***** i iliia |p ***&** 27, 2004 Professor Spotlight English professor’s determination over comes all odds By Kathryn Herr Editor in Chief kah92B@psu.edu Going from blue collar to esteemed scholar is what Dr. Margaret Jaster, Associate Professor of English, considers her biggest accomplishment. Jaster never let her North Philadelphia roots dictate who she was to become. At a young age, Jaster was always reading whatever she could get her hands on, so when she attended an Arch Diocese school for underprivi leged immigrant children, English was her favorite sub ject. As the daughter of a truck driver, Jaster was often under estimated. When she picked up a copy of Shakespeare’s “Mcßeth” she was told by the librarian that she couldn’t read it because it was too hard for her. This shaped her determi nation to prove herself and began her love of Shakespeare. When Jaster enrolled in Holy Family College, she was sup ported by a two scholarships; one for first generation women in their families to go to college and the Jimmy Hoffa Scholarship from the Teamsters. After receiving her Bachelor’s Please see JASTER on 3 What’s on 5 Penn State football update: who’s hot and who’s not. PSU / UCF game highlights and play er interview inside. What’s on 9 The Capital Times visits the Appalachian Brewing Company. A review of the bar and festivities by staff reporters SGA tests new voting system New voting system to be pilot program for spring elections if all goes well By Kathryn Herr, Editor in Chief, and Maruja Rosario, Copy Editor kah92B@psu.edu mxr3oo@psu.edu Photo by Kathryn Herr Rodney Horton, SGA President is hard at work checking over the petitions for poten tial candidates running for offices in the SGA senate. SGA is testing a new online vot ing system for this year’s fall elections. If the program is successful SGA will contin ue to use the system in the main elections in the spring. Napster brings A deal with Napster gives students the free dom to legally down load music free of charge By Eric Thomas Assistant Editor ewtll2@psu.edu Phish, Tim McGraw, and 50 Cent are all headed for Penn State Harrisburg....by way of Napster. The newly redesigned and re-released music download service arrived at University Park last year and has finally trickled down to branch cam puses. “Last year it was for students living on campus in a resi dence hall,” said Sam Haldeman, assistant to the associate vice provost of lIT at UP. “Now students who live on and off campus have access to it.” The music service was once wildly popular among internet music pirates, who used the peer-to-peer sharing method. Elections for Freshmen, Junior, and Graduate Senators on the Student Government Association Senate will be held on September 29, 2004. However, SGA will be running things a little differently this year. Rodney Horton, SGA President, has launched vot ing into the computer age by establishing Penn State Founder Sean Fanning had to deal with several legal issues from record labels and artists, specifically Metallica, and was forced to disband the free service. Since then, Napster now tar gets campuses with special deals and offers a free and legal way to download music. “There is no charge to down load a song [under PSU’s agreement] but there is a charge to burn a song,” said Haldeman. “Students can play the music on their speak ers in their dorm and it is nice because not every student brings a stereo and computer with them to school.” The corporate service has more limitations than the free version used a few years ago. Gone is the peer-to-peer sharing method; songs are now downloaded from a client server. Downloaders cannot move files out of the Napster service because of an encryp tion on the file, and songs can be played in Windows Media Player. However, other soft Harrisburg’s first online voting ballot. Students can log onto the voting Web site between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and cast their votes https://eballot.votenet.com/psh. The system is designed to be error-proof, eliminating the chance of repeat voters. Once a student clicks the but ton that casts the vote, they music to PSH students ware such as Real Player, Win Amp, and Match Music cannot be used. While a majority of popular songs are available on the new Napster, some record labels will not allow artists to post or sell their music on the service. “Napster will not say some thing cannot be on the serv ice,” Haldeman said. “It is up to the copyrighters to say what can be on the service.” Another issue that students will likely encounter are tracks labeled “buy only” which means a 30 second clip is available, but the full song may not be downloaded unless it is purchased. The plus side is that songs only cost 99 cents, which makes the service financially equal to the popular iTunes put out by Apple. Since its inception, the serv ice has taken off. Haldeman estimated that out of all stu dents eligible for the service, 85 percent signed up and began downloading their can no longer gain entry to the website. “Last year many students disqualified their own votes by filling out the ballots incorrectly. This sys tem will allow for every vote to count,” said Horton. Horton decided to institute the online voting this fall to serve as a pilot program for the main elections in the spring. The online voting pro gram will be available for other campus clubs to use for their own events. For exam ple, The College Democrats can set up mock elections to survey for popular candi dates. Other online surveys can produce crucial feedback on club events. Horton is hoping for an 85 percent voter turn out: a huge improvement from last year. “We’re planning a twenty-four hour push for election aware ness,” said Horton. SGA will be hanging posters all over campus, sending out informa tional e-mails about candi dates and the voting process to students, and calling stu dents in their dorms to remind them to cast their votes. Paper ballot elections, the standard way to vote in the student government, are wasteful and damaging to the environment. “By eliminating the use of paper to vote, our elections will be environmen tally-friendly,” Horton said. Eliminating the paper ballot is also more cost-effective. Though the cost of the soft ware comes with a high price tag, $2995 a year, the cost of paper wasted on a yearly basis, increased even more when the turnout is low, justi fies the high cost. “It is not as if only the SGA holds elec tions that require the use of a paper ballot. The cost of one favorite tunes, making the amount of Napster traffic a staggering number. “We were averaging about 100,000 downloads a day [at UP] last spring,” Haldeman said. However, not all students are satisfied with the product. “I can’t get it to work,” said Please see NAPSTER on 4 club holding elections may be minimal, but when you factor in all the clubs that hold elec tions, it escalates both the price cost and the cost to the environment,” Horton said. “The new software allows everyone to hold as many elections as they would like and not destroy their budget,” he added. Horton has taken as many measures as he can to streamline these elections to the Internet-conscious popu lation of Penn State Harrisburg. “We’re attempting to make it impossible for the students on this campus to ignore these elections. We’re also making it as easy as we can for them to learn about the candidates and finally cast their vote,” said Horton. By sending the information about the candidates directly to students’ e-mail, it ensures that every student has the chance to learn about each candidate without having to do any research. “A well informed voter is a likely voter,” Horton said. The largest benefit to the online voting ballot program goes to the clubs that are run ning the elections. The pro gram tallies the votes auto matically and efficiently, alle viating the aggravation of having humans count the votes and recount the votes for accuracy. “With the online program, the elections end at 8 p.m. and I will know who won by 8:01,” said Horton. \/ote contents Professor Spotlight 1-3 Library 2 Club Fest Photos 3 Penn State Football 5 Flood 8 Hot Spot CD Review. Movie Review 10 Campus Calendar. 11
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