Thursday, February 11, 2010 Student-run newspaper since 1933
Volume CLIV Issue I
keystoneonline.com
Cevallos: Budget
Index
presentations to resume today New round of talks on the heels of Rendell’s proposal
Sarah Palin, Page 5
The Keystone Budget Forecast
Anime, Page 8
Rugby, Page 12
Lead-acid battery manufacturing plant East Penn. Manufacturing Co. in Lyons Station.
Haiti relief a collective effort for PASSHE KU to work alongside Cheney University by James Adair Contributing Writer
Since the disastrous earthquake in Haiti in early January, people and foundations have been banding together to donate money to the impoverished region. Now the Pennsylvania State System of High Education (PASSHE) is taking the initiative to help those in need. KU is coordinating the effort in fundraising along with Cheyney University, and the funds raised by the two schools will be forwarded to the PASSHE, and then sent to multiple relief agencies directly involved with the recovery effort. PASSHE Chancellor John C. Cavanaugh said in a press release, “Several of our universities have done outreach efforts in Haiti in the past. Each of our universities and this office will work to do whatever we can to assist in this situation.” Together with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), the PASSHE accepted donations at men’s and women’s basketball games from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3. KU and the PASSHE have other plans in the works to help the relief effort, but they will not be released until they are ready to be enacted. The PASSHE includes KU along with the aforementioned Cheyney, Bloomsburg, California (Pa.), Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana (Pa.), Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities.
William Gilles, The Keystone
Lead-in-air sampling at KU Children’s blood lead levels still a concern by Shawn Gamez News Editor
Last week the Pennsylvania Institute for Children Environmental Health (PICEH) continued its efforts for environmental awareness by installing a lead-in-air sampler on the clean air tester located on the KU campus. “The reason we installed the new lead-in-air sampler is because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a new lead air quality standard in 2008 for lead,” explained Gavin Biebuyck, the Principal Consultant for Liberty Environmental, Inc. (LEI). Biebuyck continued, “The 2008 lead [level] was set by the EPA to protect young children from impacts associated with lead exposure — both breathing lead and also
lead deposition and subsequent ingestion of the dust by children.” The major sources of lead in the past have been motor vehicles using gasoline with lead, but now the main sources are lead smelters, waste incinerators and lead-acid battery manufacturers. Biebuyck said they focus on Berks County because the county “has two lead smelters, lead-acid battery plants and localized elevated lead concentrations.” East Penn Mfg. Co. in Lyons Stations and Yuasa and Exide in Reading are the leadacid battery plants in Berks County. Biebuyck said the two smelters in Berks County, East Penn Mfg. Co. and Exide, have “both operated ambient lead monitors around their plants since the 1980s,” when Berks implemented air quality standards. PICEH
even awarded East Penn Mfg. Co. with a Cevallos Award for displaying “a personal, public and financial commitment to advancing children’s environmental health issues.” Lead is a children’s environmental health issue and it is listed as one of six criteria pollutants for which the EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The other pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter of PM10 and PM2.5, ozone and sulfur dioxide. Lead remains in the environment for long periods of time, accumulating in the soil through air sources, direct discharges, mining, erosion and water. Environments near point sources
“The U.S. EPA is expected to designate portions of Berks County as nonattaintment later this year.”
Continued on page 4, see LEAD
President F. Javier Cevallos announced a second budget presentation on Tuesday. The presentation will be held today at 11 a.m. in Defrancesco Building, Room 100. “Presenters from our Division of Administration and Finance will share the university’s budget forecasts for the next several academic years,” said Cevallos in an email addressed to the student body. Last week’s budget forecast presented to the University Senate left many in attendance with unresolved questions concerning the series of cost-saving cuts that will be implemented over the course of the next five years. Although Cevallos assured the University Senate KU would “have to maintain quality and appropriate services” despite the university’s fiscal restraints, some on hand shared a pessimistic forecast of the quality of education that will be offered by KU in the years following the largest cost-saving measures. The administration announced its plan to address budgetary concerns a few hours after Gov. Edward Rendell’s presented a proposed overhaul of the state budget. In addition to imposing a five-percent tax on natural gas and an expansion of the state’s sales tax, Rendell proposed a plan to limit future annual increase to the state’s public pension system to about $600 million. The new proposals would not take effect until the following fiscal year. The limitations imposed on future pension funds will coincide with PASSHE’s discussions with the system’s seven unions — exploring ways to control labor costs while bracing themselves for the impact a drastically underfunded pension fund and the end of Federal stimulus money will have on an already financially strapped state system. direct your concerns about KU’s budget woes to: keystoneonline.com
KU mourns the loss of fellow student Andrew Woodward memorial set for Monday by Josh Austin Managing Editor
His resume merely glimpsed at the professional sense of Andrew Woodward. He wanted to be a high school English teacher and his credentials proved that he would have been successful. His looks, however, told a different story. He was a lanky 26-yearold, often wearing his dirty blonde hair in a ponytail, and always at-
tired in tie-dye which could be described as his own personal uniform. Woodward died on Feb. 3 in his sleep. At press time, the cause of his death is still unknown. After earning his master’s degree in Secondary Education/English at KU, he was student teaching at a local school this semester to get his certificate. “Quirky” was used to describe Woodward by more than one of his colleagues. Crystal Ludwig, an English graduate student, sat smiling as she described her experiences with Woodward working in the Writing Center. “He was definitely a joker. He had a really quirky sense of humor.” As a writing tutor, both Ludwig and the Writing Center’s director
keystoneonline.com
@thekeystone
Amy Lynch-Biniek, described Woodward as a patient and pleasant student. Aside from his apparent smarts, Woodward could have been called a renaissance man. “He had a mix of interests and abilities,” said Lynch-Biniek. Woodward had earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he also minored in Math and Music, according to his resume. He was a bass player for his Virginiabased band, Viben Oodle, which, according to the band’s Myspace page, was a “distinct voice in electronic jazz.” He was a jack-of-all-trades, a friendly teacher with an artistic soul. The obituary in the Reading Eagle
facebook.com
said he died peacefully in his sleep. On Feb. 15, there will be a memorial for him held in Room 250 of the McFarland Student Union Building at 4 p.m. For now, friends and family are using his Facebook page as a memorial site, leaving comforting comments and heartening memories. One friend wrote a clearly fitting note, “You were one of a kind. You were a wonderful person and will be missed forever.”
direct comments to: www.keystoneonline.com
© The Keystone