number of rental
units to adding more and more
pressure to homeowners in the
However, the minutes from an
Edinboro Council Meeting on
July 14. 2008 show friction
between students and other resi
dents. Many residents com
plained that college students were
ast 1 .
street from campus!
The Behrend Beacon I 3
noisy, left litter m neighboring
vards. anti parked on other peo
ple's driveways and front lawns.
One resilient asked win a new
ordinance was necessary, when
local law enforcement could tar-
get specific situations. Jemetz
explained that the ordinance
would serve to decrease the noise
in a neighborhood and cut back
the student-population, as well as
level the tax burden for residents.
"We just want to stop prolifera
tion." the minutes record Jemetz
savinu
Professor Speel of Penn State
Erie, the Behrend College, says
that any ordinance singling out
college students from other resi
dents is unconstitutional. "It's
“It's discriminatory,
but they still do it"
discriminatory, but they still do
it." says Sped, lie says that many
communities in the country have
taken similar measures to keep
college students and immigrants
out of their neighborhoods.
However, it would be very' dif
ficult for students to challenge
these policies, since they are so
outnumbered in the community.
Main students are either regis
tered to vote outside of Erie or
are not registered at all. liven the
students who are registered in
Erie and vote actively vote only
in the presidential election.
"Students need to vote in the
local elections." says Speel.
"I'fhev | are too outnumbered in
the communities."
- Robert Speel
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