The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, April 01, 2010, Image 1
Incoming chancellor Birx coming ready to MARCUS YEAGLEY Incoming Behrend chancellor Donald Birx says he doesn’t want rigid goals in mind when he begins his new job. He wants to listen. “What I really want to do is sit down with University of Hous- evei^one and, together, ton Comm Dept come to a series of ac Breastival Testival draws hundreds in McGarvey Commons Daniel Smith / The Behrend Beacon Breastival Testival, held in McGarvey Commons on March 30, helped to spread awareness of breast and testicular cancer while entertaining students. T«st You Women's water polo defeats Utica College, 7-3 ELESE MERKOVSKY The women’s water polo team beat Utica College, 7-3, on March 26. This is their first win in two years. The team made a trek to Illinois over the past weekend, and competed against some talented opponents in the Wheaton Invitational. The team had played against Wheaton, Utica, Connecticut College, Carthage, and Macalester. These teams ranged from the states Illinois, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wis- 2 Community: 5 News: 5 Opinion: 6 Local/National: 4 Sports: 7-8 tions we want to take to move Penn State Behrend forward,” Birx says. Birx says that he doesn’t want to get “too far out there” on goals. “To be honest with you, to say ‘these are the goals’ from outside, knowing only what I know from outside, not hav ing engaged in brainstorming sessions, having only heard a few people ta1k...1 just want to hold off on that.” head copy editor Over the first three to six months, Birx wants to focus the university together. “I want emphasis on getting together and trying to figure out what the prob lems are for Behrend, getting everyone’s consin. Goals were recorded from a variety of players, showing the diverse talent of the team. Stefanie Pontillo, Maryellen Spooner, Danielle Wilson,Tegan Boland, Kendal Duffy, Kim Ballentine, and Annie Lawrence all recorded goals dur ing the match. “We don’t really have any top players. We all work as a team which makes us even closer,” Pontillo said. senior reporter Pontillo, a freshman, helped Behrend to success and competed in each game. The match against Utica proved that Behrend had what it takes to record a friday : Ooy 54 partly cloudy Hamot Medical Center, the Office of Student Activities, the School of Nursing, and a few other local organizations held a mini-cancer awareness festival Tuesday in the McGarvey Commons, known as the Breastival Testival. The room was packed with students all inter ested in finding out the meaning behind the name. There was a long wait in line before partici pants could enter McGarvey Commons. Accord ing to a recent count, 506 people attended and walked away having learned at least one thing about breat or testicular cancer. “I had no idea girls were supposed to start self checking for breast cancer at 20 years old,” said Amanda Snyder. The breast and testicular cancer tables were separated and each had trivia questions on them. Each person got a stamp in your “passport,” which he or she received upon entering the festi- viewpoints together for Behrend, com ing up with solutions we can all agree on. “Ideas won’t be the greatest limita tion,” Birx says. “Resources will be. “The question is how we focus those resources” Above all, Birx says that the strengths of Behrend are something to respect, and work to expand. “Jack Burke has set the tone in rela tions with students,” he said. “That is going to continue.” Behrend, he says, is already a “ex tremely impressive” university, which he CAROLYN ZAFFINO staff writer “It was a good game and challenged us all. We were all very excited for our first win,” Pontillo said. The trip was not only successful due to the win and the chance to play high quality teams, but it also helped the team bond. This was the team’s second longest road trip, second only to a trip to Cali fornia over Behrend’s Spring Break. The team really enjoyed the chance to get out of Erie and spend time in the city of Chicago. “We had a lot of team bonding, and _ , , Saturday 00/49 mostly cloudy seeks to build from Birx received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Univ. of California, Berkeley; a MBA and master’s of sci ence in bio-physics from Miami Univer sity in Ohio; and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Univ. of Dayton. He will move to Erie over the summer, with his family. His daughter, currently a junior in high school, will likely seek to attend Behrend for biology. His son is looking into Behrend also, for engineer ing. “And we’re all winter sports people,” he said. “We can’t wait to get up there.” val, for each station visited. If he or she received a stamp from all 18 sta tions, they were entered into a drawing for a tel evision and other prizes. Students were also handed tickets they could later use for the Chi nese auction. In addition to the auction and drawings, they also handed out “booby" prizes. Along with these, games were set up to keep students occu pied if the tables were crowded. There was “pink” pong, Ta-Ta Toss, Plinko and “Can You Feel the Lumps?” Not only were the games there to occupy time, but they also added to the overall experience and made it more memorable. “What I liked about this event was that it raised our awareness of breast and testicular cancer. It made it stick because they did it in a fun method,” Kymberly McClellan said. McClellan also said that this is something she will go home and inform her family about. continued on page 5 also we got our first win which made the long trip worth while,” said Pontillo. Head Coach Joe Tristen expressed much excitement for the season. Bring ing in four new freshmen and having ex perinced older players help strengthen Behrend’s team. “I believe we will contend for a good spot at the championships and will look to be competitive,” said Tristen, accord ing to PSBlions.com. Behrend Lions are looking forward to their next trip, which will be in New London, Conneticut for the CWPA Re gional Tournament. isten Sunday CAy 46 partly doud y Daniel Smith / The Behrend Beacon Sophomore Kim Pol gave blood along with 123 other donars. Students help save lives in blood drive Blood demand increases after shortage in Northwestern PA ERIC PEIRCE a.csf. news editor Behrend students have al ways been generous to the Erie community. In the past, money has been raised and time spent to help out with the city of Erie. When Behrend students were asked to donate blood to local blood banks, they were more than willing to roll up their sleeves and face the dreaded needle on Friday. The Community Blood Bank of Erie had 124 donors donate 110 units of blood that was safe for use. “That is outstanding, and espe cially impres- Who: Behrend students and Deanna sive was that there were so few defer- Renaud, Mobile Drive Coordinator What: Blood Drive Where: McGarvey Commons When: Friday, March 26 Why: Up to 330 lives can be saved! Deanna Re- naud, Mobile Drive Coordi nator for Erie’s Com- munity Blood According to Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, one unit of blood can help save the lives of up to three separate patients, which means that over 330 lives may be saved by Behrend students. This blood drive is especially important since a sudden blood shortage occurred last week end in northwestern Pennsylva nia. But this is not the first time things got “bloody” for Behrend students. Last semester, an other blood drive was held that was also met with unexpected high number of participants. Behrend was one of the few colleges around Erie that was conducting blood drives last week for the Community Blood Bank. “This was an enormous help to the local blood supply, which we have been working to bring back to appropriate levels for a couple weeks now,” Renaud said. “Everyone here was very re lieved to see so many units pour in on Friday!”