Penn State announces Donald Birx as next chancellor of Behrend campus CONNOR SATTELY editor-in-chief Donald Birx, one of two final candidates for the chancellor position, has been chosen as Penn State Behrend's next chancellor. He will replace Dr. John "Jack" Burke, who will re tire at the end of this semester. The chancellor position, the campus's chief academic and administrative position, in cludes the overall operation of Behrend, including fundraising, strategic vision of the college, alumni and investor relations, faculty and personnel matters, and athletics, amongst a variety of other duties. "Don Birxs experience in both academia and industry will help open the traditional boundaries between both worlds, enhancing students' ed ucational experiences at Penn State Behrend," said Dr. John Romano, Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses, ac cording to a Behrend press re lease sent this morning. "In Dobbins ALLY ORLANDO Based on initial findings, fire officials believe that the fire started at a temporary en trance, which was in use be cause Dobbins Dining Hall is inaccessable. On March 3rd, fire officials reported that they believed the fire was caused by an electrical problem in the Gazebo, likely due to a faulty wire associated with the cash registers. They also reported that there 0 Inside: Behrend launches website for Dobbins information —> PdgQ3 Men's B-ball wins EC AC Tournament AMANDA STETZ senior reporter The Lions basketball team became a part of Behrend sport’s history when they won ECAC Divison 111 South Re gion’s Men’s Basketball Cham pionships against Alvernia 79-73, the second time the Behrend men have won it in the history of the pro gram The ECAC Champi psblions.com were'held at Catholic University in Wash ington D.C. The Lions started the game right leading the game at halftime 42-29. see Basketball, page 3 Photoßeview: 2 Science: 7 News: 3 Opinion: 8 Community: 5 Culture: 10 Local/National: 6 Sports: 11 Burke to Birx addition, his varied back ground, with degrees in arts and sciences, engineering and business, has enabled him to see the strong collaborative possibilities that exist in these very different fields. We re look ing forward to his building such programs at Penn State Behrend.” “I am thrilled to be part of the team that will shape Penn State Behrend’s next decade.” Donald Birx Future Behrend Chancellor Birx comes from the Univer sity of Houston, where he has been vice president of research since 2006. Before 2006, he held a position as interim vice provost/president for research fire ruled accidental; origins likely electrical was nobody injured during the fire and no other campus oper ations, including classes and food service in Bruno’s Cafe, were interrupted by the fire. According to Randy Geering, Director of Housing and Food Services, there are no compli cations with the other buildings surrounding Dobbins. The fire marshal’s official report is ex pected to be released in about two weeks. news editor "Ironically, we were installing fire detectors and fire sprin klers to Dobbins. When we set out to renovate the building in 2005, we were going to have fire detectors and fire sprin klers in place when renova tions were complete. Now, Waste Management introduced single-stream recycling to Behrend two summers ago, but re cycling bins across campus did not label them as such. “Greener Behrend has nothing to do with the current recycling system, but Greener Behrend student members realized changes could be made for recycling to be easier for students,” said Keith Cerroni, a Greener Behrend staff member. Going “Greener” Cerroni said that recycling bins on o / frida V 50/41 mostly sunny and professor of physics at New Mexico State University, while simultaneously serving as president and founder of PSI, a corporate entity at the institu tion for technology develop ment and incubation. Birx also spent 19 years at Systems Re search Laboratories Inc., in Dayton, Ohio before his posi tion at New Mexico State Uni- versity. Birx holds a Ph.D in electri cal engineering from the Uni versity of Dayton, as well as a master's in bio-physics and an MBA in finance, both from Miami University of Ohio. He completed his undergraduate studies in engineering physics, from the University of Califor nia - Berkeley. "I am thrilled to be a part of the team that will shape Penn State Behrend’s next decade as it continues to develop as a leader in high-quality, innova tive programs for education, re search and economic development," Birx said, ac cording to the release. when the initial and additional renovations are made there will be fire detectors and fire sprin klers in place to prevent a fire spreading like this one. If there Daniel Smith / The Behrend Beacon Preliminary reports state the fire was electrical and accidental. SHAWN ANNARELLI managing editor ■ ' A 12 Pages • Volume 56 • Issue EACON Who: Donald Birx What: Behrend’s next chancel lor When: Summer 2010 Formerly: ♦The Vice President of research at Houston. ♦Professor of Physics at New Mexico University ♦President and founder of PSI Earned: ♦Ph.D in Electrical Engineering ♦MBA in finance were sprinkles in place when the fire started near the cashier register, the sprinklers would have stopped it there,” Geering said. campus are labeled to instruct students to sepa rate paper and plastics, which is unnecessary. “Greener Behrend student members saw a hands-on project with attainable goals, and it is all student-driven,” Cerroni said. “We want to make students aware that they can single stream recycle their products very easily.” Greener Behrend started their project by working with Housing and Food Services Direc tor, Randy Geering, to sponsor new labels to re place current ones in Niagara and Lawerence Hall. see GREENER BEHREND, page 3 Saturday 56/36 cloudy UNiversity of Houston Communications Department Donald Birx has been named Penn Slate Behrend's next chancellor. - For the time being, the dining hall’s kitchen and main seating area will not able to be used be cause of damage caused by smoke and water. The initial reaction after the fire was that the Gazebo was a complete loss and would need to be removed. Structural engi neers have since determined that the existing steel structure of the Gazebo is salvageable. To ensure safety, the Gazebo is likely to be boarded up until contractors can rebuild it. Until the fire, a majority of the area was part of a $7.5 mil lion dollar renovation project. Currently, officials are working with contractors to get renova tions back on track. Their goal Alternative. Spring Break club takes a trip to New Orleans to build a home Who: Greener Behrend Why: To educate students on ecological benefits Where; Everywhere you go the club will be looking for ways to better use our resources. News | 4 ;sg* A Penn State Behre Student Publicati is to have the renovations com pleted before the fall 2010 se mester. "We need to renovate the Gazebo to feed the students. The Gazebo was added on in 1993, and we have the blue print of what was there. We can build it again and potentially make improvements to it. We can make moderations to en hance energy usage in the building," Geering said. According to Geering, the debris is already being re moved in order to help speed the renovation process along. "We moved the kitchen out faster than the contractor continued on page 4 Men's varsity volleyball team added SHAWN ANNARELLI manag/ng editor Penn State Behrend is going to serve men’s volleyball as a new varsity sport and hope for an ace of success. “Volleyball has been a club sport for over 30 years, and making it a varsity sport What: is what stu- Behrend s dents have 22nd varsity been asking sports team for,” said When Brian 2011-2012 Streeter, who Coach: is Behrend’s Ph'l Pisano Athletic Di- Conference rector. Not named Behrend plans on the team competing starting in the Spring 2012 semester. Streeter said that the athletic department chose to pursue see VOLLEYBALL, page 3 Sunday 45/3 6 c,oudy
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