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!”