April 16, 2007
Poyraz
Continued from pagel
seeing how their life improves—it’s
a slow process—but it’s pleasing to
see how happy they are in the end,”
she said.
A psychologist, said Poyrazli, can
never give clients direct advice. They
can only reveal possible options like
that of a facilitator.
“You never want to tell them what to
do because that’s what you want them
to learn and make good decisions for
themselves,” Poyrazli said.
But when it comes to a suicidal
case, she said that direct advice
is almost imperative. A suicidal
candidate usually doesn’t
think sanely for himself and therefore
must be told what to do. Suicide
is actually one of Poyrazli’s worst
counseling cases.
“Obviously, it’s alarming when
someone says they are thinking about
committing suicide,” she said. “One
of my biggest fears is losing a client
to it,” said Poyrazli as she knocked on
her desk for good luck.
She also explained that a good
psychologist will give their
clients skills where “clients
will learn life-skills for them to
be able to continue their lives”
SGA elections promise change for 07-08
By MARUJA ROSARIO
Editor-in-Chief
MXR3OO@PSU.EDU
April 3,4, and 5 brought Penn
State students to the polls as they
voiced their opinions about whom
they wanted in the 2007-08 Student
Government Association.
The elections were held online
through a special, protected website
provided by University Park. In
order to vote, a student would
have to enter in their username and
password, ensuring that students
could only vote once. Online
elections started three years ago
under SGA President Rodney
Horton. Former Communications
Director and SGA Vice President
Augie Bravo created the contract
with University Park in order to
have a constant provider of a secure
connection at a much cheaper price.
This year’s election brought the
largest group of voters to the polls
yet, exceeding last year’s total of
over 300 votes.
Among those elected for the Senate
include Bharat Goel, Nathaniel
Hezekiah, and Joseph Marks for
the School of Business, Acacia
Bellamy, Jimmy Brown, and
Charmaine Edmonds for the School
of Public Affairs, Kervens Dorcely
for the School of Behavioral
Sciences, Oliver Eisler for the
School of Humanities, and Dustin
Holler, Lee Samuelson, and Micah
Victoria for the School of Science,
Engineering, and Technology.
On the eve of his 2-year anniversary as pope, Benedict set to name
By ERIC GORSKI
Associated Press
Two years into his reign, Pope
Benedict XVI is finally poised to
make a major mark on American
Catholicism with a string of key
bishop appointments and important
decisions about the future of
U.S. seminaries and bishops’
involvement in politics.
Benedict’s election on April 19,
2005, shook liberals and comforted
conservatives who expected a
doctrinal hard-liner. So far, they
have found an easier hand and
someone who has not made the
United States much of a priority.
When Benedict has gained
attention, it has mostly been on
the world stage, focusing on the
re-Christianization of Europe,
Islam and mending relations with
Orthodox Christians. He also has
stressed universal themes of faith
and reason.
“The last two years have been
much quieter years as far as the
papacy is concerned because you
have a very different personality”
THE CAPITAL TIMES
without continuously
a psychologist.
Being able to
keep her emotions
at distance with
each client’s
personal problem
is something she
has learned during
the process
“It’s not easy in
the beginning,”
she said, “but you
kind of realize
that you see so
many clients
and that getting
emotionally
attached doesn’t
help either
of you." She
does, however,
constantly think
of ways she could
help her clients.
Sometimes, she
even discusses
with her
husband, Ilhan
Kucukaydin, a Database
Administrator/Webmaster at the
campus, ways she could help her
Eisler wanted to become Senator
for the Humanities because
he wanted the school to have
representation. The same words were
echoed by Holler for the School of
Science, Engineering, and
Technology. Eisler looks forward
to “ensuring smoother flow in
approving budgets in order to help
clubs become more lively.” He also
hopes to work together with Penn
State Harrisburg to help the entire
school get a bigger budget the
current budget cannot support the
influx of students.
Holler wants to push various issues
that are not being addressed to come
to the forefront. His biggest issue is
handicapped access to the
Olmsted building. “I know a
solution is coming in the future, but
we need to come up with temporary
solutions for now.”
Elected vice president was
sophomore Sahar Safaee. Safaee
served on the senate for two years
before deciding to take a bigger
position. “I was tired of not being
able to accomplish anything and I
wanted to see a change in SGA.”
Some of the things Safaee wants
to change are SGA’s interaction
with clubs, specifically lack
of communication.
“New clubs don’t know anything,
older clubs are fed up with not
being able to do anything. We
need to fix that so everyone can
move smoothly."
Safaee’s biggest issue she wants
to tackle is diversity. "We are one of
the bigger campuses in
than John Paul 11, said Monsignor
Robert Wister, chairman of the
church history department at
Seton Hall University’s School
of Theology.
“Many Americans were surprised
some happily, some disappointed
that he did not turn into the pit
bull of dogma. He is taking a very
pastoral approach, and I think
people resonate very positively
with that.”
Yet America’s turn may be
coming. At the top of the list is a
looming generational shift among
the nation’s bishops, whose
decisions at the local level greatly
affect Catholics in the pews and can
carry national weight. For instance,
church leaders recently closed
parishes in Boston and New York,
while the St. Louis archbishop has
clashed with a heavily Polish parish
over control of its assets.
Key appointments are expected in
New York, Baltimore and Detroit,
where cardinals have reached
retirement age 75. And retirements
or appointments are likely in at
least seven other dioceses and
Beyond the
relying on
client, being conscious of course in
keeping the person’s identity a secret.
And similar to how she influences
her clients; it was her adviser during
her doctoral studies at the University
terms of diversity. We have
such a large mix of students
and I would like to see them mingle
and learn from one another. You
Photo by MARUJA ROSARIO/Capital Times
Sahar Safaee (left) and Marques Stewart, are the new Vice President and President of
SGA, respectively. They hope to bring diversity and more student involvement to campus
archdioceses: Seattle; Minneapolis-
St. Paul; Pittsburgh; New Orleans;
Louisville, Ky.; Omaha, Neb.; and
Mobile, Ala.
Then there is the potential ripple
effect if some bishops move to
larger cities, then they too must
be replaced.
“At the end of these two years, we
will sec what the enduring impact of
this pontificate on the leadership of
the U.S. church w ill be,” said George
Weigel, a Catholic theologian and
John Paul II biographer.
So far, Benedict has appointed
former Pittsburgh Bishop
Donald Wuerl to the prestigious
Washington, D.C., archdiocese,
and he chose former San Francisco
Archbishop William Levada as his
successor to head the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, the
Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog.
Levada is the highest-ranking
American ever at the Vatican.
While faithful to Rome, neither
man has a hard-line reputation.
Wuerl, for instance, has refused
to withhold Communion from
Catholic legislators who support
of Houston who has been her most
influential person.
Photo by ILHAN KUCUKAYDIN/Penn State Harrisburg
“If it weren’t for her, I would not
have finished my degree as fast as I
did and would not have developed
never know what kind of friendships
you’ll make.”
Safaee also wants to see the SGA
present more events that appeal to
legal abortion. Levada has strongly
affirmed traditional Catholic
teachings while shepherding flocks
in liberal cities San Francisco and
Portland before that.
Benedict “has tended to appoint
people who are moderate, who are
good teachers, good communicators
and pastoral,” said the Rev. Thomas
Reese, a senior fellow at the
Woodstock Theological Center
at Georgetown University. “John
Paul II was appointing people who
frankly were kind of in-your face,
who were more aggressive and
liked playing cop.”
“These guys don’t want to do that.
They’re more conciliators than
fighters.”
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus,
editor of the Catholic journal
First Things, predicted that for
the major posts that lie ahead,
Benedict will appoint bishops
who are “vibrantly orthodox” and
strong communicators.
Neuhaus dismisses suggestions
that conservative Catholics such
as himself are disappointed that
Benedict has not been tougher, and
classroom
research skills as much as 1 did,”
said Poyrazli.
As far as her own students are
concerned, she makes time for all
of them. Her door is always open
for anyone who wants to talk. She
makes a special effort, she said,
to acknowledge her students even
outside of class.
Her students even nominated her for
a teaching award this year and she
received the Penn State Harrisburg
award in Excellence in Teaching
last month.
Poyrazli tells her students to
continuously work towards increasing
their empathy and understanding
skills towards the people they
interact with.
Her advice: “We all are
different from each other in
some aspects. It is okay to be
different. Learn to respect differences.
This world will be a better place and
your accomplishments will be more.”
Included in Poyrazli’s hobbies are
TV watching and growing vegetables
in the summer, which she finds to be
very relaxing.
She describes herself as
detail oriented, well organized
and understanding.
a larger interest group. The goal
with these events is to “integrate the
groups; what everyone is searching
for but no one is willing to do.”
Safaee has goals for
the Senate as well.
She aims for two-
way communication
by having the senate
continue
senate meetings and
inform the executive
board while the
executive board
meeting’s minutes are
made public to
the senate.
Safaee ran along with
Marques Stewart, who
was elected president.
Stewart decided to run
in order to
change the previous
SGA’s image and unite
the college.
Stewarts cites the way
the previous president,
Ariel O’Malley, ran
the SGA as one of
the biggest problems
the government had,
and has big plans to
change that. Among
some of his ideas are
having “an official
dress code for senators,
enforcing their office
hours, and being more
transparent” in their
dealings. He also wants
the senate to “hold
more events, bring
influential U.S. bishops
derides media portrayals of the pope
transforming himself from “God’s
rottweiler” to kindly uncle.
“There is no evidence
whatsoever he has changed
his judgment on anything of
consequence the last two years,”
Neuhaus said. “He is a gentle,
thoughtful, paternal, firm and loving
person. That’s the man you see. For
those of us who knew Ratzinger
over the last 25 years, there were
no surprises at all.”
Another development to watch: the
results of a review begun in 2005
by Vatican-appointed investigators
of 229 U.S. Catholic seminaries for
evidence of a gay culture and faculty
dissent from church teaching.
Neuhaus said there is no signal yet
on the result of the investigation,
which grew out of reforms
following the clergy sex
abuse crisis.
Some Catholics expected Benedict,
a champion of orthodoxy, to crack
down on dissident theologians.
But there has been no purge. The
Vatican did censure the writings of
the Rev. Jon Sobrino, a priest in El
Poyrazli’s list of favs:
TV shows: Boston Legal,
Grey’s Anatomy and
Numbers because they are
either related to psychology
practices or seemingly
realistic in depicting
people’s lives
Music: Kurdish and Turkish
folkloric songs
Food: Chicken Fajita
Drink:
Orangina
Classic Coke
Sport: None but I can join
others in watching Soccer
and Basketball
Traveled
Mediterranean coasts
forth more proposals, and become
active in community service.”
Stewart, along with Safaee, also
wants to tackle the issue of diversity.
Stewart plans to create the Interclub
Council, an optional group chaired
by the Communications Director.
The purpose of the council is “so
clubs can come and present their
ideas and have another club co-chair
the event. We don’t know everyone’s
ideas, so it will be amazing to have a
place to share them.”
Stewart wants to keep a stacked
senate, avoiding the drop this year’s
senate had. He wants to create a
more welcoming environment in
the office and wants anyone to
feel “they can drop by and
hang out.”
Stewart’s last big project, at
least at this moment, is to reform
the club budgets. Among some
of his new obligations for clubs
wanting to use SGA money are
that “each club will have to
hold one community service, one
fundraiser, one event on campus,
and attend one Clubfest each
academic year.”
Both Stewart and Safaee encourage
the student body to get involved
with the campus and to stop by the
office to share ideas and meet their
elected officials. They also welcome
the presence of the student body at
Thursday, April 19’s SGA meeting
in TL-118 to meet the officials
as well.
Stewart and Safaee adds, “Thank
you for voting. I hope you all know
that we are here to represent you.”
Salvador and proponent of
liberation theology, over his
writings about Christ’s divinity.
Even in that case, however, Sobrino
was not barred from teaching
or publishing.
In 2004, a few vocal Catholic
bishops spoke out against
Catholic politicians who take
stances in conflict with church
teaching, particularly on abortion.
The main target then was
Democratic presidential nominee
John Kerry, a Catholic. This next
election cycle, it’s a Catholic
Republican and former New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who
clashes with the church on abortion
and gay marriage. He also is twice
divorced, though one marriage was
later annulled.
The pope “is taking a forceful
approach on a number of life
issues,” said Wister, of Seton
Hall. “He has made very clear his
opposition to same sex marriage
and abortion. The question is, to
what extent he will ask bishops to
take very forceful positions or not
take steps in the political arena?”