Page4'* The Lion’s Eye Peon Ca Mpus Tuition keeps growing, and growing, and ... By SARAH GALLATIG Lion’s Eye Associate Editor SLG232@psu.edu Penn State students’ bank accounts are being drained with the constant tuition hikes. Parents who set aside money for their children's college tuition are finding the funds are dimin- ishing quickly. Last fall, Diane Disney, dean of the Commonwealth College, was quoted in the Lion's Eye as saying, "If the econo- my gets a jump-start in the next few years, then we might see a small increase in tuition, but for now, tuition costs aren't going to change very much." Thus, last year, students dealt with an increase in tuition, not expecting it to rise again this year. Workout room is newly fit By KIM HICKEY Lion’s Eye staff writer KAH991@psu.edu But Disney was wrong. Penn State's tuition rose another 9.8 percent this year, taking a toll on stu- dent's wallets again. There are a number of reasons why, officials say. Penn State President Graham Spanier sent a letter to students and parents to inform them about the rea- sons tuition costs were growing. Spanier said "the main reason our tuition was increased is because the state made a significant reduction in our support.” "Due to the economy declining these past few years, the state has fallen into a shortage of revenues and they don't have a quick fix to bring any new rev- enues in," said Jeffrey Wirth, who works in the Delco campus’ bursar's Penn State-Delco's much-anticipated new fitness center opened Sept. 15, 2003 in the Commons Building. Some $120,000 later, the fitness cen- ter will appear more polished than stu- dents may remember. There has been electrical work, walls were painted, new flooring and more. It's also packed wall-to-wall with various different kinds of new equipment, such as an assortment of weight machines by the company Cybex, fit for almost any body part. : "The fitness center is great," said student James Hoback. "They have a lot of new equipment. It is so conven- ient for me to get in there and get what I need to do done. It's never crowded." There are also free weight benches, barbells, dumbbells and a variety of cardiovascular exercising equipment. "It seems to be nearly common knowledge now that exercise is benefi- cial," said Jeff Bauer of the Student Life department. "Not only for those beach muscles, but also for mental health, circulatory well-being and cop- ing with stress - especially during finals when stress of all types becomes more extreme." Students, faculty and staff are able to use the center at no charge Monday- Thursday from 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon. : Friends of Penn State students are ~ permitted to use the center for an office. "Therefore Harrisburg had to cut more money off our budget, forcing Penn State to raise tuition again." We have gone to great lengths to see that this year's increase was as low as possible," Spanier said. Penn State created a task force to keep the increase to a minimum, Spanier said. The task forced was head- ed by Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson and Senior Vice President for Business Gary Schultz. "In May, the task force came back with $14 million in recommended cuts and income enhancements that include savings on energy costs, employee ben- efits, the merging of several adminis- trative units, increases in recovery of facilities and administrative costs on research and across the board cuts," Photo by Anteia Consorto Junior kinesiology student Mike McNamara stretches before hitting the weights at the newly refurbished fitness center in the Commons Building. annual membership of $100 or for $10 per day. A new policy effective this year is that students must produce their Penn State ID card, which is to be left with a fitness-center attendant ‘while using the facility. Students without a valid ID will have to pay the daily fee. Finance and" Spanier said in his letter. "The savings from the task force's recommendations are equivalent to $200 per year, for each full time student." Despite the reduction in cost Penn State was able to save, the University's costs are still rising. "The costs of technology are increas- ing rapidly, and library materials costs continue to increase in double-digit per- centages and security costs have increased due to the events of 9/11," said Spanier. "During the events of 9/11, we had to make a great deal of effort and energy in containing terrorism," said Wirth. "It is like a rippling effect. We have been through making things better in Afghanistan, and hopefully Iraq, but it will take the confidence of the world to get the world economy back to speed." Delco sends record group to All-U Day By JESS GOLDEY Lion’s Eye staff writer JLG468@psu.edu September 29, 2003+ Excitement, fun and Penn State foot- ball. If you're down for having a blast, All University Day, a/k/a/ "All-U Day," is definitely something you'd want to go to. So what exactly is "All-U-Day?" It's an event where students from all of Penn State's campuses take a bus trip up to University Park to watch Penn State's Big Ten conference open- er. During halftime, the students are able to walk out onto the field with dif- ferent banners and flags to represent the campus they are from. It took place Saturday at Beaver Stadium in State College. The Nittany Lions met Minnesota and the game was also viewed by a national audience on ESPN. The game was sold out, jam- packed and full of heated energy. "Typically the tickets are offered to students and staff at all the campuses," said Diane Shorter of the Delco cam- pus' Student Life Department. "University Park allocates a certain amount of tickets per campus, and once that quota is reached, names can be put on a waiting list. This year we sold 37 student tickets and 9 staff tick- ets. This is a record for Delaware County." Couldn't make it this year? Future "All-U-Day" game to come will be held Oct. 9, 2004 - Penn State vs. Purdue - and Oct. 1, 2005 - Penn State vs. Minnesota.
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