■ BEHRFND BEACON 3 pinion Octobe r 30, 2009 m www.thebehrendbeacon.co OUR VOICE The dilemma of journalistic ethics In the past week, a large amount of students have ques tioned our policies for printing news - particularly news in volving students partying or being issued underage drinking charges. Particularly, the issues at hand seem to he at which point the Beacon deems a story "newsworthy," and at which point we will print names in an article. To address the question if the story is news, we must consider our readers. Is this story something that people will read and find inter esting? Is this story a relevant representation, somehow, of MY VOICE MAR ISSA LANICH am 20 years old, and I went shopping for my first Hal loween costume last week. While some may find this hard to believe, I have never felt particularly inclined to par ticipate in Halloween festivities - even as a child. The frighten ing costumes and decorations always deterred me, and my parents' negative attitude to wards the holiday managed to rub off on me throughout the years as well. I can vividly re member spending every Octo ber 31st away from the house or turning all of our lights out and pretending we weren't home. As my high school and col • °•=l. ' ~.,' THE EDITOR'S BLURB Getting over the friend-zone A man's greatest fear, besides seeing Kim Cattrall naked, is being stuck in the friend-zone. It's like owning beachfront property but not being allowed to leave the house. The worst part of the deal is when the woman comes to you in tears and complains about her prob lems (usually the result of the douche-bag she is dating). This is enough to make any man want to jump out of a window, but how about we look at this from a new angle? I've lived in the friend-zone longer than any man alive, and I can personally tell you that being a good friend is worth the hassle. I recently ran into an old crush who looked as though she was about to cry, croak and 4701 College Drive, Erie PA 16563 THE BEHREND BEACON Room 10H Executive Board Editor-in-Chief: Business Manager Connor Sattely Bethany Long editor@psu.edu bjlso37@psu.edu Managing Editor: Faculty Advisor: Kim Young kjylo@psu.edu Christine Newby censos6@psu.edu Web Editor: Marcus Yeagley mjysol2@psu.edu Behrend as a whole? Is this story important to write in de fense or in the best interest of Behrend students or faculty? If we answer yes to one of these, the story runs. Also at hand over the past week is the issue of when the Beacon will print names in con nection to some type of crime or illegal event. The only case in which we will print student names in an article is if the sit uation fits two conditions. First, we must have concrete facts that the name printed is, indeed, connected to whatever the story is about. Usually this means that a name in a police Halloween at twenty lege years have passed, I have been scheduled to work nearly every Halloween at the various jobs I've held, so there has yet to be an opportunity to experi ence Halloween as an adult ei ther. That is, until now. This year felt like the right time to make up for lost time, so I took my more experienced friends with me to costume shop throughout the week, tiy ing to find a good look for my first Halloween. However, what I found is that I only had one option as far as costumes go, and that was slut. The same choices seemed to be everywhere: slutty police of ficer, slutty sailor, slutty nurse, slutty bumble bee, slutty wiz ard...and many more. At first, I wasn't sure why this RED - LIGHT CANIRAS irvvAPE my PI?IVACY, probably kill the next man to piss her off. Knowing how volatile women can be under stress, I quickly ran for cover. Later, I found her and asked what was wrong. The usual venting and consoling ensued, but as I left her dorm she gave me a hug and told me how thankful she was that I was her friend. At that mo ment, I had an epiphany. A "guy friend" plays a bigger role in a woman's life than any significant other. This is be cause there is more than one kind of love, and people need News Editors: Mike 0. Wehrer mrwso94@psu edu Ally Orlando acososl@psu.edu Culture Editor: Evan Koser emksllo@psu.edu report will be printed. Sec ondly, the name must be rele vant and important to the story. The Beacon holds every stu dent at Behrend to the same standard -- whether the student is a Senator on SGA, a star ath lete, or an executive board member of the LEB. That also means that stu dents who work for the Beacon are subject to having names printed if it is relevant and ap propriate to do so. If one of us commits a felony and has our name mentioned in a police report, we expect other editors to print it the same way as any other student's name upset me. I've obviously seen these kinds of costumes before, and girls using Halloween as a opporuntity to remain half dressed for an evening doesn't particularly bother me. Later. I found that my cos tume shopping had turned into a realization that the innocence of the holiday is gone. Instead of going straight for the pretti est Disney Princess costume she can find, girls our age are going straight for the skimpiest Disney Princess costume she can find. Instead of going trick or-treating in our neighbor hoods, most of us will be drinking cheap beer at a party. While this is all just part of growing up (I don't think any one's neighbors would appreci ate 20 year old servings of each kind to sur vive. Just because a woman may not want a man as a lover, doesn't meant she can't love him in more pro found ways. "Guy friends" do a lot for their fe male companions. For example, girls want a guy's opin ion about "guy problems." We have valuable things to say. Her NEIL JAMES opinum c•c6tcu girlfriends hear those things all the time and are more inclined to simply agree and forget. Guy friends, however, are usually honest and straightforward with their thoughts. They may Editorial Board Business Editors: Harmilee Cousin hxcso2o@psu.edu Garrett Carson gmcso2l@psu edu Science Editor: Brian Carlson bmcso62@psu edu Opinion Editor: Neil James opinion@psu.edu Sports Editors: Nick Blake npbso4l6'psu edu Shawn Annarelli smaslB9@psu.edu would be. The bottom line is, if you don't want it in the newspaper, either don't do it or don't let it be found out. If it doesn't come across our desk, it doesn't make it in the Friday edition. How ever, if it's a story that needs to be printed, and we hear about it, we are forsaking our duties as journalists - both to our pro fession and to our students - to not print it. Connor Sately for the Behrend Beacon editorial staff. trick-or-treaters), it's still a little disappointing that the whole some reasons for loving Hal loween have turned into something else. Although I can't go back and have an authentic Halloween experience, I hope that while I'm out this weekend I get to see the originality and excite ment for Halloween that I used to see. Regardless of costume choice, whether you've put a lot of effort into a home-made costume or you're purchased the scantily clad firefighter cos tume, have fun and take a minute to remember the mem ories you've made celebrating over the years; I know I'm ex cited to make some of my own. „,_,,,....., REP - 116141 - FUNNE.E. INVADE THE t PRIVACY OF MY PASSENGER COMPARTMENT' trloo II f. rYf 61411.41100114410 * A IP ' 4 . 4 initially agree in order make the situation move smoothly but a man will always state the obvious truth. Also, when a girl is hurt by a guy, she wants at tention from a guy that will ac cept her. A good man is hard to find, so it's no wonder why a woman would want to keep one tucked safely away in the friend-zone. Even though it may not be ex actly what the man wants, a good friend is hard to find, too. It makes sense why a woman would not want to risk loosing such a valuable thing by dating him. So remember, a being good male friend is the equivalent of being Batman; we can be what they need us to be. Telephone . (814) 898-6488 Fax: (814) 898-6019 Single copies of the Beacon are tree and available at newsstands around campus. Additional triples can he purchased with permission of the editor-in-chief fur SI 50 each Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those tit the students. faculty (ii I nivel sat Anunistiabon 1 /pinions ex pressed in columns, cartoons. and letters are not necessarily those of l'he Behrend Beacon unless otherwise indicated Any letters intended for publication must be addressed to the editor he no noire than 250 words. and nu hide the Photographer: writer's name and phone number. Letters may he edited for content or length at the editor in duet's dist ninon Jon Klein The Behrend Beacon does not publish anonymous letters to the editor. If students want their letters to he pub jekso34@psu.edu lished, they must include their name. The Behrend Beacon intends for its Opinion page to he a forum for discussion, not a screen to hide behind. Occasionally, The Behrend Beacon may request responses to online queries in which re- Engineering Editor: sponders will be identified by their username. Kristin Sliwinski The Behrend Beacon is editorially independent Crum the Penn state system lhe Bei, end 11,1..11 operates partially on kass79o@psu.edu Student Activity Fee. and partially on advertising revenue It is published every I t Riay dui mg the ia haul year except for Brett Miller before and during scheduled vacations, with exception, fur special I,Ul', bwrnslsl@psu.edu The editor-in-chief has the final authority on editorial decisions, including. hut not binned to..lllcolumns. editorials. and letters to the editor. Complaints regarding Beacon cover age of school events should be directed iii the editor at ede tora psu.edu. Humanities Editor Adam Spinelli alsssB9@psu.edu Photo Editor: Daniel J. Smith dlss223@psu.edu Copy Editor: Jeff Kramer jsksl6l gpsu edu :^"..a. V C:1) MY VOICE Angel or AARON MORELLI Every Penn State student is familiar with the ANGEL Course Management System. Although it is a great resource, with the lack of participation from our professors, it is un supportive of a college lifestyle. ANGELs major flaw is that teachers do not update grades regularly. One out of my six classes uses ANGEL regularly, and it is very helpful. Throughout my first semes ter here at Behrend, I have only been able to gather a general idea of what my grades are in each class. Penn State Behrend Mathmatics Professor Jodie Styers believes that - personally, I choose not to use Angel to post grades. During new fac ulty orientation, the ITS afi cionados informed us that if you use Angel as your solo and primary grade book and some thing happens, you have no way to recover that lost infor mation. I expect each of (my students] to be able to be re sponsible enough to keep track of the graded papers I pass back. Consequently, you have access to all your grades all the time." While the responsibility of grade tracking should be left to the students, exact grades are necessary for them. It may be obvious when you are failing a class, but it is helpful to know if MY VOICE Pens sti JEN SLANE The Pittsburgh Penguins will be be going through an 82-game schedule just like every other team in the NHL. They will go through issues such as personnel changes, injuries, and even the occasional slump. So far this year the Pen guins have started without Max Talbot. Sergei Gon char is out for what could be six weeks. They will need to win 16 playoff games to lift the cup again. Winning the cup once does not make it any easier to win again, and it's even harder to win the champi onship two years in a row. Yet the Pens are blowing everyone's minds with how strong they have started their season. As the Penguins are num ber one in the conference with an amazing 9-2 start, there is no sign of a Stanley Cup hangover. All of the players are on top of their game, and with the addition of some new faces, the pos sibility of winning the cup Note from Our readers this week may notice a severely "slimmed down" Beacon copy. Rather than our usual 12-page copy, we are running an 8-page issue this week. This is due to the entire executive board and four additional ed itors taking a five-day trip to Austin, Tx. for the Associated Colle giate Press (ACP) Journalism Conference. Unfortunately, covering Behrend news from half the nation away has proven quite diffi cult, and the result is a smaller paper this week. This is the first year that Penn State Erie will have representa tion at this event. There, we hope to find the current exciting trends in collegiate journalism and utilize them to the furthest ex tent we can to give our campus an even better student newspaper. I would like to take this space to thank those administrators at Penn State Behrend who made this trip a possibility for our staff. Dr. Robert Light and the Division of Undergraduate Research, who contributed generously at the drop of a hat to help cover travel costs, conference fees, and travel; the SAF committee, which paid for conference fees and travel; and our Student Government As sociation, which contributed half of our travel costs. We will never sit back and be satisfied with the product that we give Behrend. We will always seek to improve the Beacon. and this trip to Austin will make this happen. Demon? you may have to drop a course due to a low grade. Not only is the use of ANGEL an issue with Behrend profes sors, its stability does not pro vide enough confidence to the professors to actually use it. On December 17, 2007, dur ing finals week at 2:54 p.m., ANGEL went offline for 20 minutes. ITS spokeswoman, Robin Anderson said that "the overloaded servers spelled dis aster for some students who were either unable to log into ANGEL at all or could not com plete timed assignments be cause the site was too slow." With an entire system crash, ANGEL was inoperable for 20 minutes, and was slow for about eight hours. Although stability issues have been long resolved, ANGELs stability may still be questionable in the future with more and more students using the site, and larger sized files are downloaded. Penn State Behrend student Charles Abbott says. "I think it is a waste of time. I feel as though it is unnecessary and it makes life too complicated than it already is." Overall, Penn State needs to either find a new way of distrib uting grades and assignments or enforce professors to use ANGEL adequately (given that ANGEL resolves its stability is sues). I strong again is looking strong "We need to make sure that we start over again. Our name is right back in the hat with 29 other teams that are going to compete for the Stanley Cup," said Dan Bylsma, head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. "In order to do that, we have to get better. We have to grow together as a team." At this point in time, the Penguins have showed promise in their perform ance as well as their motiva tion. The team is driven to play, their best and it shows in thier statistics. In the game against Phoenix on October 23rd, Team Captain Sidney Crosby scored his first short-handed goal along with two other goals. Even though Fleury has been playing solid over the past few weeks, it's nice to have comfort in the fact the backup goalie can hold his own. Let's hope the Penguins can stay headache free and keep up their game for a long and successful season. Let's Go Pens! the editor ( ritirun .S,lttel‘ (11/. )0 fq6l(ni,ll staff rial Policies
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