2 I The Behrend Beacon
Campus comes together as Obama begins landmark presidency
continued Pom front page.
the Martin Luther King Jr.
speech. I remember that day and
feeling the atmosphere of every
one gathered. And on this day I
can feel the same thing. -
Even students with little polit
ical knowledge or awareness
stopped by Bnmo's Cate to watch
the speech.
"I'm very uneducated about
politics," says Alli Heitzenrater,
a freshman majoring in geo
science. "But listening to Barack
Obama really made me feel confi
dent about the direction our coun
try will be headed over the next
tour years. -
Dr. Robert Speel, Associate
Director of Political Science,
organized a place for everyone to
watch the inauguration. About
50 people, around half of whom
were faculty, Llathered to watch
the inauguration in room 69 of
Kochel. Dr. Speel says that part
of the purpose of the meeting
was to provide Kochel staff with
a chance to watch the speech.
Financial Aid advisor Giselle
Hudson is happy with what
Obama has done in his time
before taking the presidency.
Many of the cabinet picks, like
Hillary Clinton for Secretary of
State, have won her over to the
new president. However, she
thinks that there is still a lot of
work that needs to be done. "He
needs to hit the street rolling,"
she says. "Our government in the
past eight years has been a joke.
and we need to fix that. There
needs to be accountability every-
Monday Tuesday
High: 22°F High: 21°F
Low: 12°F Low: 13°F
Partly cloudy. Partly cloudy with a
chance of snow.
Wednesday Thursday
et -
41
High: 28°F High: 38°F
Low: 17°F Low: 21°F
Partly cloudy. Rain/Snow Showers.
Interesting weather fact:
Mount Baker in Washington holds the
world record for the most snow to fall in
one year: 1,140 inches tell in 1998.
Weather firinust cymrtesy strukrit meteorologist Mat Alto.
What's Inside
Late of the Pier is late on the scene
Late of the Pier is a British four-piece that have a retro, night-club sound
An album starts off with a dramatic rise and fall of notes; you wonder if it's going to be another 80s
pop ballad. It has that certain nostalgic radio feel that you can swear you've heard before. In the last 13
seconds, it turns for the unexpected. It's got a modem rock feel to it, and the crazy guitar rock intro drags
into the second song. The first two tracks are designed tier gapless playback, which makes it sound real-
ly cool
Men's and women's basketball teams victorious
The Penn State Behrend men's and women's baskteball teams each walked away with another victory
on Thursday night. Pages 8 & 9
A hove: Bnino's care vvas filled with students, faculty and staff to watch the presidential inauguration
Right: Snuktnts watching Plesicktnt °bonds inauguration in front of Bruno projection screen.
where for everyone. -
Speel says that compared to
Franklin D. Roosevelt and John
F. Kennedy, Barack Obama failed
to create an easily repeatable line
in his inaugural address. "He did-
n't want to say anything too con
troversial, but there were no lines
to help people remember the
speech. It'll probably be forgot
ten in a few months."
However sate Obama's speech
was, there was one thing that was
included that not many , presidents
have ever done before.
The thing that stood out the
CAMPUS NEWS
most to me was how Obama
reached out to other countries in
the world, - Speel said. "Very few
presidents ever do this, and it cre
ated a big appeal."
Nate Boring, the president of
College Republicans, thought
that the ceremony could bring the
nation together. "It was an excel
lent speech that summarized the
problems of the country and then
spoke of unity," he says. "In a
time when our country hasn't
been the best, Obama gave a very
inspirational speech, and I'm
ready to give him a chance.-
Record snows bring weather woes
COMING MONTHS COULD BREAK CURRENT SNOWFALL RECORD
By Matthew Alto
iveaher echo,
mraso6s(a psu.edu
Sunday, students will wake up
with a forecast they have gotten
used to recently: highs in the
upper teens and a chance of
snow. Behrend students will
once again feel the results: snow
up to people's knees, parking
lots lined with mountains of
snow, and slippery walking
paths.
The 2008-2009 season has
seen 111.4 inches of snowfall in
the Erie area. This winter has a
chance to go down in history as
the snowiest ever in Erie's
recorded history. The current
record is 149.1 inches, which
fell in 2000-2001. Only 4.5
more inches are needed to place
this season into the top 10, and
another 37.8 inches would make
the 2008-2009 season the
snowiest winter ever recorded.
This month alone, Erie has
seen 41.1 inches of snow, mak
ing it the seventh snowiest
January in recorded history. The
record for the snowiest January
was 62.4 inches which fell in
The president of College
Democrats, Josh Snyder, was
also impressed and optimistic
about the future. "It was good,"
he says, "not his best, but I still
really liked the message. He
spoke of making sacrifices and
getting through this but the
underlying message was that we
can. We're still smart enough,
still innovative enough to get
through this."
Read excerpts front °bands
acceptance speech on page 3.
1978. Behrend students were
welcomed back for the Spring
semester with a week full of bit
terly cold temperatures and mas
sive amounts of snow.
Perhaps more than anyone,
commuter students at Penn State
Behrend have been affected by
the snow. Sam Ovenshine. a
sophomore living at University
Gates Apartments, has seen fel
low commuter students strug-
gling with the effects of the
massive snowfall. "There were
four or five cars, bottomed out
trying to get out of their parking
lots," he recalls. "Nobody
would help them - it was bad."
Ovenshine, like many students
who drive to campus, was frus
trated by the delays in digging
his car out. "I probably had to
dig my car out three times," he
says. "Each time it took 20 min
utes, at least. Just a waste of
Not all students are fed up
with the large amounts of snow.
Avid snowboantrs and skiers are
excited about the powder this
area has received. Carl Kallgren,
a freshman and resident of Erie,
is thrilled with all the snow.
B THE
BEACON
Matthew Schwabenbauer, News Edtor
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TED PHOTO
"It's good," he states. "Peek'n
Peak makes a lot of their snow
and it is not good quality. So
the record snow makes for excel
lent opportunities to ride fresh
powder."
Will this record snowfall con
tinue for the next few months?
The answer to this question is
one that is as hard as predicting
the weather.
Torn Atkins, a meteorologist
at JET-TV, believes that there is
a chance that we will break the
record for the snowiest season on
record. "We are well ahead of
pace for the record year by at
least six inches," he says. 'There
is a chance that we could see
around 180 inches of snow." If
the city sees that much, it would
break the previous record by
nearly three feet.
However, them are signs that
at least some snow may let up
in the coming months. "The
lake is now mostly covered by
ice now," Atkins says. "This
cuts down on the lake effect
snow." The majority of the snow
that has fallen in the Erie area
has been lake effect, thus a
frozen lake will have an impact
Penn State Erie,
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Editorial Board
Friday, January 23, 2009
on whether the record will he
broken. Snow can continue to
fall through March and April.
where 6.75 inches fall in the two
months on average. "There's still
plenty of time left."
An icicle hanging off the hack of
Mike 0. Wehrer, Copy Editor
mrwso94o , psu.edu
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kmss I 740 v psu.edu
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jdksoo94psu.edu
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k1m532.34 psu .edu
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djss2234psu.edu
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Senat Hall