Page 4 > The Lion's Eye September gs 2001 By JERRY DUNGAN Staff Writer - Sex. Politics. Religion. The big three topics you don't want to get into a discussion with “your girlfriend's parents about. | Why do some issues have the ability to make teens stir in their seats? Sure, most young adults will talk about sex and politics. But reli- gion? Most college students just avoid the sub- ject. It's safe to say that more times out of 10, the average teen will want to talk about anything else rather than their personal religious beliefs. Perhaps it is because religion incites a mysterious taboo within ourselves that makes it uncool to talk about, maybe it's that we don't want to offend anyone who is not of the same religion we grew up knowing. But religion is a fact of life. Everyone has beliefs and deep personal convictions. Yet, it - would seem that the least talked about subject around campus is religion. Yes, it's true that Penn State is a secular university, but it is also true that it's a firm pro- moter of diversity. That's why there are certain clubs and organizations dedicated to the promo- tion of diversity awareness, especially in religion. The Nittany Christian Fellowship is one of these promoters. The Nittany Chistian Fellowship has club meetings in room 206 of the main building every Thursday at 11:30 am. Meetings are lead by the president, Dave Park, a sophomore. Almost immediately one might assume by the name the name of the club, its exclusively for those of the Christian faith. Doesn't that then ° mean the club's promotion towards diversity is a bit single minded? But upon attending the meet- ing, I found that although they indeed do operate solely ‘on a Christian motivated attitude, what they do for the furtherance of their personal beliefs serves also the greater good of all the peo- ple. For example, the club has been involved with drives that promote research on cancer such as the Can-a-thon or the Dance-a-thon. The club participates in special projects for Habitat for Humanity. The group has a welcoming atmos- phere that they call fellowship. This fellowship includes friendly conversations over snacks, although not necessarily about religion, they're always in good spirits. One can't help but feel comfortable in an atmosphere like that. “It's a place where I feel I belong" as one member said. Together they have enjoyed activities like an overnight camping trip and traveling to Penn State main campus and working the concession stands at University Park Stadium. The fellowship extends past this campus -and even past this university into- others through a network called Campus Crusades. Finally, Nihttany Christian Fellowship is a fountain of knowledge. Through "extremely heated and spiritually alive discussions.", stu- dents reflect on their personal beliefs. They can contemplate what it means to them and to the world. It is this abundance of knowledge that makes this club so attractive -yet another reason why some students take interest in this club. Just ask sophomore Rajesh Patel, who ‘practices Hindu but regularly attends Nittany Christian Fellowship meetings for the purpose of, “Any knowledge I can get." Community services, intimate interac- tions, and the ever-flowing pursuit of knowledge give students a chance to interact. It helps them understand themselves and the world around them better, and hopefully results with a more readily acceptance of each other. Clubs like the Nittany Christian Fellowship help students dive off prepared into a pool of diversity.Christianity can serve as your platform and you can choose which pool to swim in next. Seeking salvation at PSU Delco Get your hand off my butt Continued from page 1... : said Luci Blodgett, sophomore, gov't and international policies. "You need to know that . there are people on your side when something like that happens-it's not something you have to deal with alone." Just as a victim can mis- understand this kind of harassment, the harasser can misunderstand it, “almost unconsciously, as well. "A lot of the time people don't know they're doing it, and they don't understand the offense - they're actions carry with others," said Wyatt. In a case where both par- ~ ties are unclear, simply letting the offender know is often sufficient to curb their behavior for the better; this is not always the case though. "Sometimes they're mali- cious, and they know perfectly well what they're doing...it's’ better to know beforehand-then you're pre- pared for both sides," said Wyatt. And the preparation for that kind of situation is to be found at the program Wyatt has put together, where the specific poli- cies and resources on the Delco campus will be explained. The program is not only for young women, the more com- mon victim of sexual harassment. Wyatt emphasizes the fact that because it only takes words, every- one could be at some risk. "If it hasn't yet happened to you [or someone you care about], it will, in the future. The - - problem is that people don't pay attention-when it happens, they're lost," she said. The event will feature a guest speaker, Carlene Neal, from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in Philadelphia, a cen- ter that promotes awareness for sexual harassment in the work place and in schools. Neal is an - experienced trainer and speaker, and a specialist on harassment pol- icy. "I'm glad that this is get- ting recognition as the serious problem it is," said Blodgett. "I hope that no one has to. think it should remain a some kind of | secret, and 'not serious enough’ to deal with." Jonathan's computer lab survival guide By JONATHAN LEONHARD For the Lion's Eye When the semester starts here at Delco, students are busy with books, classes, homework, friends, and whatever else they may be doing any given day. I, on the other hand, have been busy upgrading, outfitting, debug- ging, installing, and supporting’ anything and everything to do with the campus PC's and Mac's. You name it, I've done it. "Who am I?" you say? I am Computer Services, or better stated, WE are Computer Services, your friendly do-all and be-all guys. Recently, the powers-that-be at ~ Computer Services, have made an astute observation: stu- dents are having problems with the PC's in the labs here on campus. This makes us very unhappy, because for every PC user that is unhappy, there is a Mac user point- ing and laughing. To help fix this situation, and to put the Mac guy in his place, I have compiled a list of 5 helpful hints that may make your stay here at Delco more enjoy- able... 1) Printing: Currently, in order to print, you must click on the "Click HERE to enable printing" icon on the desktop. The icon is a picture of a printer...go figure. You are asked to provide your user name and password, and after that is confirmed in our records, you can print to the print- er in that lab. Seems easy enough. ...on to number two. FYI: As you all may know, there 1s a 200 page per semester limit, after which you pay $.07 per page. Please be aware that you will be warned by email at the 150 page point, and again at the 200 page point. Soon, you will be able to check your current page count for the semester at a website. We'll keep you posted. 2) Email: After cursing your Floppy Disk a few more times for loosing your email information YET AGAIN, you can now pitch it in the trash can for the brand-spankin' .new Web-based PSU email. If you already have a web- based email account, such as Hotmail or Yahoo, you will be familiar with the layout and ‘feel. If not, there are always lab aides nearby to come to your rescue and show you the ropes. The address is http://webmail.psu.edu/ 3) Student "H" drives: Students will soon have their own storage space on one of the campus servers. This space can be accessed from home, and will be automatically accessed when you log in at the labs on campus. The space can be used for email, projects, storage, or almost anything. 4) Wireless Network: The wireless network is nearing completion of its second building phase, in which devices know as "Wireless Access Points" have been distributed across campus in various buildings. These WAP's make it possible for students to connect to Penn State's network - wirelessly. Students will be able to access the internet from any of these points, with a transfer speed of up to 11Mbps. In order to connect with a laptop, you must pur- chase a PCMCIA Wireless LAN Card. This card must be ! a Lucent Technologies ORINOCO Gold, or it will not work correctly. The card will cost someWhere between $100-$200, depending on how hard you look. The third and final phase of our Wireless Project is covering the out- side campus by strategically placing 3 WAP's across cam- pus to allow students access while sitting on the grass, on a bench, or on picnic tables. 5) Internet Speed: Blame 'da Park on this one. Here at Delco, we have our Internet connection through University Park. For all you geeks out there, we have a T3 (44Mbps) line to Ogontz campus, then Ogontz has a T3 to the park (which is shared by 3 other entities), and the Park ~ has an OC3 line (154 Mbps) to their ISP. So in essence, we have % of a T3 connection to U-Park. Here's a little known fact: Penn State as a whole has roughly 225,000 nodes, or connections on its network. This means that if ‘everyone connected to the Internet at the same same time, each node (or computer) would have 8.6 Bytes per second worth of bandwidth for itself at any given time. For com- parison's sake, this is roughly the speed of’a 2400 baud modem. If I have confused some of you, don't worry, I'll explain. All of Penn State's Internet-bound traffic is like water going down the Delaware River. Using the connec- tion that Penn State has now is like funneling it down the Rio Delco. So when the internet at school slows down at certain times, just know that there are 50,000+ students that may be trying along with you. Finally, just one more thing must be said. There is a being that roams the campus looking for people eat- ing or drinking in the labs. Its name is NODROG, and if it catches you eating in ANY of the PC or Mac labs....well, just know that it's scary. This includes during class time also.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers