The Fourth Wall
page 5
OUMAIMA GHOUMARI
College students’ main con-
cerns nowadays are either their
schoolwork or partying. Little
did the small campus of Mont
Alto know that on August 23
they would feel the effects of a
5.8 earthquake. Earthquakes are
very rare on the East Coast, and
they are even more rare in the
small community of Mont Alto.
On August 23, 2011, the state of
Virginia was hit by an earth-
quake that was felt by most of
the states on the East Coast.
Tuesday afternoon at approxi-
mately 1:51 pm, the students of
PSUMA felt the very disturbing
earthquake. All buildings were
evacuated, and security officers
and ROTC students helped eve-
ryone out of the buildings while
trying to keep calm.
Students were scattered all
over the fields panicking, be-
cause they never expected
something like that to happen
while they were in
school. Ashley
Orellana from Washington, DC
said she was in her statistics
class in the General Studies
building when suddenly she felt
her desk shaking. She says, “I
grabbed my purse and ran for
my life!” She was still shaking
from the shock when we spoke.
Most of the student tried to
call their loved ones, but due to
high cellular traffic few were
successful. The earthquake was
short-lived; staff waited for the
go, and shortly after escorted
All buildings were reopened a
few minutes after the earthquake
and everything went back to
normal.
The earthquake went BOOM
in Mont Alto and was the talk of
the day (and week!). Engineers
from University Park came the
next day to see if there was any
damage to the buildings, but
inspectors did not find any dam-
age.
ALEXIS PRATT
The first week of class began
this year with not one, but two
natural disasters, an earthquake
measuring 5.8, and the rather
disappointing tail-end of a hurri-
cane. It is quite obvious that
provocation of a divine entity
was involved, surely by some on
-campus students-in-sin, but our
transgressions must have been
minor, for the damage to the
campus was negligible. Howev-
er, August 23’s earthquake did
temporarily close the gym. Of
course, this places the blame
squarely on our on-campus ath-
letes and exercise fanatics. This
author would like to urge all of
our readers to regard each other
with suspicion and hostility, es-
pecially in regards to any past
use of the gymnasium.
With tongue firmly out of cheek,
your writer decided to seek a
more thorough and specific in-
formation explanation of the
damages to the MAC building
and what repair work will need
to be done. I was led to Kirstie
Fry, the Director of Public Rela-
tions and Marketing here at Penn
State Mont Alto, who was able
some additional
information. According to Ms.
Fry, the campus was investigat-
ed by personnel from PSU Mont
Alto’s Physical Plant Office,
who are charged with overseeing
design, building, repair, and gen-
eral maintenance of all buildings
and grounds owned by Penn
State. They surveyed the campus
for any specific harm done by
brick or foundations.
Much of this was made easier by
the renovations undertaken dur-
ing the summer: Any fissure or
fault in a building that had been
previously proven non-
threatening to building integrity
could be identified by a lack of
new paint or mortar. Their initial
survey revealed little damage.
However, according to Michael
Ray of the Physical Plant Office,
corner welds on the roof sup-
ports of the gym inside the MAC
building had come loose, and the
gym was temporarily closed.
Any time a campus faces dam-
ages of this nature, the process
of inspecting building faults and
planning restoration is run by the
Office of Risk Management at
Main Campus, who serve as
NICCIA
MCKINNEY
First an earthquake, and now a
tropical storm? Central Pennsyl-
vania has been hit hard once
again by Mother Nature. During
the week following Labor Day
weekend, the Susquehanna Val-
ley suffered severely from the
effects of Tropical Storm Lee.
Rigorous rainfall resulted in
harsh and sometimes life-
threatening flooding. While I
am here at Mont Alto for col-
lege, my family and friends
back at home endured Lee’s
aggressive attack. Other towns
and counties had to deal with
what Mother Nature produced.
Tropical Storm Lee surprised us
all with its intense flooding.
My hometown of Marietta,
Pennsylvania was just one of the
many towns affected by the
tropical storm. Because my
GRIFFIN-
house is close to the Susquehan-
na River, my family had to cut
off the gas at home. Luckily,
they did not have to evacuate
our house, but my brother did
miss a couple of days of school.
His school was not a place for
education during that week, but
instead a place of shelter for
those who, unlike my family,
had to evacuate their homes.
Schools in the Lancaster County
area were closed, houses were
flooded, roads were closed, and
many were shocked and devas-
tated.
Some, however, did not
weather the storm. At Hershey’s
ZooAmerica, the wildlife park
lost two beloved members of the
Hershey family. Despite being
placed at the safest and highest
area of their home, ZooAmerica
had to put down their two bison
as they began to drown in the
rising = water.
As a Hershey
Park employee, it killed me to
hear that the bison had to be put
down. A few of my friends and
coworkers had the chance to see
first-hand the effects of Lee at
Hershey Park. Many of the rides
and stations were underwater,
which consequently meant the
park had to close for the week-
end. 3
As unexpected and uninvited
as Tropical Storm Lee was, it
left Central Pennsylvania at a
loss for words, followed by a lot
of cleaning. The flooding was so
extreme that President Obama
acknowledged the catastrophe,
and has the federal government
offering financial aid to flood
victims. Hopefully now that the
tropical storm is behind them,
flood victims can pick up the
pieces and move on from this
disaster.
VICTORIA GLAUDE
“Ed Piers Morgan called me a
bigot!” began Santorum's speech
on -his position against Gay/
Lesbian marriage. Santorum
went on to say, “So now I'm a
bigot! Because I believe what
the Bible teaches us? 2,000
years of teaching and moral the-
ology is now bigoted!” Rick
Santorum, a former United
States Senator from Pennsylva-
nia, is running for President in
2012. He recently visited Penn
State University Park to discuss
why PSU students should elect
him as the next US President.
Santorum spoke to the Penn
State College of Republicans,
founded by him in 1977, and
others, making up a group of
approximately sixty in the room.
Before Santorum’s arrival on
campus, about a dozen members
of PSU’s LGBTQA did a silent
protest against his presence.
Santorum referred to the Bible
and to second grade students
learning about sex between same
-sex couples in the course of his
denunciation of same sex mar-
riage. Penn State student Ashley
Kirby spoke up, saying, “It is
extremely unfair for you to say
that there are no social science
reports suggesting that children
are okay in same sex relation-
ships,” referencing studies by
the American Psychological As-
sociation, among others. Santo-
rum dismissed this, arguing that
“The American Psychological
Association is not proof of any-
thing.”
Kirby challenged Santorum in
a heated debate, asking whether
he is professionally qualified to
say that children of same-sex
couples are affected negatively.
Kirby asked, “Are you a psychi-
atrist?” Santorum replied, “My
dad was.” Kirby fired back, “Are
you a medical doctor?” And
Santorum responded, “I am not,
but that’s not the point...
lawyer!”
Santorum may have offended
many, but he certainly made it
clear that he will stick by his
opinion, and will not back down
even in the course of campaign-
ing for the presidential election.
liaisons to the insurance compa-
ny. As is university policy, engi-
neers from University Park came
the next day to evaluate the
structural integrity of the cam-
pus; as they determined no ma-
jor risks were posed by the state
of the building, the gym was
summarily reopened. A follow-
ing investigation by an engineer-
ing consultancy firm independ-
ent from Penn State will occur
before any repairs begin.
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