Category: Newswriting

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate suspended senate appointment bylaws last night to expedite the appointment process for unrepresented town seats.

The resignations of Mike Quigley, Josh Lannin and Brad Bernstein last night left six of the ten town senator seats open.

“This is a unique occasion,” said Senate President Mike Gillespie. “I’ve never seen problems like this in my two years in the senate.”

The Senate Appointment Review Board interviewed and ranked eight prospective senators for two previous town openings. As a part of suspending the senate appointment bylaws, the names and rankings of the remaining six candidates will be sent to the Organization for Town Independent Students for faster appointments. All applications received by tomorrow will also be forwarded to OTIS for review.

SARB chair Lisa Fields said she believes this plan will show OTIS the need for immediate action.

“The problem is, if it would have to go back through SARB, it would take one to two extra weeks.” Fields said. “This way we can give the applications straight to OTIS rather than re-interview some of them second and third times.”

Mike King, fraternity senator, questioned whether it was fair that the new applicants would not have to be scrutinized by SARB.

East Halls Senator Wendy Hurst feared the suspension would set a precedent for future bylaw suspensions.

Fields said that was not the intention of the suspension and that she plans to introduce new legislation in the coming weeks to make the process more efficient.

In other action, the senate passed the USG/Association of Residence Hall Students Elections Bill of 1993. The budget, submitted by Head Elections Commissioner Gregory Hamluk, requested that $3,428.55 be acquired from the special elections and general accounts. The special elections account would contribute approximately $1942, and the general election account would give $1485.

The account will cover three election debates and various campaign expenditures.

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate voted last night to transfer $1,000 from its unrestricted account to cover USG’s office supplies account debt.

USG spent $400 more than what it was allocated for office supplies this year, primarily on copies and faxes in the HUB Copy Center, USG Town Senator Adam Bender said.

Three pieces of emergency legislation were passed to keep USG operating for the rest of the semester and offset the debt it has already run up.

“I can’t ever imagine being in a debt situation,” said USG Senate President Mike Gillespie, saying the problem illustrates “classic mismanagement.”

At the beginning of the year, the office supplies account was allocated $1,300 for various expenses. By the beginning of 1993, the account had dwindled to a mere $300.

Since then, the account has dropped even more — on one day alone, $198 was spent on faxes in the copy center, Bender said.

“That’s 14 percent of our office budget in one day,” he said.

The problem has become so bad that basic day-to-day functions have been suspended.

“We can’t send mail right now,” Gillespie said, lamenting that he is unable to send mailings to State College Borough Council members advocating the passage of the proposed fair housing ordinance.

No one was blamed for the problems at the meeting, but several senators implied that many of the charges came from the executive branch.

The legislation placed set caps on the number of copies USG members can make and required that copy codes be assigned to each member to keep everyone accountable.

“We have to be accountable to ourselves,” said USG East Halls Senator Larry Santucci.

In other business, the senate voted to allocate $400 to suppliment the USG/Panhellenic Weekend Loop.

Fraternity Senator Mike King and Pollock/Nittany Halls Senator Lisa Fields, who sponsored the legislation, have decided to run the Weekend Loop for a nine-week trial period starting Feb. 5.

The new, improved Weekend Loop will have four stops, all of which are to be located under street lights, King said. The loop will also have a volunteer safety rider to assure perspective riders of their safety, he added.

Fields said she believes the trial period will take place during a time of demand.

“It is too cold to be walking all the way to Beaver (Avenue) to catch a Town Loop,” she said.

King and Fields assessed many of the problems that last year’s attempted Fraternity Loop ran into, and tried to prescribe remedies to make this loop more successful.

“This year’s will ultimately be a resounding success,” King said. “We will have advertised a week in advance and every sorority has been exposed to this through their chapter’s vote.”

The Panhellenic Council approved plans for the Weekend Loop at their meeting last night.

Ten members from the University Board of Trustees participated in Omicron Delta Kappa’s informal informational session last night to discuss concerns with student leaders.

The trustees addressed questions varying from student involvement in the University community to the extent of the power of the trustees. But the overriding topic was whether the University’s budget should be open.

Along with the budget discussion came the debate of whether Penn State was a public or a private university.

“Does it really make a difference?” asked Trustee Ben Novak. “If you are able to get the best from both worlds, I would think that you would be happy.”

The discussion of Penn State’s status led into, at times, heated debate about the University’s budget, and whether salaries should be included.

Trustee Jesse Arnelle said he believes the University would no longer attract the best professors, administrators or specialists if salaries were made public.

“If a person negotiates a contract under a closed budget, it would be an invasion of that person’s privacy if it were to be made public,” he said. “If we were to say this information has to be made public, we stand the chance of missing out on those people.”

Brad Haartz (graduate-industrial engineering) said he believes last night’s discussion was mutually beneficial.

“It was an excellent opportunity for both sides to hear each other,” he said. “Now, whether they take any of it to heart only they will know. I definitely think some of them did.”

Trustee member and state Sen. Roger Madigan said he also believes last night’s discussion was a success.

“I got a lot out of it, such as what students felt was important,” Madigan said. “As a legislator, I feel it is important for me to get information from my people and I feel as a trustee I am elected to represent all the constituents of the college community, and the more input I get, I can do a better job.”

The Undergraduate Student Government Department of State Affairs no longer wants individual employee salaries included in its quest for an open University budget.

“The University’s salary equity is already under extreme scrutiny on federal, state, local and internal levels,” said Chris Saunders, director of USG-DSA. “The USG’s time would be more effectively spent attempting to get a host of other information that would directly benefit students.”

Without the burden of salaries, the USG-DSA can focus attention on information it believes to be more useful to students, he said. The budget of auxiliary enterprises would be an area that USG-DSA wants to open so that it can track the revenue generated by places such as the Nittany Lion Inn, North Atherton Street and Park Avenue, and the Penn State Bookstore on Campus, he added.

By limiting the budget hunt, many have accused USG President Rob Kampia of “selling out” on state House Bill 1075, an all-encompassing open budget bill that died in state Senate committee hearings.

“Although it might be easier for USG to get an open budget if salaries are taken out of their demands, all this means is that the inequalities will go on untouched,” said Becky Benedum (junior-anthropology).

Kampia said he is only trying to benefit students.

“I don’t want this to seem like we got paid off by the University to do their bidding,” Kampia said. “Everything we are doing is to better the situation of the students. That is the reason why we are not getting mired down on the salary issue.”

Other students believe salary inequities — differences in salary for women and minorities holding equal positions — are the main reason the budget has remained closed as long as it has.

“If there were not inequalities, I am sure the budget would have been opened up by now,” said Belinda Bell (junior-secondary education).

Bill 1075 sponsor state Rep. Ron Cowell, D-Allegheny, said open salaries were never the bill’s main objective, but it is the University’s responsibility to justify keeping such information private.

“I think the burden is on the University officials to demonstrate why a salary of a faculty member, who teaches at the University should be treated differently than the salary of a person who is on the faculty of State College School District,” Cowell said.

USG’s new stance has directed efforts to talking with the administration rather than lobbying in Harrisburg. Instead of waiting for the results of legislation, Saunders has created a list of Financial Accountability Requirements, which he has presented to the University.

The requirements call for the University to put budget information, which is currently available, in an easy-to-read format. USG wants detailed lists broken down within individual colleges, administrative units and Commonwealth Educational Systems.

The requirements also call for the University to provide all internal budgets and actual costs and place them in a format conducive to comparison.

But, teachers’ salaries, research funding from the Department of Defense, research funds from private firms and names of private contributors would all remain private.

Kampia said he believes discussing the requirements with administrators will get better results than lobbying for legislation in Harrisburg and will continue to do so as long as he thinks the talks are productive.

Saunders agreed, saying he believes the requirements are much more detailed and will produce more timely results than waiting for lawmakers.

“With these accountabilities, we can get information right now,” Saunders said. “This is the information that will best help the students, and will best reflect the university’s accountability.”

Cowell said he is planning to reintroduce Bill 1075 in the next session.

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate approved freshman Corey O’Bryon to the USG Supreme Court last night.

O’Bryon’s appointment was to be voted on in the last senate meeting of 1992, but was continued to last night’s meeting for further debate.

Centre Halls Senator Paul Yacisin was among those opposed to O’Bryon’s appointment.

“It seemed to me that his qualifications were meager at best,” Yacisin said. “He is inexperienced and I don’t feel that he possesses the right temperment for the position.”

Yacisin said he based his opposition on knowledge of O’Bryon’s hasty resignation from the East Halls Residence Association. Yacisin fears that O’Bryon may still hold grudges or run into new ones, which could slight his objectiveness.

O’Bryon said he will be very professional once taking his position as supreme court justice.

“If such a situation ever arose, I would treat everybody equal,” O’Bryon said. “I don’t care if it was them or my own brother, I will hold everybody to the same standards.”

O’Bryon, who holds a double major in political science and history, also added that he was not the only one to resign from the EHRA. He said that EHRA has been in political turmoil.

O’Bryon said he plans to try to expand the supreme court’s power.

“I would like to see the court have one third of the power where it should be,” O’Bryon said.

Lisa Fields, chairwoman of the Senate Appointments Review Board, expressed her confidence in both O’Bryon’s competence and temperment.

“He is very qualified,” Fields said. “He was well researched, and was very prepared. As for what happened in East Halls, I think he showed great poise and professionalism when he addressed the senate tonight.”

If students haven’t bought their books for this semester yet, then two campus groups say they have a price to pick with them.

The Undergraduate Student Government and the Association of Residence Hall Students are sponsoring a book co-op designed to save students from the burden of paying for the bookstores’ profits.

Students can pick reasonable prices for selling their books, which will be resold at the same price by the co-op, said USG Senator Mike King.

“The national used book companies are making a fortune off of students,” said USG Town Senator Chris Furlo. “This is just an alternative way to buy and sell your books. The bookstores have to be creative in making money, and we’re being creative in saving students money.”

ARHS member Michelle Singleton said the group is not looking to make a profit — it aims to pay students more than the bookstores for buy-backs, then resell the texts cheaper than the stores.

Students sell their books back before the holidays, which creates an obstacle for the co-op, she said.

Norm Brown, manager of the Student Book Store, 330 E. College Ave., said he supports the groups’ efforts, but does not think the co-op will affect the bookstore’s usual buy-backs.

“We are quite supportive of them,” Brown said. “They are entrepreneurs doing their own things.”

Elaine Keegan (freshman-liberal arts) said she bought her books at the bookstore to avoid hassle.

“I wanted to get it all out of the way at once,” Keegan said. “I think the co-op would have been a pain in the butt. They probably wouldn’t have all the books for my classes and I know the bookstore should.”

The book supply grows each time a student come grows each s to sell back a book, Furlo said, adding that the co-op covers a wide variety of subjects.

“We get more books every time somebody walks in,” he said. “I think that by the end of the day today, we will have most of what we need covered.”

Eric Keifer (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said he used the co-op to save some money.

“Why wouldn’t I use it? If I save only five bucks, that’s five bucks I wouldn’t have if I would have gone downtown,” he said. “Even if they didn’t have all of my books, I will save something on what I bought here and I’ll get the rest downtown.”

Furlo said he was pleased with opening day.

If the Undergraduate Student Government has its way, students will have a say in the planning and decision-making processes to make University structures accessible to disabled persons.

The USG senate passed a resolution last night calling for the following:

— That Office of Physical Plant allow for students, especially disabled students, to be actively included in the planning process.

— That the USG Senate send a letter to Norm Bedell, OPP Assistant Vice President and the Board of Trustees — notifying each of the resolution.

Ray Winters (graduate-educational theory and policy) addressed the senate about the University’s policies regarding these matters.

He said he believes the administration’s initiative concerning building access for disabled students is inadequate. “There’s an administration in Old Main that doesn’t give a damn,” Winters said.

He alleges that even the existing adaptations of the University’s structures are not up to standards set in the Americans with Disabilities Act. The University has been hiding within a loophole in the law, he said.

“In the middle of this law, it says, that anything that is demanded by the law of the University, in this case, must be reasonable,” Winters said. “Well, you can see what is going to happen right there, can’t you?”

Bedell responded, “The University tries to follow the A.D.A. standards as well as we can.”

The standards are not always 100 percent clear, and do not address all issues, Bedell added.

In other projects, funds play a major role in renovating existing structures, he said.

“It gets expensive with an old building,” Bedell said.

Not all of the issues are as simple as Winters makes them sound, he added.

Relevant projects are sent to the disability services office, where they are reviewed for interests of students with disabilities.

Adam Bender, USG town senator and an author of the legislation, said this legislation recognizes disabled students’ concerns.

“They are really getting a bad, raw deal,” Bender said. “Perhaps (the legislation) can be a starting point.”

Jim Post, a quadriplegic since 1985, wants to go to medical school. But after rejection from all seven Pennsylvania medical schools, he is no closer to that goal.

Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center is among the schools that turned down the 3.92 summa cum laude King’s College graduate.

Some of his friends with lower grade point averages were accepted to schools that did not accept him, Post said, adding that he believes he was discriminated against because of his disability.

“It’s not a question of whether or not I’m jumping the gun in saying it,” he said. “It’s pretty clear that that is the reason.”

But Dave Leaman, assistant dean for admissions at the medical center, said any accusations on the center’s motives for non-acceptance — including possible discrimination because of disability — are unfounded.

“When we send a letter of non-acceptance, we do not specify the grounds of our decision, and any speculations on the motives are only speculations,” Leaman said.

Students are invited for interviews based solely on information from their applications, Leaman said. The interview determines if the student is capable of fulfilling the center’s technical standards, he said, adding that only one-third of the interviewees are accepted.

“You need to be able to do certain things to graduate from medical school,” he said. “For example, it is an intergal part of the education to be able to identify an enlarged liver. You cannot do this on sight alone.”

Post said he hopes for a change in the Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act that would include handicapped persons in its non-discrimination clause.

The medical center is the only school currently lobbying against the act’s change, he added.

Leaman said including the word “handicap” is too vague. It can be interpreted broadly, which could force medical schools to accept students who are not qualified for medical school, he said.

“A person with an IQ of 80 can be considered handicapped,” he said.

But Dr. Robert Meier III, professor and chairman of the department of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Colorado, said the system would weed out those people.

“They need to give (Post) a chance,” Meier said. “And if he doesn’t make it, he failed on his own error and not because we did not give him the opportunity.”

The center’s current policy requires students to complete clinical clerkships in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and family and community medicine.

Students must complete all required clerkships in accordance with departmental specifications, according to the center’s policy. That includes demonstrating proficiency in technical skills such as physical diagnosis and participation in medical procedures such as surgery.

But Post said he doesn’t want to go into a field where “hands-on” experience is necessary. Instead, he said he wants to utilize his academic skills and medical knowledge in a field such as psychiatry or radiology.

“I can function as a radiologist, I can function as a psychiatrist,” he said. “I can’t function as a surgeon. The field is large enough that I can find a specialized area to make a significant contribution.”

Post said he is willing to hire assistants, whom he would guide through procedures that require superior motor skills.

Meier said assistants are used daily in hospitals.

“We do that in every hospital in this country,” Meier said. “We hire technicians to do that stuff. Hands-on is not an essential part of medical education.”

Meier said Post could still receive a quality education by learning procedures and related material while using assistants.

Organizations such as Vocational Rehabilitation have expressed interest in providing funding for “hired hands,” Post said.

But Leaman said using “hired hands” would be ineffective because a student could not accurately learn procedures without actual hands-on experience.

“You cannot teach somebody how to drive a car if you have never driven a car yourself,” he said.