Is PSH Y2K Ready?
A web page has been created
to alert students to Penn State’s
Year 2000 Plan - a plan to ensure
that all Penn State electronic
equipment is operational on Jan.
1,2000.
University Vice President and
Provost Rodney Erickson pre
pared a letter for the page in col
laboration with University Vice
President for Finance and
Business Gary Schultz.
The letter identifies the many
concerns that Penn State stu
dents have about Y2K. The letter
answers such questions as “Will
their be classes in January?” and
“Will financial aid be affected?”
The information can be found
on the Instructional and
Information Technology page,
www.hgb.psu .edu/iit/.
On the page, students will see
various
options under
“Services
Offered.” A click
on the title “Penn
State’s Year 2000
Plan,” opens in
the letter from
Erickson
Reading the
letter addressed
to students and
faculty, PSH stu
dents may won
der if the information is directed
to them since Erickson makes
references only to University
Park’s student paper and its resi
dence halls.
Erickson states that Penn
State is “ready for Y2K.”
Perhaps the main branch of PSU
is ready, but the fate of the
remaining branches is still in
question.
The Year 2000 Officer for
PSH, Bob Brinkley, says the
information on Erickson’s page
is accurate, but he will determine
if we are indeed ready at the
Capital College.
“If main campus says we’re
ready, Captial Campus is not
ready until I indicate to them that
we are ready,” Brinkley said.
The Capital Campus is direct
ly linked to University Park
through the offices of financial
aid, admissions, and registration,
which are all Y2K ready.
Brinkley, as well as Ken Blythe,
Y2K Coordinator for Main
Campus, agree that there will be
By Tabitha Goodling
Capital Times Staff Writer
no glitches in those systems when
classes start in the spring.
This past summer, Brinkley
participated in four meetings
with professional staff at PSH as
well as representatives from
Blythe’s office.
Information and tools were
distributed and explained in
order to prepare the computers
on campus for 2000.
Making sure the systems had
a clock that would read 2000
when 1/1/00 appears on the
computer instead of 1900 was a
prime concern.
The group also tested all e
mail equipment. Brinley says,
“Any computer that does not
meet requirements will be dis
connected.”
Computer labs in W 304 and
W 305 Olmsted will not be dis-
“Any computer that
does not meet
requirements will
be disconnected,”
-Year2ooo Officer
Bob Brinkley
be ready on time.
Other general preparations are
detailed on the web page. The
College of Agricultural Sciences
has prepared a guide,
“Consumers and the Year 2000”
which can be found through the
web site.
There is an explanation of the
possible crisis, how to prepare by
stocking up on food, as well as
how to determine if your home
PC will be affected by Y2K.
A more detailed approach of
how to correct your computer
can be found at
http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/
pub/year2ooo/PCfixes. htm.
Brinkley recommends this
page since it details a step by
step approach appropriate for a
computer whiz or the computer
illiterate.
Blythe encourages all PSU
students to take a look at the Y2K
page and indicated that “it gives
an up-to-date status report on the
University system as a whole
including the 24 campuses.
He did his undergraduate stud
ies at the University of Munich in
Germany and then went to
Florida to study for one year on
an Exchange Scholarship.
After that, Steger transferred to
George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. where he eamdd
his Masters and Ph.D degrees in
American Studies and History.
Teaching at Comenius
University, Bratislava, Slovakia
in 1996-’97 seems to have whet
his appetite even further for the
flavor of international teaching.
One thing Steger would like to
do eventually is “go on to teach in
international places,” he reveals.
Though he muses he’s always
wanted to take a trip around the
world, “I got my job too soon,”
Steger confesses.
Nevertheless, he has efficiently
worked out arrangements to acco
modate his position.
His wife, Susan, still resides in
New York and he goes there three
weekends out of the month and
she visits here one. They have
postponed starting a family until
he “gets settled,” he says.
Steger became interested in
American Studies while living in
Germany. He explains there was
a large contingency of soldiers
close to the Czechoslovakian bor
der and he wanted to learn the
English language. He also used
to listen to the American Force
Network on the radio.
connected and
are ready for the
millennium bug,
Brinkley said.
The concern
at this point,
according to
Brinkley, is the
Computer Aided
Drafting (CAD)
labs on the sec
ond floor of
Olmsted. He
says they should
International Perspective
on American Culture
By Deb Hoff
Capital Times Staff Writer
Who on campus has crisp, blue
eyes, a charmingly mellow
European accent, and knows as
much about German culture as he
does American?
If you're taking a class in Civil
War, Western Expansion, or
Regionalism you have an advan
tage in venturing a guess.
The rest of the student body,
however, might have to dig a lit
tle deeper to find the answer.
Dr. Werner Steger, 36, is a new
faculty member in the American
Studies Program this year, replac
ing Dr. Michael Barton.
Originally from Germany,
Steger has resided in the United
States since 1987.
He recognized that the
American Studies Program
afforded him the opportunity to
leam the language in a curriculum
that was “less stiff’ than some of
his other choices. “My interest
Photo by Matthew McKeown
Dr. Werner Steger
came via the language,” Steger
reflects. In 1989 he switched his
major to History.
You need not think Steger is all
work and no play, however. Among
some of his favorite hobbies are
reading Central European Literature
and enjoying early German films
from the 1920 s and '3os.
He's also an avid photographer,
or at least he was, until all his
photography equipment was
stolen while he was in
Washington, D.C. He hopes to
resume this hobby sometime in
the near future.
He is also in the process of
writing a book which began with
his dissertation topic.
It is about the “formation of
political and social identity of
artisans and immigrants in ante
bellum and Civil War [periods] in
Richmond, Va.”
He has spent many summers in
Richmond working on this pro
ject and is now quite familiar with
the area. He has been working on
his book for about five years and
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hopes it will be published within
the next two years.
In the spring semester, Steger
will be teaching 19th Century
American Civilization and Labor
History. Dr. Simon Bronner,
Coordinator of the American
Studies Program, feels that Steger
“brings a comparative interna
tional perspective to Penn State
Harrisburg.”
And what does Steger think
about PSH? He says that the fac
ulty and staff have been so sup
portive and everyone has been
very nice. He concludes it's “a
very nice place.”
If a ready smile and a firm
handshake are indicative of the
German culture, then Steger is an
ambassador par excellence.
If you happen to run into him in
the halls, perhaps you’ll recipro
cate a cultural experience in kind
by way of introduction and wel
come.
■p’" (
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