Allegheny Campus - 10/12/12

THE

CAMPUS

VOLUME 137, ISSUE 6

SERVING ALLEGHENY COLLEGE SINCE 1876 - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012 -

WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COM

Egyptian revolutionary fills Ford Chapel

TOP: Egyptian activist Dalia Ziada spoke to a packed Ford Chapel Thursday night on topics ranging from women’s rights to Wikileaks.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Ziada laughs as she relates an anecdote about a disagreement with advisers of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s current president.

PHOTOS BY CAITIE McMEKIN/THE CAMPUS

Activist, blogger speaks on Egypt’s future “

I

t’s time for all the dictators in the world to go away.

Now is an age of youth, an age of change,” said Dalia Ziada to a packed Ford Chapel Thursday night.

Ziada is an Egyptian revolutionary, a women’s rights activist, a blogger, a writer, a poet and the director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, one of the oldest human rights organizations in the Arab world.

Ziada just arrived from Washington, D.C., where she spoke to lawmakers about the danger of the Muslim

Brotherhood in Egypt. Aside from her stop at Tufts University, her alma mater, Allegheny is the only college Ziada is visiting during her short stay in the United States.

Ziada emphasized the fact that the Egyptian revolution is far from over. “You Americans, everyone in the world, should keep an eye on what’s happening. The fight’s not over yet,” she told the crowd.

“She’s honestly one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met,” said Ankita Channarasappa, ‘14. “She’s only 30 and she’s accomplished so much.”

Bloggers advocate equality

Student service scores high

By SAMANTHA HUNGERFORD

News Editor

hungerfords@allegheny.edu

‘Everyone is Gay’ visits Allegheny

By MOLLY DUERIG Features Editor duerigm@allegheny.edu

Although it isn’t clear without explanation, advice website Everyone is Gay’s title is a sarcastic one. Creators Dannielle Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo receive many questions involving sexuality, but the pair firmly believes that sexuality is almost never where the real problem lies.

“Out of the thousands of questions that we get from people struggling with their sexuality, hardly any of them have anything to do with sexuality,” said Owens-Reid. “The feelings these people are feeling are the same feelings we’ve all felt before…

We’ve all fallen in love with our best friend, and we’ve all had to deal with tremendous heartbreak, and none of our parents really ever figure out how to talk to us.”

Plans for the bloggers’ visit actually began a year ago, but Vice President of Q & A Shannon Wade, ‘13, said she believes their presentation is

INSIDE

MEGHAN HAYMAN/THE CAMPUS Dannielle Owens-Reid and Kristen Russo of Everyone is Gay speak about equality.

currently just as relevant to the campus as it would have been last year.

“I think it just ended up working out really well, and it definitely plays into the conversation that’s going on on campus,” said Shannon Wade, ’13.

“We were floored by how many people were here…There weren’t enough seats.”

Q & A wanted to open an on-campus discussion on diversity.

“Coming here [to Allegheny], I really saw that there was a lot of disparity between students of multiple identities, and there wasn’t any discussion on privilege, which is something that we all have and hold inside of us,” said Q & A member Nick Gordon, ‘15.

“It’s our responsibility to use that privilege to help others, to bridge that gap and create what democracy constantly strives for, which is equality,”

he said.

Equality is a key tenet of Everyone is Gay’s philosophy. Though their website title may suggest otherwise, Russo and Owens-Reid ultimately strive to provide youth with advice that does not emphasize the importance of sexuality or gender expression.

“The problems and the struggles and the confusions that so many of us face are not different based on who we’re going to bed with,” said Russo during their presentation in Quigley Hall last Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Russo and Owens-Reid started Everyone is Gay as an advice website in 2010, which quickly grew to incorporate video blogs and a phone-in question/answer webcast that’s now posted every other week. Although

► N E WS

THINK GLOBALLY

Professor Shannan Mattiace brings the world to Allegheny, and Allegheny to the world.

PAGE 2

See BLOGGERS | Page 4

Eighty-one percent of the Allegheny College students who took the survey reported doing service in comparison to the national average which is just under fifty percent, according to the results of Allegheny College’s National Assessment of Service and Community Engagement report conducted by the Siena Research Institute.

The study compared Allegheny students to the 11,230 students from 28 schools who participated from 2009 to 2011. All participating schools paid a fee to be included in the study. At Allegheny, the survey was part of the Bonner High-Impact initiative program and was conducted last spring. “[Donald Levy, director of Siena Research Institute] said they found that a lot of colleges were actually talking the talk but not walking the walk,” Roncolato said. “He said Allegheny is jogging and not bragging.

So our students are actually more engaged than we actually give them credit for in terms of visibility and publicity.”

Twelve Bonner schools participated in the survey. Allegheny scored in the top three of the participating Bonner schools. When our overall, institutional score was recalculated to excluding our Bonner students, Al-

legheny’s score is still more than 50 percent greater than the all-schools average. “[Service is] a great way to give back to the community that we call our home for these four years at Allegheny,” said Emily Tamimie ‘14, service vice president of Alpha Phi Omega. “Meadville becomes our home and what better way to give back to the community than by doing service.”

The study also found that Allegheny students participate the most in youth, health and environmental services and the least in elder care.

Lucas Schwanke, ‘13, works with youth at Meadville High School.

“Volunteering in all the different ways and areas that we can serve [...] builds a connection and it allows the school to be seen more as a helpful part of the Meadville community and not a separate entity.”

While Roncolato said that students should be proud of our community involvement, the results of the survey shouldn’t mean that students can take a break from service.

“What we’re going to learn from this is it’s not just about the number of students involved,” he said, “It’s how significant is that involvement.”

Additional reporting contributed by Claire Teague. To see the full report, visit www.alleghenycampus.com.

► F E AT U R E S

►S P O RT S

LOCAL FOODS

GATORS GO 1-1

Get a behind-the-scenes tour of the history of local foods and dining in Meadville.

The Gators fall to the University of Chicago, but remain undefeated in the NCAC.

PAGE 5

PAGE 3

2 || October 12, 2012 || The Campus

CRIME BLOTTER September 29 - Theft - 329 Prospect Street Student reported someone stole his laptop computer. Under investigation.

September 30 - Alcohol violation - Walker Hall A student is being investigated for underage drinking and being taken to the hospital.

September 30 - Act #64 - Baldwin Hall Student was smoking marijuana outside.

September 30 - Criminal mischief - North Village II Unknown actor destroyed emergency exit signs and ceiling.

Under investigation.

September 30 - Alcohol violation - Schultz Hall A female is being investigated for underage drinking.

September 30 - Theft - Parking Lot #4 (Ravine) Unknown actor/s stole a wallet with money from a student’s unsecured vehicle. Under investigation.

October 4 - Alcohol violation - Baldwin Hall Two male students are being investigated for underage drinking.

ADVERTISEMENTS  724-794-4833 • 1-877-AIR-ORBIT All Day  Everyday

SHARED-RIDE and VIP SHUTTLE TRANSPORTATION

Operating 24/7/365 Booking Hours Weekdays 9AM-5PM

CAR & DRIVER SERVICE

 www.Airpor tOrbit .com 

AlleghenyCampus.com

[NEWS]

Shannan Mattiace: Q & A

Professor connects Allegheny to the world

By CLAIRE TEAGUE Contributing Writer teaguec@allegheny.edu

Professor Shannan L. Mattiace is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Allegheny College and has been teaching a course in immigration for eight years. She is a Latin Americanist, specializing in Mexico, and has written articles and papers on immigration in Spain and the U.S. She recently presented her paper “Immigrant Regularization and Integration in the US and Spain: a Comparative Approach” in Madrid, Spain this July with several colleagues.

The Campus: The paper that you presented for the International Political Science Meeting in Madrid, Spain, could you tell us about that?

Mattiace: Last year, actually about a year and a half ago, I began going to San Francisco to look at Mexican migrants from the state of Yucatán where I worked a lot over the years, and I wanted to look at how they were organizing in the U.S. [...] So I started working in San Francisco on immigration, and then one of my good friends, who lives in D.C., is a political scientist, Miryam Hazan, she asked me if I was interested in writing a paper with her on comparing the United States and Spain on what we call regularization. That basically means how the countries

have regularized the status of undocumented immigrants.

C: Were other schools involved in the political science conference in Spain? Were you invited or did you apply to speak there?

M: This was a big international conference. So, the way those work is you’ll apply, and in this case, I along with several colleagues got a panel together, so we put together a panel of people with four different papers. We organized that and then we applied to the organizers and said, “Here’s our panel, what do you think of it?”. And they liked it, so then we all showed up together and gave our papers on this panel, and thats pretty typical.

C: The work you did in Mexico that you mentioned earlier, could you elaborate on that?

M: Yeah, so like a lot of our students, I started studying a country when I lived and studied abroad as a college student [...] in the Yucatán in Mexico.

So in 1988 as a college sophomore, I went to the Yucatán just like our students go, on a study abroad and I really loved it. I fell in love with Yucatán. [...] Before I went to graduate school, I got a fellowship to study one year in Mexico City, which was great, and then I went to graduate school and I just kept looking at comparative politics and my specialty

became Latin American and Mexico.

C: What other research have you done regarding Mexico?

M: In graduate school, I wrote a dissertation on ethnic and racial politics in southern Mexico, so I got to Allegheny and I was able to publish my dissertation as a book, and published another book with a host of other authors. And then I started to do a lot of other projects in Mexico. I did transnational advocacy networks. I did a lot of work on comparing Mexican decentralization policies to the Andean region. And then in 2006, when I had my sabbatical, I went back to the Yucatán. And I really wanted, after twenty years, to come back to the Yucatán and really start working there. So my husband, who’s an economics professor here, Tom Nonnenmacher, he and I wrote what ended up being two papers on the economic history of the Yucatán. […] And we did two projects together and published those. Our second paper’s being published now. And that brings us up to almost the present, because I continue to work on the Yucatán, so almost all of my scholarly work has been on Mexico and definitely on Latin America.

C: Do you think Allegheny College provides students with opportunities to be involved in global issues or global stud-

allegheny.edu

ies outside of the International Studies or Political Science majors?

M: I think that is exactly the point of the Mellon grant, internationalizing the campus.

In fact, on my walk over here, I was thinking, “Will be there be a time where we won’t have an international studies major, because all of our disciplines will be so thoroughly globalized that we won’t need to have a place where you study international issues, because everyone will be studying them?” I don’t know. What’s going to happen to international studies as the campus globalizes more? […]

And maybe not, maybe there will always be particular interests and there are good reasons for that, so be it. I’ve just been thinking lately about the place for international studies in a global curriculum.

Write For 8 || September 14. 2012 || The Campus

AlleghenyCampus.com

[SPORTS]

GATOR GAMEDAY

Carnegie Mellon dominates Gators in first home game

By COLLEEN PEGHER Sports Editor pegherc@allegheny.edu

Cheered by fans from the Allegheny and Meadville community, the football team dropped its first game to Carnegie Mellon Saturday in a 37-7 loss.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” said head coach Mark Matlak.

“That’s what happens when you make mistakes. You get run out of dodge.”

The Tartans dominated the Gator defense, with Carnegie Mellon outgaining Allegheny 461-207 in yardage.

“We had problems on the defensive end,” Matlak said. “I think that’s where it all starts.”

Tartans’ receiver Tim Kitka had four catches for 158 yards, including two touchdown receptions. The Tartan ground game had 261 total yards, with contributions from ten different players.

“We gave up two long touchdown passes for scores that were our own errors,” Matlak said. “We couldn’t stop them on the defensive end.”

The Gators struggled offensively as well, with their only points resulting from their opening 77-yard drive led by the running of senior Taylor O’Brien and Ben Perko, ’14.

Perko set the Gators up at the Tartan one-yard line.

O’Brien carried the ball into the end zone for what would be the Gators’ only score.

Matlak and offensive captain Conor Sharp, ’13, attributed the struggles on the offensive end to players’ failure to stick with their assignments.

“There were many plays Saturday where we had 10 out of 11 guys doing their jobs well, but we need all 11 of us to be in sync on each play,” Sharp said.

After a comeback win in their first game of the season, players were unhappy with

their performance against Carnegie Mellon.

“It’s one thing to lose, but I feel like we were completely dominated in all aspects of the game,” said senior captain John Douglas. “To put it plain and simple, they outplayed us, and that’s not an effort that I’m proud of whatsoever.”

The Gators have a bye week this week, and according to Coach Matlak, plan on going back to basics.

“Anytime you have a bad loss like we did, you have to come back and take a look at yourselves and try to go back and work on the basic fundamentals,” said Matlak.

Allegheny will have another change at quarterback when they travel to Wabash in two weeks.

Joe Dawida, ’15, suffered a shoulder sprain against Carnegie Mellon, forcing Matlak to give Mike Person, ’13, the nod once again. Dawida finished

CATIE MCMEKIN/THE CAMPUS Top left: A smiling President Mullen walks out of the player’s tunnel before Allegheny’s football game against Carnegie Mellon at Robertson Field on Saturday, September 8th, 2012. Top Right: Joey Gillespie cheers on his team. Bottom Right: Ryan Mong, ’15, stares out from the sidelines during Allegheny’s nationally televised match. Above: Allegheny’s cheerleading squad revs up the crowd.

Saturday’s game 10-of-21 for 75 yards passing. “[Dawida] showed some flashes, but he showed his inexperience,” said Matlak. “I made the switch [from Dawida to Person] and it didn’t work on Saturday.”

During the bye week, the Gators hope to put this loss behind them as they head into the remainder of the season.

“We need to just move on, and as hard as that may seem initially, I think that it would be best if we just put this game

Women’s soccer wins two

By JOHN LICHINA Staff Writer lichinaj@allegheny.edu

|| September 7, 2012 || The Campus

tuesday Sept. 18:

CI

Freshman Hannah Zangara knocked home her �irst collegiate goal to put the Gators up 1-0.

Ashley Lehr scored later

Sunday Sept. 16: Women's soccer vs. capital 12:00p.m.

NAC

Mike Webber Women’s Head Soccer Coach

week of Sept. 16

FIBO

”

behind us,” said Douglas. “As our coach mentioned after the game, ‘Once something is behind you, if you keep watching it through your rear view mirror, you’re going to wreck.’”

swamp schedule

DIO

6

“

The next day, after we went over a couple things, it was like two different teams out there.

off of a great pass from Michelle Holcomb, ’15. It was Lehr’s �irst goal of the season.

Top-scorer Emliy Byers, ’14, was �irst on the scoresheet 20 minutes into Saturday’s match, scoring her second goal of the season with a strike from thirty yards.

It only took �ive minutes to �ind a second goal off the foot of Emma Loniewski, ’15.

The game was put out of reach for Fredonia with a quarter of an hour to play.

Sophomore Greta Hilbrands grabbed her �irst of the year on a great solo effort.

Head Coach Micheal Webber said he witnessed a drastic improvement from Friday to Saturday.

“The next day, after we went over a couple things, it was like two different teams out there,” said Webber.

Goalkeeper Kylie Mason extended her shutout tally to four from �ive games.

The Gators were shutout by Grove City Thusday night and will play Capital University on Sunday at home.

STU

A weekend of soccer at the Blue Devil Classic in Fredonia, New York brought the women’s soccer team more than just two wins on the record.

“We have a lot of con�idence from this weekend but mostly because we know that we can improve from each game we play,” said senior captain Ashley Lehr.

Allegheny has a record of 4-2 overall so far this season.

Anchoring a back line that has not let up a goal since the �irst match of the season is sophomore Sam Hoderlein, who earned tournament MVP and Gator athlete of the week honors last weekend.

The Gators have not surrendered in a goal in 411 minutes.

“We have a very strong mid�ield and defensive shape,” Hoderlein said.

Hoderlein was joined by three of her teammates as all-tournament performers: Allison Buzzard, ’14, senior Ashley Lehr, and freshman

Hannah Zangara.

The weekend’s opposition struggled to �ind the net as Allegheny spent much of their time in the attacking third of the �ield.

women's volleyball vs. wooster 7:00 p.m . wise center Men's soccer vs. Baldwin wallace 7:30 p.m .

wednesday Sept. 19: women's soccer vs. carnegie mellon

4:30 p.m.

saturday sept. 22: Women's soccer vs. Wittenberg

2:00 p.m.

Men's soccer vs. wittenberg

2:00 p.m.

www.AlleghenyCampus.com

[Opinion] Opinion editor: Cory Rectenwald || opinion@alleghenycampus.com

In Culture Your weekly dish of science

By DANA D’AMICO damicod@allegheny.edu

T

his week, as I sat down to watch a stir of people move across campus, my eyes caught another flurry of activity on the ground. It was a long train of ants, marching in a jumbled line around my feet.

At any given moment, Earth holds around 6.6 billion people-living, working, collaborating.

It also holds somewhere between 1 and 10 quadrillion ants shuffling quietly underfoot, a microcosmic model of the larger world milling above.

It’s almost inconsequential whether or not we stop to notice that small-scale, parallel world; even by the conservative estimate, ants outnumber us by a million to one and nearly match us in combined weight.

A single colony alone can be home to many thousands of ants. For those who study the social insects, the sheer scope of the task is one of the first roadblocks to research.

It takes creativity to keep track of every member of the colony’s elaborate caste system, and modern attempts have ranged from amateur and low-tech to sophisticated and

technologically ambitious.

One of my favorite attempts is that of physicist Richard Feynman, whose curiosity led him to pick up a colored pencil and track a group of ants living around his bathtub.

Sprawled out on the floor behind them, he traced their tiny footsteps around the room.

Eventually, he noticed that their paths straightened out as they learned their way across the space--in particular, the easiest

...even by the conservative estimate, ants outnumber us by a million to one and nearly match us in combined weight. routes to food and back.

In contrast, Dr. Anna Dornhaus of the University of Arizona uses model airplane paint to keep track of each ant that she studies. She anesthetizes them, marks their backs with dots of color, videotapes them, and follows their movements over hours and hours of film.

Most recently, scientists in Derbyshire, UK have attached tiny

radio tags to a population of wood ants in hopes of studying their movements across the English countryside.

The enormous effort of studying ants may lead some to ask why it’s all worth it. The answer depends on what field you’re in, but there seems to be something for everybody.

For instance, ants’ ability to learn the most efficient paths between locations, as Feynman saw in his home, has been used to create mathematical and computer science models tackling the so-called ‘travelling salesman problem,’ which aims at finding the shortest distance for a businessman moving between cities (or, more generally, between many points on a plane).

For biologists, the complex caste arrangement of ant colonies poses one of the most interesting social systems in the field. Colony members divide labor and specialize, all while forming a kind of superorganism that works together.

Fire ants, for example, lock jaws and interlace their bodies to form a living, breathing raft during floods; they tighten into a ball and drop as a unit into the water, spreading out and sometimes staying afloat for

months.

Weaver ants stitch together leaves using the spun fibers of larval members, while honey ants engorge their abdomens with oversized, glistening beads of liquid in case a food shortage in the desert threatens to starve their colony.

Ant colonies function as complex superorganisms-they’re uniquely known for it--but individuals also act in different ways within the hierarchy of their caste.

Dornhaus’s painstaking study of hand-painted ants, for instance, revealed that some ants laze about while a few responsible ants perform the bu l k of the work.

This is especially surprising to those who think o f all ants as tireless workers, with each member pulling its own weight.

Ants vary wildly with location, too. Scientists are working to catalogue the world’s ant spe-

cies in extreme detail in a collective project called AntWeb. If you’re brave enough to check it out, you’ll find a dazzling array of forms displayed in full focus down to the individual hair.

For those unfamiliar with the intricacies of an ant’s face (most of us), AntWeb serves as reminder of the incredible, beautiful detail that exists just outside of our immediate perception of the natural world.

As I looked down again at the ants crossing the ground in front of me, I thought more about the detail and vibrancy of life that can be lost not only to the limits of our observation, but also to the business of classes, work, and daily life.

We are outnumbered by something--a million times over--and sometimes, it feels nice to know it.

T H E

Design by Dana D’Amico, ’13

LETTER TO THE EDITOR (The little i and capital We/Our are intentional political misspellings).

In last week’s feature article titled “Four Kinds of First-year students you don’t want to be next term,” one of the sub-sections prompted me to go on a stealing rampage. i took all the Campus newspapers from five newsstands and replaced them with notes asking the paper to “PLEASE stop publishing racist articles.”

i made this direct action because the cartoon and article subtitled “InvolvementAddict Allen” was racially insensitive and targeted an individual member of ABC. The cartoon shows a black man with a skin-tight ABC Tshirt on. This carton is clearly targeting this year’s ABC president Clay Grego given that he is one of the few black males in the club (and only black male on the board) and almost always fashions skin

tight T-shirts. i am sure that the Campus didn’t intend to target Clay, but by not asking questions such as “does this negative cartoon image resemble a specific individual on campus?” they subconsciously singled him out.

Another part of the subsection that infuriated me was that the article indirectly discouraged both black and white students from joining ABC.

Involvement-Addict Allen dissuades black students from joining ABC by blatantly linking involvement in the club with being over loaded with responsibilities.

The final line of the subsection even implies that ABC could contribute to black students having a mental meltdown. Again, this is sadly hinting on racist stereotypes that black people are inclined to go crazy.

The cartoon of Clay re-

inforced the stigma to white students that ABC is exclusively for Black people. In reality, ABC is an open organization dedicated to celebrating the African diaspora and combats the personal and institutionalized racism that pervades this campus. i do not believe that either the writer, designer, or editors of the article intended for the piece to hurt and offend. But i also do not believe that ignorance is an excuse.

If We want to rid the world of racism, We (as white people) must hold Ourselves and other white people accountable.

It shouldn’t have to be black student’s job to tell Us every time We screw up and do something racially insensitive. i still love everyone involved in the Campus paper for the work that they do, We just need to ask a few more questions next time. Thank you for the space.

your opisubmit your piece to opinion@alleghenycampus.com

submit your piece to opinion@alleghenycampus.com

THE

CAMPUS SERVING ALLEGHENY COLLEGE SINCE 1876

VOLUME 137, ISSUE 3

WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COM

- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 -

Transformed CPP focuses on outreach Center announces new partnership with the Robert H. Jackson Center

By CLAIRE TEAGUE Contributing Writer teaguc@allegheny.edu

Allegheny College’s Center for Political Participation shifted its focus from rallying student electoral participation to general community outreach.

It also announced a formal partnership with the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the life and legacy of the Supreme Court Judge.

Newly appointed Director Brian Harward specializes in constitutional law and is hoping to redirect the CPP towards increasing the civic engagement of students. He hopes the CPP will help a broader range of students become involved in

politics.

“The CPP always had its mind open to the broader picture, however it was founded ten years ago on the idea of electoral participation among youth, “ said Mary Solberg, assistant director for the CPP. “But then as [Harward] took over, his focus is not electoral participation […] he has this broader view of what electoral participation should be, and it involves a lot more than just going into a voting booth.”

Allegheny College and the Jackson Center worked together throughout the past ten years, but through this formal partnership a broader and more intensive connection is CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS made.

The Jackson Center has no Professor Brian Harward introduces lecturer & Allegheny alum Greg Peterson (‘73) of the Robert H. Jackson Center in Quigley Auditorium on Sept. 10, 2012. Peterson gave the college’s annual Constitution Day address.

See CPP | Page 3

Gator game viewed nationwide

CATIE McMEKIN/THE CAMPUS

Fullback Taylor O’Brien (‘13) pushes through for Allegheny’s only touchdown in their 37-7 loss to Carnegie Mellon University at Robertson Field on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012.

See GATORS | Page 8

ASG announces 2012-13 election winners

By KATIE McHUGH News Editor mchughk@allegheny.edu

Allegheny Student Government elected a bevy of new class senators this week, furthering its transition into the new academic year.

Bryan Weisgal, ’14, retired from baseball last spring and decided to run for a student government on a whim.

“It was kind of a spur of the moment thing,” Weisgal said.

“I thought it would be a good time to get more involved on campus.”

Weisgal said he planned to prioritize student life and public relations.

“I think there are more people who are more cognizant of going green, but I think I’m go-

KATIE McHUGH/THE CAMPUS Jim Dieterle, ‘13.

KATIE McHUGH/THE CAMPUS Mike Hebditch, ‘14.

Courtesy of Tim Dikec Tim Dikec, ‘16.

Rose So, ‘16.

ing to sit that one out,” he said.

Jim Dieterle, ’13, ran for office to advocate on behalf of student group he feels need more financial support.

“If you look at ASG, you see who’s in what clubs, and you see how the money is allotted, and it’s just interesting, because obviously most people are in it for the right reasons and they’re

fair about it, but I would like to investigate if that’s always the case,” Dieterle said.

Dieterle pointed out the lack of coaches overseeing sports teams. Dieterle plans to raise awareness of certain clubs’ plights as they scrape by.

“There are some clubs that could become great, but they don’t have the resources,” said

Dieterle.

Michael Hebditch, ’14, assumed vice presidency of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, but deciced to pursue an ASG senate seat to broaden his perspective.

“I thought, ‘Well, I’m already doing something in that vein. Maybe I’ll do it for the school and for the larger community,’” Hebditch said. “I re-

ally like my organization, but it’s a bit insular compared to the whole college campus.”

Elected senators also included members of the ’16 first year class: Nick Schake, Miguel Liriano, Tim Dikec, Brogan McGowan, Joseph Bianco, Marisa McKnight, Jake Ballinger, Rose So, Matt Fitzgerald and Daniela Cuellar.

N E WS INSIDE ► CAMPUS SHAKE-UP

► F E AT U R E S MARRIED FACULTY

Courtesy of Rose So

► OPINION IN CULTURE

Computing makes new restrictions on printing

By MOLLY DUERIG Features Editor duerim@allegheny.edu

Many Allegheny students have expressed frustrations surrounding the newly-instated cost of extra print points.

Due to ASG’s approval of a policy proposed by User Services last semester, students now receive double the 1600 print points they did as of last semester. However, if students’ printing surpasses this new limit, they must pay for more printing privileges at the rate of a penny a point.

The newly increased amount of allotted print points may seem too large for any student to possibly exceed. But if this were truly the case, there would be no need for a limit.

ASG class senator Pedro O’Campo, ‘14, said it is hard to gauge how much the average student needs to print when senior projects range widely in length according to department and topic.

Some upperclassmen worry that they won’t have enough points to meet all their printing demands while working on their mandatory senior projects.

“I’m a comping senior. If I need extra points and am told I have to pay, I will occupy the shit out of Murray Hall,” said Kara Gacovsky, ’13.

Fadden said that students believing they have a special circumstance meriting extra free points can approach any of the staff members at User Services. For extra-long comps or current third or fourth-year students who haven’t had the chance to accumulate rollover points, free points may be granted.

“Hopefully with the fact that we’ve given 3,200 points, which is a substantial amount of points for students in any given semester, we won’t have to do that,” said Fadden.

For students involved in extracurricular activities and especially those holding leadership positions, the Office of Student Involvement offers copy cards so students can print numerous copies for members without sacrificing their own print points.

“The print point system is really made for personal printing,” said Fadden. “But we do want to make sure that student organizations still have access to copying as they always have.”Fadden added that he hopes the initiative will encourage group members to utilize Google calendar and other online resources more heavily.

Allegheny’s printing system started evolving with the implementation of the print server PaperCut three years ago.

Before PaperCut permitted

See TECH | Page 2

► S P O RT S

GATOR GAME DAY

The English department lost four Married Allegheny couples share their experiences mixing profesprofessors this year and is still sional and family life. adjusting to the changes.

Our columnist looks into the science behind the week’s play, “Playing Dirty.”

Carnegie Mellon dominates the Gators in nationally televised home game.

PAGE 3

PAGE 7

PAGE 8

PAGE 4

4 || September 21, 2012 || The Campus

AlleghenyCampus.com

[Features]

Jimmy Fucci, founder of The Other Place, tells a story to a customer.

Photos by SAMANTHA HUNGERFORD/THE CAMPUS Jimmy’s sister Joann Gilbert runs the bar in the early evening.

Pennies decorate table tops at the bar.

Bartender of 39 years prepares to retire

By MOLLY DUERIG and ETHAN WINTER Features Editor and Contributing Writer duerigm@allegheny.edu wintere2@allegheny.edu

Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” plays on the jukebox as Jimmy Fucci, 75, founder and keeper of The Other Place, bustles behind his famous “Penny Bar” to serve a customer a drink.

After 39 years under the same ownership, the Penny Bar is now in the process of being sold to Donny Beverage, who also owns the Chestnut Street Pub & Grill. When the sale is complete, Fucci will retire.

The date isn’t set in stone: Fucci said he is currently waiting for the state Liquor Control Board to approve the ownership change before the closing process can begin.

Only one thing is for sure: the switch will definitely occur before December 29. But if the approval goes through beforehand, it may very well happen earlier.

Many customers have been drawn to the Penny Bar since he opened the place in 1973.

“My first visit to the Penny Bar was one of those love at first sight moments,” said Wonjoon Jang, ’13. “It is exactly what I was looking for in a bar…and on Tuesdays, the Penny Bar is probably a better place to do homework than the library.”

Built from the ground up

by Fucci himself, the bar’s casual atmosphere and low prices make it a prime place for students and residents alike to relax, have a drink and some friendly conversation. Its unique--and heavily enforced-rule against swearing is just one of the things that distinguish it from any other bar. A sign posted on the front door that reads, “Use the F Bomb and you are out of here!!” explains Fucci’s no-forgiveness

he could prove just how large swearing policy well enough.

Another of the first things the number is. It was then that most people notice upon enter- he began collecting pennies.

After a year and a half, Fucci ing the Penny Bar for the first time is the quantity of pennies had only saved a small jarful of everywhere—on the walls, the pennies.

“Maybe I’m not as smart as tables, the bar and in structures I thought I am. Maybe I don’t built by Fucci himself.

Fucci cites Carl Sagan as his know what a million is myself,” primary inspiration for begin- Fucci said, recalling his feelings ning his enormous penny col- at that moment.

“But I can’t lection. Sagan, quit. I gotta an astronomer find a way to do from Cornell this.”

Un i v e r s i t y, His next hosted “Cosidea was to hold mos,” a 13-epi“penny nights” sode television Everything comes on Wednesdays show about sciand Saturdays to an end. It might ence from the from 9-11 p.m., 1980’s. be five billion years when 15 pen“He imnies would buy down the road, but pressed me bea customer a cause as smart it’s gonna come to draft beer. Acas he was, he cording to Fucan end. Whether could talk to me ci, that was durand I could unyou wanna believe it ing the 1970’s, derstand him. when the noror not, that’s a fact.

He talked on mal price for a my level,” said draft beer was Fucci. only 25 cents.

Fucci said “Man, did Sagan was althe pennies ways mentioncome rolling in ing the word Jimmy Fucci then,” he said. “million.”

Owner “They were “That’s all bringing bags he ever talked The Other Place in and setting about, ‘cause them on the he was talking about the universe,” he said. bar.”

Eventually Fucci did achieve “I watched all 13 episodes and boy, I’ll tell you – I got real his goal of collecting a million pennies. In fact, at one point he smart.”

When Fucci started notic- had 1,300,000. With those pening how often people use the nies, Fucci constructed a map word “million,” he realized of the United States. Fucci had they must not understand what to splice pennies to fit into the shape of Hawaii; he used Cait really signifies.

“I used to hear people come nadian pennies for this part of in here and say, ‘Jesus, I walked the process because it is illegal a million miles today,’” Fucci to melt or deface U.S. tender in said. “I thought, these people, any way.

But Fucci does not still have they don’t know what a million a million pennies today. is. But I do, ‘cause I’m smart.”

In 1992 penny shortages hit Fucci became determined to save a million of something so a number of national banks.

“

”

Fucci’s bank was one of the institutions hurt by the shortage.

“The girls [from my bank] used to come in on Friday nights and have a few beers before they went home. They knew how many pennies I had,” Fucci said. “The bank could not get pennies, no way. So they asked me if I could help.”

Fucci agreed, and for the next month or so, he carried a huge bag of pennies down to the bank once a day.

“I didn’t mind, because I had already reached my goal,” he said.

Years ago a former Allegheny student succeeded in stealing a pillar of pennies from one of the monuments at the Penny Bar. Fucci’s sister Joann Gilbert, who helps out at the bar during the early evenings, witnessed her brother’s painful discovery of the theft.

“The kids must have stood around while [the thief] sawed it with…it had to have been a nail file. He wanted something from the Old ‘P,’” Gilbert said.

“It took Jimmy eight weeks to build a replacement pillar.”

Three years later, a friend of the culprit approached Fucci and asked whether he’d forgive the incident if the pillar were returned. Fucci agreed. In two days, the thief came into the bar with the original pillar and Jimmy told him to expect some papers in the mail.

“Jimmy prosecuted him,” said Gilbert. “You don’t do that to my brother...This is Jimmy’s house. It broke his heart that someone would vandalize those monuments.”

Now the monuments stand in a glass case.

Gilbert said Fucci’s not the right person to get on your bad side.

“I know what my brother is capable of. When he’s mad, look out,” she said. “And if you’re thrown out, you will

Graphic by Elliot Bartels

2 || September 21, 2012 || The Campus

SAMANTHA HUNGERFORD/THE CAMPUS Patrons gather at the Other Place on Tuesday night, Sept. 18.

never, ever step foot in this place again.”

Everybody who’s been to the Penny Bar knows nothing will infuriate him more than hearing vulgar language—especially the “f bomb.”

“I don’t need it,” Fucci said of cursing. “I didn’t go very far in school, but when I hear somebody use that language, you know what’s the first thing I think? They’ve got a very limited vocabulary.”

Fucci’s no-swear policy also has a lot to do with respect, an important topic to Fucci.

“The one thing I enjoy doing is throwing ‘em outta here when they’re not respectful,” he said.

Fucci explained that he is particularly passionate about respect for women.

“My dad used to ask me, ‘Who’s your favorite person in the world?’ and I’d say, ‘Mom,’” Fucci said. “He’d say, ‘That’s right. And most likely, all women are gonna be mothers someday, so you show ‘em respect.’”

When people come to the Penny Bar, they must play by Fucci’s rules.

“What you do outside… that’s your business. But you come to my house, you show respect. And the only way to get it is to give it,” he said. “If you act like a jerk, you’ll be treated like one. If you act like a nice, respectable person, you’ll be treated like one.”

“That’s the way I see it.

Right or wrong…that’s the way I see it,” Fucci said.

Before he built the bar in 1973, Fucci worked at his father’s billiard hall, which was located right where Tops is today. He decided to move to the bar business in 1968, when the state drinking age was proposed to change to 18.

“That would’ve taken all my customers from the billiard parlor,” he said. “[The change to the law] never ended up happening. But it all worked out...the bar was more profitable.”

Fucci admitted he initially missed working in a pool hall, but he came to terms with it.

“Everything comes to an end,” he said. “Sometimes for the best, sometimes, sadly, not...It might be five billion years down the road, but it’s gonna come to an end. Whether you wanna believe it or not, that’s a fact.”

One thing that won’t come to an end, though, is the penny collection, despite the sale of the Penny Bar. “I sold the Penny Bar. I didn’t sell the bar. Now from what I can gather

from this guy, the only thing that’s gonna change is he’s gonna utilize the kitchen. I never did that ‘cause I didn’t want to be bothered…I wanted to run a place by myself,” Fucci said.

“But he’ll probably have wings, fries, hamburgers…but he’s gonna leave everything else like it is.”

As an afterthought, Fucci added that he’s not sure whether the pictures lining the wall behind the bar will remain. “[Beverage] said he wants to hang the pictures on the wall [in the jukebox room]. I told him that every year there’s a reunion, and people will come back and want to see their pictures,” Fucci said.

Gilbert says she’s glad that her brother will finally be able to rest.

Gesturing to a stool behind the bar, she continued: “He’s never brought that. Forty years he’s been there, and he only just started bringing a stool. That told me something: he’s tired.”

When the bar changes ownership, Fucci will probably revisit Italy, the home of his ancestors. “I watched the bar for a whole month once when he went to Italy,” Gilbert said. “It was scary without Jimmy here.”

She said he is ready to retire.

“He’s been ready. But this is his baby. I think he was kind of worried that the right person wouldn’t get it…but you can tell just by looking at [Beverage] that he’s the right person,” Gilbert said.

According to management at the Chestnut Street Pub & Grill, the Penny Bar will retain the no “f-word” policy, as well as the pool and ping pong tables, under its new ownership.

The main changes to be implemented include food that will be available until around midnight, more TVs and a debit card machine.

She added that for the first 30 days of his ownership, Beverage will collect questionaires from guests about what people would like to see changed or kept the same.

Fucci and his sister said they are glad the bar’s essential aspects will be retained.

“All I can tell you is, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Keep it the same! It’s doing very good.

Forty years it’s been here,” Fucci said of his bar Senior student Jang encouraged students that have yet to visit the Penny Bar to do so before Fucci retires.

“Before it changes ownership, you better go down there and try a pickled egg,” he said.

“It complements beer so nicely.”

AlleghenyCampus.com

[NEWS]

ELLIOT BARTELS/THE CAMPUS Left: Allegheny students rally in front of Bentley to support the hundreds of marchers who protested in New York as part of the Occupy movement a year ago today. Above: A clothesline of protest signs hung up by students for Occupy Allegheny at Bentley lawn.

College Dems President Nick Diana, ‘13, registers Colin Soleim, ‘14, to vote at the Occupy Allegheny protests.

OCCUPY

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS

ELLIOT BARTELS/THE CAMPUS

from page 1

while they were setting up tents. That’s all, and they gave me an update informing me about what they were doing. So it wasn’t anything spectacular.”

Cardboard sheets made by the Occupiers stood in the lawn, leaned against the tents, and strung across a clothesline adorned with an “I OCCUPY CUZ” sign conveyed a host of messages and sentiments.

“President Mullen has ignored my emails!” read one sign.

“Only 30% of non-white students graduate from Allegheny College in 6 years,” read another.

The Occupiers also wrote messages in chalk along Brooks Walk and campus buildings, including Bentley and Brooks.

“WE ARE WATCHING,” said one message written beside the entrance to Bentley. “Occupy is Sexy,” said another written next to Brooks’ doors.

DiChristina saw no problems with the Occupiers’ messages on buildings.

“It’s just people being passionate. I think the chalkings are still there. It’s fine. It’ll stay there for a little while and then it will be removed,” DiChristina said. “The comments were totally fine.

They weren’t slanderous or anything like that. I don’t see it [as] problematic. I mean, eventually, they come down because three or four days later, [it’s] time to move on.”

President James Mullen agreed, expressing his support for students’ freedom of expression.

“I think we should be about the free expression on this campus,” Mullen said. “So I don’t in any way want to diminish students’ sense that they have a full opportunity to express their feelings and their sentiments.”

While noting that Bentley is seen as an iconic building on campus to be respected, Mullen also took into account the convictions of the occupying students.

“I think that there are places to express ourselves and I’d like to see it done there, but I think that again I think I’m respecting the passion that students felt,” he said.

Last October, however, DiChristina sent out a school-wide email discouraging students from writing personal and club messages on campus buildings.

“I request that when you put messages out to our campus you not place these on campus buildings,” the email read. “Using chalk on sidewalks or putting posters on approved bulletin boards is our method to notify the community.”

College Democrats’ President Nick Diana, ’13, stayed to register students to vote and discuss the direction of some college policies. He cautioned against assigning a single cause to the Occupy Allegheny movement, citing the variety of reasons students came together to discuss issues, solutions, and ideas.

“It’s hard to talk about progress as a group, because the whole thing about the Occupy movement is that each person who comes to the Occupy movement has individual reasons for coming, and if you have individual reasons, then it implies you have individual goals,” Diana said. “Personally, I came here to register people to vote. And I did that. So I accomplished something.”

Concerns about the college’s environmental policy and diversity on campus motivated Allegheny Student Government’s Director of sustainability and environmental services Brian Anderson, ’13, to help organize and participate in the Occupy movement. When examining diversity and issues of privilege on campus, Anderson found that the problems began with none other than himself.

“Me, to be honest,” said Anderson. “I would say white males who come from a wealthy family and are straight. Because I don’t feel that I’ve experienced issues that other people have brought up...I haven’t been felt brought to tears about issues of racism that I know people have be brought to tears about, so that’s why I say myself.”

Diana agreed that diversity on campus also drove him to show solidarity with the Occupy Allegheny movement.

“I think the biggest [issue] currently going on is the whole situation with the diversity office getting up and leaving. We sort of haven’t heard anything from the administration addressing that in any productive or proactive way,” said Diana. “But again,

there’s a lot of issues. It’s just like, ‘Hey, we’re here and we’re active.’

I think that’s the message.”

ASG senator Colin Soleim, ’14, joined two Occupy discussions and emphasized that different types of privilege played a troubling role in shaping student relationships with each other and the campus at large.

“All privileges are important to recognize, because you’re in different spaces and talking to different people at all times,” Soleim said. “There’s a bunch of cross-sections of privilege that make it important for you to recognize all of them, not just the big four, like sexuality, gender, race, and socioeconomic status.”

Soleim, while eager to make the campus a more diverse and welcoming environment, felt that the problems confronting the student body were as numerous as they were difficult to individually solve.

“White privilege, I see that everywhere,” said Soleim. “The problem is, I have white privilege, so at times it’s hard for me to recognize it. I’ve heard many narratives about instances of white privilege. You can go towards discriminatory things, but a lot of it what I call ‘micro inequalities.’ [...] Just the idea that a lot of racism, and sexism, and heterosexism, takes place on a very small scale that’s hard to confront.”

Many Occupiers also objected to the college’s official stance of neutrality on Crawford County’s tires-to-energy plant, which they say pumps pollutants into Meadville.

Nathan Malachowski, ’14, worked closely with Students for Environmental Action on the issue and reached out to Mullen, urging him to officially condemn the plant.

However, like many of the Occupiers, Malachowski felt that although the administration listened closely and courteously to his concerns, they ultimately brushed him off.

“President Mullen has been good about meeting with me and talking to me, and I would definitely love to give him that much credit,” Malachowski said. “President Mullen is for the most part positive but there’s never much depth to our conversations, and we never really engage with what we’re talking about, so it’s kind of fruitless in my opinion. And it’s disturbing in that way. And I sort of wonder if the administrative network is sort of designed

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS A series of tents set up by students for Occupy Allegheny at the Gator Quad on September 17, 2012.

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS A makeshift library set up by students for Occupy Allegheny at the Gator Quad.

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS Students Morgan Thomas, ‘14, Devante Parson, ‘15, Zach Kramer, ‘15, and Nick Gordon, ‘15, discuss current events.

AlleghenyCampus.com

that way, to diffuse those opinions.”

Mullen, however, characterized his conversations with Malachowski as addressing his concerns while making his position on the matter clear.

“I’ve had great conversations with Nathan. He cares deeply about the tires-to-energy proposal that is in the community right now, the facility that’s being proposed. And I certainly respect that,” Mullen said. “My feeling on that -- and I’ve said this to Nathan in our meetings -- is that I believe that the college should be the location where these debates take place.”

Mullen expressed reluctance to complicate the college’s role in the continuing debate surrounding the plant by staking an official claim. Rather, he said, the college should encourage the conversation to develop freely and allow students to reach conclusions on their own.

“I don’t believe that it is appropriate for the college to take a position on that. I think what is very appropriate for the college to do is to have discussions take place,” Mullen said. “I want to be very sensitive to the fact that when a college takes an official position, or I take a position on behalf of the college, I’m not sure that’s helping the debate.”

“I want the campus to be a place where people can express opinions and let the science, let the facts make the case,” he added. “And people come to a position, and very often, the right course comes about.”

While many students participated or showed support for the Occupy movement, many other students regarded it with confusion or disagreed with its goals and methods.

“Who can explain to me the ‘I am Allegheny. I am privileged’ remark?” Daniel Miller, ’14, said. “Because we are privileged here. It is great that we are here at such a competitive school. I think that’s a privilege. And I don’t understand what they’re trying to say about that.”

Nicholas Tororici, ’15, believed that the Occupiers failed to account for students who felt alienated by portions of the campus community because of their political ideology.

“In an institution that’s very far left, maybe we should occupy Bentley, claiming that there’s abuse against those who are conservative,” Tortorici said.

Eric Hoff, ’14, felt Occupy Allegheny’s presence failed to spark a movement towards changes on campus.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me, because the fact that an Occupy Allegheny movement is so irrelevant,” Hoff said. “To me, it’s just people trying to be hip and cool, as opposed to really trying to do anything. Because what are you going to do at Allegheny College?”

While Hoff said that he is very socially and economically liberal, he doesn’t believe that students need to be activists.

“We need to get into government,” he said. “We need to elect the right people. I think that sort of takes away from the cause of liberalism if it’s just doing an Occupy movement. It’s just like I said, irrelevant. Completely irrelevant.”

Malachowski, however, believes that Occupy can accomplish change on campus by thinking outside the box and employing unconventional tactics.

“I would say that their definition of change is lacking in terms of imaginative power, and that they are only thinking in the system that they are confined by,” said Malachowski. “The true change that would come from a movement such as Occupy is far different and greater than a new policy that comes from whoever’s President.”

Despite the many separate concerns of students make them a challenge to address at once, Malachowski feels that students’ shared passion for creating an improved campus community can be achieved through sustained conversations and efforts such as Occupy.

“Talk about it. Network. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.

Tell everyone,” Malachowski said. “And actually talk about it and care about it and try to do something. Even if it seems like it’s not huge and people might make fun of you for it. Who gives a shit. Do it anyway.”

CODY MILLER/THE CAMPUS Tito Aderemi-Ibitola, ‘14, interviews Occupy participant Casey Branthoover, ‘13, for her documentary project on Occupy Allegheny protests.

The Campus || September 14, 2012 ||

[Opinion]

7

In Culture Your weekly dish of science

‘Playing Dirty’: Playshop explores the science and stigma of waste

By DANA D’AMICO damicod@allegheny.edu

H

alf of the earth’s droves. weight is buried unOur collective attitude derground. It’s down there, marks a big shift away from beneath a layer of dirt, that an the cholera era depicted in inconceivable number of mi“Playing Dirty,” a time in crobes live and work in comwhich the theory of waterplete, airless darkness. borne disease suffered from But our focus is so skewed major lack of public support towards life above-ground because the supposedly inthat David Wolfe, soil scifected water just looked clean. entist and plant physiologist Now, many of us distrust at Cornell University, writes even the clearest tap enough that we humans are inadto attach extra filters to our vertent “surface faucets, and chauvinists.” we certainly Consider, for don’t enThe play explores tertain the example, that the largest organism both the stigma of p o s s i b i l i t y on the planet is that our wanot a blue whale dirt and the hidden ter was once or a California world crawling with- in someone redwood, but in it, as each scene re- else’s toilet. something that flects upon the chaos was.ButMead-it most of us have neither seen nor that carries through ville’s drinkheard of — a to the surface. ing water is tangled 2,000 drawn from acre mess of the French fungal threads Creek Wastretching out beneath the tershed, which is where the Blue Mountains of Oregon. city’s rigorously treated sewThe truth is, we ignore a lot of age water ends up. Biosolids what lies beneath us. are separated out by the sewer Or maybe, as tonight’s authority first, and everyPlayshop Theatre premiere of thing is perfectly potable by “Playing Dirty” suggests, we the time it makes it back into actually fear it. The play exthe water cycle and eventually plores both the stigma of dirt into our homes. and the hidden world crawlWe use potable water for ing within it, as each scene reflects upon the chaos that carries through to the surface.

In particular, “Playing Dirty” confronts the possibility that our insatiable preoccupation with cleanliness holds us back — socially and scientifically — and that a little dirt, bacteria and waste can do a lot of good.

most of our everyday tasks, even when we shouldn’t. In the same way that there’s no reason to break open your best bottle of wine for cooking, there’s no compelling reason to use drinking water for plumbing or groundskeeping.

The massive effort that it takes to bring water to potability is wasted on cases in which we could recycle local sewage by making it just clean enough for non-potable reuse.

The student cast of “Playing Dirty” toured Oberlin College’s Living Machine, a decade-old system built to successfully convert an entire building’s sewage into nonpotable water using the natural filtration abilities of wetland plants and the bacterial films that live on their roots.

The Living Machine uses many of the same the bioremediating properties that Carr Hall now uses here; Carr’s aquaponic system, for instance, also uses the work of naturally occurring bacteria — to convert the ammonia of fish waste to nitrate, which plants (like lettuce or tomatoes) can easily take up as fertilizer. Novel systems like Oberlin’s Living Machine and Carr’s aquaponic garden con-

Dirty Water Everywhere, And Not a Drop to Drink?

Potable, or drinking-quality water, is a big deal; one in six lack access to it around the world, and those of us who are lucky enough to have it use it for nearly everything.

Impure water is a subconscious fear of the modern world, the reason that college refrigerators are filled with Brita pitchers and at least part of the reason that consumers purchase bottled water in

OPINIONS NEEDED Liberal Politics Social Justice

serve water neatly within the space that it is needed.

But places like the Bortnick farm are few and far between, and people like Eric Waste to Energy Pallant, professor of environmental science at Allegheny Nutrient-rich waste holds College, wonder why more a lot of hidden energy that people aren’t catching on. stigma prevents us from tapPallant and his students ping into. Bacteria that break have spent the past three years down waste also produce studying biogas digesters and methane in the process. the ways in which they can be Every time a sewage treatscaled down for accessible use ment facility ships filtered in small communities. biosolids off to a landfill, it Former student Mirno allows all that methane to Pasquali collected waste from escape unused into the atmoa nearby fish farm, stored it in sphere (where it actually bea modified 44-gallon barrel comes a problematic greendrum, and waited. The methhouse gas). ane that his system eventually Some countries are focusproduced was enough to fuel ing on methane digestion as a small burner. an energy T h o u g h source, and Pasquali graduit’s been ated this past Novel systems spring, he’s aldone at least once here like Oberlin’s Liv- ready in India in Crawford ing Machine and continuing his County by work. He’s scaled Carr’s aquaponic up dairy farmfrom the conserve 44-gallon model ers Jack and garden Don Bort- water neatly within to plans for a large nick, who the space that it is biocenter, with turn massive an underground piles of cow needed. digester that can manure into power two floors methane, of sanitary pubfertilizer, and lic restrooms and even recycled bedding for the community kitchens. animals.

He still hasn’t abandoned the smaller model entirely — a barrel system running on food waste will provide enough fuel for a family to cook three meals a day.

That kind of energy saving is significant in rural India, where laborers only make around two dollars a day.

Pasquali knows at least one farmer who, by loading ten pounds of manure into a simple, homemade biodigester every morning for the past six years, has saved roughly $8 a month on fuel costs.

Now, Pasquali wants to educate others by sharing his experiences in a blog, which will focus on his efforts to improve local sanitation in the slums of India.

This weekend’s opening of “Playing Dirty” complements Pasquali’s work as a different kind of student effort — one that uses dialogue and movement to flirt with the unknowns surrounding our

opinion@alleghenycampus.com

Environmental issues

Philosophical perspectives

Institutional Diversity

Community Issues

Conservative Politics

Campus incidents Your passion.

C A M P U S

AlleghenyCampus.com

[SPORTS]

The Campus || October 12, 2012 || 3

White leads Gators to tie for first

By PAT JAMESON Contributing Writer jamesonp@allegheny.edu

Taylor O’Brien, ’13, scrambles to recover a fumble during Allegheny’s win against Oberlin at Robertson Field on September 29, 2012.

CAITIE MCMEKIN/THE CAMPUS

Gators fall to Chicago on the road

By COLLEEN PEGHER Sports Editor pegherc@allegheny.edu

In their first ever matchup with the University of Chicago, Allegheny was shutout 10-0 on the road.

The Gator defense held to Chicago to only ten points, while the offense failed to score.

“It’s a good case of we beat ourselves,” said quarterback Mike Person, ’13. “Our defense played a great game but our offense just couldn’t get first downs or move the ball.”

Coach Matlak credited his defense for a solid performance thus far this season, but feels that there is room for improvement on the offensive end.

“We were very pleased with our defensive performance,” said Matlak. “Offensively, it was a struggle. It’s a huge struggle right now. We have a lot of work to do on that end, and we just have to keep working at it.”

In their homecoming matchup gainst Oberlin, the Gators answered an early Yeomen field goal with a two-yard touchdown run by sophomore Ben Perko.

The Gators dominated in the fourth quarter, forcing three consecutive three-andouts.

The offense followed up the

CAITIE MCMEKIN/THE CAMPUS Gator fans cheer on their team for the homecoming game against Oberlin. The final count for attendance at the game totaled 2,459 fans.

strong defensive effort with a 68-yard drive capped off by a two-yard touchdown run from Tim Werley, ’13. Sophomore kicker Ryan Mong’s extra point attempt was blocked, leaving the Gators ahead 13-3.

The Gator defense would close out the game with a safety

by John Douglas, ’13, resulting in a final score of a 15-3. Douglas’ safety was part of a Gator defensive effort that has held its opponents to a total of 13 points in their last two games against Chicago and Oberlin.

Rudy DeStefano, ’13, had a career day against Oberlin with 14 tackles, and was named to Division III Football’s Team of the Week.

“Our defense is a strong unit that plays hard every week,” said senior linebacker Bill Devlin. “As a unit we realize if we run to the ball we better our chances of winning. It’s real simple.”

On the offensive side of the ball, the Gators have had several injuries to key players in last few weeks. Taylor O’Brien, ’13,

is done for the season. Perko sustained an injury to his ACL late in the game against Oberlin, ending his season. Tyler Smith is also injured, putting the Gators to their fourth running back on the depth chart.

“You don’t worry about those kinds of things,” said Matlak. “They don’t cancel games when a guy gets a booboo. You have to play with what you have and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Despite the loss at the Chicago, the Gators remain un-

defeated in conference play, which gives them a good chance to compete for a conference championship.

“When you get those two early wins it sets you up really early to win the conference championship,” Matlak said.

“You’ve got to feel good about that.”

In addition to their undefeated conference record, the Gators’ last conference victory against the Yeomen proved to be a morale boost for the squad.

“The homecoming win felt good to get especially since there was so many alumni there,” Devlin said. “It was a good win for Allegheny Football as a whole not just Allegheny Football 2012.”

Matlak echoed the sentiment.

“It’s always important to win on homecoming,” Matlak said.

“People come back, alumni come back, former teammates come back. It got us turned around from our Carnegie Mellon loss I think. You get positive vibes anytime you win on homecoming and you win at home.”

This Saturday, Allegheny will play another conference matchup against DePauw.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

Women’s soccer wins after seven-game losing streak

By JOHN LICHINA Staff Writer lichinaj@allegheny.edu

Allegheny women’s soccer took full advantage of their fall break by earning two victories and restoring confidence before the final stretch of the season.

With only four matches left to play, victories over Rutgers-Camden on Saturday and conference foe Hiram on Tuesday have revived the Gators from a winless streak of seven games. They have scored more goals in two consecutive wins than in their previous seven matches altogether.

Three of the four goals over break also came off the feet of freshmen.

Freshman forward Niki Augustine netter her first and second career goals in the same match at Camden. The statistics, however, told a story of opportunities left on the table while Allegheny outshot Camden 24-6.

Tuesday was much of the same with Ashley Lehr, ’13, providing a breakthrough goal in the first ten minutes. The remainder of the match was undoubtedly in Gator hands as Hannah Zangara, ’16, sealed the match with a goal in the

67th minute. Tuesday’s win also delivered Allegheny’s first three points in NCAC play.

“It’s so nice to know what it feels like to win again,” said junior Alison Buzzard, who recently rejoined the squad from a lower back injury.

A season that looked to be spiraling downward has regained its wings for the moment. The team is now 6-7-1 overall with only conference opposition left to be played on the schedule. Allegheny is sitting four points behind the fourth spot in the NCAC, the final playoff position.

A confidence in the final

third of the field, something lacking until recently, could be decisive in propelling Gator soccer into the postseason. Allegheny has outshot their opposition 194-104 throughout the season, but only 14 goals have come from the onslaught of attacking soccer the Gators play.

Head Coach Michael Webber has been stressing in recent days the importance of a fast start to his team’s remaining matches.

“If we come out with energy, we will be much better off moving forward,” Webber said.

This philosophy has brought

the Gators their recent wins and kept their season afloat for the time being. Early energy and a bit of enjoyment has infected the side at the most vital time.

“The last couple games have reminded us that it’s still just a game,” Augustine said.

With a handful of games left, the season will continue with a trip to Kenyon on Saturday. The Kenyon Lords currently sit on seven points in the NCAC. Three points on the road this weekend are a necessity to Gator postseason aspirations.

Like Sports?

Write for the campus sports@alleghenycampus.com

Oliver White, ’14, shot a career and tournament best 141 over the weekend.

White’s performance helped lead the men’s golf team to a first place tie with NCAC rival Ohio Wesleyan at the Rosencans Maurer Invitational this past weekend.

“I have always believed in myself and I have always been surrounded by family and friends that have believe in me too, so this weekend felt right for me.” White said. “To me it felt like this is how is should be, whereas most of the weekends before this weekend have felt like disappointments to me.”

White is the first Allegheny golfer to break 70 in a single round since 2005.

Last weekend’s tie is the first tournament victory for the Gators this year, and also how they will end their fall season.

They finished in second place four times in tournament play.

Throughout the weekend, Ohio Wesleyan’s freshman phenom Drew O’Connor trailed White closely, with a score of 144 and a second place finish overall.

Ohio Wesleyan was ahead after the first day of play. However, White and his teammates managed to put together a consistent team effort to tie it up on Sunday afternoon.

Senior Patrick Fritz, who got off to a shaky start in the first day of competition with 77 strokes, managed to rally with a score of 73 on day two to finish eleventh overall and boost the Gator’s chances of a win.

“I was most pleased with the fact that we played two good rounds back to back,” said Head Coach Jeff Groff. “Learning to do that week in and week out is the key to a successful season.”

While this was the last tournament of the fall season, the Gators are already looking forward to the spring.

“The team has got to use this weekend as fuel, fuel that should propel us to work hard to keep improving over the off season, so that when the spring season rolls around we will be ready to show everyone what we are all about,” White said.

Similarly, Groff said that it could be just the spark the team needs to make a run in the NCAC come spring.

“Our fall season is over, but hopefully we can use the strong finish as motivation as we prepare for the spring,” said Groff.

“The NCAC is getting tougher each year, but we expect to be in the hunt next May.”

4 || October 12, 2012 || The Campus

BLOGGERS

‘Jersey Shore’ characters infiltrate pop culture

from page 1

By ALLISON NETTNIN TV Critic nettnia@allegheny.edu

MEGHAN HAYMAN/THE CAMPUS Students packed Quigley’s auditorium to listen to Everyone is Gay bloggers talk about equality and activism.

the site is geared toward LGBTQ youth, the two young women make a point to explain that any and all topics are welcome for discussion.

“It’s not pretentious advice…it’s just really from the heart. I think that’s why so many people relate to it,” Wade said of Everyone is Gay. Some students weren’t sure what to expect of the presentation, based solely off of the event flier that was posted on various locations around campus with very basic information.

“Unless you knew that it was a presentation, the flier wasn’t attractive to those people who really needed to see it and have their mind opened to it,” said Kerri Barron, ’15. “No one who already has a homophobic mindset would have gone, because nothing draws them in or is explained.”

Russo explained that she and Owens-Reid initially started the website for fun a few years ago, not thinking that many people would be interested in reading it.

“We don’t think everyone is gay,” said Russo. “I know that is a little misleading to a lot of people sometimes.”

Russo used a typical question, about how to come out as gay to one’s own parents, to explain the origin of the website name.

“We say, alright. Everyone’s gay. Everyone’s trans. Just take that out of the equation. What are you really talking about?” she said. “You’re talking about the fact that you want your parents’ approval. Or that you want your friends to understand you.”

“Those are things that we can all identify with,” she said.

The pair’s website actually began with Owens-Reid’s creation of a totally different website entitled “Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber.” Students in Quigley’s overcrowded auditorium burst into laughter when Owens-Reid showed pictures of some of these lesbians on the PowerPoint slide.

Owens-Reid said that strangers actually began asking her some serious questions regarding sexuality when she started her site.

However, she also received some negative comments, from girls who said Owens-Reid was stereotyping and making the entire lesbian community look bad.

“Kristin [Russo], who I’d just met, got all bajiggity and wanted to talk back,” said Owens-Reid, explaining that “bajiggity” means “angry.”

It was at this moment that the two women decided to start an advice website together.

At the time, Russo was pursuing a master’s degree in gender studies and had a lot of information on her mind she wanted to share. She also wanted to help Owens-Reid express to the incensed viewers that she hadn’t meant any harm by her Justin Bieber jokes.

“I basically felt that there were a lot of very angry lesbians who were yelling at Dannielle [Owens-Reid], and she had

no place to speak back from,” said Russo.

Although the website began as a joke between the two, it wasn’t long before readers started asking the women some very serious questions.

“We think a big part of why there was such a large response so quickly was because on our website you can actually ask questions anonymously,” said Owens-Reid. “That anonymity gives room for people to ask questions they may otherwise feel uncomfortable or weird asking.”

Everyoneisgay works to eliminate negativity both on and off line. The bloggers recognize that just as human rights can be disrespected in person, so they can be disrespected on the Internet.

“Just because we have this anonymous grey silhouette, a YouTube username nobody knows is ours, doesn’t mean we should just be saying things about other people because we can hide behind those things,” said Russo.

According to Everyone is Gay, an activist’s most crucial tool should be kindness.

“Don’t be a jerk. In real life, or on the Internet. And for some of you, that might be the extent of your change-making.

But if you can seriously do that, if you can honestly be a kind person in every aspect of your life...I’m happy,” said Russo.

Above all else, the bloggers’ goal is to steer students away from using systematic labels to describe themselves and others.

“What is it that makes you guys think you need to fit into a category, and then remain in that category forever?” asked Owens-Reid, triggering laughs from the audience.

She went on to note how often the pair receives questions from young people who decide they identify with one form of sexual expression, and later change their minds.

“We end up obsessing over these labels that we completely made up. Straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, cisgender...everyone, calm down!” said Owens-Reid. “It would be so much easier if we could just love who we love and identify how we identify…no questions asked.”

Russo said that labeling one another based on certain things--our sexuality, our race-is an unnecessary habit that can be at least partially broken.

“We have a really big tendency in this society to create lots of very tiny little boxes, and to put ourselves and other people in those boxes, and it just separates us all that much more from each other,” said Russo.

She acknowledged it is difficult to overcome the consequences of oppression’s inevitable presence throughout world history.

“We’re not gonna sit up here and be like, guys, let’s just forget about that and skip off merrily into a land of rainbows and puppies,” she said. “But we can share a history with other people and be open-minded

AlleghenyCampus.com

[Features]

enough to know this isn’t just about one thing. It isn’t just about gay rights, trans rights or women’s rights.”

Equal human rights in general is the bloggers’ primary focus on human rights. They make an effort not to exclude any particular group from their advocacy.

“If you’re sitting in this room thinking, all right, but I’m not gay, I’m not bisexual, I’m not transgender....I don’t even have a gay aunt. First of all, you probably have a gay aunt. Who doesn’t, right?” Russo said, drawing more laughs from the large group.

“Second of all, if you are a human being, you should feel completely comfortable participating in a movement that is for equal human rights,” she said.

Russo stressed that a wide variety of people, including some parents of youth, post questions and seek advice on the website, whose main readership is comprised of youth between the ages of 13 and 24.

Another important aspect of Everyone is Gay’s campaign is the lack of any specific political emphasis. Owens-Reid and Russo strongly advocate voting, stressing that any kind of voting is better than none.

“We think it’s so important for people to register to vote and to vote, regardless of how you’re voting,” said Owens-Reid in an interview.

She explained that to vote is to help determine outcomes for many of the human rights issues she and Russo are concerned with. At last Wednesday’s event, Obama campaign representatives were seated at the front of Quigley’s auditorium to help attendants register to vote.

“This is an election year, and we thought it was really important to highlight that and to get people registered,” said Russo during an interview.

She added that the duo asks each campus they visit if it has voter registration volunteers.

The night before visiting Allegheny, Everyone is Gay had presented at Clarion University, where representatives from Obama’s Pittsburgh branch had sat at a registration table.

Those representatives then volunteered their services for the following night’s performance in Meadville.

Russo said that the previous night at Clarion, 40 attendants had registered to vote. Twentyfour attendants registered at the Allegheny event.

“We keep our political views sort of to ourselves, because we think the more important thing is to tell people that they should be informed and know about things and then use that knowledge to cast a vote,” said Russo.

The portion dedicated to political activism follows the same simple, humorous framework as the rest of their act.

That humor, combined with the interactive quality of the presentation, sprouts from each woman’s undergraduate background in theatre.

One time I actually tried to GTL (gym, tan, laundry). Two left feet made for an epic stairrunning trip and fall. FYI: ghostly pale skin and tanning bed bulbs don’t mix. And really, who does laundry on a Friday anyway?

Convinced that I could still model my life after the “Jersey Shore” cast, I fashioned my hair into a huge teased pile on the top of my head and set out to a “Jersey Shore” themed party, equipped with lobster red skin.

And I fist pumped like an idiot for the entire night.

In “Jersey Shore’s” final season, which started on Oct. 4, JWoww’s boobs are the only things that don’t seem to have been subjected to gravity’s unforgiving pull. The “Jersey Shore” cast is looking old.

Proof positive that alcohol doesn’t keep you young.

MTV seems to be finally catching on that getting drunk and getting it in may not be compelling entertainment anymore. As a result, some positivity seems to be coming to this season’s plot line: Mike “the Situation” is coming clean about his drug addiction, Snooki has a bun in the oven, Ronnie and Sam aren’t uselessly eating up air time with their fighting, Vinnie is taking a vow of celibacy. Could it be that “Jersey Shore” is going out with a moral bang?

MTV surely seems to be milking the brand for all its worth, heavily promoting the final season with commercials of real people emulating the cast members. Despite the fact that each season is the

same plot and involves the same fights, the commercials function to show that everyday people have become fans.

Those fans are not only still tuning in but they take “Jersey Shore” into their lives, carrying around an arsenal of quotes to casually spring on someone.

That’s what it means to be a Jersey Shore fan. It’s much more than just watching the show.

Clearly “Jersey Shore” has plopped dollar signs into MTV’s metaphorical eyes. The Jersey Shore brand has lent itself to Snooki dolls, t-shirts with memorable cast quotes, a Pauly D spin-off show about his DJ-ing career, a Snooki and JWoww spin-off show about living together as BFFs, and endless appearances of the cast at clubs.

These everyday people, via reality TV, have garnered fame and literally get paid to drink and party. Living the college life well past their prime, it has been argued that the characters glorify a life of debauchery and meaningless sex.

Yet, “Jersey Shore” has increased foot traffic into New Jersey itself, especially the famed boardwalk that the cast inhabits during the summer months. The show has impacted New Jersey, has infiltrated college partying, and has blown up Facebook with GTL statuses. Cool story bro.

“Jersey Shore” makes it impossible to argue that reality TV does not influence our everyday lives. Even the calendar has been reworked, transforming Thursday into Jerzday. If you are a die hard fan, a hater, or simply don’t give a shit, I’m willing to bet that if you don’t live under a rock you’ve at least

heard of “Jersey Shore.” This means something. We can’t just shove reality TV under the rug as frivolous entertainment.

Case in point: while sitting in the DMV waiting to renew my license in December, a 6-year-old girl was talking to her uncle, saying how she wanted to fist pump like Pauly D. After my initial horror that a 6-year-old was casually quoting a thirty-some year old over-tanned DJ with a blowout, I suppressed the urge to shake the innocent little girl’s uncle and scream at him about the future of America.

The “Jersey Shore” cast have become celebrities, in that child’s eyes and in the eyes of our culture.

According to The Daily Beast, both Mike “the Situation” and DJ Pauly D are on the list of top ten highest paid reality TV stars, mostly through endorsement deals.

This screams celebrity to me -- media figures being paid to have their self branded as the face of certain products, knowing that the products will sell because of their celeb status.

Reality TV has created celebrities, celebrities that are well-known, and being wellknown has a cultural impact.

Cultural impact changes what our culture looks like on the level of the everyday.

There’s a reason why onenight-stands and endless shots have more than just entertainment value when packaged in an oompaloompa-esque body.

Let’s have one last fist pump for (sadly) the most influential television show of our college careers.

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Liam Neeson stars as Brian Mills in this action-packed sequel. This time, Mills must rescue his kidnapped wife.

‘Taken 2’ does it again with heart-pounding action sequences

By BEN DAUBER Movie Reviewer dauberb@allegheny.edu

Despite his very annoying daughter, Neeson manages to disarm and neck-snap through another engaging action flick.

I cannot even explain how nervous I was going into this one. Taken was one of those sleeper actions movies that really delivered and I was hesitant to believe that Taken 2 could deliver the same punch.

My hesitations soon subsided, however, as soon as Neeson threw his first punch. From that moment on, the film only got better.

Taken 2 takes up right where Taken left off. If you are unfamiliar with the series I will quickly bring you up to speed (don’t worry no spoilers

I promise!).

In the Taken series Neeson’s character Brian Mills is an exintelligence agent of some sort.

The specifics of his past are not clear; what is clear, however, is his ass-kicking prowess which has obviously carried over from his younger days as an operative.

For some reason, bad guys just don’t seem to understand the magnitude of Neeson’s manliness, and thus, to their own misfortune, often kidnap his loved ones.

In the first film his daughter gets “taken” but in this one it’s his wife who gets “taken.” Honestly one of the most awesome parts of this movie is just how similar the structure remained from original to sequel. They had something good and they

just did their best to re-create it.

Rather than give it steroids (The Bourne Legacy) or abusing the credibility of a well- known star (Trouble With The Curve), Taken 2 managed to straddle the fine line that all sequel films must walk: bring just enough original material to make it engaging while recreating the atmosphere that made the first film popular.

Now I am not going to exaggerate and say that this is the best original-to-sequel transition since the Indiana Jones series, but as far as film sequels go this one was solid to say the least.

I would strongly suggest going to see it if you enjoyed the first one, and if you didn’t see the first, watch it.

AlleghenyCampus.com

[Features]

The Campus || October 12, 2012 ||

5

LOCAL FOOD

DeHart Local Foods Dinner relocates

This year’s menu featured a wide variety of foods.

By AVA CARVOUR Junior Editor carvoura@allegheny.edu

Last Wednesday, the third annual DeHart Local Foods Dinner, occurred in Schultz Banquet Hall, breaking the 2-year tradition of taking place in Brooks.

The event, established in 2010 to honor former Allegheny Professor Jennifer DeHart, was begun in order to celebrate both DeHart’s memory and her passion for local foods.

The event is divided into a market on Brooks walk, where local vendors ply their wares and at the dinner inside Schultz, dishes are served comprised of local ingredients.

This year, the original format of the DeHart Dinner underwent a major overhaul. The dinner, formerly held in Brooks was relocated to Schultz, allowing the presentation of a completely local meal.

Kelly Williams, ’14, a member of

PHOTOS BY NICK OZORAK/THE CAMPUS Students, faculty and community members enjoyed a vast selection of locally-grown foods at this year’s sold-out local foods dinner in Schultz Banquet Hall.

the dinner of Dinner’s Planning Committee, first fell in love with dining concept as a freshman. Her initial enthusiasm led her to join the Committee and become actively involved with the creation of the Allegheny legacy.

Williams and the planning committee felt that the local food was buried in Brooks, due to the overwhelming amount of food that wasn’t part of the local foods dinner itself.

“We made the decision to switch it to Schultz and do an entirely local meal, instead of just having some local food in Brooks,” said Williams.

Another member of the planning committee, Sara Schombert ’13, found the dinner’s new location to be an important factor in emphasizing DeHart’s commitment to local foods.

Shombert joined the committee after spending the summer working with Professor Kate Darby, also a member of the committee, to advocate local foods in the Meadville com-

munity.

“People were coming to Brooks and then finding out it was the local foods dinner,” said Schombert. “We felt that it’s important to celebrate local foods and make people know what they’re eating and celebrating.”

In Schultz, the local foods were the bedrock of the dining experience. In an email, Sustainability Coordinator Kelly Boulton stated that the majority of the meal’s food was sourced within 40 miles.

“The vast majority of the veggies came from very local farmers (within 40 miles),” wrote Boulton. “However, we did also source some things like butter, cream and yogurt from a bit farther afield (more like 150 miles). A small amount of ingredients like olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, and sugar were not local at all, but I would say made up a tiny percentage of the total ingredients.”

The change in location may have

allowed for a more local meal.

But it also cut down on the number of diners that could participate, which according to Williams, was a loss the committee was willing to take in order to ensure emphasis on local foods wasn’t displaced by traditional dishes. The size restrictions of Schultz prompted the committee to sell tickets in order to limit seating. The event was sold-out, with 250 tickets purchased. During the dinner itself, students continued to come to the door attempting to join the meal, but were turned away.

The apparent popularity prompted Schombert to say expansion could be possible for next year’s dinner.

Following the departure of former Parkhurst employee Scott Steiner, a major contributor to the event, his loss, the committee had to scramble to get the dinner off the ground . “[Steiner] was our point person for planning so not a lot got done over the

summer. So we got back late August, early September and planned most of this event in a month, which was a little intense.”

The planning committee was forced to take on new roles with Steiner gone, and the committee flexibly adapted to the new structure.

“It became a much more equal distribution of responsibility among people on the committee,” said Williams.

“We had to mobilize so fast to do such a big job and no one was expecting to be in charge of it, so we had to spread it out.”

Colin Soleim, ’14, who attended the dinner, felt the centralized focus and location make the event seem unattainable for the everyday.

“When you have it Schultz it sends the message that we can’t do this everyday,” said Soleim. “It seems a lot fancier in Schultz.”

Market vegetables sprout from humble beginnings

By LEAH NATALI Contributing Writer natalil@allegheny.edu

Eight years ago the Market House had nothing but Beanie Babies.

“We didn’t even have a fridge in here,” said official Market Master Alice Sjolander. Sjolander and friend, the late Jennifer DeHart, who was an assistant professor of environmental science at Allegheny College for nine years, knew they could not let the oldest market structure in Pennsylvania succumb to a life of dust and unloved children’s toys.

Inside the 141-year-old Market House, Sjolander and DeHart saw potential, Sjolander said. United by a mutual love for the environment, the community and wholesome food, the two women undertook a project to revitalize the Market House, hoping someday the rest of the community would feel that love, too. To strengthen the Market both inside and out, Sjolander and DeHart worked with the Meadville Market Authority, a board appointed by Meadville City Council, to oversee management of the city-owned landmark.

Now, after eight years of restoration and growth, Sjolander and DeHart’s dream for the downtown landmark has been realized. Every Saturday local vendors gather outside the Market House to sell fresh produce. The indoor store is open seven days a week.

On Saturday mornings, the Market House is alive with crisp colors, warm, steamy baked goods and children helping their parents pick out veggies.

Outside, cars occupy each spot in the lot. A row of vendors selling piles of locally grown acorn squash, kale, on-

ions and peppers greets guests upon arrival. Baskets of speckled gourds, towers of squash and tall corn stalks bundled against the brick wall accentuate the brisk fall season.

With the Market House’s revival during the past eight years, local cheese farms have also begun to flourish.

Before the Market House was renovated, the majority of regional cheese production skipped northwestern Pennsylvania and picked back up in Ohio. Sjolander said that by giving farmers a location to sell their products, they have in turn had the ability to build up the market. Meadville is now privy to six different types of packaged, creamy and local cheeses.

Cheese farmers are not the only people who would be out of business without the Market House. Beth Etter, local vendor and mother of Emily Owen, an Allegheny student, said that without the Market House, she wouldn’t have the means to keep up with her organic farming, which she said can often be a tall order.

Etter said bugs, weather, disease and even the air impact her crop yield.

She is thankful she has a slot every Saturday to sell her produce—particularly her kale and leafy green lettuce this fall.

“When young and old [people] show up at the market with a smile and say, ‘Thank you so much for growing these amazing vegetables,’ I simply feel something is right with all this,” Etter said.

Emily Owen, daughter of Etter and Junior at Allegheny College, said that she is thankful for the Market House and all that her mom does.

“It’s great having access to nutritious food on a college student’s budget.”

Sjolander and DeHart didn’t only bring locally-grown vegetables to the market. They have united vendors such as Etter at a central location, at which 40 different farms are now represented, said Sjolander. This is beneficial to both the vendors and the community members, such as Allegheny students, who visit the Market House.

In addition to bringing vendors to the Market House, Sjolander and DeHart have also developed the indoor store. Working under the premise that good food should be available to everyone at a reasonable price, Sjolander stocks the indoor store with the best spices, honey, dried fruits and grains.

Going beyond the basics, Sjolander said that the ingredients to many ethnic dishes, such as the spices for a basic Indian meal, can be found inside at the Market House store as well.

Over the years, Sjolander said she has seen regular customers flourish both in health and in spirit as a result of the food they find at the Market House. Sjolander said that this is her mission- to help people be healthy and to fill the Market House with people who care about people in general.

Sjolander said that the positive exchanges and interactions happening at the Market House daily have turned it into a community hub.

Sjolander said that some days she stops and looks around at all that has been accomplished.

“I really feel like this building is smiling,” Sjolander said.

A Family-Farming Legacy Beth Etter of Tom’s Farm sets up shop at the Market House every Saturday. Her distinguishing features--glasses, affable smile and blonde hair pulled back in a bun--make her easy to spot where she stands behind a neatly table-clothed stand. The stand heaps with crops from the fall season: deep green Swiss chard, kale, baby beets and a mid-season variety of garlic known as “music” garlic.

Etter, who was born on the farm, has been eating these locallygrown, organic vegetables all of her life. Her father, Thomas Etter, an engineer-turned-dairy-farmer, moved his family to the farm in 1947 before she was born. Although the family’s prosperity fluctuated with the milk market, according to Etter, one thing remained constant.

“What we did have—always—was amazing food,” Etter said.

“My dad and mom produced food from our family garden that was plentiful, fresh, beautiful and delicious.”

Etter, an Allegheny graduate, lived out her own unusual combination of interests. Etter said that her degree in classical music is just as integral a part of her life as the summers she spent doing barn chores, driving her dad’s tractor and bailing hay on the farm.

“My musical life has taken me around the world to see many countries and to meet the most amazing people,” said Etter.

While away on her international travels, Etter said that the farm always beckoned her back. So she returned, and made a decision to keep the farm and uphold her father’s traditional method of farming.

“My father’s dream of a self sufficient operation that respected the land by using it in ways that enrich rather than deplete it, remains an everyday part of my own reality.”

Decades ago, Etter’s father warned her of a time when people would simply believe that their food came in plastic bags—there would be people who didn’t know carrots came from the ground, or whether beans grew on trees or vines.

Etter, determined to evade her father’s vision of the future, decided to make wholesome food available to all who visit her Market House stand. She also upholds her father’s organic farming practices. She recognizes that organic farming is by nature more expensive, time consuming, unpredictable and susceptible to damage than mainstream farming practices. But she believes the outcomes of organic farming outweigh the difficulties involved.

Sometimes, Etter said, “[your] kale just has holes in it.” And that comes with the territory of organic farming, according to Etter. Costumers don’t seem to mind, though: the kale’s taste and wholesomeness make up the difference.

Graphics by Elliott Bartels