14 I TUESDAY, SEPT. 9, 2008 , - • aftey'' 'l4OOl eita ineet- PM& BY 4, = a Penn IMI STAFF 8.4141 ER - a and COUEG flood:1.4.1 r, has isn't sad chivairY ,p ro kenatil.t. ;es, black*, and bgl:47;ea dint to b e Venues offer cheap alternatives for dates Different places around campus and downtown provide inexpensive opportunities for unusual dates. By Kate Dempsey COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I csdso33@psu.edu With about 40,000 students at Penn State, dating opportunities can seem endless. For the typical college student, though, money is not. When your resources are limited, but your Friday nights are booked, don't give up hope. With a little creativity, you can find a wide variety of fun and easy dating options for less than $5. Spice up your steps. On Wednesday nights, Tony's Big Easc 129 S. Pugh St., hosts 18 and older salsa nights for a $5 cover charge, with complimentary admis sion for those 21 and older. Tony Sapia, owner of Tony's Big Easy, said salsa night has always had fea tured disc jockeys from Puerto Rico, Brazil, Spain and New York City. Sapia said DJs set up at about 9:45 p.m. and are available for free lessons starting at 10 p.m., with a focus on beginners earlier in the evening. "It's a fun time and really it's one of those evenings that you have to experience," Sapia said. Get starry-eyed. Every Friday night from 8:30 to 10:30, Week ly Stargazing is available to the public on the roof of Davey Lab at no cost. If the weather is A couple swing dances in the HUB Alumni Hall as part of Late Night Penn State last spring Lessons are offered for free. SEX DATING nice, it is a great opportunity to make use of the available telescopes and check out the night sky. The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and The Astronomy Club spon sors the event. For a stargazing report, call (814) 863-1234 ext. 7 before you go. See a local band. This Thursday, Sept. 11, Cloverleaf is per forming an all-ages show at Lulu's Nightspot, 129 1/2 Pugh St. for $5. The show starts at 7 p.m. and will feature special guests The Apa thy Eulogy and Mattie Leon. "We wanted to have a quality show featur ing some local bands that you might not really get to hear about too much," Cloverleaf drum mer Garrett Bogden said. "It's just something cool and different to do on a Thursday night," he said. "Lulu's is the best place in town to see live music." "It's the theater, you know? If a guy takes a girl up there she'll think he's cultured." Matthew Davidson president of No Refund Theater Night Penn State offers a variety of cheap food and popular films to check out. Association of Residence Hall Stu dents (ARHS) Cinemas Chairman Will Ger hardt said the films chosen are fresh out of theaters but not yet available on DVD. Just some of the movies that ARHS Cinemas plan to show this semester include The Incredible Hulk, Wall-E, The Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder. If your date doesn't go to Penn SPECIAL SECTION tt:'it ~~ Dinner and a movie. Every weekend, Late "What I see and hear from young women is that there is more a sense of getting their career in order before they seek out a romantic interest," she said. Dellasega said she sees the change in dating and relationships as . a positive for women. Women are no longer "expected" to find a husband in college, she said, and careers have become more important. • It is now acceptable to wait until after graduation to find a spouse, she added. "It shows women they can do what men can do and have done for generations," she said. _Stephen Browne, a Penn State pruhOuiur of communication arts and stiences, disagrees, and said though students aren't "being trapped in unhealthy relationships," they are exposed to more hookups and one night stands, he said. Kelly Fitzpatrick (junior-theatre) and Jeffrey Kornberg (senior -English) of No Refund Theatre rehearse a sketch for PhrothFest 08. Plays are an inexpensive option for a date. State, don't worry; students are allowed to bring one non-PSU friend, Gerhardt said. Late Night food specials include $1 slices of pizza and $1 hot dogs on Friday nights, while Saturday's options include 59-cent mini-ham burgers, 99-cent nachos, $1 hot dogs and $1.99 fruit smoothies. Soft pretzels, cookies and popcorn are also available both nights. Heat up the ice. Public ice skating sessions are available on the weekends at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion, located on McKean Road by Nittany Apart ments. Friday night sessions run from 7 to 9, and Saturday night sessions run from 8 to 10. The student admission fee is $4 and skate rentals, if needed, are $2. If students want to go on a group date, Ben Wentz, shift supervisor at the Ice Pavilion, said there is a discount for groups of 15 or more people. "If you call 24 hours in advance, it's 50 cents off the normal admission rate and 25 cents off each skate rental," he said. Go to the theater in the Forum. At 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays in 111 Forum, No Refund Theatre (NRT) performs free plays every weekend, except the weekend of the Penn Statv-Michigan football game. "It's probably one of the cheapest date options," Matthew Davidson, president of NRT, said. "It's on campus so you don't have to drive to it. All you're really spending are calories I suppose in walking there." Davidson said there are concessions avail able if students want to spend the money and said if students want to arrange an extra spe cial date, they could always contact the direc tor ahead of time and ask them to rope off two seats so the couple will have reserved seating. "It's the theater, you know?" Davidson said. "If a guy takes a girl up there she'll think he's cultured." Swing, swing The Swing Dancing Club sponsors free monthly dances in Alumni Hall, with a DJ and beginners' lessons during the first hour. Sarah Erdlen, president of the Swing Dancing Club, said the next dance will be from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Oct. 25 with future dates set for Nov. 11 and Dec. 6. chivalry is dead, media we're see chivalry," Lexy 'ic relations) who' do treat were taught well by nd are worth marry- there has definitely been a . —le way people are dating, Dellasega said. Social norms have chuw,ed and women are becoming less interested in relationships, she said. _ _ s ere die because beyond Hookups are what students are looking fog - 140mm said "In college the main goal is to get laid, not be in a relationship,"!she said. -. If students do not learn how to manage a relatkeiship now tliOy may have serious problems lateg Browne said. Dellasega said she has also seen a drastic shift in dating trends. Even in the middle school setting she has noticed a tendency toward "group dating" as opposed to a one-on-one date. "One person having control can hurt feelings, I think the idea of just being friends and [hanging out] in a group is great," she said. Morgan said she prefers one-on one dates opposed to group dates. "If I'm interested in somebody tin not going to ask my friends to go," she said. Both men and women should be expected to ask each other out, Browne said, men asking women out is not expected anymore. "That is so 1950 s and it is not a healthy situation," he said. Christy Ferri (freshman-market ing) said guys shouldn't always have to do the asking. "If a girl likes a guy she shouldn't wait around," she said. "She should be able to ask him out and take con trol. Some guys are shy." Group dates are a better option because "it takes away the sexual pressure, that you have to find some one to have sex with or a romantic partner," Browne said. Dellasega said she believes stu dents would be better off not having to stress about dating. Students use new dating techniques By Brittany Wilson COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I bmwso4B@psu.edu Ken Brown didn't expect to be handed a ques tionnaire when he talked to Kath Marshall at the Saloon "I asked if I could buy her a drink and she just whipped this piece of paper out of her purse and asked me to fill it out," Brown (senior-sociology and English) said. Marshall (junior-sociology) said she has come up with an unusual way of dealing with potential suitors. She said that she administers surveys to men who ask her on dates as a way of pre screening. "The college dating scene is completely satu rated with men who are just looking for a hookup and that's not what I want," she said. "So if a guy approaches me I just hand him a quick question naire in order to determine his motives." Marshall said she has received varied respons es to her survey, which has questions ranging from where the person was raised to the length of his longest relationship. The questionnaire is not meant to scare men away, but rather for Marshall to gain some insight about her prospective date. "I just want to learn minimal information about the boy so that if we go out the awkward questions are already out in the open," she said. "Also I won't be wasting time with a man who is totally wrong for me." She also said she is not averse to filling out her own survey if the man wants to know more about her. Brown, now Marshall's boyfriend, said he was taken aback when Marshall first handed him her questionnaire. "I was surprised because her actions definitely do not mirror the norm, but I had a sense of humor about it, filled it out and now we have been together for about three months," he said. Marshall said she was immediately smitten with Brown, especially because he "giggled" while completing the survey rather than balling up the paper and walking away. She said several State College men have done that before. Marshall is not alone in her quest to gain infor mation from men before an awkward first date. Rachael Miller (sophomore-health and human development) said she got the idea from Mar shall. She has been handing out questionnaires for a little less than a year and she said they are work ing. "Kath was getting really good results from the surveys," she said. "She wasn't going out with men who were immature and I decided that I would try it out too." Miller said she has experienced some success with the surveys, but they do have their limita tions. "There is no way that you are going to learn everything about a person by 10 questions on a piece of paper. You still have to go on that awk ward first date, and often you find out that the man is not exactly who he said he was," she said. "But for now the questionnaires are working so I'll continue to hand them out." THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
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