On Wednesday, Penn State Behrend welcomed and impressed three Pennsylvania State Senators.

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Wednesday evening Behrend students crowded Burke 001 for a chance to hear and interact with Pennsylvania State Senators: David Argall, Guy Reschenthaler, and Dan Laughlin. The event which was put together by the Political Science Society Club was a huge success. The turnout filled the room leaving only standing room for attendees. The club welcomed David Argall a senator of the 29th district who has been serving for 25 years, Guy Reschenthaler senator of the 37th district and Behrend Alumni, Along with Dan Laughlin the senator of our very own Erie district. The club also welcomed Justin Gallagher a Behrend Alumni who is actively involved in not only Erie politics but also part of the local Harbor Creek High School’s school board, and a representative from Erie Insurance.

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Throughout the evening students and faculty introduced inquisitive questions for the senators to answer. Questions varied from their stances to legalizing marijuana to their outlooks on bipartisanship. Some other highlights involved questions of awareness of depression and mental illness in local students, what the senators plans for the Erie school district looked like, where they stood on house bills involving nurse practitioners practicing independently, along with a question from our very own Dr. Bedal involving global warming and recent events.

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After several questions from students Senator Reshenthaler who prefers to go by Guy commented that, “I just wanted to say how proud I am to be an alum with the decorum here tonight, I have had a lot of town halls and open houses with just the general public and the questions we are getting here tonight are head and shoulders above anything I’ve gotten in town halls, the decorum is great, and you guys are just really impressing all of us.”

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Jack Walker, a Behrend sophomore student double majoring in politics who is part of the Political Science Society said that he believed the event was a huge success in part due to their push of PR. He stated that, “We have a lot of engineers and at first glance you don’t realize there are people who want to be here. But offer free food and the opportunity to debate with people and they will show up.”

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Walker also commented on why he thought the state senators were so eager to speak at Behrend. He mentioned, “There have not been a lot of town halls recently and they want to talk to constituents, especially the young people because they know they are the future. They wanted to be here more than anything especially with one of them being an alum.”

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The whole club was excited to see such a huge turnout to the event a change from past years events that had been held.  In the past year or so the club has been holding more and more popular events such as their monthly debates which see turn outs in the 40’s and 50’s.  If you are interested in the club or attending their debate, the club hosts meets every Thursday in Kochel room 55.