4 I Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010
Student recalls moving to U.S. from Ecuador
Series Note: This is the fifth
part in a five-part series profil
ing international students.
By Jennifer Lewis and Anna Orso
FOR THE COLLEGIAN
While most 13-year-olds are
busy worrying about their transi
tion into high school, Melany
Cordova worried about a bigger
transition moving halfway
across the globe.
Growing up in Ecuador with her
mother and stepfather, Cordova
decided to pack her things and
move to America with her older
brother in search of a better edu
cation.
The idea came to her over a
Faculty to discuss
drinking, SRTEs
By Alaina Gallagher
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Initiatives to curb excessive
student drinking and the effec
tiveness of fully moving Student
Rating of Teaching Effectiveness
forms online are two topics that
will be discussed at today’s
University Faculty Senate meet
ing.
Faculty Senate Chairwoman
Jean Landa Pytel, said the infor
mation on student life and drink
ing at Penn State would be pre
sented to the senate in two dif
ferent informational reports. The
first will be given by Vice
President of Student Affairs
Damon Sims who will address
the current initiatives in place at
the university to curb dangerous
drinking.
The second report will address
initiatives that could be made by
faculty members in the class
room to help decrease the prob
lem of alcohol abuse, she said.
Student Senator Blake
Bonnewell said he believes the
first initiative would be a reitera
tion of well-known initiatives
already in place, such as requir
ing the BASICS program and
increased penalties for alcohol
related offenses.
Despite these initiatives,
Bonnewell (senior-mechanical
engineering) said he is looking
forward to hearing the second
report because it will discuss
efforts faculty members could
make in the classroom to dis
courage excessive alcohol con
sumption.
'I personally haven’t experi
enced anything like that in my
classrooms," he said.
Airport to dedicate
new control tower
By Edgar Ramirez and Katrina
Wehr
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS
After almost seven years of
planning and construction, the
University Park Airport will ded
icate its newly completed air traf
fic control tower this morning.
The control tower is a great
step toward air traffic safety,
University Park Airport Director
Bryan Rodgers said. He said the
airport is consistently busy and
the tower will help regulate air
control.
"At times, the air space can be
quite congested, so what this
does is bring control to an airport
that otherwise didn't have the
formal safety control," Rodgers
said.
While the airport has always
been safe, the tower provides a
new dimension of safety that
could not be achieved without it,
Penn State spokesman Geoff
Rushton said
Rushton said air travelers will
likely experience an improve
ment in airport efficiency.
"One of the key goals with
installing a tower is greater effi
ciency in takeoffs and landings
because you have direct commu
nication between the tower and
Corbett advisers’ links to industry prompts dismay
Marc Levy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG Democrats
and citizen advocates are criticiz
ing the composition of Gov.-elect
Tom Corbett’s transition team for
the number of its members with
ties to industries and companies
that are regulated, permitted and,
occasionally, punished by govern
ment agencies.
The 400-member transition
team was selected to help guide
Corbett, the state’s Republican
attorney general, as he prepares
to take control.
phone conversation with her
father, who moved to the United
States when Cordova was a baby.
“It was very dif
ficult because I
was so close to my
stepdad and my
mom and my little
brothers,”
Cordova (fresh
man-criminal jus
tice) said. “And
coming here, that
was the first time I
met my dad.”
In addition to worrying about fit
ting in with her new family,
Cordova also didn’t know any
English.
The language wasn’t taught at
her school in Ecuador, so she
Bonnewell said he would “love
to hear” what faculty members
are currently doing and looking
into for the future.
Faculty Senate Immediate
Past-Chairman Lee Coraor said
there are a lot of advantages to
cutting back on excessive alcohol
consumption.
“I think that would be a good
session for all the senators to
hear,” he said.
In addition, another informa
tional report being presented will
look at the effectiveness of hav
ing SRTEs online and the low
response rate that is associated
with them being in electronic
form, Pytel said.
The data, which was collected
during the past couple years, will
hopefully generate feedback
from the senate that might lead
to the next steps in solving the
problem, she said.
In addition, the senate will
vote on revisions being made to
the policy on academic freedom,
which hasn’t changed since 1987.
Pytel said she agreed with the
modifications, which would
update the policy and make it
less redundant. The policy can
act as a legal document and can
offer faculty members both pro
tection and restraint.
While the changes might not
appear to be very numerous or
significant to some, the docu
ment is “at the core of what we
do," Coraor said.
The University Faculty Senate
will hold its third meeting of the
2010-2011 academic year today at
1:30 p.m. in 112 Kern Graduate
Building.
To e-mail reporter: aqgsoB7@psu.edu
planes," Rushton said.
Rodgers said he expects to see
more air traffic with the comple
tion of the control tower and
that will benefit the State College
community.
"One of the things many [busi
nesses] look for in a community
is a valuable airport," he said.
"With the addition of [the control
tower], it makes us a more
attractive airport. It's good for
economic development."
Rodgers said the control tower
also added six jobs to the airport.
State College Mayor Elizabeth
Goreham said service at the air
port will be even better with the
newly added air traffic control
tower.
Since air traffic controllers will
now be able to better respond to
local weather conditions, clear
ing planes for takeoff and landing
will be much easier, she said.
“It’s been in the works for a
long time and will really be a
benefit to our whole community
in terms of service," Goreham
said. “I’m delighted.”
Rodgers said he is proud of the
progress the control tower has
made in terms of construction.
To e-mail reporters: evrso2B@psu.edu
and kmws34o@psu.edu
The team’s 17 committees are
meeting with officials in state
agencies and are expected to
deliver reports to Corbett that
highlight important issues and
ways to improve and streamline
the government’s operations,
Corbett aides said.
Selected for their expertise,
viewpoints or life experience, the
unpaid members also must sign a
code of ethical conduct to guard
against the kind of conflict of inter
est that is worrying critics, includ
ing state Democratic Party
Chairman Jim Bum.
“We’re extremely concerned,”
moved to America for one sum
mer planning to learn it.
After that summer, Cordova
loved the country and decided to
permanently move to the United
States, where she said she
learned English in five years.
Krysta Moore, who attended
high school with Cordova, said it
was hard for Cordova to pick up
the language at first, but she
adapted quickly. “We all were so
intrigued by how fast she picked it
up," Moore (freshman-nursing)
said. "In our Spanish class she
had to do her presentations in
English, but we all helped her."
After being schooled in both
countries, Cordova noticed a num
ber of differences in the education
svstems.
Adam Shaner (senior-art education) shows his artwork made of hot glue at the ooenmg of his exhibit.
"The glue that holds U.S. together," Monday night in Patterson Gallery.
Center part of free speech case
On Oct. 6, arguments for the
Snyder v. Phelps case were heard
before the U.S. Supreme Court,
but a Penn State conned ion to the
free speech case had already
begun behind the scenes
Nearly six months ago on July
(>, the Pennsylvania Center for the
First Amendment a national
research center housed within
Penn State's College of
Communications filed a brief
arguing that Fred Phelps' actions
during a 2006 protest near the mil
itary funeral of Lance Cpl.
Matthew Snyder were a protected
form of expression.
The center was one of four out-
side organizations who co
authored the amicus curiae, or
"friend of the court," brief submit
ted as a way to take a stance on
| the matter of free speech as it
j applies to this case, said Penn
State professor Robert Richards,
the center's founding co-director.
"It's E.n old adage 'bad facts
make bad law’ and you couldn't
i come up with a worse set of facts
than this case,” Roberts said. "But
the decision of the Supreme Court
is not bound to the facts of this
case. Its decision will affect a
much larger swath of free speech
than just that of this group of pro
testers from Topeka, Kansas."
Burn said. “Disappointed? Yes
Surprised? No."
Bank executives and lobbyists
are on the banking team.
Representatives of large insurers,
including Highmark Inc., are on
the insurance committee.
Representatives of power and
water utilities, gas drilling compa
nies, the coal industry and more
are on the energy and environ
ment committee. “Can you say,
‘Letting the fox in the hen
house ?" said Tim Potts, the co
founder of the citizen advocacy
group, Democracy Rising PA, and
a former House Democratic aide.
L O C AI
jjjr
*
By Casey McDermott
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS
In Ecuador, the students are not
permitted to use calculators in
math class, they must wear strict
uniforms every day and they're in
one classroom throughout the
duration of the school day, even in
public schools.
"Our school bus would come at
6:30 in the morning, and we would
get to our classrooms and line up
and just pray, every day," Cordova
said.
In addition to the cultural differ
ences involving education, the
Ecuadorian legal system is much
more lenient with regards to com
mon teenage transgressions, such
as underage drinking.
Despite the fact that the legal
drinking age is technically 18,
Cordova said this rule isn't
“But what the Westboro Baptist Church did
was an actual attack on an individual person
At Penn State, though, not
everyone agreed that the center's
pnsition.
Josh Crawford, a student whose
criminal justice class at Penn
State reviewed the case as if they
were the federal judges involved,
said Phelps' and the Westboro
Baptist Church's use of "fighting
words" during their protest set
their demonstrations apart from
other modes of free speech.
"Just because you yell at an old
woman who is feeble and can't
fight back doesn't mean it doesn't
constitute fighting words."
Crawford (junior-crime, law and
justice) said, referencing a deci
sion made in another First
Amendment case, Chaplinsky v.
New Hampshire. "There is no
need for an actual physical alter
cation or eminent physical alter
cation to constitute, fighting
words."
While the brief filed by the
Pennsylvania Center for the First
Amendment argued that Phelps’
and the church's speech did not
direct suffering specifically
toward the Snyder family.
Crawford said the language used
For example, a registered lob
byist on the energy and environ
ment committee works for the law
firm K&L Gates, which is regis
tered with the state as a represen
tative of Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.
The Houston-based natural gas
drilling firm is butting heads with
the Department of Environmental
Protection over whether it is to
blame for polluted residential well
water near its Marcellus Shale
operations in Susquehanna
Countv.
Instead of relying on people who
represent corporate interests,
Corbett could have selected peo-
The Daily Collegian
enforced, adding that it s normal
for young people to drink.
"It's normal there, because it’s
our culture," Cordova said.
“That's why for me. coming to this
country was weird, because I feel
like since drinking is illegal here,
people are more likely to do it."
After earning her high school
diploma, Cordova decided to con
tinue her education by attending
Penn State.
While living in Ecuador,
Cordova said she and her friends
would talk about studying abroad
at Penn State.
"We used to go on the Internet
and search Penn State, and we
saw that this college is world
wide. Cordova said. "Everyone
wants to come here."
>/■'
/ A
tosh Crawford
Tur v.!n justice
dining the protests did >eem to
target the Inmiiy.
Crawford also drew a distinc
tion between the lype of protests
seen on Penn State's campus and
those enacted by Phelps.
"A lot ot demonstrations on
campus are broad demonstra
tions that students who are pass
ing by may become involved in."
he said. "But what the Westboro
Baptist Church did was an actual
attack on an individual person."
Roberts said he agrees that the
speech was offensive, but that
doesn't mean it doesn't deserve
the same tree speech protection
afforded to other viewpoints.
"Does the majority ot society
find it offensive'.’ Yes. Do I find it
offensive'.’ Yes. But that's precise
ly why the First Amendment has
to protect it." Roberts said.
A decision in the case isn't
expected until well into 2011,
Roberts said. but the
Pennsylvania Center for the First
Amendment's involvement in the
case was through as soon as the
brief was filed back in July.
To e-mail reporter: cmms773@psu.edu
pie in the nonprofit and academic
sectors who have the same
expertise. Potts said.
A Highmark spokesman,
Michael Weinstein, said the com
pany was asked to fill a slot on
Corbett's transition team and did
so because it views it as a public
service obligation. Questions
about conflicts of interest,
Weinstein said, are for the Corbett
team to answer.
A Corbett spokesman, Kevin
Harley, said he disagreed with
the characterization that repre
sentatives of state-regulated
industries.