I Wednesday, Sept. 8,2010
Building
repairs
to begin
in spring
Repairs to the cracked
floors in the Forest
Resource Building will
take place at night.
By Mike Hricik
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Office of Physical Plant (OPP)
crews will likely resume repairs to
the Fbrest Resources Building’s
cracked concrete floors with a
night schedule in the spring, Penn
State spokeswoman Lisa Powers
said.
Administrators said they’re
pleased with the way repairs are
being handled.
School of Forest Resources
Director Michael Messina said the
situation has been handled well by
both OPP and Gilbane Building
Company.
Gilbane was responsible for
constructing the $30.5 million
headquarters for the Penn State
School of Fbrest Resources in
2006.
“When I learned about all of
this, I thought this would be a
nightmarish situation, Messina
said.
“Now I have a sense that we’ll
do what we have to do to make this
right.”
Powers wrote via e-mail that a
construction schedule is currently
being developed.
That schedule will restrict con
struction in the building to night
hours to minimize disruption to
occupants of the building, she
wrote.
The schedule should be worked
out by October, she added.
Repairs should be only a minor
inconvenience for forest
resources faculty a 10-minute
walk at most, Messina said.
Though the construction sched
ule will be restricted to night
hours, Messina said classes nor
mally held in the building’s four
labs would be moved to the Life
Sciences Building.
Messina said the cracks were
noticeable before he came to Penn
State as an administrator in
January 2009.
Repairs were held up so the
university could diagnose the
problem causing the cracks and
fix it, Messina added.
“You don’t want to go to a
mechanic and have them throw
parts at your car until it works,”
Messina said.
Messina said OPP crews sawed
up a section of the floor in June
2009 and conducted lab tests.
Engineers then determined
that portions of the underlying
rock base had a chemical
reaction with concentrations of
pyrite.
That chemical reaction caused
a small expansion and uplifting in
the building’s foundational con
crete.
Powers wrote that since the
Forest Resources Building is fair
ly new, the university hopes to
avoid litigation against Gilbane
Building Company for repair
costs.
Gilbane officials did not return
repeated requests for comment.
Messina said when he heard
from Penn State lawyers in
March, they told him the universi
ty had no intention of paying for
repairs.
Repairs will consist of removing
cracked areas and pouring new
concrete in their place.
OPP spokesman Paul Ruskin
said the process to repair the
floors will take up most of the
spring semester.
To e-mail reporter: mjhsso7@psu.edu
Professors research atmospheres of
By Alaina Gallagher
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
While some may still be reeling
from the loss of Pluto as a planet,
others can find solace knowing
that scientists are continuing to
expand their understanding of
planets more unfamiliar.
One of these scientists is Penn
State associate astronomy profes
sor Suvrath Mahadevan, who has
been involved with a research
group that is implementing a spe
cial technique to begin to under
stand the atmospheric composi
tions of planets outside our solar
system.
“Exoplanet science is one of the
real frontier areas in astronomy,”
said Larry Ramsey, head of Penn
State’s department of astronomy
and astrophysics. “It’s a really
tough frontier to try and cross.”
Because scientists are still in
the early stages of understanding
the compositions of other planets’
Kelley jllegian
Two students walk by the Hort Woods in between the Beam Building and North Allen Street on Tuesday afternoon. Many trees in the Hort
Woods are older than the university and were cleared to make room for the university’s initial construction, according to lorax.opp.psu.edu.
GOP drafts tax on shale deposit drilling
By Nathan Pipenberg
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
State Senate Republicans have
begun to draft new gas and oil
legislation that includes a propos
al to tax natural gas extraction.
The proposal is part of a plan
hatched in June, when
Republicans agreed to pass a bill
including the tax by Oct. 1 if
Governor Ed Rendell balanced
the budget on time.
Rendell, along with state
Democrats, have long advocated
for the tax, both as a way to make
sure the gas industry follows reg
ulations while drilling in the
Marcellus Shale and as a way to
close Pennsylvania's $282 million
budget deficit.
The tax may prove to be a
major campaign point in the
upcoming gubernatorial election,
with Democratic candidate Dan
Onorato supporting a tax while
Republican Tom Corbett opposes
it.
Corbett has pledged not to
increase any taxes if elected,
sparking discussion among
UPUA to reach out to freshmen with Test’
By Kathleen Loughran
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
The student government is tid -
ing something new to introduce
itself to freshmen.
Today from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in
East Halls quad, the University
Park Undergraduate Association
(UPUA) will hold its inaugural
Fresh Fest.
Director of Freshman
Outreach Rebecca Alt came up
with the idea of having a fresh
man festival as a way to reach out
to freshmen.
After other UPUA members
and the executive board decided
to hold the event, it was dubbed
Fresh Fest.
“They are the class that we
need to start with, so they know
who we are,” Alt (sophomore
communications arts and sci
ences) said. “It’s a really great
opportunity for freshmen
atmospheres, Ramsey said it is
exciting to have a faculty member
involved in this work.
Using the Gran Telescopio
CANARIAS telescope in the
Canary Islands, Mahadevan said
he and his research team worked
to measure the amount of light
being absorbed by a particular
planet’s atmosphere.
These measurements could
then be used to determine the
kinds of atoms found within the
planet’s atmosphere since various
wavelengths correspond to differ
ent types of atoms, he said.
Through this technique,
Mahadevan’s team discovered the
presence of potassium in a partic
ular atmosphere.
Mahadevan said while almost
500 planets outside of our solar
system are known, only about one
fifth pass in front of their star, a
quality that is necessary in order
for absorption measurements to
be taken. Of these, only a few stars
LOCAL
Democrats that Republicans are
attempting to pass the tax now so
he can keep that pledge
Though legislators have begun
work on the bill, many details are
still in contention from how the
tax will be levied to where funds
generated by the tax will go.
Until the tax is passed,
Pennsylvania will remain the
largest gas-producing state in the
country without an extraction
tax, said Tor Michaels, chief of
staff for Rep. Scott Conklin, D-
Centre. At a speech in Wellsboro,
Pa., Rendell said, “Pennsylvania
is the 15th largest production
state for natural gas, but is the
only major fossil fuel producer
that does not levy a tax on natural
gas extraction.”
State Senate President Pro
Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-
Jefterson, said in June that the
tax was “inevitable,” but since
then has butted heads with
Rendell over the tax’s implemen
tation.
He has accused Rendell of
planning to use the tax’s revenue
to fill the budget gap, rather than
because a lot of times they don’t
get to meet who’s representing
them in student government.”
But the festival
will not only
serve as a way to
get UPUA’s name
out to freshmen
it will also
allow freshmen
to see how they
can get involved
in student gov
ernment and
what UPUA can do for students
“In the past couple weeks, I got
a record number of e-mails from
freshman students asking about
how to get involved in UPUA,"
UPUA President Christian
Ragland said. “It’s another out
reach tool to complement the
handbook.”
Programming Committee
Chairwoman Ali Cook said she
hopes that after the festival,
are actually bright enough to be
studied using this particular tech
nique. he said.
Currently, those that qualify are
all much hotter and larger than
Jupiter, and are in close proximity
to their star, he said. Mahadevan
said the hope of the researchers is
to be able to use this technique to
study much smaller planets.
“The ultimate goal is under
standing planetary atmospheres
and finding and characterizing
those that may be like our own,”
he said.
Mahadevan said the particular
planet he and his fellow
researchers studied was located
190 light years away, a distance
that is “not very far in the grand
scheme of things” when consider
ing the expanse of the universe.
However, in comparison, it only
takes light eight minutes to travel
from the sun to the earth, he said.
To e-mail reporter: aqgsoB7@psu.edu
“Pennsylvania is the 15th largest production
state for natural gas, but is the only major
fossil fuel producer that does not levy a tax on
natural gas extraction.”
fixing problems that gas extrac
tion might create like paving
roads damaged by heavy trucks
and monitoring water supplies.
As the natural gas industry
aims to increase drilling, forces
around the state are mobilizing to
learn more about potential eco
nomic benefits, as well as poten
tial threats to landowners and the
environment.
With the creation of its
Marcellus Center for Outreach
and Research (MCOR), Penn
State has begun full-scale
research on the region contain
ing Marcellus Shale and the
industry’s current practices.
Much of the drilling, which
according to research by Penn
State professors could create
freshmen will realize they can
use UPUA “as a sounding board
for any ideas they have.”
Ragland (senior-political sci
ence) said the festival will provide
an opportunity for freshmen to
learn more about UPUA in a less
hectic environment than the
involvement fairs.
Student Life and Diversity
Chairwoman Colleen Cannon
said the festival will be more of a
casual setting where freshmen
can find out about the different
positions open on UPUA for
freshmen, particularly the two
freshmen representative posi
tions.
Ragland
Cannon (sophomore-division of
undergraduate studies) said
UPUA will have applications
available for freshmen at the
event. But the festival will not
solely be informative, Cook (soph
omore-finance and economics)
said.
planets light-years away
The Gran Telescopio CANARIAS is located on the Canary Islands. The
telescope has a mirror almost 35 feet wide and is situatated in an area
ideal for star-gazing.
The Daily Collegian
Ed Rendell
Pennsylvania governor
200,000 jobs, relies on a process
called hydraulic fracturing or
“fracking.”
“The gas is contained in the
rock and won’t flow because of
that,” Penn State mining engi
neering professor Raja Ramani
said. “Fracking is basically using
a high-powered water jet to break
up the rock and then applying
suction pressure to extract the
gas.”
According to the Department
of Environmental Protection
(DEP), though, fracking fluids
contain a lot more than water
up to 85 chemicals, most of which
are used in dilute concentrations
to reduce friction in drilling wells.
To e-mail reporter: ndpso4s@psu.edu
“This is a fun event [we
think it will] draw a great crowd,”
she said.
“We have a lot of Penn State
delicacies like [Berkey]
Creamery ice cream, Insomnia
Cookies and College Pizza.”
The event will also highlight
student talent through a perform
ance by Kappa Alpha Psi
Fraternity, Inc. and a student
disc jockey.
To e-mail reporter: krlslo6@psu.edu
If you go
What: Fresh Fest
When: Today from 3 p.m. to 5
p.m.
Where: East Halls quad
Details: All freshmen are wel
come to attend