the Penn State-Behrend
SEPTEMBER 26,1985
Nationally acclaimed
by Gregory D. Goldsmith
Collegian Staff Writer
On Sept. 14, economist Dr.
Walter Williams visited Behrend
to lecture on property rights and
the allocation of resources. .
Dr. Williams began by stating,
‘‘All cultures have conflicts of in
terest that must be resolved.” He
continued by scarcely defining
conflicts interpreted by
economists to be a “set of cir
cumstances whereby the warrants
exceed the means to satisfy those
warrents—not everybody can have
Dr. John M. Lilley and Dr. Walter Williams
Ms. Faust may make the movies
by Rob Roth
Collegian Staff Writer
Behrend English instructor
Chris Dubbs recently accomplish
ed what many aspiring writers on
ly dream about.
His book Ms. Faust is due for
release in hardback by
Richardson-Steinman in late Oc
tober. The book was purchased by
the publishers while only two
thirds complete in January of
1985.
However, since the spring of
1985, various movie studios ex
pressed interest in the book; these
include Embassy Pictures - and
United Artists. Ultimately, the
film rights were purchased by the
independent film maker Mace
Neufeld which produced the
movie The Omen.
Dubbs learned that the film
rights had been sold September
3rd and he described the situation,
“I was in my office when I got a
call from my agent with the good
news. I wasn’t surprised by the
news since there’d been interest in
the book for many months. But
the very fact that the book might
be made into a movie still amazes
me.”
He said'that idea for the book,
“grew out of several short stories
I wrote--one of them
Shakespeare’s Physician. It has
Shakespeare’s deathbed physician
speculating about whether
Shakespeare had traded his soul
to the devil to achieve his suc-
everything they want.”
As a means of dealing with con
flict, he asked, “How do we
resolve these conflicts?” He
answered,“We must put con
straints on permissible behavior
which fall into, the category of
property rights. These are the
rights we use when in competi
tion.” He added that, “Laws
govern our property rights. Just
as important as the laws govern
ing our property rights so does eti
quette, our customs and also
ostracism—the act of ignoring
cess.” This short story will appear
this fall in Antioch Review.
Describing the content of his
256 page novel Dubbs continued,
“the book takes its name from the
classic faust legend that has often
appeared in literature. Faust was a
man who traded his soul to the
devil for knowledge arid power.”
“I thought it was time for a
female Faust. Ms. Faust is about a
modern-day career woman who is
vice-president of a large corpora
tion and trades her soul to the
devil to advance her career. The
appearance of the devil in the
world causes many unusual
phenomena to occur.”
Accordingly the book is riot
without its share of the bizarre
which is also contained in the past
versions.” There are wierd things
happening, like stones falling
from the sky, and rivers that cease
to flow. Also some of the men
who stand in the way of the
woman’s advancement
mysteriously die. The overall tone
is somewhat anti-male,” said
Dubbs.
The writing trade is not
something which Chris Dubbs has
immersed himself in with instant
success.- Since obtaining his -
bachelor’s Degree from Penn
State in Business Management in
1968, he spent two years as a
Marine in Vietnam and then
entered the creative writing pro
grams at the University of Oregon
where he earned a Master of Fine
Collegian
STATION ROAD, ERIE, PA. 16563
economist speaks at Behrend
people because they don’t fit the
norm.”
In an attempt to clarify this,
Williams explained, “Private pro
perty rights are those rights that
people have as long as they don’t
violate others. Public property
rights are those which are bom
with the whole society in mind.
The significance of public owner
ship is that it allows for disper
sion.” An example of public
rights would be the ownership of
the Washington Monument.
Because this is public property,
reduced incentive results due to
the dispersion of awards.
In order for people to be aware
of the results of public property
rights and the rights of people to
use public property, they must ex
amine the possible resulting con
sequences. Williams proceeded by
stating, “Part of the considera
tions that we want to ask is, do we
want individuals to bear the con
sequences of their decisions such
as you do under private property
or do we want these consequences
of inividuals decisions born by a
large number of people.”
Williams used as an example, that
during the oil crisis, children were
getting on T.V. saying don’t use
Behrend enrollment on the rise - again
Student enrollment at Penn
State-Behrend has jumped by
more than 11 percent for fall 1985
according to preliminary figures
released this week.
More than 2,250 students are
enrolled in on-campus credit pro
grams at Behrend College this
fall, an increase of more that 11.3
percent over the 1,989 enrollment
in the fall of 1984.
The surge is the eighth con
secutive increase in enrollments at
the college, which has has its fall
student population grow by about
500 students since 1982.
Election results calculated
Mike Shanshala and Marilyn
Lamore have been elected as
Freshman Senators. They assum
ed their positions on the Student
Senate at the Sept. 18 Student
Government Association (SGA)
meeting.
SGA freshman elections were
held Sept. 17 and 18 in front of
the. library. All first or second
semester students were eligible to
vote for two of the five can
didates. Lamore and Shanshala
received 80 and 67 votes respec
tively. The rest of the ballots went
to Paul Kitchen with 53 votes,
Brad Loase who received 62 votes
and Angie Busbee who captured
57 votes.
oil; save it for future generations.
Williams replied, “I don’t care
about future generations. What
have future generations done for
me?” However he added, “My
actions bely my sentiments. When
one is pursuing his own interest
for the betterment of a possesion,
the results in turn benefit the
future generations.” For exam
ple, if someone has a house and he
puts a considerable amount of
money into it to keep it in good
shape, when that person is gone
and that house is still standing,
the next person to live there will
have received the benefits of a
well preserved house at the ex
pense of someone elses money.
In general, Williams said, “The
system of private property rights
are very important in the alloca
tion of resources.” He explained
the system is important, “Primari
ly because private property forces
people to internalize their exter
nality. It forces decision makers
to take into account the effects of
their current decisions of the
future value of the resources in
question, whereby when their is
public ownership of property,
people have reduced incentive to
take into account the considera
“I think the increasing
popularity of Behrend College as
a four-year institution has been a
major factor in the growth in
enrollment,” says Associate Pro
vost and Dean Dr. Jack Burke.
“New apartment-style housing,
new classrooms and a new com
puter center on campus also have
been factors in increasing the
number of returning students.
Penn State-Behrend this fall
opened a new apartment complex
for 192 upper-class students, and
two new buildings housing
classrooms, a computer center
According to the SGA constitu
tion the duties of the freshman
senators are to represent the views
of freshmen and to serve on com
mittes of the SGA. Their term of
office runs until May 31, 1986.
Shanshala sees his role as,
“Seeing that students, particular
ly freshmen, become more aware
of Student Government. When
students have problems or com
plaints they should bring it to the
attention of SGA.”
The Student Senate is compos
ed of 15 voting members including
three Resident Senators, four
Commuter Senators and represen
tatives from Commuter Council,
continued on page 3
VOLUME XXXIV NUMBER 2
tion of the effect of the future
value of resources in question.”
An example he used was public
housing projects vs. private hous
ing and the amount of care given
to each.
Following Dr. Williams’ lecture
on property rights and the alloca
tion of resources, a question and
answer period was conducted with
faculty and students present. Dur
ing this time, students and faculty
alike asked questions ranging
from who has private and public
ownership on housing to large
corporations and their role in
public rights and ownership.
As the discussion continued,
references were made to situations
in South Africa concerning self
interest. An off-shoot from this
reference led to asking Dr.
Williams about his views on
-divestment in South Africa and
are firms placed in a dilemma
because of their interest and the
interest of their stockholders. He
first stated that because you are
against disinvestment does not
necessarily mean that you are for
Apartheid. Disinvestment is im
possible. He continued, “There is
a huge ignorance about South
continued on page 4
and laboratories—The Hammer
mill and Zum Buildings.
“People recognize Behrend
College offers a degree from a
major university at a reasonable
cost, which is pushing our
enrollments to near-capacity
levels,” Burke said.
In addition to the 2,250 on
campus credit students enrolled,
about 3,500 students are expected
to enroll in off-campus credit and
all non-credit continuing educa
tion programs at the college this
year.
inside this
MBA Program
implemented p. 3
Campus club
report p. 4
Student opinion
on apartheid p. 5
Students “sack out”.p. 6