„ Behrend Beacon If"
I I IJ I II I(I |1 September 18,2009
1111 V-/ X X www.thebehrendbeacon.com
MY VOICE
Plans change for convenience store
RAUL MONETJO
contributing writer
I almost fell out of my chair
laughing as I was reading one
of last week’s front page arti
cles. My laughter quickly
turned to groans of frustration
upon seeing the results of
SGA’s open forum held last
Wednesday.
Last semester, students voted
that the money generated from
our student facility fee be used
to build a new convenience
store, to provide us with prod
ucts and services not currently
available on campus. 1 guess
none of those students made it
to last week’s forum. Read the
results and you’ll quickly dis-
MY VOICE
Ohio Hall doorstop deficiency
Ohio Hall, located on the
southern-most tip of campus
near the Wintergreen Gorge, is
a suite-style residence hall re
served for upper classmen of at
least sophomore status. It has
relatively modern rooms that
offer a personal bathroom for
every suite. Students from
other colleges and campuses
often comment on how nice the
interior of the building looks,
sometimes even going as far as
to compare it with a hotel. The
only negative factor is the dis
tance from most of the aca
demic buildings and the Junker
Center.
Until recently, I thought this
was the only issue I would ever
encounter while living there.
Another issue quickly appeared
forefront during these past few
weeks. The lack of communica
tion between students in each
hallway, at least within my hall
way, frustrates me beyond be
lief. The circumstance has not
improved in the least bit with
the absence of doorstops for
each room.
Perhaps this is one of the rea
sons contributing to the anti-so-
OURVIEW
Over the past week, Behrend
students have been bombarded
with claims from local media:
that they are afraid, that we are
essentially a sick ward, that
Swine Flu could strike at any
moment.
When the Erie Times-News
ran articles about the virus at
Behrend, they used language
such as “Swine Flu feared at
Behrend” and “Behrend reports
2 suspected Swine Flu cases.”
Are these statements true?
Are we afraid? Have we re
ported two “suspected” Swine
Flu cases?
We have not.
Here’s the official data - sev
eral students have tested posi
tive for Typa A influenza. A
subtype of Type A, known as
cover that the goods and serv
ices voted most essential to us
in the proposed convenience
store were those already pro
vided by Bruno’s and the book
store. And those things we
can’t already get here - things
we could actually use - took a
distant second.
It seems “we” want the new
store to stay open on week
nights to the conveniently late
hour of midnight (an hour after
Bruno’s closing time) and con
sider the availability of pre-pre
pared foods (Bruno’s most
abundant product) most impor
tant. They also voted for laun
dry supplies such as cleaning
products most necessary. The
bookstore has laundry supplies.
cial mentality circulating
throughout each hallway. I find
it rather odd not knowing a ma
jority of the residents in my
hallway, but it seems to be a re
peating practice among Ohio
Hall residents when compared
with previous
years
Ohio Hall is not
completely anti-so
cial since many of
the residents re
quested rooms
near or with
friends from the
previous years. As
a returning sopho
more, living in a
new residence hall
this year seemed
exciting to me, es-
pecially since it most likely
meant meeting new people.
Most of the Ohio residents who
1 am familiar with, however, are
those I met last year. Most of
the residents in my hallway I
speak to talk to are students I
met from last year.
This is not to say that all
upper classmen barricade
themselves in their rooms and
Stop fearmongering.
HINI, is Swine Flu. Likely, by
the time this paper finishes cir
culating through the campus,
we will know whether these
students actually have that spe
cific strain.
Those tests, as of publication
time, are still out.
So, there are no cases of
Swine Flu on-campus. There
are only cases of the flu.
But, it remains the topic
around campus. Comments
such as “Did you hear we’re up
to seven cases of Swine Flu?”
are flying around everywhere.
We find it very journalisti
cally irresponsible to fearmon
ger by using large headlines to
mislead readers. We under
stand that the Behrend Beacon
is in very few ways similar to
In their infinite wisdom, vot
ers insisted that the project
shouldn’t focus on providing
items we could actually benefit
from having on campus:
household cleaning supplies,
over-the-counter medications,
dental care products, and
shower supplies. Instead they
chose snacks. Then they se
lected “misc. hygiene” as our
personal care product of choice
because condoms are more
vital to us than deodorant.
Let’s be realistic. We, the stu
dents, are paying good money
for the privilege to improve our
campus. We must create solu
tions that produce positive
change, not waste valuable re
sources. I guarantee that SGA
dedicate all of their time to
work on mile high stacks of
class assignments on a consis
tent basis. Although this is a
common occurrence with stu
dents partaking in advanced
classes at Behrend, it is close to
impossible for stu
dents to study
and/or work on
class work during
the duration of the
entire day without
any breaks in be
tween. Why not
spend those ten or
two minute breaks
getting to know
others in your hall?
The length of
time spent meeting
MCGOVERN
News Editor
hallmates greatly
depends on each students’
choice of major with engineer
ing and business students hav
ing half the available time as
everyone else. However, even
having a 30 second conversa
tion with some of the residents
in your hall is better than com
pletely ignoring them alto
gether.
Leaving the door open during
the Erie Times-News. The Bea
con does not operate from sub
scriptions and a heavy
dependence on advertising,
meaning we never need to
shock readers.
Upon learning about the first
two cases, we were bombarded
with questions on our lack of
“BREAKING NEWS” headlines
on our website. Why weren’t
we scrambling to cover such
important news?
The answer is, simply, we are
waiting to provide our students
the honest truth. We wanted to
get a full view on the situation.
Getting it first, we have
learned, is massively less im
portant than getting it right.
All of this coverage, not only
of Behrend but of the entire
will deem the project, as it
stands, infeasible. The costs
outweigh the benefits by a
landslide.
We can do better than this.
There are many problems that
a properly implemented con
venience store on campus
would solve and many luxuries
the store would add to campus
life, but we must not dismiss
the option to cut costs by ex
panding programs and facilities
already in place. Let’s focus on
these areas and create a solu
tion that works. This is our op
portunity to make history and
create something that benefits
our whole community. Let’s
take it.
THE PRESIDENT
IT tome;
any one of these breaks or ini
tiating a quick conversation
with other residents while pass
ing them in the hallway are two
excellent ways to get to know
everyone in your hallway, even
if it remains on a name to name
basis with a few of those resi
dents. Considering how simple
it is to leave the door open and
extend an open invitation for
other’s to visit and chat every
so often, why do Ohio Hall res
idents keep their doors closed
at all times excluding the few
instances that fhey slip in and
out of the door for class?
If Penn State Behrend in
vested in providing doorstops
to all Ohio Hall residents’
rooms, it would be that much
easier to get a sense of who is
living in each hallway. Students
might not take advantage of the
opportunity to crack their door
open every so often, but the op
portunity to step out of per
sonal comfort zones and meet
new people on your floor would
be more readily available for
those living in Ohio Hall.
sickness itself, seems very over
drawn. Much of the panic from
this disease is coming from the
media, who, with flashy graph
ics and scary headlines, bom
bards readers with grim
prognoses. We do not want to
be a part of that. We want to be
a source of responsibly re
ported, calm news.
We do recognize the impor
tance of giving you quick up
dates as soon as we find out
whether these students are pos
itive for Swine Flu or not. Stay
tuned to our website, where we
will give you the straightfor
ward news as soon as we hear
it.
Connor Sattely for the Behrend
Beacon editorial staff.
&r<gy*JfrfQ?
IVIY VOICE
Behrend vs. Main
MARISSA LANICH
Merriam-Webster’s diction
ary defines the word “branch”
as “a separate but dependent
part of a central organization.”
As Penn State Behrend stu
dents, this definition relates to
us since we typically use this
form of the word to describe
our campus, which we all know
is a “branch campus” of the
Pennsylvania State University
located in University Park.
So, using this knowledge, we
can place our respective Penn
State campuses into that defini
tion, and can consequently say
that “Penn State Behrend (the
branch) is a separate but de
pendent part of Pennsylvania
State University (the central or
ganization).”
Now, if we take a moment
and pick apart this definition
just one step further and exam
ine the term “central organiza
tion,” we find that a synonym
for this is “main organization.”
So, it seems to me that accord
ing to Merriam-Webster, Penn
State University Park is a “main
organization,” which therefore
makes it our “main” Penn State
“campus.”
Even though I am a junior
this year, this is only the second
semester that I’ve spent at
Behrend. While I can’t tell you
much about this campus, let
alone find my way around yet,
I can tell you that when I let stu
dents and faculty know that I
spent my first year and a half of
school at Penn State main cam
pus, I am greeted with the same
response nearly every time:
“Excuse me, but it’s University
Park, not main campus."
Oh, please.
Although my experiences at
both University Park and
Behrend have proved that each
Letters to
Respect Behrend
The Erie-Times has a page
where readers can share a few
words praising or criticizing the
newspaper, local government,
or other people in the commu
nity for their actions. Here, I d
like to take a moment to say a
few words to the person whose
been going around campus first
thing in the morning and taking
all the issues of the Erie-Times
News, cutting the fun money
out, and returning these
gouged papers to the newspa
per bins for the rest of us tu
ition-paying students to settle
with. What you are doing is
The Behrend Beacon
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Reed Union Building
4701 College Drive. Erie PA 16563
Room 10H
Telephone: (814)898-6488
Fax: (814)898-6019
Edltor-in-Chief:
Connor Sattely
editor@psu.edu
Managing Editor:
Christine Newby
censos6@psu.edu
Web Editor:
Marcus Yeagley
mjysol2@psu.edu
News Editors:
Mike 0. Wehrer
mrwso94 @psu. edu
Heather McGovern
hamsoB4 @psu. edu
Culture Editor:
Evan Koser
emksllo@psu.edu
Opinion Editor:
Neil James
opinion@psu.edu
Sports Editors:
Nick Blake
npbso4l@psu.edu
Shawn Annarelli
smaslB9@psu.edu
Business Editors:
Harmilee Cousin
hxcso2o@psu.edu
Garrett Carson
gmcso2l @psu.edu
Editorial Policies
Single copies of the Beacon are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional
copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for ,5.5(1 each.
Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University
administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons, and letters are not necessarily those
of The Behrend Beacon unless otherwise indicated
Any letters intended for publication must be addressed to (he editor, he no more than 25(1
words, and include the writer's name and phone number. Letters may be edited for content or
length at the editor in chief's discretion.
The Behrend Beacon does not publish anonymous letters to the editor. If students want
their letters to be published, they must include their name. The Behrend Beacon intends for
its Opinion page to be a forum for discussion, not a screen to hide behind. Occasionally,
The Behrend Beacon may request responses to online queries in which responders will be
identified by their username.
The Behrend Beacon is editorially independent from the Penn State system. The Behrend
Beacon operates partially on Student Activity Fee, and partially on advertising revenue, it is
published every Friday during the school year except for before and during scheduled vaca
tions, with exceptions for special issues.
The editor-in-chief has the final authority on editorial decisions, including, but not limited
to, all columns, editorials, and letters to the editor. Complaints regarding Beacon coverage of
school events should be directed to the editor at editor ,<i psu.edu.
location has great academics,
talented faculty and a pleasant
campus, it also proved that we
are obviously not equal.
sM/)'l\77[(7
While all Penn State students
are welcome to buy season
football tickets and attend
games, only one campus is cho
sen to house our famous team,
as well as, legendary Coach Joe
Paterno. Even though all Penn
State campuses have their own
respective academic programs,
majors, and minors. University
Park offers the largest variety,
by far. Of course, a student can
find a way to get involved on
any campus, including sports,
Greek life, clubs and organiza
tions; however, University Park
offers more opportunities to get
involved than any other Penn
State campus, with nearly 700
student clubs and organiza
tions on record.
This isn’t to say that what we
do have here at Behrend
doesn’t compare in quality,
however, we simply are not
equal campuses.
It’s ridiculous that many
within the Penn State system
haven’t accepted that Univer
sity Park is our main campus
and I’m irritated that some feel
that it’s necessary to correct
those who have. Whether or
not it’s the truth, it sounds like
we are suffering from a superi
ority complex, which is exactly
what the individuals at main
campus think about those at
branch campuses.
So please, stop proving them
right. Let’s all grow up and ac
cept that although there is in
fact a “main campus" out there,
we are still just as much a part
of the Penn State community as
we are when we refer to it as
“University Park.”
the Editor
disgusting. 1 couldn't even get
the newspaper when I wanted it
this morning because you had
n’t finished your business yet.
If you want to cheat other peo
ple out of a whole newspaper,
or out of chances in a sweep
stakes, don't do it here. People
like you don't belong in a civi
lized community like this. And
to the rest of you: if you see
someone doing something dis
honest on your campus, perse
cute them.
Editorial Board
RAUL MONETJO
S<7i/o/ M.ithvnutn s \l,}jor
Business Manager:
Bethany Long
bjlso37@psu.edu
Faculty Advisor:
Kim Young
kjylo@psu.edu
Engineering Editors:
Sid Carson
socso77@psu edu
Science Editor:
Brian Carlson
bmcso62@psu. edu
Humanities Editor:
Adam Spinelli
alsssB9@psu.edu
Photo Editor:
Daniel J. Smith
djSs223@psu.edu
Photographers:
Jon Klein
/ekso34@psu edu
Mike Fultz
mjls2o4@psu edu
Sarah Baker
Sjbs273@psu.edu