Mercyhurst mourns student's murder
ETHAN MAGOC
Editor-in-cheif, The Merciad
Time and space transformed
A time to gather again and return
to classes—a sense of routine having
returned after a short break.
A place to celebrate evening
Mass among peers in Mercyhurst
College's Catholic tradition. Instead,
Christ the King Chapel offered nei
ther on Sunday night for the Mercy
hurst community.
But to an overflowing crowd of
hundreds, the college's wooden cha
pel and its foyer at the east end of
Old Main provided much more dur
ing a memorial service for deceased
student Jenni-Lyn Watson.
Watson was murdered Nov. 19 at
her home in Liverpool, N.Y., where
she had returned the day before
from Mercyhurst and its fall trimes
ter.
As the refrain from "On Eagle's
Wings" came to a close midway
through Sunday's prayer vigil, doz
ens of students—many of whom
barely knew or had never even met
Watson—could be heard openly sob
bing.
Like he had done four days prior
during a prayer service for Watson's
safe return, the Rev. James Piszker,
the college chaplain, strode across
the altar and spoke helpful but pain
ful words.
"The question comes to mind,
`Was our (Wednesday) prayer in
vain? Was our hope misplaced?" He
asked of the assembled.
"I'm here to tell you that neither
these things are true," Piszker
—ten IT rrto / •
saw.
Piszker and other campus per
sonnel have already put forth a full
effort to assist students grieving
over the gruesome tragedy.
Her murder
Watson, a 20-year-old junior
dance major, was at her home on the
morning of Nov. 19.
New York authorities allege that
Steven Pieper, a man she dated
on and off for approximately 18
months, arrived at her house that
morning and an argument ensued.
Onondaga County District Attor
ney William Fitzpatrick said Pieper
likely killed Watson, carried her
body into his Volkswagen that he
had backed into the family garage,
then drove two miles north to Clay
Central Park.
There, after a five-day police
search, Watson's remains were dis
covered Saturday morning near
an amphitheater by New York
police." Within a very short period
of time (after her death, she was)
Changes
ABBY BADACH
editor-in-chief, The Gannon Knight
Major changes may be in store
for Gannon University's Student
Government Association, including
amending the organization's con
stitution, eliminating unnecessary
committees and slashing the num
ber of student representatives for
each class.
The obstacle: finding a way to put
these ideas into action.
SGA will vote on one proposed
solution - bringing in a pair of pri
vate consultants to help restructure
the organization - at the general as
sembly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thurs
day in Room 219 of the Waldron
Campus Center.
If the motion passes, the con
sultants - Nick Tarant and Steve
Wymer, co-founders of the American
Student Government Association -
would be paid for with approximate
ly $B,OOO from SGA's "special proj
ects" account. Other options, like
finding an internal consultant with
ampus Connection
GANNON
at what's up on the ca pules of Erie's other colleges
dumped like garbage in Clay Cen
tral Park," Fitzpatrick said at a Nov.
27 news conference.
Pieper, 21, was charged with sec
ond degree murder a few hours after
Watson's body was discovered. Po
lice suspect he acted out of jealousy
and anger after Watson broke off the
relationship and a year-long engage
ment in October.
He immediately pleaded not
guilty at Saturday's arraignment
and will next appear in a Clay court
on Friday.
An autopsy was performed on
Watson's body Sunday which con
firmed it a homicide, but police are
waiting for tissue samples to deter
mine an exact cause of death.
Community efforts
Mere hours after her disappear
ance became clear to Watson's fam
ily and local police last weekend,
word spread rapidly via Facebook to
keep watch for a 20-year-old female
of approximately 5 feet, 3 inches
and 100 pounds.
" She was little, but she was
spunky," said friend and fellow ju
nior dancer Am Deer. "Her energy,
imminent
Gannon's organizational learning
and leadership doctoral program,
will also be discussed at Thursday's
meeting.
The special projects account - a
fund made up of money collected
from 37 percent of students' $56/
semester activities fee - currently
has $33,600 in available funds, said
SGA president and senior political
science major Tom Panighetti. Un
spent special projects money rolls
over from year to year.
Some students say the price tag
for the consultants is just too high.
"Eight thousand dollars is a lot of
money to be spending on something
like that, and it could be better spent
at other places around campus,"
said Patrick Chounet, a junior math
major. "Besides, the people on that
board will only last for at most four
years - maybe five."
A group of eight students who at
tended a student government "anti
conference" facilitated by Tarant
and Wymer presented at the Nov.
18 general assembly meeting to pro
was amazing."
Friends and family attempted to
reciprocate that energy during the
weeklong search and subsequent
mourning period.
Devin Ruic, Watson's friend and
a columnist for The Merciad, be
gan a Facebook group early on ti
tled "MISSING: Jenni-Lyn Watson"
that eventually garnered more than
27,000 members.
"It was amazing to see how much
one person could be loved," said Ra
chel Torgesen, another junior dance
classmate and close friend of Wat
son.
Many friends have already cre
ated remembrance slideshows
with the wealth of photos Watson
had posted to her Facebook and
Myspace accounts.
Mercyhurst's Counseling Cen
ter and Campus Ministry are each
offering their services to anyone
struggling with Watson's passing.
Students who desired to be at her
11:30 a.m. funeral today in the Syra
cuse area left on a bus from the Per
forming Arts Center parking lot at 5
a.m.
In addition to the temporary me
morial to Watson in Zurn Hall's lob-
for Gannon's SGA
pose the changes.
Allison Adkins, a junior liberal
studies major and SGA class repre
sentative, said the anti-conference
challenged her to think about con
necting SGA's efforts with the stu
dent body as a whole.
"There's really no activity go
ing on outside of the meetings, and
that's what we want to try and bring
back - having more projects, doing
more things for the students and
hearing what students want. We
don't really have a bond with the
students. A lot of the students don't
know what we do."
"We need an outside person to
come in and say, 'Well, this is what
we've seen work, and this is what
we've seen that has helped people in
the past, — she said. "A lot of the peo
ple who went to the anti-conference
think that if we hold off on it and we
just push it back, it's never going to
happen."
Currently, SGA has nine repre
sentatives per class, but the present
ers suggested cutting that number to
by, the dance department is selling
green ribbons with Watson's initials
on them for a dollar each.
All proceeds will be donated to
the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children.
And Mercyhurst President Dr.
Thomas Gamble has already estab
lished the Jenni-Lyn Watson Memo
rial Dance Scholarship for future
Mercyhurst dancers. Donations can
be made at http:/, giving.mercy
hurstedujennilyn.
Tauna Hunter, dance department
chair, believes Watson's friends and
classmates will find the most solace
with one another.
"The most important support they
have is for each other," she said.
Memories of Watson
Jenni-Lyn Watson's death comes
at the end of a tough year of trag
edies for Mercyhurst.
In February, adult student Mat
thew Weber died in his Lewis Ave
nue apartment the day after winter
term final exams ended. Weber was
a 27-year-old graphic design major.
Less than two weeks after school be
gan in September, women's hockey
a number like five or seven people to
make SGA more efficient.
Kathleen Gausman, associate
dean of student development and
SGA faculty adviser, said the num
ber of representatives per class was
upped from seven to nine between
three and four years ago when the
then-president of SGA thought it
would provide a wider range of stu
dent representation.
Gausman applauded the present-
ers and acknowledged that although
the vote didn't go through during the
Nov. 18 meeting, there is still an op
portunity for SGA members to inte
grate ideas from the anti-conference
in a timeline that will be satisfactory
for all involved.
"So many times we're afraid of
change," she said. "I think it's al
ways good to take a critical eye to
how we do things, with the inten
tion of making them better... it's not
change just for change's sake. It's
change because we want to see it get
better, he progressive or to get with
the times."
assistant coach Kristen Cameron
was struck by a drunk driver while
riding her bicycle in Erie.
She continues to rehabilitate a se
vere spinal chord injury. but remains
paralyzed from the chest down in a
Toronto hospital.
And Matthew Lieberman, a 2010
alumnus, succumbed to Non-Hodg
kin's lymphoma on Oct. He was
23.
Watson's passing now carries a
similarly terrible and somber pro
cess for Mercyhurst's 70 dance ma
jors and others who knew her.
"It will not he easy." Piszker said
Sunday night. "It will take time. But
it will ultimately provide us with the
consolation that we so desperately
desire."
Hunter, who last watched Watson
perform at SoMar Dance Works'
MOVERS & SHAKERS show on
Nov. 13, believes peace and hope
will slowly return to her department
and its students.
But how?
"Our department is very close, so
we have a large family to take care
of," she says. "hut dance is a healing
art.
"We'll keep dancing.'
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