HEARD ON CAMPUS — Amy Harmon, New York Times
"Writing this article was a process of opening my eyes and ears in a way, that as a white person, I had never seen before. The sensation of what it would be like to not be white in this world was shocking to me," - Amy Harmon, business and financial reporter for The New York Times said to a standing-room only audience at Penn State's HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium yesterday. Harmon was one of four reporters from The New York Times on campus to discuss a series of articles on "How Race is Lived in America" that the paper ran over the summer. The series can be read on-line at http://www.nyt.com/.

A MEDICARE RX DRUG BENEFIT: WHOSE NEEDS WILL BE MET?
Most Medicare beneficiaries will not qualify for prescription drug coverage under Medicare if annual income alone is used to determine eligibility, according to a new study. Many current proposals for providing a drug benefit under Medicare would cover only those with incomes at the federal poverty level or slightly above, leaving most beneficiaries in the same situation they are in now -- lacking access to medicine that is vital to their health and well-being. Employing a broader definition of need to include beneficiaries without continuous and stable coverage, those with high expenditures, and those with multiple chronic conditions, makes nearly 90 percent of beneficiaries eligible for coverage, according to "Designing a Medicare Drug Benefit: Whose Needs Will Be Met?" by Dennis Shea of Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development and others. The authors identify five alternative criteria to define need: lack of access to affordable drug coverage; lack of stable drug coverage; high out-of-pocket spending on drugs; high total drug expenditures; and chronic disease burden For more on this story, go to http://www.cmwf.org/

AUDITORS CORRECT OVERSTATEMENTS, NOT UNDERSTATEMENTS
Auditors are often caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" when auditing financial statements. In order to protect themselves from litigation, they are more likely to detect and correct overstatements than understatements on financial statements. "On one hand, undetected overstatements can lead to out-of-pocket losses to investors that can be recouped through litigation," says Orie Barron, assistant professor of accounting in the Smeal College of Business Administration. "On the other hand, favoring the correction of overstatement errors at the expense of understatement errors also can lead to financial statements that impose costs on certain financial statement users. Consider a banker who refuses a profitable loan on the basis of understated financial performance." Financial statement audits are performed annually after the fiscal year end for all publicly traded companies in the U.S. Their purpose is to provide investors with assurance that the financial statements contain no "material misstatements," says Barron. Material misstatements are those that could influence the decisions of foreseeable users of the financial statements. For more on this story, go to http://www.smeal.psu.edu

ELECTORAL VOTE DISTRIBUTION REFLECTS REGIONAL DIVISIONS
Regional divisions in the Electoral College were more prominent in the recent presidential election than in past years. The winner of the presidential race, whether it turns out to be George W. Bush or Al Gore, will have won the direct opposite states of those his respective party won a century ago. In the book, Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States: Electoral Realignment, 1952-1996 (Penn State Press, 1998), Robert W. Speel explains the large shifts in Northern regional voting. This book provides particular attention to why New Hampshire -- the only Northern state that Bush won -- is an exception to general Northern trends. Using a number of states as case studies, Speel explains why the Northern states have abandoned historical preferences for the national Republican party to vote in increasing percentages for Democratic presidential candidates in almost every election since 1952. Robert W. Speel is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Penn State Erie, for more, go to: http://www.psu.edu/psupress/titles/FW_98_books/speel_voting.html

ERIE BUSINESS SCHOOL HOLDS SOPHOMORE BRIDGE PROGRAM
Members of the School of Business faculty at Penn State Erie have incorporated leadership training, personal goal setting, team skills, and career planning into the Sophomore Business Bridge, designed for second-year business majors on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 13 and 14. The Bridge is a pilot program with two components: peer advising and an off-campus retreat. Upperclassmen, trained and assisted by faculty, will serve as peer advisers for sophomore business students seeking help with scheduling. The two-day off-campus retreat will include business leaders from Adelphia, GE, and other regional and national companies. This year’s program will involve 50 students, with more to be involved in coming years. For more on Penn State Erie, go to http://www.pserie.psu.edu/newspubl/newstoryindex.html

PROPOSED LEGISLATION CIRCUMVENTS FAIR-USE POLICY
The University Libraries will host a satellite teleconference, "UCITA: A Guide to Understanding Action," on Wednesday, Dec. 13, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, Pattee Library. The program will discuss the implications of the proposed Federal Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act that seeks to create a unified approach to licensing software and information in all states. Its passage could impact the ability of institutions, such as Penn State, to carry out their basic operations. Higher education and libraries are particularly concerned that UCITA-type licenses could be used to circumvent basic educational user information rights like fair use, preservation and interlibrary loan. Librarians, information technologists, legal counselors, administrators, media specialists, intellectual property specialists, federal and state relations officers, and state legislators are urged to attend. Due to limited seating, registration is required. To register or for more information, contact Tracy Weaver at 814-865-0401 or by email at mailto: .

ARNOLD ELECTED CHAIR OF BOARD OF MATHEMATICS INSTITUTE
Douglas Arnold, distinguished professor of mathematics, has been elected to a one-year term as chair of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. The board oversees the activities of the institute and approves its budget and scientific programs. Arnold was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Governors in 1999. Established in 1982 with the support of the National Science Foundation, the institute, ranks among the leading centers for the mathematical sciences in the world. Its mission is to identify problems and areas of mathematical-sciences research related to challenges faced by other sciences and industry, to demonstrate the impact of mathematics and statistics on other disciplines, and to encourage the engagement of mathematical scientists with those areas of application. Arnold has helped develop and manage the Penn State MathNet--the departmental computer network serving the research, teaching, and administrative computing needs of faculty, staff, and students. For more on this story, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Arnold11-2000.htm