fi ®hp Satltj® (Eoll . ‘ FOR A BETTER PENN STATE No. 94 STATE COLLEGE. PA..‘THURSDAY MORNING. FEBRUARY 27. 1 Today*: VOL 58 Behind Closed Doors Open Records Called Trustees Compromise Participants in the controversy over closed Board of Trustee meetings at the University —pro or con—have gravitated over the years into three distinct categories. i On one extreme is the group preferring to keep the meetings private, and on the other end are proponents of the open meeting. Stuck in the middle are backers of a compromise which would keep the meetings closed, but would have minutes of the meetings published. Those who would keep the meetings closed use as the basis ior .their argument the legal fact that the University is a private corporation, thus its business meetings are private. On the other hand, propo nents of the open meeting fol low the same reasoning as State Senator Jo Hays (D.) from State College who introduced a bill in the State Senate to open the meetings of the University Board of Trustees. The bill . passed the Senate unanimously, but was buried in a House com mittee. r- Hays told The Daily Collegian] that the state pours some $3O mil-i lion into this University every two years, and parents of students also pay tuition fees. The people of.the state have a right to know, he said, what goes on with their money. And they should have the right to see what goes on in meet ings, he added. Any formal motion or action, Hays added, should happen at an' open meeting. “This doesn’t exclude the use of executive ses sion (closed to public and the press) when personalities are in volved,” he said. What about the possibility that the meetings would merely become -a rubber stamp for de cisions that were reached in . private hotel rooms, etc.? Hays . said he felt this, would occur ' to some extent, "but there are .always a couple of dissident ele menls that would speak up dur ing a meeting, bringing many things out into the open." A Collegian Public . Affairs Analysis - Then Hays concluded his argu ment with the idea that the Uni versity is in reality a state uni versity, and thus an 'agency of the state, which could come under the newly passed open meeting and open records laws:- • Fuel was added to this last part of Hays’ argument Tuesday when President Eric A. Walker ‘in a speech classified the University .as separate from any'state-aided institutions such as the Univer sities of Pittsburgh or Temple, and later in his speech, said . , that Penn State is the' east ern outpost of the western state university/’ The compromise groups’ think - tog was best expressed by two members of the .University’s Department of Political Science .who said, "Open meetings wouldn't be any good because 'then all action would take place ,to the neighborhood bar or ho : lei room, and the meetings . would be nothing more than a ' rubber, stamp." The idea of having open records 'but closed meetings, is the only concession the Board of Trustees would ever consider, one profes sor said. A colleague added that the meetings could never be opened on the basis that this is a state university. “After all, he said,' “the Uni versity employs a lawyer who probably doesn’t do anything else but keep the University riding the fence between a private corp oration and a state institution. This seems to be his life work.” In addition, backers of this idea feel that the Board might : grant publication of minutes, since none of the .dirty wash would come into public view. - In the light of present opinions, the idea of open records is the plan with the most chance of suc ceeding,' By LAHHY JACOBSON Second 0/ 0 Series A jury of seven men and five women found Elizabeth Ann Ker stetter, State College, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her baby, Oct. 2. .1957, but sentencing has been deferred. Miss Kerstetter was found not guilty on a charge of concealing the death of the baby. The jurors [returned the verdict at 4:45 p.m. vesterday in Centre County Court, Bellefonte. ! The Commonwealth had charg ed Miss Kerstetter with murder [and concealing the baby. She en tered a plea of "not guilty" on Monday. The baby was found Dec. 1 by an employe or the Nittany Lion Inn. i The plea for the involuntary [manslaughter charge was entered yesterday morning by defense counsel Musser W. Gettig. He said Miss Kerstetters act was an “act of passion” and told the jury the defendant “fell to pieces and didn't know what she was doing." The defense did not deny the [evidence presented by the Com monwealth and called only one witness in addition to Miss Ker stetter. A member of the State College High School faculty-testi t # lied as to ihe defendant’s intelli- St Francis Library Drive Nets 1100 Books in 3 Days sr ß »"c£vtw h l,a™ d pLS A total of 1100 books have been received in the drive to, the bIU woul(1 taise ij?i l0 th« T b£h“';' e tS 0 b»by »» aid the library of St. Francis College, Loretto, after three ;tage rates by 747 million dollars! concealed and what Miss Kerstet- 4 n ~ ; a vear. ' [ter had done with the body. days of collection. j I District A tty. Richard M. Sharp • All books collected will be donated to the library, which' —i presented the case for the Com — S te SSL t t. <^. Us LS“S ,: ' C . er C,ob ~KSS i a.S Smoltz to Address |Us,ri"£m£ Gorbin President [SStt.&JM.IW&iSf y* n ° f Bustness Ad ' Ferdinand Garbin, senior in He called three witnesses to the Tounq Democrats i ITI, l TI , , U ° n ‘ [agronomy from Turtle Creek, has !t; tand yesterday morning to verify . ! Wesley Bergey, chairman of the been elected president of the thestatementmadebvMissKer- Donald Smaltz, senior m educa-drive, has set a goal of 1500; Clover Club. i stetter. tion from Lebanon, will- discuss- b The drive is scheduled to i Other officers are Paul John-. Testimony was concluded at last week’s SlOO-a-Dlate Trumani end Saturday. [son, vice president; Joan Alt- ! 11:20 a.m. and after a noon recess, tft mpptinj If Persons wbo . have books house - secretary; Larry Wherry, 1 Judge R. Paul Campbell charged inner at a meeting of the Young donate may, bring them to 2-F,treasurer; Ralph Forsht, repre-, the jury, before sending them in- Democrats Club at 8:15 tonight imßoucke or the Hetzel Union Card*sentative to the Agriculture Stu-;to deliberation. ,217 Hetzel Union. ‘Room from X to 5 p.m. any after-ldent Council. ! wh “ Grad* to Conduct | trial now yn Centre County Court: Anyone who wishes to have,town, and James Holt, junior in (Will be given by Gerald Bogus,!boks picked up may call ADjagronomy from Philadelphia, junior m arts and letters from;B-8441 ext. 2428 any afternoon!have received American “Society Brownsville. . . * during the same hours. l of Agronomy awards. - ?"--1 ,77 • ••. • •• • • I • • "..••. • .•• • 1 ..-44, 4 •-• 4 - —Daily ColltfUn photo by John Zerby 1 WAITING FOR SPRING —No active construction work is being j conducted on campus, Walter H. Wiegand, director of Physical Plant, said yesterday. Construction on these walls for the new • men’s dormitories along Park Avenue will be continued after warmer weather arrives. The second in a series oi ten lectures on Mormonism will be presented at 8 tonight in 208 ‘Boucke. The lecture is entitled “Funda mentals of Mormon Thought and i Practice.'!^ A recommendation to make! defeated for party offices at student for traffic offenses. ' The serjgs is being conducted a student cnhieet to dicrmccal' * he meelin 9- ' The code as it now stands, Proc- : °y graduate students who are a.stuaent suDject 10 dismissalj other items on the Cabinet tor said, provides that a student’s membe rs of the Mormon faith. from the University for five'agenda include a report of last campus driving privileges be sus-' The historical and present day semester’s $15,301.64 Cabinet ex- pended for 60 days after the picture of Mormonism as weii as traffic violations in one year penditur es, a report from the.fourth traffic violation, and that fundamental doctrines and will be included in a traffic! community living committee, an.after the fifth offense his car be : o ra ctices of the church will be reiiort to b P nresented to All j snsuranc ? committee progress re- sent home for 16 weeks. i tre^ ed . . J , leport io oe presentea to All ip or t and recommendations from' The traffic recommendations The senes is designed espeeial- University Cabinet tonight, ‘the Interclass Finance Board. '■ were drawn up by Elwood F. ] Y tor perrons unfamiliar with The i«t Of rwnmmondaHnnc ‘ Tb e te P° rt also recommends Giver, director of the depart- these subjects. The lecture is open The list of recommendations, that proceeds from traffic fines, menl of security; Frank J. to the public. (drawn up by a committee of five after expenses of paying.the sec- Simes, dean of men; Robert j and already by Ossian retary' who handles the details Steele, AU-University presi- Outing Club to Present R. MacKenzie, vice president for of th e parking violations system.! deni; Walter H. Weigand. phys- j