The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, December 04, 2009, Image 1

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    Behrend Lions take
down Allegheny
77-70 victory
avenges last
week's one-
point loss
ALEC ITALIANO
The Penn State Behrend
men's basketball team took the
floor in their fifth game of the
season against the Allegheny
Gators in a conference show
down in the Junker Center.
The Lions came into the
game with a 3-1 overall record
(2-1 in the conference) and im
proved their record to 4-1 with
this 77-70 victory over the
Gators. Behrend's only loss
came Nov. 30 at Medaille by a
one point difference.
Senior guard Adam Kaiser,
who was only averaging 5.7
points per game coming into
Wednesday night, led the Blue
and White with 15 points, in-
THON removes SKN fundra
MIKE 0. WEHRER Nu are alleging that Behrend's
news ~ editor Inter-fraternity Council (IFC)
had paper cutouts removed
Members of the non-recog- from a THON fundraiser be
nized fraternity Sigma Kappa cause they displayed their
Greek Letters.
SKN brothers allege that their THON cutouts were removed because
they wanted to showcase their Greek Letters.
Soccer coach to return to Scotland
RACHELLE THOMSPON
news editor
As the Behrend Lady Lion's
soccer team was loading the
bus after an emotional 1-0 loss
in the ECAC Final Champi
onship game, head coach
Patrick O'Driscoll broke the
news of his return to Scotland.
O'Driscoll told the girls to
take a seat.
As everyone
quieted
down, he
told the team
that he was
returning to
Scotland in
December.
"He had
known for a
behrend.psu.edu little while,
but he did
Coach O'Driscoll not want to
has coached here tell us and
for six seasons. have it affect
our season,
which we all really respected,"
said sophomore defender Cait
lyn Bleggi. "It was very emo
tional when he first told us, and
Photoßeview: 2A Humanities: 6A Culture: 1B
News: 3A Business: 7A friday
Feature: 2-3 B
3 1'" t saturday
Local/National: 4A Opinion: 8-9 A Showcase: 4B
Community: SA Sports: 10-12 A :3 38/27
cloudy in the pm ,) 37/26 mostly cloudy
cluding six straight free throws
down the stretch to put away
the Gators in the closing min
utes of the game.
"I think that the team played
really well last night," said
Kaiser after the game. "I think
that we still have some things
to work on but as a whole the
team did a great job. Everyone
played hard and everyone had
a contribution last night."
staff writer
The 6 feet 5 inches senior for
ward Adam Potter hauled in
nine rebounds, which led the
team, and tacked on nine
points and two assists as well.
The team leader in points per
game was junior forward Chris
Saltzman at 24.5 and he tallied
twelve points on the night
along with two assists.
The first half of the game was
a back and forth struggle until
sophomore guard Nick Thor
son, from Bethel Park, came off
the bench and put away three
baskets from beyond the arc to
help build Behrend's biggest
lead of the half of 25-15 with
just over five minutes to play.
The Lions kept the lead at ten
Ashley Bemis / The Behrend Beacon
a lot of the girls took it very
hard.
He lived in Aberdeen, Scot
land and then moved to South
Dakota. The reason for his de
parture: an expiration of citi
zenship. Under law, O'Driscoll
is only allowed to remain in the
United States for an allotted
amount of time.
The law says he must return
to the Scotland for a total of 365
days and renew/reapply for his
visa card.
O'Driscoll has been coaching
the Lady Lions soccer team for
the past six seasons. He has led
the program to five of the past
six AMCC Championship
games, having two titles under
his belt in the 2006 and 2007
season.
When asked how he felt, 0%
Driscoll said, "I'm trying to
keep a positive outlook on the
situation. It's not what I want, I
enjoy my job and coaching, but
sometimes you have to do what
you have to do."
He plans to travel, and is
looking forward to being with
his family.
Russ Conley, 41, a six foot nine inch center for the Behrend Lions, competes for the rebound against the
Allegheny Gators.
as the first half ended 33-23.
Behrend converted seven three
pointers in the first half alone.
The Gators made a run early
and cut the lead to four at the
6:10 mark in the second, but
with precision from the charity
line, the Lions were able to
build back up their lead to nine
with two minutes to play.
Despite an effective full court
press from the Allegheny
Aditya Thota, a sophomore
finance major, and Brian McEl
veney, a sophomore psychology
major, are both members of
SKN and say that former
THON chair Molly Thomas
took down their decorations at
the request of IFC President
Cody Brown.
The decorations, which stu
dents could purchase for a do
nation of at least $l, were hung
outside of Reed 117.
"Adi [Thota] was the main
contributor," McElveney said.
"He donated about $25 and
what he did was wrote our let
ters and wrote the name of a
brother, he posted a bunch of
different names up. They
posted them up, and then, all of
sudden, they were torn down."
"The first time this happened,
someone just took them down
and put them behind the com
puter," continued McElveney,
"and there's tape there, so we
"I have a lot of friends in the
U.S., and one is already plan
ning a trip to Scotland," said
O'Driscoll. "I can visit Canada,
so I'm thinking I'm going to go
there so then I'll have a chance
to visit with them as well."
As far as the team is con
cerned, everything is function -
ing as normal. Daniel Mudd,
who was an Assistant Men's
Soccer Coach last season, has
been named the new head
women's soccer coach and o'-
Driscoll is easing him into the
program.
"I'm still doing recruiting
work," said O'Driscoll. "Dan is
going to continue to do the re
cruiting once I leave, but until
then he's helping me out and
I'm trying to do as much as I
can before I leave."
Behrend has told O'Driscoll
his position will be held for him
until his return back to the U.S.
and that couldn't make him any
happier.
"Coaching is something I love
to do and knowing
See Coach page 10
Gators which caused the Blue
and White to call several time
outs, the Behrend Lions were
able to hold on to win by seven
in the end.
Coming into the game, the
Nittany Lions were shooting
70.8 percent from the free
throw line coming into the
game. They made an impres
sive 91.3 percent of their free
throws in the game including a
ser donat
put them back up, thinking that
some kid tore them down that
had a problem with us. Then
they got taken down again.
Still, no one knew who took
them down. Finally, they were
taken down per
manently by
Molly
[Thomas] '
Thomas, who
is no longer in
volved directly
with THON, said
in an interview
that she was ap
proached by
Brown to re
move the deco
rations because
IFC "didn't want
Sigma Kappa Nu to be recog
nized as an organization, or
recognized with THON
Because of that, we took
them down, and we said that
we would put them back up
A new species of counselor
The newest member of the Personal Counseling staff is one year old Ernie, a certified serv
ice dog. Ernie joined the team on Dec. 1.
Sue Daley, Director of Personal Counseling, propsed the idea to Ken Miller, Director of
Student Affairs, who followed up with Penn State University officials and facilitated Ernie's
approval. Service and therapy dogs are becoming more popular on college campuses across
the nation.
Many research studies have shown dogs can be good catalysts for positive lifestyle behav
ioral changes and help to strenghten protective factors such as stress relief and decreased
depression and isolation.
perfect 19-19 in the second half
which was key in preventing a
Gator comeback. The Lions
also shot well from three-point
land converting 10 of 23, higher
than their 32.8 percent average
for the season.
Coach Niland's squad faces
an AMCC contender
See Basketball, page 1 1
ons
with just their names on them
and not their letters, she said"
As 01 Dec. 3, there ere still
gaps in the wall where the SKN
cutouts had been. "We had
maybe 12 of them up there,"
said McEl
venev, "and it's
"The first
time...someone just
took them down
and put them be
hind the computer"
Brian McElveney
SKN Brother
•
Thomas said that
THON had run out of the
cutouts for that particular
fundraiser and planned to
See THON, page 11
Chancellor
applicant
pool
"narrows"
The search for a new Chan
cellor at Behrend "engaged in
an extensive review process.'
according to an update from Dr.
Diane Parente, the Search
Committee's chairperson.
That review process began
with the establishment of crite
ria from the job description and
additional input obtained from
the campus community, accord
ing to Parente.
Each of the
criteria was
described
completely
and applicants
were evalu
ated against
the criteria -
prior to review
of any candi
date's applica
tion material.
The process
has continued
and the appli
cant pool has
narrowed,
Parente said
"['he Chancel
lor's Search Committee contin
ues with its work toward the
recommendation of candidates
for interviews to the office of
Dr. Romano, the Vice President
of Commonwealth Campuses
at Penn State University.
been three
weeks. Three
weeks to put
12 of them up
there. It's not a
lot of work,
The Chancellor Search Com
mittee would like to thank the
Behrend community for its sup
port in the process with partic
ular emphasis on the
confidentiality of the process.
and they're
still not up.
And vet they
have the num
ber 666 still up
lon one of the
"In order to attract and retain
a high-quality applicant pool,"
Parente said, "it is essential to
preserve the anonymity of the
applicants until the point in the
process when the candidates
are invited to campus in Febru
ary."
cut-outs]
The search remains open,
and there may he a second
round of interviews in early
January.
Daniel Smith / The Behrend Beacon
39/ sunday
2 5 partly sunny
CONNOR SATTELY
( , flarr-rn-( hit,/
The Committee
Who's searching for
the Chancellor?
• Diane Parente
Lon Bechtel-Wherry
• Kurt Bused(
Joanne Carrick
• Greg Filbeck
Adam Gilmore
• Traci Halmi
• Brad Kovalcik
• Makund Kulkurni
Mary Ellen Madigan
• Ken Miller
• Greg Morns
• Margie Taylor
• Soledad Traverso
• Robert Weissbath