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fllHri JVlEKdlMiVOL. 70 NO. 8 MERCYHURST COLLEGE, GLENWOOD HILLS, EWE, PA. 16546

December 5,1996

P u b l i s h e r s , N o t B o o k s t o r e , R e s p o n s i b l e f o r H i g h P r i c e sBy Michael J. OppennanMerciad Writer 1

The textbook Modern Physics

lose in price from $55.14 to$5754, nearly a 5% increase, fromlast term to the current term. DanCullen, in charge of the book or*dering at the Hermann UnionBookstore, said that the pricechanges originate with the pub-lisher and that the MercyhurstCollege B ookstore is charging lesstfian most of the colleges in thecountry.

According to Cullen, there havebeen several recent trends in thepublishing industry that have se-verely Impacted - thef pricescharged for textbooks, hard andsoft cover books, and mass mar-ket or trade paperbacks (thosesmall, "cheap" books with theglossycavers that generallyretailfor$3.99 to$7.99). The burgeon-ing: used book commerce, in-creased freight charges, and theconsolidation and takeover ofpubl ishing com pa nies are a 11 forc-ing book prices skyward.

Twenty years ago, trade in usedbooks was neither prolific norprofitable, Cullen said. New

lies were published and pur-

chased and publishers had toworry little about competition inthe sales of textbooks. Now, stu-

s used.

Bookstore ManagerDan Cullen stocks the shelves.•.Ill

lit:*ents can buy their ^̂ ^̂Every used book bought equals a

new book that is not purchasedfrom thepublisher.

To ensure profit, Cullen saidthat publishers are doing twothings. Many textbooksare pack-aged with workbooks (to encour-age teachers to employ thesesingle-use texts) and computerdiscs in the attempt to make new

textbooks indispensable. P ublish-ers are also printing ne w editionsmore frequently (aboutevery two

years instead of every Gve or six)to maintain dependable sales, he

said.Freight costs have also risen.

The reight services arc trying tocover rising wages , insurance, and

fuel charges. Increases tend to bespread across the country (i.e. a

fuel charge in Florida would beabsorbed by the entire networknationwide), Cullen said.

In response to an increasinglydifficulty market, publishers are

going out of business or beingpurchased by larger publishers.These larger publishers reviewthe texts issued by the smallerpublishers th at they have acquiredand eliminate duplications.Choosing only a few texts, theselarger publishing conglomeratesfunnel marketing money intothem. This marketing is mani-fested into free copies for teach-ers and paying sales representa-tives (salaries and travel costs).

Inflation forces these expendituresup.

The Mercyhurst bookstore hasmade several decisions to keepcosts down,* By joining the Na-tional Association of CollegeStores, reight expenses are mini-mized. Therefore, the bookstore

can maintain a 20% margin (plus$ 1 per text to cover theft) - insteadof the 25% margin of mostof thecollege bookstores in the nation,Cullen said.

For example, the textbook In-

troduction to Accounting is pur-chased from the publisher for$5750 (in the spring, the pub-lisher charged $53 , an increase ofnearly 8%). With a 20% marginplus $1 to cover theft, the text-book costs the student $66.25. IfCullen were to use the accepted25% margin, this text would listat $70.75.1 Spread over severalclasses each term for four to five

years, the savings are remarkable.Buy backs are another place inwhich thebookstore saves the stu-

dent money. Cullen uses a stan-dard (for college bookstores)method for buying back texts. Fora book in good condition, he gen-erally pa ys the student half of thelist price and then uses a 33%

margin. A student buy ing thisusedbook the next term would thenpay $29.75 for a book that is $40

when purchased new.Due to the perpetual reissuing

of textbooks, the'bookstore isunable to repurchase texts which

will not be used within the nextterm. Cullen is currently holding$715 worth of texts for a M edicalTerminology class which-wascanceled. Fortunately, the booksare new and will be repurchasedby the publisher. Shipping w ill,however, need to be pa id to returnthem and the publisher charges a5% "restocking fee." If the textswere used, he would have to relyon the independable used book

industry.Follet, which is known for pay-

ing "top dollar" fo r  used books(according to the National Ass o-ciation ofCollegeStores), sets itsown prices for buy-backs. Some-times the students receive "satis-

II

factory" compensation or books,other times the situation is sim ilarto the buy back ofester's Mexi-cans. Since Follet has a largeover-stock o f Mexicans, the businessonly pays $1 for thebook whichwas originally retailed for $13.Follet will then sell die book tocollege bookstores for 1/2 thecover price ($ 630) .

Buy back is limited to the Gisttwo weeks of a term and the lastweek of a term. This is a book-

store policy intended to reducethe theft of books rom he book-

store and within the student body.

Cullen concluded by advising

the students to "buy used bookswhen you caa."He said, T knowkidsare swapping books out there.I need mem to swap books. If Ihave leftovers [the result\ofoverordering], I am tying up yourmoney."

AnnouncementsSisters

To celebrate the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in IrelandonDec, 12,1831, there will be a liturgy in the Christ the KingChapel on Thursday, December 12, nt 4 p.m.

All members of the college community (students, faculty,and staff), are invited to participate.

There will be a Pennsylvania State Education A ssociation(PSEA) meeting on December 11 , at 8 p.m. in room 114 Zurn.

it**************

Anyone interested in sn ow shoveling for $5.00 an hourshould contact Bill Kerbusch of maintenance at 2273 .

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

MSO announces that the new 24-Hour quiet study roomis now open. The room is located in the Montgomery Roomfirst loorof the library.

Service Learning BannerTaken from Egan

By Chris Wloch,Merciad News Editor

Sometime during the week be-fore fall term finals, the ServiceLearning Banner, which washangingoutside of Egan room 42on the floor above the financialaid haU, disappeared in the night.

Thcbanner, valued at more than$75, is a six feet by six feet, tie-dyed linen tablecloth with fringeon the borders. The design fea-tures four interlocking arms which

form a square with bands clasp-ing onto the wrists. At the top  ofthe banner is a sloganwhich reads:

"Serving t̂o Learn, Learning toServe,"

Last March, the banner was

madeby senior art maj or TheresaSchroeck for the Service Learn-ing Program asa project for Inter*national Women's Week*

Sister Carol Ann Volte, direc-tor of the program, said that thebanner was stolen during thespring term of last year. It wasreturned by som eone who saw itata party on campus and told oneof the people who lived at theapartment that she was either go-

ing to take it back or turn in theperson who took itfeThe person

* agreed to give it back as long ashe-she remained anonymous. The

banner was placed on the wall by

the door ofVoltz'soffice where itwas left to hang, even at night,until it was taken again a littleover three weeks ago.

Voltz said that she hopes thatwhoever took the banner this timewill sim pi y put itback where theygot it from. "I just want it re-turned. No questions willbe asked

• about where it has been," she said.

have had, it was a fun team tocoach and I really enjoy it It's anice place to bring the family up,the kids like it here very much,"

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PAGE 2I - - " • -

THEMERCIAD

Mil

December 5,1996

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F a c u l t y D i s c u s s e s " G r a d e I n f l a t i o nf

By Chris Wloch |MerciodNews Editor

Is there a practical value for hegrade received ina dass? What isthe difference, between a C+earned by a Mercyhurst studentand the same grade received bysomeone at a better known insti-tution like Harvard? What is thelevel ofintellectual challengethatcan be indicated by the work that

is required for a course?During the month of Novem -

ber, questions such as these wereexamined by Mercyhurst (acuitymembers who met during a series

of discussions which examinedthe issue of "grade inflation."

The term "grade inflation" it-self is somewhat nebulous. Basi-cally, it is an attempt to point outthe differences in requirementsand methods of evaluation be-tween classes which make it easier

to earn a good grade in somecourses a nd harder to get thesame

grade in others.Alic e Edwards, associate pro-

fessor of Spanish, said that thetopic of grade inflation "is onewhich is being talked about cv-erywhere—from Stanford to

Bucknell to Fredonia— and, espe-cially on the internet," with some

people raising concerns and oth-ers adopting defensive positionsabout traditional ways of grad-ing. IAt Mercyhurst, the department-

wide discussions were sparkedby a Nov . 4th meeting which wasvery popular with the faculty.There was a high turnout withmore than 50 p rofessors in atten-dance.

The session w as conducted by

the Faculty Forum, a section ofthe Faculty Policies Committee(ETC) which organizes m eetingson faculty-related issues and c on-cerns. In addition to Edwards, whois the chairperson, the Forum iscomprised of Dr. RandallDemons, Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat,and Dr. Heidi Hosey.

Edwards said that the Forumexpects the FPC to form an adhoccommittee which will work withthe administration to help estab-lish guidelines and sponsor moreinter-disciplinary discussions.This committee will a Isoconduct

LUMEN? CALL FORSUBMISSIONS

Lumen, the Mercyhurst Literary Magazine, is accepting submissionsfor the 1997 issue. Undergraduate students from Mercyhurst College,Cannon University, Edinboro University and Behrend College areinvited to subm it their literary and artistic work s. Poetry and proseshould be no longer than five double-spaced pages, and artworksshould be photographed in black and white. Two short stories, fivepoems, and two p ieces o f artwork will be considered per person.

Submissions must be received by December 11,1996, tobe includedin the 1997 Lumen. Send works to: Lumen, M ercyhurst College, 501E. 38th St Box 200, Eric, Pa. 16546. Any questions call 824-2461 or824-2584.

M S G N@WS§ Courtesy Phone

By M elissa LangMSG Secretary

Installed in; Old Main

At 8:30 p.m., on Monday, De c2,1996 the MSG held its weeklymeeting in the Student Govern-ment Chambers upstairs in theUnion.

At the meeting the Winter For-mal chairpersons were nomi-nated and voted on, our 1997WinterFormal chairpersonswillbe Jenny eVetter and Emily Page.

The winter formal will be held onJanuary 24 at Sabella's restau-rant downtown.

MSG executive board w ill bemeeting with the auditor on De -cember 10 to discuss the auditreport from last year's student

governmentThe Freedom Zone will be ac-

cepting submissions for its De-cember issue until Sunday night.

The issue should be out in publi-cation before the Winter break.TheMSG representatives passeda motion to allow the FZ com-mittee to purchase a zip drive forthe publication's computer, thisdrive will allow for easier layoutand faster publication of themagazine.

I President Stacey Fitzpatrick

announced that the courtesyphone was installed in Old Maintry the pay phone. The 24 hourstudy room in the libary is upandrunning, the computers have not

been instailed butshould be addedsometime in the near future.

A reminder to all students inthe next few weeks there areplenty of volunteer acthritces toparticipate in, your help isneeded.

At  right, Mercyhurst students look over information at one of thetables during the Career Fair on Thursday, November 7th.

"normative sessions" in order ID

determine what are to be consid-ered die normative standardswithin a particular department

According to Edwards, "grade, inflation is not the central prob-

lem. The real issue here is courserigor." There are many factors

that need to be taken into consid-eration when look ing atthe issue,she said.

Some of these factors includestudents9 perceptions of the de-mands and rewards of a course

which are reflected on StudentEvaluation Reports; the differencein class sizes, whether the courseis an introductory, upper level or

honors class; If t is primarily lec -ture or performance oriented, andthe possibility thatthe alleged highnumber of A's and B+'s atMercyhurst may be due to betterinstruction o n the part of profes-sors, improved study habits oreven the higher calibre of stu-dents enrolling at Mercyhurst

Dr. Joseph Gower, AcademicDean, likewise views the issuemore in terms of academic rigor

which contributes to the overallsignificance ofthe learning expe -rience and a degree's reputationand worth. '*

Addressing this concern wouldinvolve evaluation of the stan-dards for teachers9 expectations,class requirements, and the as-sessment ofstudent performance.At die same time, it means exam-ining the amount of reading andwriting and kinds of tests that are

part of a particular class and de-termining whether or not they are

adequate.hard to make sweeping

generalizations about an issue likethis. W e need torecognize that disciplines havedifferent approaches and meth-odologies,99 Gower said. At the

present time, a standardization of

the grading scale across depart-ments is not even being consid-ered because of the difficulty and

lack of a need for doing so .According to Dr Heidi Hosey,

associate professor ofEnglish, thereason for his decision lies in thefact that professors in a field like

MT*»

accounting, which stresses theimportance of accuracy, wouldnotbe doing their students a favorby awarding diem a grade ofA foran overall average of only 94%.In another major like, English,the grades on papers are rarelyever dose to a perfect 100%. As a

result, die grading sc ale canbe a

little more flexible, Hosey said.Nevertheless, consistency withindepartments remains an impor-tant conern.

During the next couple w eeks

of the winter term, departmentsand divisions will continue tomeetin order to come up with im-provements in the way that stu-dents are evaluated in terms ofgrades.

"Whatever changes are madehave to be fair. This is not anattempt toharm students.Itmightmean increasing intellectualchal-lenge because of a commitmentto academic values,* Gower said.

• —

Hot Water Shortage on CampusAffects Students

y Todd ZielinsklMe rciad Writer

tilll

Two weeks before Thanksgiv-ing break, a shortage of hot waterbegan. At final exam time,plaints of w ater problems rangingfrom not having hot water to nothaving water all together, wereheard campus wide. StewartHogg, who lives in 3810 Briggs,stayed over during the break and

explained that the problem startedgetting so serious that "we had to

move out because we couldn'tperform simple tasks like w ash-ing the dishes or lushinghe totlet*9 Sheila Parkinson and otherswho decided to stay also fell vic-tim to some of the same hard-ships.

Terry Camp, head of housingmaintenance, explained mat ofdie seven resident buildings inquestion, only one hot waterheat-ing system exists per building,with no backups. The system isdesigned so hot water is continu-ously flowing in a circular linethroughout the bu ilding. This ac-tually gives hot water priority tothe apartment farthest away from

thehot water heater, apartment 7.What has been happening as of

late is the fa Dure of pilot lights inseveral of the buildings on a con-tinuous basis. At irst, re-lightingof the pilot lights served as dieshort term solution to the prob-

lem, but as complaints started toincrease in frequency,TerryCampand staff had to look towards whatseemed to be a more serious prob-lem.

What they found out, with the

help o f a representative from hegas company, was thatwater hadfound a way into several of thegas pipes the gas company had

been working on. Wa ter in thegaslines prevented the pilot lightsfrom staying on for any durationof time. The major cases o f watercontamination were found to bein apartment buildings 611,3808-3810,Duval.

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December 5,1996 THEMERCIAD PAGE 3

EntertainmentE r i e ! P l a y h o u s e r e v i v e s a c l a s s i c

By James Hain

MerciadA&E Editor

The movie It's a WonderfulLife was a box office flop when itWas first released in?1946, butsince then It has become as inte-gral to the Christmas experienceas Christmas trees and drunken

relatives. This happened largelyby accident

In 1974, Republic Picturesforgot to renew ts copyright onthe holiday chestnut, and it fellinto the public domain, meaningthat every one-camera UHF sta-tion in the country could broad-cast the movie ad nauseum.

The m isadventures of George

Bailey have entered our nationalconsciousness, and this Christ-mas season, the Erie Playhousewill recapture he fond memoriesof he Jimmy Stewart classicwhen

it presents the musical version.

Rich Tryzbiak stars in theJimmy Stewart part, with HughRial cast as Clarence, the good-hearted angel in search of hiswings. Alison OUinger splaysMary, the Donna Reed part, andthe musical co-stars Randy Tap-per and Kevin Feyas.

The stage version was w rittenby Sheldon {Fiddler on the Roof)Harnick and Joe {Sesame Street)Raposo, and, according to Play-house? spokeswoman WendyDykhuizen, sticks dosely to themovie script%

The production, under the di-rection of Richard Davis, runsThursdays through Sundays untilDecember 21 . For tickets andother information, call the Play-house box office at454-2852, ext42. ' ' Hugh Rial (left) and Rich Tryzbiak (right) star in the Erie Playhouse production of "Its

a Wonderful Life,"

Dave Calabrese islbass-ically a loner

Dave Calabrese has a style all his own.

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By Shannon Haganand Chris Wloch,Merciad Contributing Writers

Next Thursday, Dec. 12, localmusician, performing artist and

comedian Dave Calabrese (a.k-a.BassidyAlone),will be perform- Jing at SAC Coffeehouse in theLaker Inn from 8:30 - 11 p.m.Along with the use of a singlefour-string electric bass guitar,Calabrese has redefined thefoun-dation of contemporary pop-m u- fsical subconscious. He weaves

bass guitar riffs nto smart, eclec-tic, and fun songs pulsing withbenign innuendoes and off-beatchildren's humor for adults.

Calabrese's musk is a combi-nation o f funk, post-punk, jazz,polka, pop-rock, disco, and folkblended with a variety ofmulticultural them es. In an inter-

view, Dave described what hedoes as "a representation of bu-

rn an nature and howwe think. It'sself-help music I hope that peoplewill utilize the lyrics ofmy songs

for their own life," he said. Addi-tionally, Calabrese says that hisultimate goal is;"to transformhuman* experiences into some-thing I think that the audiencewill enjoy."

I As a result, one of the mostpopular parts of Calabrese's liveperformances comes when hecomposes impromptu songs fromrandom topics and themes givento him by m embers of the audi-ence. Calabrese's shows also fea-ture mixed-media artwork con-sisting ofwood engravings, post-ers and original T-shirt designs

> for purchase, as we ll as copies ofhis tapes. Toys and bowling tro-phies are sometimes given out as

door prizes.

With an uncanny resembl anceto Paul Shaffer offrthe DaveLeHerman Show, he has been de-scribed as a cross between Primus

(the progressive rock band) andBarney (the purple dinosaur).

Calabrese*s style of appearanceand staee presence is as singularas Liberace and Elton John. His

sportif costumes and props in-clude bandanas, fur vests, over-sized sunglasses, Power Rangermasks, and homemade hats withmechanized rotating objects.

In the past couple of years,

Calabrese has released" several'solo- records including "TheParty* "fosta Fishole," "Sooth-ing the Exploding Warrior* and asingle for 'Dennis Was A DiscoDancer." He has recently com-pleted the bass tracks for a spo-ken-word album with tw o localpoets entitled "Omen."

Following a briefcareer hiatus,Calabrese has played numerousshows in the past couple ofmonths, both by himselfandwithother local musicians, atperform-ing arts centers and coffeehousessuch as Cup-a-cci no's,

Grasshopper's and The BluePlanet in Meadville. By booking

more region-wide gigs and pri-vate parties, Calabrese said thathe hopes that his musical visionwill enterta in and enlighten stu-dents at Mercy hurst.

Q: W ho was the only dog ever nominated for an Academy Award?

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PAGE 4 THEMERCIAD Decembers, 1996

E3BSiGBHBilSSI

D a n c e r s , S c h o l a r s a n d C o m m u n i t y S e r v i c e

By Amanda Smith a n dCatherine SchaefferMerciad Contributing Writers

The month o f Novemberproved to be an industrious timefor members o f the Dance De-partment Immediately follow-ing the opening concert, "BlueJeans, Ballet and Bo lero," danc-ers were involved in a series ofcommunity outreach perfor-mances,.A/iiieradter rehearsals, anaudition for the student choreog-raphy showcase, and the NationalCollegiate Honors Conference.The Mercy hurst da ncers balanced

die dosing of the fall term withcontinued preparation or  upcom-ing events*

The Erie Ba llet Theatre, spon-sored by the Da nee Department,presented a luncheon perf orma nee

for the Jewish Community Coun-cil of Eric on Wednesday, No v. 6.The program included a lecturedemonstration, the Erie SplashDancers, excerpts from the Nut-cracker, and Waltzing Fool, cho-

phed by faculty memberCatherine Schaeffer. On the sameevening; the Erie Ballet Theatreperformed at die Warner Theaterfor the Erie Area .Fund for the

a

Alts. Faculty members Jay Kirk,Catherine Schaeffer, and adjunctfaculty, Christina Maria per-formed with a cast of Mercyhurstdancers.I In addition to these commu-

HtJ

nity performances, four dancemajors were c hosen to representMercyhurst at die National Col-legiate Honors Conference,which was held in San Francisco

from Oct 3 0 through Nov. 3.

Stephanie Todd, Rachel Zak, Jen-nifer Corneau an d TheresaLaComb presented papers ondance-relatedtopics. Th e impor-tance of dance in elementary edu-cation and the urgency of NEA(National Endowment for theArts) support was discussed inone segment of die presentation.Other topics presented Includeda psychology experiment deal-ing with the process of skill ac-quisition and stage digression , thebenefits of incorporating mentalimagery with physical practice,and the study of links betweenchoreography and emotional re-sponses. T h e conference pro-vided a unique opportunity fordie exchange of deas among col-lege students from across theUnited States," said juniorJenni-fer Corneau.

The Eric Ballet Theatercont inues to prepare for misyear's production of The Nut-cracker, which will be performedat the Warner Theater Dec, 1 4 and

15. Tickets for this holiday fa-vorite are available at student ratesand can be reserved by calling the

Erie Civic Center Box Office at452-4857. I f

Dancers in 'Blu e Jeans.- Bottom: Jocqueline Pescatore. 2nd ,ow (1 to r): Meghan Grant, Mary White,

Maureen Cavanaugh, Kim Richards. Standing 0 to r): Heather Adams, Kristen Thorn, Heather Beckey,

Jen Black and Kristy Sampson. f f l i f f W f

Eveiytiring's coming up Dalmatians

SPLENDID! EAUTIFUl THEATREA SHEEF&fOY."

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«4|TjREASURE OF A PLAY!"

By Carrie TappeMerciad Staff Writer

Every couple of months, Disneyseems to introduce a new crazeinto the entertainment scen e. Overthe past ew  yeu&yAladdinyBeauty

and the Beast and The Lion King

have caught die hearts o f audi*ences everywhe re. Last year,

Pocahontas * Winnie the Pooh and

year, 101 Dalmatians leads thepack.

The Dalmatians craze has hit

hard just in time forthe Christina sshopping season. Practically ev-ery store im aginable has some sortofDalmatian gift. Hot items rangefrom bedsheets,pillows and sleep-ing bags to Dalmatian accesso-ries, dinnerware and alarm clocks.

There is Dalmatian paraphernalia—a— —•—

. ' «LCtuifttfaf! ScfelM** fctenitwr Toy Story outhtoed mer est This forpcoplc of all ages. But why is

101 Dalmatians the big craze

again?Disney has redone the animated

classic as a live-action film. Th enew 101 Dalmatians stars GlennClose as Cruella DeVil, JeffDaniels, Joely Richardson, and101 o f those cute, cuddly Dalma-tians. The movi e, which openedat #1 this week, is in theaters ev-

erywhere.

«A STORY OF WIT AMO PASSION...A WARM, TENDER PLAY TO SAWS?

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Gibson and Sinise make this "Ransom" worth paying

By James HalnMerciad A&E Editor

Ron Howard is one of the fe wactors wh o has ma de the success-Ail transition from acting to di-recting. The quality of his filmshas risen mmeasurably, and witheach project; he seem s to top him-aelC Last year, he struck goldwith the box office and criticalsmash, Apollo 13, and there w asseemingly nowhere to go butdown. But Howard has defiedexpectation and topped himself

once again with the blisteringthriller Ransom, After viewingthis two-hour pulse-stopper, youmay ind  yourselfwondering whatHoward has in store for us next.I Ransom stars Mel Gibson as aself-made airline tycoon whoseordered world crashes downaround him when h is son (Bra wleyNolte) is kidnapped. The kidnap-

pers inform him that, unless theyreceive $ 2 million, hi s son willnever see the light of day again.They e-mail him horrify ing im -ages of his son bound and gaggedin a small dungeon, just so heknows they arcn't kidding around.Even though he has been warnednot to involve the feds, Gibsonand bis wife (Rene Russo) enlistthe help o f the FBI, who set upshop in the couple's home, await-1ing the kidnappers' next instruc-tions.

Ransom serves up a clever com-plication early on, when w e learnthat the ragtag band ofkidnappersis led by a disgruntled cop (GarySinise), who mumbles somethingabout "haves** and "have-nots* ashis rationale. Sinise oozes evil asthe dirty cop who has no qualmsabout killing the child, even if the

ifrcshing

villain, back in top form after nicc-guy roles in Forrest Gump andApollo 13.

Gibson is equally good in a role

tha t requires strength a nd vulner-ability in roughly equal measure.When h is character makes a fate-ful decision to turn the tables onthe kidnappers, Gibson runs thegamut among a complex series of

emotions, and it's easy to see theanguish o f a fattier who is onlypartially convinced that what heis doing s right

The supporting cast, includingRusso, Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylorand Liev Schrciber, is uniformlyexcellent, bu t it's ultimatelyHoward'a slam-bang directionthat carries the film, especially in

its surprisingly bloody finale*

Ransom isn't for the faint-hearted, but it marks a departurefor Howard, whose next film

great shew Id rea 11 y be someth ing to seeti

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^ • — 1 - • — r r r r r -m - T r . . • • • • _ .

On The DitchBy John MurphyEditor in chief

I have always been a bit ofa 'Scrooge' around Christmas time, don't

ask me why. Maybe it is because when I was a kid, thebig fat guy inthe red suit never delivered whatI asked for. Furthermore, my parents

always took his side in my complaints against him. Indeed, I used tomink my father was on retainer by old Santa since his enthusiasticdefense of him usually resulted in my receiving a kick in the butt

Anyway, I've got my reasons for  muttering "bah, humbug." Ho w-ever, I amnot quite sure what reasons the powers at Mercyhurst havefor being less than charitable during this festive time. A t least this is

whatI would be wondering IfI werea full-time non-faculty employeeatthis college. IfI were a member of this group I would feel somewhat

aggrieved by the fact that I would only have a total of four days offover the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Likemost students here, I have had my run-ins with the administra-tion,butdespite our differences, I'd like to think that if inthe positionto do so , I would grant them more than Christmas E ve and Christmasday to be with their families at such a special time.

I accept that Mercy hurst is a professional institution in the business

of supplying education, and requires a lot of work to run smoothly. Aswith m ost American businesses, time is valuable, and thus, staffholidays are costly.

However, is Mercyhurst not also a Catholic college in the traditionof the Sisters of Mercy, a tradition based on charity and goodwill? Itis reasonable to assume that this Mercy tradition makes a decisiongranting out of town employees adequate time to travel and spendtime with their fam flies on themost celebrated o f Christian holidays,over a decision that might appear most cost effective on a balancesheet

And so, at a time when people gather to celebrate traditionalChristian valu es, perhaps M ercyhurst should reflect onwhat values itconsiders more important in the treatment of its administrative em -ploy ees- those in the tradition of Corporate America or those in thetradition of the Sisters of Mercy.

Egan HallOrAkatraz?By Mary PikeMerciad Columnist

overwant to live in a correc-tional facility? Me neither, but it

seems as if I do. I live in the EganDorm (above die cafe for thosewho don't know) and inmy opin-ion the place i s run like a statepen. There are rules and regula-tions about virtually everythingthat can b e regulated, and morethan one resident can be heardgrumbling about it in the hall-

ways.Being a dorm, there are of

course visiting hours (much likethe mental institution it re-sembles). After midnight onweekdays (2 a.m. on weekends)no one of the opposite sex \ isallowed on the fl oors. Sometimes

people of die same sex are noteven allowed on the floors afterhours as non-resident males havebeen kicked off the boys' floor.

There is no check-in desk as inMcAuley or Baldw in, no work-ers to take names and IDs. In-stead, it is up to the RA s to en-force this rule, a task they don't

really need as they are swampedwith duties as it is. This creates a

certain amount of animosity be-tween the residents and the RAs,

something neJtherfparty trulywants or needs. We are all adults

here, and more than capable ofA+ijjAfag for ourselves who mayvisit our rooms and when theycan visit without administration

intervention.

ttli•thingVisiting ^ ^ ^

to anyone who has spent sometime living in a dorm. How ever,

in the otherdorms there are placeswhere students of both sexes cangather at night under the watch-ful gaze of the night desk worker.McAuley and Baldwinbothhavefront lounges for this purpose,not to ,mention T.V. rooms onevery floor for resident enjoy-ment

Egan has only one lounge and

that is closed to everyone afterhours to prevent visitation viola-tions. There is also a kitchen ondie boys

9floor, but females arc

not allowed there after hours. In 'tact, there is nowhere on theEgandorm floors o go after hours withsomeone of the opposite sex, andresidents have resorted to latenight study sessions in the stair-wells. For a dorm that is supposedto be devoted to study, I find itodd that there is noplace to do soexcept the looms themselves. Of

course, for those of us with room-mates this is not always an option.

To further comb at the dreadeduni-sex transgressions of Eganresidents, housing has installednew locks on the main doors thatare to be locked at all times. This

means that to g o into the hall, orupstairs for even a minute, youhave to remember yourkey orbelocked out of your floor. If thekey is lost, you have to -notifymaintenance (always a reliablesource of kelp I'm sure) and paythe $25 replacement foe insteadof buying that text book or theshampoo you have needed forabout a week now. Imagine theproblems if the key is lo st after 4

contd. on pg 7

Must Remain Finn inWar On Drugs

By Emilio ColaiacovoMerciad Columnist

As a till irvativc, I lately ad-vocate government intrusion intoAmerican society. As ThomasJefferson believed , I also feel thatgovernment which governs lessgoverns be st However, afterwitnessing a great liberalizationin narcotics po licies b y particularstates, I feel now more man ever,the federal governmentmusttakean active role to prevent drugsfrom becoming legal, whether itbe for medical or recreational use.

In tackling this explosive issue,I understand I will probably su s-tain a great deal of criticism fromthose who advocate the legaliza-

tion of drugs for selfish, recre-ational purposes. Regardless, thebattle over the legalization ofdrugs should not be fought overthe petty issue of recreation,rather, peop lemust bemade awarethe fight o keep drugs illegal is a

battle to preserve the live s of chil-dren and the virtues which arequintessential̂ American.

In the 1960's, the Age ofAquarius where peace guided theplanets and love steered the stars,fanatics rejected the language of

morality. Since then, our nationhas paid dearly for he belie f thatdrug use was harmless, fin the1970's our nation, instead of ag-

gressively fighting thedrug prob-lem, turned away from the epi-demic and became complacent inthe face of drug use. For ex-ample, Dr. Peter Bourne, a psy-chiatrist wh o served as PresidentCarter's adviser on drugs, heldthat "cocaine is probably themostbenign of all illic it drugs currentlyin widespread use."

Such complacency in die faceof adversity is intolerable. As aresult of this cavalier attitude,many states began to pioneer the

liberalization of drugs. Alaska w asone of the first states to legalizemarijuana for m edical use which

ir *

V

later evolved into legalized p ot-session. Consequently, drug useamong, teens and young adultsdoubled. On the internationalscene, Italy in 1975 liberalized its

drug laws and now has the high-est heroin-related death rates inWestern Europe. Evidently, le-

i galizing drugs does not deter far-mer drug use, rather, it ^ ^ ^ ^drugusc. J

In a USA Today poll, 88% ofthe American people reject legal-izationofdrugs. Given whatdrugs

| are doing toour communities and[irto our children, I find t astound-singly naive and ridiculous how

anyone believes the legalizationof drugs is morally permissible.If drugs were legalized, it is al-most certain that drug use wouldsoar. *

Many say that by legalizingdrugs, crime rates would fall. Yetstatistics, gathered by PAE Ser-vices show that criminalsbecameinvolved in criminal activitieslong before they discovered thelure of drugs. However, liberalsare the first to cry there is notenough money devoted to socialprograms. But in the fight againstdrugs, Bill Clinton slashed theDrug Czar's office by 80% anddeeply cut the drug enforcementcapabilities forU.S. Customs andtheDEA . President Clinton obvi-ously has been quite lax in his

fight against drugs.-His arrogantattitude towards his dwn priordrug use coupled with an ex- sur-geon general advocating the le-galization of drugs is not, in myopinion, die proper strategy |apresidential administration mustfollow.

Legalizing drugs is not a politi-cal question for the voters to de-cide. This issue is firmly en-trenched in the moral battlegrounds of America. Many be-lieve that legalizing drugs formedical purposes is fine. Yet, thiswill only pave the road topi a cent policies directed towardsdrug use and eventually lead tofull legalization.

The main focus in this debate iswhatwill happen toour children?Are we willing to forsake ourchildren for a joint? Are we will-ing to fell!

lider the for reachingrepercussions of drug use? Theanswer does not lie in die Grate-

•AIJII

fid Dead Hippie PotLobby. Itliesin die homes of millions of con-cerned Americans.

Drug use is immoral because itenslaves the mind and destroysdie soul Jsmcs Q. Wilson, Pro-fessor of Political Science atUCLA, recently said, "Drug useweakens and degrades the humancharacter. It makes people less

j than they should be by burning; away a sense of responsibility,

subverting productivity,and mak-

I ing s mockery ofvirtue.n

4

I People addicted to drug use for-> get their responsibilities to God,family, and nation. Consequently,legalizing drugs will only furtherthis' neglec t Drugs3underminethe necessary virtues that remainpartof universal moral principles

4J

which govern all citizens in themoral community. I do not be-lieve the Founding Fathers be-lieved a citizenry induced in adraghaze could prove trueto rep-resentative democracy. As Dr.William Bennett said, "no civi-lized society can be neutral re-garding character, virtue and per-sonal responsibility." k

This point cannot be debated onEpicurean principles of pleasureand pain. Rather, the Americanpeople must realize that in legal-izing drugs, we retreat from hemoral high ground. I think wewould be sending thewrong mes-sage to the nation's children if webecome apathetic towards diedrug dilemma.

I think it would be selfish forthose on campus to believe theirrecreational habits are more im-portant than the lives of millionsof innocent children. This is a war

against drugs and it is for imewebegin conducting a meaningful

campaign against this atrocity tohumankind.

The MerciadVOL. 70 NO. 9 December 5,1996

Merciad Editorsohn Murphyc©tt VancehrisWlochrad Rybczynski

an B ilflker

Editor-in-ChiefSports EditorNews EditorFeatures EditorSenior Writer

James Haia

Jason GiffenMichelle Mizia

[Aaron ConnellJerry Trambley

Ao^E Editor

AdvertisingCopy EditorGraphics*Advisor

Merciad StaffamzPorziotepben NolanliD Melville

Zielinsldilly Green

icolc Esposbo

Jessica R ussellJoe WongMindi McDowell

Mary Pike IKara darkZoe Cohen

Shawntea HowardCarrie TappeNicole Ponstingle

Jody W ashingtonSteve TorrieroHeather Cvitkovic

Tavis OverstreetEmilk) ColaiacovoRich Costello

ic Merciad Is the student-produced newspaper of Mercyhurst College, Box 161,01 E 38th St., Erie, Pa., 16546. Phone 824-2376. *

e Merciad welcomes letters to the editor.

Th e Merciad's editorial opinion is determined try the Editorial Boardwith the Editor-in-Chiefholding  final responsibility. The opinions expressed in The Merciad are not necessarily those ofThe Merciad, its staff or Mcrcyhurst College.

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PAGE 6 THEMERCIAD December 5,1996

lniQiiK£3£

M i l i t a r y S t r e n g t h N e e d e d t o R a i s e V a l u e s o f P e r s o u n n e lBy Joe Wong*Merciad Columnist

Recent accusations of sexualharassment and rape by femalesoldiers at the Aberdeen ProvingGrounds against superiors, bothenlisted menand officers have ledto more than 5,000 calls to anarmy hotline, with 700 of the alle-gations meriting further investi-gation. A captain and two drillsergeants from Aberdeen willno wrace court-martials for crimes In*

%'M

1)11

eluding rape, sodomy, sexual as-sault, and obstruction of justft

Jeof the d scuss on followingthe Aberdeen scandal, which hasspread to military posts across the

world, b as centered on whetherwomen should serve in the mili-tary alongside men. That is ,aninteresting topic and perhaps couldbe discussed in a future article, butthe roots of the current scandal are

much deeper, and much more dis-turbing.

Helmet

Jt seems the current sexual ha-rassment scandal stems firom a

general lack of honor, ethics, andsense of duty In die military as swhole,butmost important, r in theofficer corps.*The military is asociety in itself, and the officercorps is a class with in that society,a class built on traditions, cus-toms, etiquette, and more impor-tant, honor and dignity. Officers

do not simply lead their troops,they set examples for them withtheir actions, speech, dress, snddecorum. But that view of an of-ficer is tainted almost irrevocablyby the scandals and indiscretionsofrecentyears. Sexual harassmentIn theNavy erupted into the publ ic

eye with the 1991 Taflhook Con-vention. Further sexual harass-ment, cheating, andseven drug-dealing have been uncovered at

the service academies, the foun-dational core of our military's of-ficer s. The racism in the military

SalutesCleaning Ladies

By Dan HilfikerSenior Writer

•* a

There seems to be one thing thatnearly allMercyhurst students canagree upon after spend ing a littletime here. That is the fact thatwehave a really beautiful campu s. Agreatdeal of credit has tobe givenID the groundskeeping sta ff ofthemaintenance department for heirhard workand dedication in keep-ing this college as beautiful as Itis. As a matter of fact, this collegehas even won awards for itsbeauty. I think that is quite im-pressive considering the fact that

dreary and gloom y most ofthe year.

As I praise the work of thegroundskeeping sta ff, I think thatthere is one area of the mainte-naneedepartment tha toften seemstobe overlooked around this cam-pus, snd that is the housekeepingstaff

I have ha d the pleasure of work-ing with all these hard workingwomen on many occasionsthroughout my college career andhave found that much of their jobis dirty, physically demanding,and outright disgusting.1 have also noticed that their job

is a very thankless one. How of-ten do you see a housekeepercl ea ning out the dorms, or pullinga vacuum cleaner up and down

Briggs Avenue in the coldof win-ter and never say thank you? Iknow that since I have workedwith these ladies, I have anewfound respect for the job thatthey do to keep this campus look-

ing beautiful*Imagine if every time you went

into the Student Union to grab abite to eat there was s giant messof papers and garbage strewn all

over the floor. Would you stillreal 1y want to eat there? Think ofall the pizza boxes snd beer cansthat would accumulate in the dor-mitories if there were no house-keeping staff to dean up after allof us.

I remember when I lived inMcAuleyHall as a reshman. Wewere all pigs. There used to begarbage and trash all over theplace, not to mention die state ofour bathrooms, especially overthe weekends. It was!never allthat dirty for very l ong though,because there was a housekeeperthere to take care of it

Imagine also what Itwould belike if you moved into your newapartment on Briggs Avenue inSeptember and found all of thegarbage that was left there fromthe old residents piled up for youto dean ou t I am sure that therewould be some nasty letters to theEditor of the Merciad if some-thing like that occurred.

These women do our campus agreat favor by keeping it lookingas beautiful as possible and re-ceive little praise for it I thinkthat it is about time that their goodworksnd dedication is recognizedand made public The thanklessjob that they perform is greatly in

need of recognition snd I wouldlike to be the first one to say"thank you" to all of the house-keeping staff for their years ofhard work and dedication to avery beautiful co llege campus. Ionly hope that some of you out

there will do the same.

evidenced by the swastikas paintedon the doors of black soldiers stFort Bragg in July can even beseen here st Mercyhurst

The racist snd sexist commentsof some ROTC cadets on campusis an ominous sign for the future ofthe army. The ethics and sense ofhonor that are lacking In the of-ficer corps are sure to b e repeatedin the enlisted ranks. The military

cannot revive its own honor snddignity until die officer corps sc-

compl ishes that goal firatwould aay what occurs in the mili-tary is only s reflection of whatoccurs in society. That may betrue, but it is not in excuse for the

disgraces that occur.The apparatus for restoring the

honor in the military is already in

place, but is not being utilized.

th e Uniform Code of MilitaryJustice, the laws that govern themilitary, provide for harsh pun-ishments for crimes, including

tin

death for rape. A more positivemethod for enhancing the ethicalvalues in military lies In the scad-emies and dietraining o f the offic-ers In recent decades, the acad-emies have concentrated more on

the sdences and military trainingrequired of an officer, and movedaway from the classics snd ethicsneeded for the devdopment ofthewhole individual, the "Renais-sance Man."

The Naval Academy has madean effort to correct this oversightby appointing a professorto createan ethics program at the school, to"ensure that there is sdequatetime

in the busy schedule of midship-

men to reflect about their corevalues."To som e, discussing morality in

an organization who se function isto kill can be pointless, but that

irea the value of the military asstandard of responsibility, duty,onor, and courage for the rest of

•4111

sodety. It is time for he militaryto correct its spiral into a moraland ethical void. Military punish-ment; however harsh the generalpublic may view it, should bestrongly enforced as a deterrent.

The officer corps must be re-

vived into the exsmple of duty,honor, country. In a speech to

West Point cadets, GeneralMacArthur explained: "Thosethree hallowed words revere ntlydictate what yon ought to be,what you can be, what you winbe. They are your rallying pointto build courage when courage

to fail, toregain faith whenthere seems to be little cause for

faith, to create hope when hopebecomes forlorn.^As the morality of the country

dwind les in strength, increasingmorality and values in the mili-Ury should provide the hope, diebeacon for a better society.

Live Hockey on WMCE 88Mercy hurstVS. Niagara

Saturday, Dec. 7th at 7:20 PM

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PAGE 7THEMERCIAD December 5.1996

Campus Question

GabeCdlinlManagement * •$-Unlike highschool, I took I II

classes that were really interest-ing. I felt I was really gettingsomething done by taking thoseclasses. I had teachers that kept

me focused and kept my atten-tion.* I i

nie Hitchcock

Elementary/Special Eduation

T h e first trimester wa a fairlyeasy. It waa an adjustment but Ithink everything went really

How did your first trimester as afreshman go and were you satisfied? fi

Chrissy Logeman

Elementary/Special Education"My first term wa a extremelydemanding and definitely not likehigh school.. I waa dissatisfiedbut now I have only myself toblame.

9

Travis LindahlBusiness

"My irst erm went great I lohaving Professor McAndrewEnglish. M y classes went fand I got good grades, so I'dlto say, I'm pretty satisfied."

• I t " !

JennGroel

Early Childhood/Eled"I feel my irst erm at Mercyhurstwent pretty well and just consid-ering that Pm a reshman, I didbetter than expected there's al-ways room for improvement SoI did good." f if

—_

Janelle Klos s

Math Ed ucation

Th e first term went pretty well.Actually, it went a l ot better thanI had anticipated."

Kate Jezsu

Biology

"My first erm was difficult and Idid not do aa well as I wanted to,but I think I understand what isexpected from me now ."

Justin SiemonUndecided

"I was satisfied with th e firsttrimester. My grades weren't tobad and I didn't have to reallystudy very hard." f f

Alexandra Turkas "JEarly Childhood/Eled"I was nervous comming into thefirst term, but in the end I waasatisfied with my grades.*

9

Brendan P ^ttickHRIM ?"I was satisfied first term atMercyh urst andMercy hurstgiveaplenty of help to students,thatneed it" .1 I i * ..

Country Displays theGood,{and the BadBy Michael J. Opperman

Merciad Columnist

Well, here we are again. Con-spicuous consumerism ridesthe tender back of Christmas andthere are only 26 day s (comparedto the 32 days and additional holi-da y weekend of ast y ear)betweenThanksgiving and mat Christian

holy day. Shop away . Perhaps it ismy cynicism that heightens bothappreciation and disgust at this

time of year. What do I mean? Letme tell you.

It 2a within the past weeks thatthis country has shown ^the best and worst of itself. Peoplealways want bad news first, *ohere goes . BoutrosBoutros G al i isup for another term as SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations.The United States is the only coun-try in the Security Council to op-pose him. Why? Gali tends to re-sist the country's attempt to uti-

Plke Icontd. from p g 5

PM. weekdaya when the key

maker leavea or on weekendswhen there is no one around tohelp. At these iimea yo u eitherrely on a helpfiil passeMry with a

key, or not leave your room untilthe new one is ready.

These types o f rules are meantfor our safety ami would notbe sohad if they helped us rather thanhindered us. They would at leastbe understandable if the residentswere children and not the adulta

that thev are. 1 & *

lize die United Nations aa a pup-pet organization for U.S. agend as.Nice move, United States. Whatelse? \The International Human Rights

Watch ha s indicted th e UnitedStates for ts lack of action in hu-man rights concerns. The U.S.handling of China is a beautifulexample. China has had relativesuccess in pressuring the UnitedStates to "decoupie" human rightsand trade.

The United States has been ex-tremely vocal in its opposition toGall, but where is its voice in thedebate of China'a entry into theWorld Trade Organization. Ifmoney is to be the only motiv a lionfor action, perhaps it would bebest to admit this and spend lesstime and effort propagating thefalse image o f protectorate.

Is it time for the good news?Hawaii has distinguished its elf byrecognizing the validity of same-

It is high time that we collegestudents were treated with thesame respect and consideration

that the test of the adult world

,ccervcs,allowedtomakeourowndecisions concerning such per-sonal matters aa visitors. Other-wise, how will it ever be possiblefor u^ to ahake off the chains ofdependence and become com-

pletely aelf-telied. Perhaps that is

I the point; perhap i aomeone does

I not want us to become indepen-

thoughts, actions and decisions.

However,frith a***1* apecula-

tioo, isn't it? ]

sex marriages. I applaud you, Ha -wa ii Fortunately or unfortunately,this is a secular society. In this

time of tolerance (which would,ideally, be appreciation and cel-ebration)-! am speaking of Christ-mas, Channukah (even though itla a minor holiday), and Kwanzaa(even though it has only beenrecognized in this country because

of die- opportunity for commer-cial exploitation) - this court caseis a single victory against intoler-

ance, ignorance, and moral arro-gance.

I am done with my polemic andI will fold up my soapbox and gohome for another week* This willbe me t with cheers in som e qua r-ters and merely sighs of relief inothers. Enjoy this Grst week backand ready your credit cards andcheckbooks for he holidays. J

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December 5,1996 THEMERCIAD PAGE 8

Brad Rybczynski

Features Editor

"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny inthe old mill's hat.." For some o f you those lines may ring a veryfamiliar be ll in your mind. Every Christmas season I sing those wordsin my mind. It is a very catchy tune and fun to sing. Ever since the firstgrade I got a tremendous kick out of that song.Hie song continue*,"l f you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do, Ifyou h aven't go t a ha "penny, God bless you."

For many years the words really meant nothing to me. It was justanother fun Yuletide carol to spout, n o different from "Jingle Bells'1 or"White Christmas." Rest assured, I was not so naive that I did not getthemessage of charity in the song.

As I grow older, and yes, more cynical, I have begun to see thehypocrisy in much ofwhat goes on around me. Some of this hypocrisyis blatant to an extreme and unless yo u are completely sheltered andMind to the world, it is impossible to miss.I h a vc come to notice more covert and masked forms of hypocrisy. A s

we are surrounded by .wreaths, ribbons and lights and carols arebeginning to be played, one may question w hy I am choosing to delveinto such a topic now. After all, this is the beginning of the season ofgiving, charity, love and kindness.

Or is it? Now w e all recognize that Hallmark is behind Secretary'sDay, Sweetest Day and Mother's Day. They may very well be worthydays of thanks to people we appreciate, but come on. Hallmark canmake only somuch m oney peddling birthday, anniversary and weddingcards. There is a need to expand themarket and we are all manipulatedto participate.

What does all of this have to do with Christmas? Could itbe possiblethat market shares and commercialism are at work in this wonderfulseason? Would anyone dare exploit the birth "of Jesus for merecapitalistic gain and defile the meaning of one of Christianity's mostsacred holy days?

Wh at 's that you say? Christina s is about something more than givin ga*, and receiving. We all know it is better to receive than to give. OOPS,

it YOU'llhave to excuse that Freudian slip. What I really meant to say isthat it is better to give man to receive. "Yeah, that's it, that's theticket

Anxiety has set in. I am so w orried this year about where on earth Iam going to get die money to buy gifts for my family and riends. I findmyself wishing those three wisemen would have made a wrong turn atAlbuquerque.

Gifts, gifts and more gifts. For years I was so concerned witheverything under the- tree EXCEPT the manger. I would visit mypresents daily, inspecting them, shaking them and feeling their weightwith the hope I could guess what was inside. I am actually so good atit that my mother will probably wrap the watch she bought me (see Ialready know one gift) in the biggest box she can find with tissue.

In all of m at time concentrating on boxes wrapped in beautiful paperwith ribbon I lost something. I only thought of Jesus for about two hourson Christmas when my family and I went to church. That is, if I did notfall asleep during thehomily.Maybe it was more than just the allure of those magneticboxes under

the tree. It probably had to do with the sale signs in windows andcount! ess hours spent in malls trying to find he best deal on the perfect

gift \I cansee Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, sleighs, candy canes, trees, but

what about the real meaning ? The simpleness of Christmas is gone. Ino longer bake cookies with my mother or trim die tree with my father.Those have become belaboring chores that must get done before die24th. -aImages of Christmas savings d ance in the heads of most people now.

j Money concerns are oremost n the minds of most people I talk to.Corporate America has succeeded in taking over one of the mostbeautiful holidays of the year. There has been a hostile take over of theseason, wh ich begins the day after Thanksgiving (they will not evengive us a day of rest), by a fat jolly man in a red suit toting a huge bagof toys.

Let's keepup with the Jones' and buy the Super Dupcr Sega Genesiswith CD-Rom, ormaybe it's the Baby Wets A Lo t I do not know.

Somewhere, at some time, a collective madness consumed society

and everyone forgotthat the season of Advent existed. lam sorry God,but Advent has been replaced by shopping. Yes, I know Sundays aresupposed to be a day of reflection and rest, but Sundays are oh such agoodday to shop, too. Decisions, decisions, decisions, what's a personto do.I will give gifts. I will pour all of my money into Corporate America'a

coffers for yet another year. Mark my word though, I am going to tryto give more of myself this year. I think that maybe I know what thesong at the beginning of this article might have been saying. Give allyou ca n. Granted, it uses money to exert the point, but hey, a pennysounds more catchy than Christmas is coming, the goos e is getting fat,please put yourself in theold man's ha t Besides I do not think the oldman would appreciate your ruining his hat

iiiiHias

Dr. Belovarac's AwardBringsPrestige to History DepartmentBy Brad R ybczynskiFeatures Editor

Dr. Allen Belovarac has come along way since his graduation indie irst coed class of Mercy hurstCollege in 1973, when he gradu-ated with a B.A. in History.

After receiving his B.A.,

Belovarac went on to Case West-em University and graduated w ith

anM A in History. He thenwentto the University of Buffalo andearned his PL D. in Higher Edu-cation.

While attending these otherschools, Belovarac's heart re-

mained at Mercyh urst Duringhis doctoral work at U of B , heworked in various capacities such

as Director of Institutional Re-search, Registrar and Head CrewCoach at Mercyhurst

In 1986, Belovarac was freedwith a decision. He was theHeadCrew Coach and a pa it-time pro-fessor. The crew program wasexpanding and Belovarac had todecide whether to stay on as acoach or devote his time fully tohis teaching duties as a full-timeprofessor. He cho se the "comfortand warmth'9 of academic life.For15 years, Belovarachasbeen

teaching at Mercyhurst and hasalways been proud to be a part ofdie Mercyhurst heritage and tra-dition. On top of his many ac-complishments he hasnow givenMercyhurst one more reason tobe proud of him.

Recently, Belovarac went backto school. He was afforded theopportunity to attend the JointMilitary Intelligence College inWashington D .C The Naval Re-serves had taken Belovarac toSaudi Arabia or Operation D esertStorm and to Bosnia and now

they were taking him to school.Belovarac took the chance "to

rekindle myacademic engines. I

love learning and view m yself asmuch as a student as a teacher.n

He also sought to improve hisown writing and research skills to

Dr. Belovarac in his office

better enable him to help studentshere at Mercyhurstj< Belovarac completed the gradu-ate program in two years and re-ceived \a Master of Science inStrategic Intelligence . Taking apartial sabbatical last spring en-abled him to com plete his thesison Chinese Naval Power. Alongwith graduating with anotherMaster's degree, Belovarac wasalso presented with an award far"Outstanding Thesis on NationalSecurity Polic y." This honor dis-tinguished him from his fellow250 graduates of die program.

Belovarac said that "the schoolwas very supportive in makingthis possible,19 College PresidentDr. William Garvey, a member ofthe History department, said ofBelovarac's work, "It is good to

see our faculty do this kind ofwork, we are very proud of hisefforts." i

Mr. Richard Kubiak. Director

of the History department, ex-pressed his excitement over thepossibilities Belovarac bringswith thecompletion of his work.Thismakes him more fl exible toteach a broader range of cour ses,especially in the RIAP program,"

Kubiak said.Belovarac's award also adds

prestige to both the History de-partment and the college. Accord-ing to Garvey, "this award drawsthe attention of the outside worldand is an indication of institu-tional quality hereat MercyhurstThe award will help to get betterstudents and federal grants,*9 hesaid.

;On a more personal level,Belovarac expressed great "inter-nal satisfaction in meeting a cha1-lenge and successfully complet-

ing i t" Kubiak added, "what isreally important is that it made his

mother proud and that is a gthing for a boy to do."

• : • : •

Carlin Plugs Album in ErieBy Bill Melville

Merciad Writer

On Sunday, Nov. 24,199 6, co -median Geor ge Carlin performedhis routine foran almost full houseat the Warner Theater in Erie.Carlin's current tour follows therecent release of his comedy al-bum "Back in Town."

During his 90 minute routine,Carlin talked about such every-day subjects as the types ofpeoplehe bates, how he feels the prob-lems o f overcrowded prisons andthe national debt can be solved,inaccurate phrases which riddleour language, and little things thatanger him.

Throughout his long career,which began more than 30 yearsago, Carlin has maintained a rela-tionship with his audience by e x-

ploring the little quirks of humannature which we all experiencebut still fear to discuss. By focus-ing on such subjects, Carlin haskept his routine fresh enough tocompete with comedians half hisage.Despite the appearance of close -

ness with the crowd, somethingseemed amiss in Carlin *s act Withthe exception of approximatelyIS minutes ofnew m aterial, all ofCarlin's time was spent on mate-rial from hismost recent albums.Even in that material, Carl in madelittle attempt to present it in afresh manner. Granted, die m an ispromoting an album, but at timesit seemed difficult to believe hewasn'tJust going through themotions to make,some quick

money.Still, Carlin makes it hard not

to laugh. His crazed facial ex-pressions and his even strangerbody language play as great a partin his act as his words do. Whetherhe mocks people who try to actlike professional directors whenthey record their children oncamcorders or adults who stillwear baseball hats backwards,

Carlin adds a dimension to hislive show that cannotbe preservedon a compact disc.

Though he may have done thesame materiala dozen times over,one cannot help but laugh whenCarlin begins his 90 minutes ofpolitical commentary, everydayoccurrences^and, at moments,raving lunacy. Carlin left the stageafter a piece on how much hedespises Baby Boomers, and as jhe left, a majority of the audiencerose to Simla 11H hi s M r A i r M M ^

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PAGE 9THE MERCIAD December 5. 1996

e s t t i f f e s

A c t o r s T a k e a T r i p T o T h e M o o n

Tifftny Reid (left) *nd Aaron Connell and Courtney Nioolni (right) rehearse.

By Zoe Cohen ~Merciad Writer

FromDec; 12 to Mat 8 pun. andonDec, 15 at 2:30 pjn., the col-lection of short one act plays,"Welcome to the Moon" by JohnPatrick Shanley, will be per-formed by the Mercy hurstGreensleevcs Playera InMercyhurst Ta ylor Little Th ea tcr.

The play is being directed byKim Mc of the Road house The-ater. The cast consists of (in al-ph a be tical order) Aaron Connell,

Richard Costclloe, Melanie Jing that, "We'reall under the sameFraney-Eberhard, Nate Mcintosh, IScott A.R. Messenger, CourtneyNicolai, Tiffany Reid, BradRybczynski, Joe Spusta, andAmanda Stefik. B • I I I

moon." She also said that shepreferred to not speak symboli-cally, but instead to et the writerspeak for himself.

the common theme ofThe otherwise eclectic mix of

plays is drawn together with thecommon use of theimage of the moon, hence thetide. This is not a surprise tothose who are aware that thewriter, Shanley, also wrote thescreenplay for "Moonstruck."

M c referred to this theme by say-

the moon, the plays are very dif-

ferent and cover a wide range oftopics. A couple examples of thisare that one portrays what hap-

pens when a skinny, emotionallymalnourished woman and a man,who is plagued with ghosts andmonsters meet in a restaurant

ping away of everything that isimportant to a poet (i.c- his li-brary card, his hope o f getting apencil) and how his soul is re-stored. Each ofthese is differentin subject matter, yet it isinteresting how the tone and re-peating elements tie them to-gether.

Aaron Connell of the cast said,

The play itself is very interest-ing. It's very different from any-thing I have ever acted in. Re-hearsals are starting to come to-

; gether. It should be a good show."CourtneyNicolai said, I Ve got-ten to work with people I would

? ha ve never had the chance tomeet< The rehearsals are going well and/it should be a great show comeopening night.*

^ Despite the tact the I was un-able to watch all of the short acts

Ithat V i n t [prise this play, it appearse a very interesting, worth-leway to spend the evening. I

i on going and I hope to seethere.

Inside Washington

VM,'i !

• •

By John MurphyEditor in chief

On Tuesday night atthe TaylorLittle Theatre, the Mercyhurstcommunity was treated to a lec-ture about the frenetic  world ofWashington D.C's politics andthe characters behind it

Jeremy Birnbaum, author ofseveral books and a senior corre-spondent for Time Magazine'sWashington bureau, isas a leading p olitical analy siatan expert on the White House

has appeared on suetprograms aa The 'Today Show"and CNN's "Inside Politics" and

"Crossfire." )Birnbaum began his lecture by

comparing the political arena ofWashington to one of sport, whereevents are unpredictable and sur-prises are frequent. Based uponhis experience covering die RossPerot campaign inthe recent presi-

dential race, Birnbaum was ableto assure his audience that thepublic's perception of Perot asbeing slightly crazy, wasnotalto-gether untrue.

Commenting on Bob Dole,Birnbaum painted a picture of aman who had a mastery of theinside dealings of Washingtonpolitics. H e praised Dole aa a verycapable politician who got thingsdone in a congressional setting.However, Birnbaum said that itwas Dole's failure to make thetransition from professional poli-

tician to a man of the people,resulted in his poor election per-formance.Turning  to he victor o f the presi-

dential election, Birnbaum toldhis audience that since Clintonhad secured his second term, hewas now a man playing to  historyand not to the public In other

words, Clinton will be active inimplementing policies and creat-ing change in order to leave amark on history.

In the remainder of his lecture,Birnbaum shared his knowledgeof what goes on inside the WhiteHou se. Contrary to public bel ie fo ,the White House is not a place ofserenity and smooth opera dons,rather it is, as the title of his booksuggests, a "Mad House.**

According to Birnbaum, WhiteHouse staff members have to de-vote their whole lives to hepresi-dency. Their work consists ofdealing with one aeries of crisesAfteranother. Tensions are high,and burnouts are frequent m

A lively question and answerperiod followed the lecture, inwhich Birnbaum addressed suchissues as the President's charac-ter and the First Lady'smalignment by the press.

There was a poor turnout at thelecture with very few studentsattending, but those that d\d showup received an insightful accounton of the key issues and individu-als in today'* politics.

10. Prune-eating Sumo wrestler.

I High-rise window cleaner

with bladder problem.

| Near sighted knife juggler.

J Megalomaniac Third

World Dictators.

6. Grown men named "Biff."

5. Heavily armed^hot dogvendors.

4. Carsick bro ther in the seatnext t o you. » I

I Brain surgeon with hiccups.

, Anyone with aicrankyi

disposition and achainsaw.

. People w ho offer you drugs.

PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA

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December 5,1996 THE MERCIAD PAGE 10

e a r a p l

Christmas on CampusBy BiU Melville

Merciad Columnist

V

With Dec. 25 just around thecorner, the Mercyhurst com mu-nity is busy preparing for the 1996Christmas On Campus, a charityevent organized by Mercyhurst'sBarrett C. Walker School ofBusi-ness. The event, which will beheld on Saturday, December 14,from 1-4:30 p.m.tin the GreatRoom of the Herrmann Union,involves pairing up approximately100 underprivileged childrenfrom various agencies withMercyhurst student volunteers.

Once paired, the children en-gage in several activities, includ-ing the chance to see and havepictures taken with Santa Clausand to try different crafts. SantaCI aus a lso passes out gifts that aredonated by Mercyhurst facultyand administration. Other activi-

ties include a reading of "A VisitFrom St Nicholas" by MercyhurstEnglish Professor BarryMcAndrew.

As Christmas On CampusChairperson Becky Koren said,"StudentsJ ge t involved withChristmas On Campus because itgives diema chance to offer some-thing to give back to the commu-nity and also helps to put theChristmas season into perspec-tive for hem."

According to Koren, Christ-mas on Campus notonly receiveshelp rom  Mercyhurst student vol-unteers but from a majority of theclubs at M ercyhurst and the fac-ulty and administraion, this yearbeing no exception. However, giftdonations are still needed for the

eventChristmas O n Campus

mittee member KristenMill

•It* stro

notes that students can still signup to be paired with a child Asign-up sheet is posted in theUnion. Students are also urged tohelp out with the wrapping of thegifts on Wednesday, Dec 11, at8:15 p.m. in the Great Room ofthe Union, or to help with the

decorating o f the Great Room on

Friday, Dec, 13, at 8:00 p.m.When asked about how Christ-

mas On Campus could be im-proved in years to come, Korenexpressed that the participationof he Mercyhurst community hasfar exceeded all expectations. Ifanything could be changed,though, Koren suggests it w ouldbe to offer more for the childrento do and more space for them todo it in.Other than that issue,Koren would like to see Christ-mas On Campus continue in its

current state.

i t.

tS til t

Depression strikes millions-indiscriminately. Depression is simply a suppression

of brain activity that makes life unbearable. A nd even though depression isreadily treatable, only 1 in 5 ever seeks treatment. Why do so many Just.drag

| themselves along or eventually seek relief through suicide? First, there's the lack

of awareness of depression - as an illness and a s the threat that it is to each an d

every one of us. Second, there's the u nwarranted negative stigma attached to it.

You know, the 'mental' thing. It's time to collectively face depression. To know it's

|. an illness, not a weakness. And it's a •; „. /MTpCJTrn

challenge that's long overdue. It's M 2 M__ SE—^—ML • -

taken too many of us already. i

. *. ^ #1 Cause of Suicide J y

Public Service message from SAWE (Suicide AwarenessWoces of Education)  http://www.save.on

"... The RAV4, Which Corners Better, Rides More Smoothly And Feels

More Nimble Than Any SUV Made*** -AutoWeek, June '96

The RAV4 Is A Fun-Junkies Dream Machine." i-Car And Driver, April '96

"Toyota's New RAV4 Seems To Bridge The Cast Casm Between Car And Truck. ThisLittle Wagon With Big Wheels Is A Car And A Truck." -Car And Driver, April *%

"Rally-Car Performance, Camry-Like Quality11

-CorAnd Driver, My '96

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PAGE 11 ""A

THEMERCIAD

fid

> - -vJvJ^ v x \ S ^ 3 ^

St^IllMen

December 5 , 1996m

S o c c e r L o s e I n S e c o n d O v e r t i m eBy Nikki EsposRoMerciad Sports Writer

While the majority of studentsjourneyed hom e for Thanksgiv-ing break, the Mercy hurst men'ssoccer team waited here on cam-pus to compete in the Central Re-

gion Championship on Nov. 24against the ̂ aklandPioneers. Theweekend before, the Pioneers beatWest Virginia Wesleyan to ad-vance to this championship;whereas, the Lakers received a

prepare for the game. However,the time off may have proved tobe more harmful than beneficial.The Lakers started the game veryslow and couldn't match thestrength of the Pioneers through-out tiie first halt Despite tillsoverall slow start, the Lakers did

have some notable scoring oppor-tunities upon w hich they couldn'tcapitalize.

I The bestof these chances camewhen junior midfielder ShawnKroener had a strike on goal thathit the chest of senior GlennFrancis instead of the back of the

bye due to their top ranking in the Jnct

region.The Lakers had three weeks to

Although Oakland dominatedthe Geld, the Lakers defense stood

strong the entire first half. SeniorCaptain Jimmy Reene played ex-

ceptionally well t organizing theback in spite of the steady Oak-

land pressure.Defender Avery Jones said,

"Jimmy has consistently playedwell all year; he played with allheart for this last game."

After a half-time talk focusedon raising the tempo of the game,

the Lakers succeeded in switch-ing the momentum in their favor.Junior Mike Shields played a key

role in stepping up the level ofplay. Shields added speed andmobility, not to mention a freshpair o f legs to a tiring Laker of-fen se. Throughout the second

half, the Lakers had at least fivequality goal scoring opportuni-

ties, one of which had been drill-ing in practice. Captain JimmyReene placed a perfect ball ontothe Coot of leading scorer BarryAllen who just missed over thegoal

Regulation play ended with ascoreless tie. The break beforeovertime kprovided just enoughtime for Oakland to regroup and

once again control the game. Afteralready playing 90 minutes ofsoccer, tile Lakers were unabl e tokeep up the pace which had previ-ously helped create chances ongoal. I

With three minutes left to  play

in overtime, an exhausted Lakerdefense broke down. Oakland

right winger whipped in a crosswhich bounced through a crowdof players. The mass of playersobstructed the line of sight of se-nior keeper Darren Muarry. AnOakland forward got a volley on

goal which made its way into thelower right hand corner of hene t

Disheartened, the entire Laker

team played out the last minutesof the game realizing it would bethe last of the season. Coach Ri-chard Harris;said, "I was verydisappointed for the players thatthey weren't able to getthe resultthey deserved from the work thatthey've done all season."

Team Struggles To find ConsistencyBy Scott VanceMerciadSpots Editor

Since the last issue, the |Mercyhurst hockey?team hasplayed five matches. The team isstill finding t hard to "play at theconsistently high level that we-^are used to  here at Mercyhurst

The Lakers faced the? toughopposition of their nemesisCanisius on Nov. 9, at the$lMercyhurst ice center . It wasJohn Evangelist* who lead theHurst to an 8-5victory,as hescoredfour of the team's eight goals.The Lakers are currently 1-0 inthe E.C.A.C after their win overCanisius.

The team then hosted BuffaloState on Nov. 2 2 in what was asluggish game for he Hurst Re-gardless, the team was able to doenough to earn themselves a 5-1victory, despite 53 saves by the^impressive Buffalo Stategoaltender.

The team then traveled to Os-wego State in an effort to keepitstwo game winning streak alive,but they w ere unable to achievethis feat as they were downed by *a score of 5-2. It was a gamewhere .very few of thereferee's decisions went in favorof the Hurst "The refereeingwasawful. That was a game thatreally the referee had absolutelypositively no control over, and it

was ai" **ing that nobody got se-riously hurt," said fhead CoachGotkin. \ \ \Lastweekend, the Lakers hosted

national powerhouse St NorbertCollege, in a double header thatproved to  be less than successful

fort iie Hurst The Lakers tied thefirst game after blowing a 4-1lead and lost the second game 5-4 \ % %

Steve Torriero opened the scor-ing for the Hurst in the irst periodof the game to give the team a 1-0 lead. Torriero took a pass attheblue line and drove aggressivelyto the net and was able to pick up

his own rebound and put the sec-ond shot into the opponent's ne tHowever, early into the secondperiod, St Norbens leveled thescoringwith awell executed goal.It was at this point in the gameth at the Lakers began to ake con-

unrewarded asthe Lakers allowedI St Norberts to tie the game at 5-

5 in the lasttwo minutes andwenton t o score the game winner inovertime. uWe came away fromthe game feeling like we let itslip,-said Gotkin. | * '

The following night did notprove to  be any different for the

team as they struggled to  find heform that wins hockey games.

I The momentum seemed to bewith

I I I ) 11

trol. The team was able to scorethree goals in succession in thesecond period, courtesy of MikeMasse, Scott Ludeviks, and OtoHlincik. t

Once again S t Norbert's wasable to  crawl their way back into

the game and the scored threegoals in five and a half minutes totie the game at 4-4. Then, up

I the impressive Ludeviks, to• : • : «

score his second and most impor-tant goal of the game to give thelead back to the Lakers.Ludeviks9 m efforts went

St Norbert rightfrom he startafter their impressive come backthe previous night

The early pressure from heopposition paid off as they took anearly 1-0 lead into the changing

sfter the first period. But,not for the first time this year, |Evangelista squared matters upwith his ninth goal of he season.Torriero fed the puck toEvangelists in front ofthe netandhe was in the true sniper's posi-tion to  poke the puck beyond the

opposing goaltender. A few min-utes later, the Lakers found them-selves2-1down after a St Norbert / Jgoal, but once again the Lakerswere able to ie the game up with

a goal from Trevor "Stinky"Brandt Russ Ciesielski gave the

Hursts 3-2lead with his irstgoal

in almost a year. "I was happy as

hell," said CiesielskiThe team let a lead slip out of ^

their hands and St Norbert scoredthree goals in s row to  give them

KevinAer in fid! motion during the IhanhgMngb***

a 5-3 lead. Despite a goal in the

dying moments by Bobby Atkin,the Lakers fell to  a disappointing5-4 loss. The Lakers have a win-

ning record of 5-4-1 thus far thisseason, but they are finding* it

difficult to find the consistencyand high playing standards that is

associated with Mercyhursthockey."I think that we're still a team thathas to earn and find ways to  win.

I1don't think that we're strugglingto a point where we're sayingwe're not good. We have got a lotof young people that are given a

lot off responsibility and all ofthat contributes to not being 10-0," said Gotkin

The team plays Niagara thisweekend in what should turn outto be a very closely contestedgame.

G r e a t S t a r t F o r L a d y L a k e r s B a s k e t b a l l T e a mBy Maureen McMabonMerciad Sports Writer

The Lady Lakers basketballteam is off to a successful start

this season with an undefeatedrecord of our  wins andno losses.Coach Jm Webb said his team isdoing really well so far and that

the team is coming together as a

unit, and he is pleased with howthe team has played

As for the i rst hree games, the

Hurst has fa

after each game, the Hurst baa- team totals 66 offensive rebounds

• / » • 1111

tion and has not yet played a full40 minutes of solid basketball.However, they have done wellenough to finish every game. W iththis confidence and improvement

ketball team is sure to be toughand competitive this season.Webb said, "All I ask is my play-ers go out andplay as hard as theycan, that is al lean hope for. This

m what our players have done sofar this year." '-

The first game of the year fortheLady Lakers wasa successfulone as they defeated West Vir-ginia Wesleyan 101-60. Theyplayed well o ffensively, shot theball well and ran the fast breakwell," ••id Webb. A champion*ship win versus California Uni-versity 84*72 bought the Hurstup two wins. Webb said, Therewas great rebounding, the beat IK«ve ever seen to a team." The

and 97 defensive rebounds. Theirthird winof the season was against!Slippery Rock 82-51 and althoughthe Lakers suited a little flat nthe second period they turned it

around to make it an easy win forthe Hurst

The fourth win of the seasonwent to  our Lady Lakers as theydefeated the Daemen Lady War-riors 7942 . The leading scorerfor the game waa Lori Morth with16 points. Overall, every memberof the team gets playing time,making each win a team effort.There are however, Ave Lakers,

Morth, Tanya Potcova, ConnieRalston, Lonna Dunlap, and

Kristin'Molli, who average be-tween 10 to 17 points per game.Coach Webb said, "Any player onany certain night will shine, be-cause they are al key players."

As for the incoming freshmen

this year, hehas a positive outkxfor the team. Point guard, KatieVogt has done a great Job for theLakers so rarthis season,and4Shehaa great depth in the point guardposition," said Coach Webb. The

team's other freshman, Rcgina Elyis " adjusting to the college gameand getting betterby the day," sa dCoach Webb.

The Hurst has a positive out-look for their season. They hopetobe involved in the GUAC cham-pionship and win it Then theteam

would like to proceed on theNCAA. Since the team has not yetfaced a team in our league, theywill go Into their first game with adean slate. The Lady Lakers takeon Grand Valley, Thursday at 6p.m. Coach Webb said, "GrandValley is a quick team that likes toshoot the three. This team took us

out of the play-offs last year, and

this year we are seeking revenge.Following that game, they playFerris State, and next Tuesday at7o.mversus Indian University.

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December 5,1996 TH E MERCIAD

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PAGE 12

M e n ' s H o o p s l o s e T i g h t g a m e s F o r a 4 - 2 r e c o r dBy Jean McFeeryMerciad Sports Writer

While thej majority ofMercy hurst campus lies desertedover Thanksgiving, the membersof theme n' s basketball teamwa sbusy jnafaf̂ nfug their training

and game schedule. Th ey playediix games overthe break,

finishing up with an overall recordof four wins and two losses. OnNov. 19, the men took on RobertsWesleyan College and had animpressive victory. On Novem-ber 22 and 23 they participated inthe Westminster tournament and

played Slippery Rock andSheridan College . I '

On Nov. 26, they traveled toDaemen and  finished up with ascore of 98-65. This past week-

end Mercyhurst hosted theKnobloch Roundball Classic,where they had the opportunity totest their skills against SlipperyRock and Alderson- Broaddus.IFriday, Nov 29, the men took

on Slippery Rock. The Lakerstook a quick lead in the very earlystages of the first half, but thislead was short lived after JoeLewandowski from SlipperyRock tied die game up at 9-9 with

11:51 remaining in the first half.

After that, itwas a back and forthbattle for points. The Lakers fell

behind for a while until Demondcrept ahead, and with 16:28 re-maining the Lakers were downby 12 with a score of 2244 JodyCrymes put the spark in th e Lak-

ers play with a two point lay-upand this began the gradual pointaccumulation for the Lakers. Jim

Row m ade one ofhis famous threepointers with 14:06 remaining andthat was followed shortly by alay-up by senior Will Stinson.The Lakers continued to pressand with5'35remaining thescore

was tied at46 points apiece.There was no s topping the Lak-

ers and thev continued to widen

thegap. With 33seconds remain-ing *VLtWf* were up by sixwitha score of 56-50. In the last 30seconds Slippery Rock's DonaldBurnettwas able to sinktwo threepointers. Jason Clopollo andThielker wo e able to make upthethree points required to giv e the

Lakers the win in a score 59-5 6.Saturday, Nov. 30, the champi-

onship game took place. It wasAlderson: Broaddus against theMercyhurst Lakers. This gam ewas also a nailbiter with the score

The Lady Laker basketball team limber up before one of their Practice sessions. The team if currently4-0

tied right rom die get go. Youngwa s the first to score on a jumperand then there wa s a seven pointaweep by Profit and Crymes.These three were top scorers forthe Lakers. At die end of the firsthalf the score w as very dose, 32-

31 for the Lakers, At 17:34 in thesecond half the score was tied at

34-34, but die Lakers slowly fellbehind. Don Tillman ofAldersonBroaddus made dietwo point shotthat brought his team to a sevenpoint lead over die Lakers. TheLakers continued to fall behinduntil Profit tied the game at 70-70

with a two point lay up.

In die last 54 seconds, the Lak-

ers were plagued by fouls and soTillman wa s able to monopolizeon this, winning the game forAlderson Broaddus with a finalscore of 70-75. The next gamefor the Lakers is Thursday Dec 5,against Grand Valley State. Thegame begins at 8 p.m.

Fogel Looks! Forward to Lakers SeasonScott VanceMerciad Sports Editor

Mercyhurst's head basketballcoach Karl Fogel hopes that thisyear will bea very successful one

for the Lakers, as he and his play-ers take to the court in an effort to

live up tothe expectations ofboththemselve s and their supportersalike.

The team was ranked 19th in thecountry by one ranking poll andthey were also ranked to finishfirst in their division. 'That waa

one poll. I think that people thinkthat we're pretty good but I thinkthat was just one bunch o f guys

that rated us 19th," said Fogel.The team has one new fresh-

man to really watch out for,Demond Stewart "Demond isour best new commer. He's about6'3." He plays the small forwardfor us. He 's from around j the

•Rochester Area inNe w Yorkandhe's a very talented athletic player.The other new player that's play-ing a lot for us is Matt Thielkerwho's a sophomore transfer fro m

Mass. and he's playing the pointguard position. He 's had a verystrong game so far against Slip-pery Rock where he got 12 pointsin the second h alf which really[brought] us to victory. Thosehave been the two newcomersthat have done the best for us. In

time hell be a b ig scorer for us,he's getting better every day, ev-ery game," said Fogel.

This years team seems to bevery ocused n their task ahead .They are a very hard workinggroup in practice. It's a goodgroup towork with. They'revery

co-operative and they work hard.I don't think we're really playingas well as we're capable rightnow because we're as mentallytough and I don't think that we'r ereally doing the things we have todo to win. I don't think were

playing as aggressively and asphysically tough on the court aswe have to. It's something thatwe 're a ddr ess ing in practicc, hopc-fully there's something that willturn around for us. We lo st toSlippery Rock in overtime, thenwe lost to Alderson Broaddus,"

said Fogel.The team is led by tri-

aptains, Craig Young, Darryl•ancleave, and Will Stinson.However, they will be withoutlast year's Jtop scorer, RahsaahRoland. "Well I think we're sorry

Roland is gone, he w as our bestplayer last year. He did so muchDot only as a player, buthe was areal 1 eader and gave this real men-taltoughnessto the teamthatwe'retrying to replace right now and ithasn't been easy," said Fogel.

Despite, the absence of R oland,Fogel still has a positive outlook

for the upcoming season. "Ourgoals are to make the play-offs.

The top three teams in each di-vision make theplayoffs. We'vegot along way togo before we ta Ikabout those goals because we justhaven't played well. We've gotaways to go so far. We've got along way to go to achieve any ofthe successes we had last year.We 're not pi a y ing with nearly thetype of chem istry or passion thatwe pla y ed with last year. O ur jobis to try to improveevery day and

that's your job as coaching and

that's whatwe're trying todo rightnow. *

Fogel really enjoyed his Grstyear at M ercyhurst 1 liked myfirst year very much. It wa s asgood a coaching experience as I

said Fogel

KaHFogaisl.~i:.f forward to the upcomingseason

By Tom "Poop* PorubskyMerciad Columnist

If there was one thing that Ilearned over break it is that JohnCooper, the head coach of OhioState, needs to be  firedfrom hisjob aa soon as possible.The top priority every year, nomatter how bad or good OhioState may be, is to beat Michigan.The whole football se ason should

focus on three things, which are:beating your rival, winning yourconference, and winning the na-tional title.

Even though Cooper has had agood record, he is 1-7-1 againstMichigan and 1 -6 in bowl games.The one victory came againstBYU when the guy from BYUdropped the winning touchdown

in the end zone.He can bring in thebest talent in

the world, but it is kind of a "whatha ve y ou done for me latel y " situ-

ation and Cooperhasn'tdoneany-thing but lose thebig game.

On to other top ics, I think al-though itwill neverhappen, Divi-sion I college football. needs aplayoff system like all of the otherdivisions. This year there are sev-eral teams that are good enoughto win the national tide. FloridaState, Florida, Arizona State,Nebraska, and Ohio State lead the

listof favorites for the title. A ll ofthese teams have great records

one loss. The playofls would givegreat matchups of the top eams

and the teams could actually de-cide th e national champ insteadof some sports writer. I know thatthis could never happen becauseof all the money thebowl gamesgenerate,butI could live withoutthe Carquest bowl and the SunBowl, just to name a few of the

meaningless bowl games.;Every other college champion-

bip is decided by having a tourna-ment so why should football beany different? Football is prob-

lar college sport depending onyour opinion. Too many crazy

things can happen in a game, soyou have to  decade things on theGeld to find out who is the bestLast year, Northwestern wasone

disastrous quarter against Miamiof Ohio away  from winning thenational title. One bad quarter thewhole year kept them rom beingundefeated by R ose Bowl time. I

know that they lost the RoseBowl,but who knows what would havehappened if there were a playoffsystem?