Friday, February 6, 2009
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
My mom has a facebook
By Jennifer Juncosa
perspectives ethtor
jdjso6 I Ovpsu.edu
The other day, I had a short break
between two classes and decided to spend
it on Facebook, like most students.
I decided to "stalk" one of my broth
ers. He deosn't tell me anything, so my
only source of information is to check
out his Facebook every now and then. I
wasn't surprised to see things like
'Christopher created an event' and 'so
and-so wrote on Chirstopher's wall.'
Then I stumbled across 'Chirstopher is
now friends with..." At first I didn't
think anything of it. Then I realized it
was my mom.
Naturally, I called my mom immedi
ately asking her to verify that she does
have a Facebook. She said yes. Then I
demanded why she hadn't Iriended' me.
By Neil James Peters
assistant arts editor
njpsoB3@psu.edu
On an average thy, college students are
forced to put up with an absurd amount
of crap. From exams that always seem
to fall on the same date, through the
ever-ominous finals, to classes that are
so soul-crushingly difficult they are the
mental equivalent of slamming your
genitals in a drawer. This sad reality is
something that we simply must accept.
because we aren't getting any younger,
and adulthood is practically banging
down our thrmroom door. However, in
these tried times of crap-tacular stress, it
is rather pleasant to look back at a sim
pler point in our lives.
Remember when your only concern
was getting up in time for your favorite
Saturday morning cartoon or being a
good enough kid to ensure a coal free
stocking at Christmas? With those two
Fellow Students,
I am writing this letter to you, not as
the Student Government Vice President,
but as a student. A student just like you,
who watches $74 get tacked on to my
semester bill for the Student Activity
Fee (SAF). I am a huge supporter of this
fee, as it allows us to have all of the stu
dent and club run programs at our cam
pus that we see on a constant basis.
This fee was originally created in the
90's at Penn State campuses that ensure
funding of programs to enhance the col
lege experience was formed with a set of
guidelines to make sure that this addi
tional fee to students was used conrectly.
One of the major stipulations in the cre
ation of this fee was that all money gen
erated at a campus would stay at that
campus.
Recently, there was a resolution
passed by the Council of
Commonwealth Student Governments
(CCSG) that directly violates this stipu
lation. The resolution stated that
Commonwealth Campuses were in
Beacon Thumbs Up
I \ I\
, 1 01
- Waffles
- Plowed parking lots
- Facebook
- Cross-over events
I spent the next few hours helping her
pick a picture and help her update her
information.
Within a couple of minutes I had a
million friend requests from my aunt,
my mom's best friends, and even my
grandma. Yes, my 75-year old grandma
has a Facebook.
According to Facebook.com, more
than half of Facebook users are outside
of college and the fastest growing demo
graphic is those 30 years old and older.
This is understandable, considering that
my mom, her friends, and my aunts all
have one.
At first I was a little hesitant to allow
my mom to friend my boyfriend and my
friends, but after letting the idea sink in
a little, I'm beginning to be ok with it.
So what if my mom has a facebook?
So what if your mom wants or has a
facebook? The only reason they have
one is probably because you won't tell
Sex, drugs, and final exams
exceptions, every other minute was
pure, ignorant Hiss. No worries of
tuition, loans or grades; just looking
forward to the next fun thing. When you
were a kid, the opportunities for fun
were limitless. Give an imaginative
child a paperclip and a leaf and he could
entertain himself !Or hours. Invite over a
friend who had the latest Spider-Man toy
and it was the party of the century. Now
it seems it is not considered a party
unless someone has a near death experi
ence with alcohol poisoning.
Another thing that made life more
stress free as a child was out lack of
knowledge about sex. Yes, sex is awe
some in scores of ways, hut don't tell
me that it doesn't complicate the hell
out of everyone's life. It is damn near
impossible to just be friends with a girl,
because the second she wears something
sexy, the poor man gets blitzed by
enough hormones to drown a Hungarian
hooker. To top it all off, if the man is
University Park wants more of our money
favor of directly sending 1% of our SAF
money straight to CCSG to support
them. I am proud to say that in a 23-3
vote, both of your Behrend representa
tives were in the 3 that opposed. While
I support CCSG, I do not support this
resolution for a number of reasons.
First, as any club or student who has
ever submitted a proposal to the SAF
Committee knows, all funds allocated
from the SAF must be passed by a com
mittee of our peers. This 1% of our
SAF would go through no such regula
tion, and would come straight out of the
money generated by our campus. This
opens the door to a variety of outcomes.
We need to seta precedent. If this 1% of
SAF funds generated at campuses is
allowed to be pushed to a University
Park based organization, who says in the
future their won't be any more of our
funding taken for similar reasons? This
could also open the door to allow the
University to access our Facility Fee, a
fee we passed just last year with the
same stipulations of SAF in the past.
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PERSPECTIVES
them anything about your lite and they
want to know what's going on.
The next common question would be
'what about the things you don't want
your mom to see?' Well, what exactly
do I not want my mom to see? It's
becoming more and more common for
employers to check a person's Facebook
before hiring. If there is something on
my Facebook that I don't want my
mom to see then I probably don't want
a future employer to see it either. My
Facebook is clean.
If anything, it makes the communica
tion with my mom better. I can send her
messages, write on her wall, and even
chat with her the chat feature at the bot
tom of the screen. My mom just wants
to be able to see pictures of me and my
friends or boyfriend and see what I am
up to.
My mom has a Facebook, I friended
her, and I cbn't care. Poke!
unfortunate enough to find himself out
and about during on a warn day, then
he's going to see so many low cut jeans
and v-neck shirts, his brain will short
out by lunch time.
Sadly, women have it a thousand
times worse that any man. For every
insecure thought a man has, multiply
that number exponentially and your
answer is an accurate account of a
women's average day. I'm sure it sucks
to have to get dolled up just to run down
to the communal bathroom, so is the
unlikely event that you run into a boy
you still look like a model. Also, as I
stated before, men are constantly having
their attention directed toward the oppo
site sex. Women know this and feel
compelled to dress accordingly, whether
they want to or not:This constant worry
of adequacy is enough to jack up any
one's heart rate and cause a stress-induced
coma. With all this insecurity, they
should hand out anti-depressants and a
And let's face it. University Park is
already dipping into our IT fee, which is
$212 a semester.
Another reason that I am not in sup
port of this resolution is because of the
very nature which led up to its creation.
It was circulated to the campuses in
advance as any **big issue item - normal
ly is. This resolution was thought up at
a CCSG President's lunch drawn up
before New Business came onto the
agenda and passed at 4 p.m. the same
day. We were never able to bring such a
change back to the campus level, which
is what we are suppose to be represent
ing at CCSG meetings. Furthermore,
there was no information given as to
where this money would be spent
towards. When asked for specifics, the
representatives of the campuses were
given a round-about answer which came
out to mean nothing. This would gen
erate $26,000 for CCSG, and, as far as I
know, the only things that they need to
cover are travel for Caucus Directors and
the rental of the halls to hold meetings
fifth of whisky at orientation
Once again, it is nice to reflect on a
simpler time where sex wasn't even an
option. As children, we had no idea
where babies came from or what those
naked people on TV were thing, and we
really didn't care. We just wanted to play
Pokemon and be left alone.We all under
stood what love was and for the most
part, thanks to morally-driven Disney
movies, thought people got married
because their love was eternal and true.
Now we understand all the ludicrous
complications that weave themselves
into what should be the most pure and
wholesome of human emotions.
As we age, we learn. We grow to
understand the world around us with
intricate understanding. However, many
times what we learn is not something
we'd like to know. Our once uncorrupt
ed views become jaded and disillusioned
as we gaze at a damaged world. And as
we till in the blanks of old questions,
in. It doesn't seem that they would need
$26,000 on top of the money that
CCSG already has coming from offices
located at University Park.
The money is another issue. While
lc% seems like a relatively small num
ber, it means that there will be an addi
tional lc% of proposals for events at our
campus which are not funded. It means
that, since Behrend chooses to pay that
top tier of the SAF, our students will be
paying more for CCSG representation
than other campuses that elect to pay
lower tiers of that same fee ($64 or $54).
It means that $6,660 will be leaving our
campus every year, while some campus
es will only see $4OO leaving. What
benefits will we see at Behrend coming
from this mandatory $6,660 allocation?
In my opinion, I don't think we will.
This is as close as you can get to taxing
a Commonwealth Campus. We should
not be penalized for having a Penn State
name attached to us. I would like to
remind you that there is no such thing as
a "Main Campus." That, theoretically,
The Behrend Beacon I
MOM?!
contributed by Jennifer Juncosa
new ones flood in for every crevice. We
try to answer these queries with our
freshly aquired understanding, but in
most cases these solutions only lead to
even trickier problems. So, what are our
options in these sticky situations?
Simply listen to your inner child. As
young children, our senses on humanity
were never so pure and strong. Even
before we were tought the laws of moral
ity by our parents, we knew what was
just and what was true. We understood
that every person was different and had
feelings. We understood that other peo
ple hurt as we did and what it felt like to
be bullied. So, now I ask you to occa
sionally step back and assess these new
and difficult situations in a different
light. What would a child do.? More
importantly, would you be able to look
one in the eye and tell them the truth
about what you just did?
all Penn State Campuses are equal, even
though we mysteriously see 30% of our
tuition leave for University Park, for
which their still has been no fiscal evi
dence of what this 30% goes towards.
We are already paying them kickbacks,
so give CCSG some of those lost
tuition dollars.
I urge you, as the student body of
Behrend, rise up and let your voices be
heard. We need to put a stop to a major
problem before it begins. Come to the
SGA meeting Feb. II at 5 p.m. in Reed
114, seek out the senators you elected,
or email Erin Kennedy (emkl9o) with
your thoughts and opinions. The only
way to stop this is to speak out at its
injustice.
Beacon Thumbs Down
No
- Salt rings on pants
- Flu
- Shin splints
- Software updates
For the Glory,
Brad Kovalcik
Behrend Student