A new and more personal companion to Stall Stories has entered the bathrooms of East Halls.

Eager East, a biweekly newsletter that features freshmen's opinions on just about anything, debuted in November, with more to come before winter break. The first open forum included four different freshmen's opinions. Topics have included rugby, Penn State football, the best pizza in town and the freshman 15.

East Halls Residence Association (EHRA) Executive Vice President Graham Pugh (freshman-geography) created the newsletter. "All I was trying to do was give people an opportunity to write whatever they want," Pugh said. "The people who run it are here at East, and they are approachable. It's the easiest way to voice your opinion."

Pugh said each student's opinion should be about 150 to 200 words long so that about four statements can be included in the newsletter. Resident assistants distribute the newsletter and post it in their hall's bathroom stalls.

Since Eager East was new this November and not familiar to East residents, he asked friends to contribute. "Those were people I knew, except for one of them," he said.

H.B. Zeff (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said Pugh asked him to write about whatever he wanted. He chose to discuss his great affection for Gopper's Pizza, 114 Hetzel St., because long lines don't plague it late at night like they do Canyon Pizza, 260 E. Beaver Ave. "Gopper's, it's just a place I go to eat a lot. I thought it would be kind of interesting," he said.

Zeff said he thinks Eager East is more interesting than Stall Stories.

"It adds flavor a little bit," he said.

Mike Petry (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) is also a friend of Pugh's who wrote for Eager East's first edition.

"I had no idea what I was writing it for. I just knew I was writing it for him so I was totally cool with it," he said.

Petry wrote about Penn State's football team. "If anyone on campus sees Penn State football, they're going to stop and read it, so I figured I'd pick the most interesting topic and write about that," he said.

Eager East chairwoman and EHRA member Carol Debose (freshman-information sciences and technology) receives the various opinions via e-mail, chooses which ones are going to be included in each newsletter and prints the papers.

"I was originally going to apply for another position, but one of the EHRA executives asked me if I wanted to do this," she said.

Debose is also permitted to contribute to the biweekly newsletter, and for the first edition she wrote about the dreaded freshman 15. "I was thinking, what is something everyone is going through? What is everyone feeling?" she said. "I was trying to connect with other people."

Debose said she looks forward to contributing in the future as well.

As for student reaction, Debose said that the uptake has been somewhat slow, perhaps because of a shortage in copies.

"Nobody has seemed to pick up on it yet. I'm hoping it will get bigger with the next couple of issues," she said.

Pugh said that for the first issue, there was a miscommunication and not enough editions were printed for every stall in East.

"It was kind of disorganized putting it together the first time," Pugh said. "The next edition will be posted in every stall."

The next publication is due for release in East Hall's stalls before winter break.