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Communications Chair Selected to Attend Leadership Academy

Tony Peyronel, Department of Communication & Media Studies chair, has been chosen to attend and participate in the 6^th annual Scripps Howard Leadership Academy being held at Louisiana State University (LSU) on June 4-7.

“I haven’t been involved in anything like this before,” said Peyronel. “There are a lot of interesting people, not just academic, but working journalists who come (to the Academy) and do panels and speak,” said Peyronel. “I’m sure that it’s a top tier and national level program. I’m excited to be a part of it.”

The selection process is nationally competitive, said Peyronel. Applications come in from all over the country and applicants were required to send in a cover letter explaining their interest in academic administration, a current biographical sketch, and two letters of reference.

More than a third of past participants now hold leadership positions at their universities, according to LSU’s website, and they have applied what they learned to each of their universities in order to create room for progress.

“I haven’t been involved in anything like this,” said Peyronel. “The Leadership Academy is funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, a major news service, and hosted by Louisiana State University. I’m not exactly sure what to expect because this is the first specialized training type thing that I’ve done.”

Peyronel holds a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication from Edinboro University, where he reported for The Spectator, and also has a master’s degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University in Washington D.C.

“That’s one of the top graduate journalism programs in the country,” said Peyronel. “I was fortunate to go there right after I graduated from Edinboro. One of the ironies is (that) Greg Luft, who chairs the journalism and technical department at Colorado State University, went to American University with me and he is the person who recommended that I check into the Academy.”

Luft had attended the Leadership Academy last year and he was the person that persuaded Peyronel to consider applying for it. Peyronel said that Luft also wrote one of the required recommendation letters needed for the application process.

Peyronel said that he then found a job as a reporter with the Kittanning (Pa.) Leader-Times and then, after a couple years, moved on to become a public relations writer at Penn State University.

In 1992, Peyronel came back to Edinboro University and was the coordinator for the former undergraduate programs in Speech Communication, broadcast journalism and print journalism, as well as advisor for the campus newspaper and radio station, The Spectator and WFSE-FM. He was then named the department chair in 2005.

The Leadership Academy, according to LSU’s website, brings “select up-and-coming mass communication professionals and scholars together with seasoned administrators to share administrative strategies and insights [on academic programs in journalism and mass communication].”

“It is exciting both to represent Edinboro University in this national arena and to have the opportunity to bring back valuable information and ideas that can strengthen our own academic programs,” Peyronel said.

–Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator, Vol. III, Issue 20)

Financial Crisis Studied

March 20, 2012 / Anna / 0 Comments

Students and faculty who attended a presentation on February 29 on the U.S. financial crisis, discovered the reasons behind the recession and why the situation hasn’t been improving faster than it has been.

“It didn’t come out of the blue,” said Dr. Samuel Claster, assistant professor of sociology at Edinboro University. “It’s been a 30 year period of corporate deregulation of the banking industry and the financial system as a whole.”

Our economic system has a series of economic and political subsystems and in order for them to each function properly, they have to mix with people’s values, beliefs, attitudes and everyday lifestyles in a process called “socialization,” said Claster.

“Investment banking is the largest industrial sector in America and has been since the late 70s,” Claster said, “but a society cannot sustain when wealth is concentrated in that one economic sector.”

Yet, one of the problems with this is that the system pushes its problems on the citizens and hinders our ability to critically examine and question those in power and domination, Claster pointed out.

This then turns into “irrational functioning,” Claster explained.

America has one of the most advanced health care systems in the world, for example, but is 25th compared to other nations with the number of citizens because of our insurance industry, he said. This is the result of us “living in a society where the many are ruled by a few,” Claster said.

This can be seen in the way the mortgage system works.

In the video “Crisis of Credit Visualized” that Claster showed, Jonathan Jarvis, an interaction and media designer, says investment banks link families with a mortgage lender.

Investment bankers then borrow money and call up the various lenders to buy mortgages, which they then divide up into portions and sell to their different investors.

So, says Jarvis, when the homeowners default on their mortgage, it creates a problem. No one wants to buy a house that isn’t bringing in a profit and then “the whole financial system is frozen.”

“What caused the major collapse illustrates the interconnectedness of the banks in our entire financial system,” said Claster.

On September 7, 2008, the government took over and bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the major mortgage lenders, and on October 3, 2008, the Senate passed a revised version of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“It’s a capital injection,” said Claster, “and what that means is that some of it is loans to come later, but for now they had to get money to the banks immediately.”

According to MotherJones.com, a news website, the banks were considered too big to fail, so one of the solutions was to make them bigger, such as have Wells Fargo buy Wachovia.

Other problems added to the crisis. Fraud, which is also known as “robosigning,” and Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), said Claster.

“Robosigning sounds fancy, but it’s actually criminal,” said Claster. It’s when a person gets paid to sign the names of six or so bank presidents to hundreds of different loans without their consent. These are actual legal documents and this happens all over the country.

MERS may be an efficient way to keep track of the thousands of housing mortgages, “but it values efficiency over customer service,” Claster said. “People don’t know who owns their mortgages, they have no contact with them and they don’t know where the actual titles to their mortgages are.”

In 2010, the Frank Dodd Act was put into play. It created a lot of government regulatory councils and commissions so that they could redesign our regulatory system. “Yet, the things that have happened can happen again because new bubbles will burst,” said Claster. “Critics are pushing to break up the banks and stop making them bigger because what we’re actually doing is socializing our problems and privatizing our profits.”

The government also struck a $24 billion deal with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and other major banks,” said Claster. Seventeen billion dollars would be set aside for credit forgiveness, while $5 billion would be put into cash payouts to those who have been foreclosed upon.

Claster asked, “Is the administration saving the system and making real good economic policy and reform or is it all part of a political strategy that keeps the two party system rolling on?”

Claster stressed that Americans must not always trust governmental decision-making. “We have experience and we have the expertise,” Claster said. “We can’t leave it to the people who rule this country.”

–Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator, Vol. III, Issue 19)

Tenure-track Professors in Decline

March 4, 2012 / Anna / 0 Comments

Professors retire or leave Edinboro University for a number of reasons. Filling those positions is becoming more of a challenge each year, especially with another potential budget cut looming in the near future.

“We’re a teaching institution and we take great pride in that,” said Dr. Jean Jones, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) at Edinboro.

“The budget crunch that the state has felt has led to a decline in the positions being filled here at the college,” said Melissa Gibson, a professor in the Communication and Media Department.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between APSCUF and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) specifies that 25 percent of the faculty at Edinboro or any of the PASSHE schools should be temporary professors.

With that in mind, the administration is focused on hiring those professors before they even consider opening more positions for tenured faculty, said David Martin, the membership committee chair for APSCUF at Edinboro.

A professor applying for tenure, according to the CBA, needs to go through five years of evaluation before they can apply and then once they have obtained that position, they are only evaluated every five years after that.

Tenure also allows a faculty member to hold their position without the fear of losing it, while a temporary faculty member is defined by the CBA as one who’s contract is up for renewal or non-renewal at the end of each year.

With the temporary faculty members, they’re hoping that they’ll get to come back the next year, Jones explained.

“If you commit to having a tenured faculty member, you can expect that they are going to be here for a while,” said Jones. “[On the other hand], temporaries are hired for one year. They know that when they come in and there is no guarantee that they’re going to be needed for the next year.”

The number of full time temporary faculty, according to the APSCUF office, has remained consistent throughout the past three years, said Martin. In 2009, we had 41 full-time temporaries, then it went up to 56 in 2010, then back down to 53 in 2011, and we are currently at 50 full-time temporary faculty members, he said.

Many of the temporary faculty members are fully qualified for a tenured position if an opportunity presented itself and they take the job because there isn’t anything else available, Jones explained.

Temporary faculty members are here to teach and aren’t expected to advise or get involved on campus, but they are working to provide excellent classes for the students, according to Jones.

“Our temporaries are great,” said Jones. “They go above and beyond what their requirements are and they contribute to the campus. They are amazing given the situation.”

Yet, with the budget cuts that we’ve had, the university is finding it harder to hire more professors, said Gibson, so the departments are forced to place more students in each class in order to provide for the need on campus.

This will lower the need to hire more temporary faculty, said Martin, but that means it’s going to affect the one-on-one contact that professors have with their students in the classroom.

Gibson agreed by saying that the fewer tenured professors you have, the harder it is for the students to form bonds with them, if they are going to be leaving the next year.

“Provost Ginnetti has made a commitment to increasing the number of faculty. He thinks it is very important to have more permanent faculty and he’s working to make that happen,” said Jones. “But again, when we’ve got the governor pulling the rug out from under us, it makes it much more difficult.”

– Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator, Vol. 3, Issue 18)

APSCUF Negotiates New Contract

February 23, 2012 / Anna / 0 Comments

Amidst Governor Tom Corbett’s proposal of cutting our funding and the possibility of tuition going up again next year, Edinboro University’s faculty unions and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) have been working to negotiate a new faculty contract for the upcoming year.

“What’s nice about it is for all that it’s hard to sit down and work it out, once it’s worked out, we’ve got the rules,” said Dr. Jean Jones, president of Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty (APSCUF) at Edinboro.

“It makes things a little bit easier once the contract is negotiated. It’s all clear that this is what we’re going to do and how we’re going to proceed for the next couple of years,” said Jones.

There are 46 articles in the contract that deal separately with hiring and firing faculty, number of work hours, sick leaves, online courses, number of classes that an individual professor should be able to have and more, explained Jones.

The faculty contract expired on June 30, 2011 and they have been “going to the table” and sitting down with the union leaders on one side and the PASSHE leaders on the other, trying to come to an agreement on a new contract that both groups can sign off on, said Jones.

“We have been working under the terms of the old contract since it expired,” said Kenn Marshall, the media relations manager for PASSHE. He said PASSHE is aiming to benefit both sides of the negotiation as well as the students at the campus.

According to the PASSHE website, the 14 universities in the PASSHE system pride themselves in offering the lowest costing, four-year degree programs in the state. Currently, the annual in-state tuition is $6,240.

“Nearly 120,000 students, 90 (percent) of whom are Pennsylvania residents, are enrolled at PASSHE universities,” said the PASSHE News Post.

So, as faculty, when it comes down to contractual issues, said Jones, APSCUF wants to protect as much as they can. She stressed good working conditions, how many temporary faculty are working, how often we’re putting classes online, and class size, as examples.

Another worry that has been added to the contract negotiations is Governor Corbett’s proposed state budget cuts.

Jones said she didn’t know if the potential budget cuts will affect the class sizes or the faculty members, but as a union president, she said she was worried about faculty jobs.

“If there was any fat, we’ve cut the fat. We’ve cut into the muscle and I think we’re now down to cutting the bone,” Jones said. “I don’t know where we can possibly find the money to make up for the shortfall.”

Financial costs are always an issue when it comes down to the contract, said Marshall.

He said 75 percent of the finances are personnel-related and reduction of the funding will have an impact on our contract negotiations.

However, contractual concerns aren’t the biggest concerns right now, according to Jones.

We’ll work out our contract, said Jones. “This isn’t about money for professors. This is about us really loving this institution and us being really worried about its future.”

–Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator, Vol. III, Issue 17)

PNC Spokesman Explains Economy

February 22, 2012 / Anna / 0 Comments

Last Thursday, February 9, students and faculty attended a presentation given by one of PNC Bank’s spokesmen, William Adams, on the current recession in Europe and what it could mean for the U.S. economy.

“We’re not on the same level as Europe in terms of national debt. But the reason we don’t have the same crisis that Europe is having right now is because we have coherent national economic policy,” said Adams.

This policy allows for the federal government to use tax money collected from other states to keep the economy from collapsing completely in another state, said Adams.

Europe has a different economic system called a currency union, where 17 countries share the same currency, but are not under the same government, like the U.S., said Adams.

Adams went on to explain that being a part of a currency union requires the countries to agree on a common fiscal policy, which is how much money the government spends and how much they can collect for taxes. A common monetary policy, which sets the interest rate for an economy, is required as well.

The European economy is going downhill because taxes have gone up, the government spending has gone down, and a lot of government workers have been laid off. “That is probably two-thirds of the reason why Europe is in a recession right now,” Adams explained.

The other one-third of the reason is the investors. “The big issue right now is the banks,” said Adams.

As debt prices have gotten worse, European bank stock has lost about 60 percent of its value. “The higher you are in debt, the harder it is to borrow money,” said Adams

Some economists say that the European recession is just a passing thing and the euro should return to its normal value by the end of the year. “I’m a little more pessimistic about that because… it’s not because of a business cycle, or because the stock market went up or went down. It’s because the institutions they have don’t work,” said Adams.

Unemployment rates also reflect the condition of the economy. In Spain, there’s a 23 percent unemployment rate, which means that about one out of four workers aren’t able to find work. The rest of Europe is at about 10 to 15 percent unemployment.

In comparison, The PNC Northwest PA Market Outlook report says that while manufacturing industries have cut jobs over the years in the U.S. and younger residents have left northwestern Pennsylvania and other states in search of faster growing job markets, the job growth across the country has been encouragingly stable so far through the recovery.

According to The PNC Financial Services Group, “the job growth will average about 140,000 per month in 2012, adding up to 1.7 million new payroll jobs over the course of this year.”

“Our expectation is that we’re going to finish the year with unemployment under 8 percent,” Adams said.

While the U.S. is going to take a small hit from the recession in Europe, our coherent economic policy will allow our unemployment rates to lower and the labor market is starting to show signs of recovering

“Our debt problems are just as serious as Europe’s debt problems and our deficit is nearly as large as the deficit of other European governments,” acknowledged Adams. But the reason we don’t see the effects of it is because we have a better monetary policy and an independent currency, he said.

“We’re showing signs that we are on our way to recovering from this terrible recession that we’re now finally getting out of,” said Adams.

– Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator Vol. III, Issue 16)

Book Buyback Prices Decrease, Rentals on the Rise

February 9, 2012 / Anna / 1 Comment

While the bookstore is paying them for their textbooks, students say that they feel as if they were cheated and weren’t getting their full money’s worth.

“The price that they charge and the amount that they give back to you for your textbooks is ridiculous,” said Kayla Sexton, a senior majoring in Health and Physical Education.

Having always bought her books through the campus bookstore, Sexton says that it’s like returning a book that you paid $145 for and getting only $50 for it. “Your best bet would be renting them because you’re buying the books anyway and it’s a lot cheaper,” she explained.

Olivia Chapman, a sophomore majoring in Political Science, also said that “textbook buyback feels like a rip-off.” For example, she said that she had bought a psychology communication book and wasn’t able to sell it back.

“You never get all of your money back and it does seem kind of unfair,” agreed Brett Beshero, a senior majoring in Print Making.

“I really only need two books this semester, so it’s not too bad buying them from the bookstore, but I normally end up using Chegg or Amazon.”

Raymond Fisher, the manager at EUP’s campus bookstore, says that he understands where a lot of the confusion comes from.

“It used to be very cut and dry,” he said. If there were a book that we could re-sell for next semester, we would pay the student half of the new book price.

A factor in the process that is a major influence on the buyback cost is the wholesale companies, like Missouri Book Systems (MBS). Fisher explained that these companies take the books that the bookstore doesn’t need and distributes them to other colleges all across the country.

“The price that the wholesaler pays [for the textbooks] is flat out supply and demand,” said Fisher. “The confusing part is that a lot of people think we buy back books for $10 and then turn around and throw them on the shelf and sell them for $75. That’s not what happens.”

Fisher explained that the school does buy back a certain number of books for resale.

“You can well imagine the confusion that occurs when you as a student come in and I say, ‘I’ll give you $8 for that book,’ and you say, ‘My roommate sold that book back to you guys for $20. How come I’m only going to get $8?’ Then comes the explanation: ‘Okay, I needed 10 books and we were paying $20 for them. Once we hit the limit at 10, the book now goes wholesale [which is only paying $8 for that book],’” explained Fisher.

The money students get back for their textbooks also depends on whether or not the bookstore had purchased those books from a cheaper source online.

Verba Software, which is the new comparison tool available on the website, has two parts to it: the comparison component, which allows students to see prices from the campus bookstore as well as from Amazon, Half.com, and other sources, and a back office program, which allows Fisher to buy books from cheaper sources.

Verba Software has helped to increase Fisher’s online sales because he has been able to use it to compare prices of other online vendors and then align his prices with theirs.

Plus, now that the bookstore is renting more books instead of selling them, buyback is a lot smaller than it used to be, said Fisher.

The influence of renting books can be seen in a comparison of book buybacks from year to year, Fisher said.

In the most recent buyback, which was December 16, 2011, the store bought back 9,300 textbooks. In 2010, 10,000 were bought back.

Last semester, the bookstore rented out 1,440 books and those books are paid for upfront by students at the beginning of the semester and then returned at the end.

Fisher factors in what the book will be worth by the end of the semester into the rental price, so students only have to pay one solid price.

“[Book buyback] is really waning,” Fisher explained. “It’s more about rentals now. It’s more about price comparisons. It’s more about lowering your prices and making it as close to the market price as you possibly can. By default, students are going to deal with us because we offer convenience. You can come in here and get all of your books at one time.”

– Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator Vol. 3, Issue 15, February 9, 2012)

Local Restaurant Face New Competition

February 3, 2012 / Anna / 0 Comments

Little Caesars Pizza has returned to Edinboro, with new foods such as Crazy Bread and custom made pizzas. The question is whether or not the chain restaurant will bring competition for the family-owned pizzerias in town.

“We really just focus on ourselves and don’t worry about other competition,” said John Bellucci, owner of John’s Wildwood Pizzeria, which is located at 105 Erie Street. in Edinboro.

Having been in business for 33 years, Bellucci has seen several restaurants come and go, including Little Caesars.

“Little Caesars was in Edinboro for five or six years and then they left for a while,” Bellucci said. Now that they’re back, Bellucci still isn’t too worried about losing many customers.

Ed Davis and his wife each own half of Norman’s Deli and Pizzeria, which is located in College Park on 103 Brora Drive. Davis says that he’s not too worried about the new pizza place in town because he doesn’t rely completely on selling pizzas at his restaurant.

“It’s not our bread and butter,” he said.

Davis came to own Normans’ nine years ago and his customers consist of 50 percent college students and 50 percent town folk.

I can’t really say that college students are our steady customers because not all of them have a consistent income, Davis said.

The beginning of the semester and the end of the semester, he explained, is when Norman’s gets its largest flow of college students.

“But that’s what college life is all about,” said Davis. “The average college student is busy counting their dollars and cents.”

Several students on Edinboro University’s campus seem to think that, while Little Caesars is affordable and may have some good deals, it won’t persuade them to stop ordering from the family-owned businesses like John’s Wildwood Pizza and Norman’s Deli.

“I usually order from Norman’s and occasionally from John’s,” said Brettaney Duck, a senior majoring in sociology. “John’s late hours are what make it one of the best pizza places because you can order anytime of the night,” she explained.

Kathleen Pobe, a sophomore Spanish major, and Kersten Schloder, an undeclared freshman, both said that they get their pizza mainly from John’s. “It’s open a lot later and the food always tastes good,” explained Schloder.

Delivery is also a big factor in the pizza business. Allie Yeckley, a junior majoring in psychology, said that if students don’t want to venture out into the cold and snow to pick up their pizza, delivery is always a welcome option. Both John’s and Norman’s deliver, unlike Little Caesars, she said.

According to John’s Wildwood’s website, it has been providing Edinboro and Erie with good quality pizza since 1979. John’s has a huge online community that consists of locals and Edinboro students who are currently living in the area or have moved away, but still crave the taste of John’s pizza.

“We get emails every month asking if we can freeze a pie and send it to Hawaii or Arizona, which we don’t do,” said Bellucci on John’s website.

Davis said that Norman’s also has several loyal customers that give his business the support it needs. From donating pizzas and sandwiches to a lot of different charities and causes on campus, “it comes back to us ten times over,” said Davis.

“We’re definitely grateful for what we get,” said Davis.

– Anna Tielmann (Taken from EUP’s The Spectator Vol. III, Issue 14)

Smolderings

December 12, 2011 / Anna / 0 Comments

Smoke rises into the sky

Flames that had once shot high

Smolder and grumble

In scattered piles and rumble.

As ashes float through the air

Hinting at what had been there

A house and a home, one family

All gone as the darkness descends uncannily

City at Night

December 12, 2011 / Anna / 0 Comments

Neons glaringly bright

Streetlights scare off the night

Movement never ending

Roads and alleys turning, bending

Triumph and success

Mixed with poverty and mess

In a huge metropolis, never ending.

The Hidden Stream

December 12, 2011 / Anna / 0 Comments

Bubbling and rippling, curving and dipping

Small fish and minnows, eating and flipping

Over rocks and through reeds

Brown cattails and short weeds.

Liquid laughter dance

That is meant to entrance

Any tired passerby, guaranteed

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Category: College (page 2 of 4)

Communications Chair Selected to Attend Leadership Academy

Financial Crisis Studied

Tenure-track Professors in Decline

APSCUF Negotiates New Contract

PNC Spokesman Explains Economy

Book Buyback Prices Decrease, Rentals on the Rise

Local Restaurant Face New Competition

Smolderings

City at Night

The Hidden Stream

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