Lie detector judgment delayed
4 local police officers object to use of tests for investigation
By MIKE NETHERLAND
and TONY PHYRILLAS
Collegian Staff Writers
A ruling on the legality of the State College
Police Department’s attempt to use lie detector
tests in an internal investigation was delayed by
Centre County Judge David E. Grine until this
afternoon.
After hearing complaints yesterday on behalf
of the four police officers who objected to taking
the tests, Judge Grine requested briefs from
attorneys representing the officers and the
borough addressing a state Supreme court ruling
and the State’s penal code.
The temporary injunction the judge granted
Friday stopping the police department from
administering further tests was extended until
today’s ruling.
Grine requested that both attorneys subrpit
legal briefs by 2 p.m. today, clarifying state
legislation and previous court rulings oni the
administration of lie detector tests.
The four officers David Burns, Brian
Clouser, Jane Dur'ovchic and Debra Hofmaster
said they requested the injunction because
they believe the tests were arbitrarily
administered by the department.
The department has been conducting an
internal investigation of a break-in into the desk
of Cpl. Robert Abernethy, who was investigating
‘‘possible improprieties committed by other
Fall Commencement supported
by USG's
By CHRISTINE MURRAY
Collegian Staff Writer
-The possibility of a 1983 fall
commencement received the full
suppiort of the Undergraduate
Student Government Executive
Council last night.
Only two months are needed to
prepare for a commencement
ceremony including printing a
program and final script for the day
of graduation, said Karen Rugh,
manager of campus relations.
“As far as physical arrangements
for fall commencement I see no
problem,” Rugh said.
Rugh said she has not been
PSU men outnumber women 2-to-1
By ANITA YESHO
Collegian Staff Writer
Men outnumber women at the University two
to-one even though half of the college students
nationwide are women.
According to the Census Bureau, 50 percent of
the nation’s undergraduates and 45 percent of the
graduate students are women.
Glenn G. Carter, associate dean of the Office of
Admissions, called the disparity a “phenomenon
of Penn State,” and said it seems women tend not
to enroll in the University unless they are offered
admission to University Park.
Although no specific studies have been done,
inside
• The last day of this term will
be May 17 not May 18, as
previously announced Page 2
• Calling El Salvador “a
disaster area,” a private U.S.
human rights group yesterday
disputed the Reagan
administration’s claim that
political repression has steadily
declined in that country.... Page 6
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weather
Mostly sunny and warm today
with a high of 80. Mostly cloudy
tonight with a chance of
showers or thundershowers and
a low of 54. Mostly cloudy
tomorrow, chance of showers
with a high near 75.
—by Craig Wagner
the
daily
police officers,” according to a document
submitted in court by borough attorney Amos
Goodall.
In yesterday’s testimony, State College Police
Chief .Elwood G. Williams Jr. said the internal
investigation concerned the forced entry into
Abernethy’s desk at police headquarters in the
State College Municipal Building on April 11
between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Williams said lie detector tests were being used
in the internal investigation.
Since Feb. 1, Abernethy had been conducting
an investigation into certain officers’ use of on
duty time to conduct private profit-making
activities, Williams said.
The police officers’ complaint, filed by
attorney Roy K. Lisko, charges that the lie
detector tests were administered “arbitrarily
and capriciously ”
But Williams said the selection of the officers
for the lie detector tests was not arbitrary
because only those officers on duty at the time of
the break-in are suspected.
The list of possible suspects is further
narrowed to officers with a motive to break into
the desk, and those with access to a key to a
pearby closet where a tool used in the break-in
was kept, Williams said.
Of the four officers who filed the complaint,
only Jane Durovchic took the test: The
department administered the test to Durovchic
one hour before Judge Grine signed the
Executive Council
approached about fall
commencement, but she said the
administration has no reason to '
consult with her about the
ceremony.
The administration is
encouraging students graduating in'
the fall to come back and
participate in Spring
Commencement.
Peter Cutrone, president of the
Organization for Town Independent
' Students, told the executive council
that there would be a problem with
accomodations for graduates and
their families returning to State
College to attend Spring
commencement, if the fall
Carter said men seem to be more willing to
attend Commonwealth campuses, so they rank as
a majority there. When students transfer from
the Commonwealth campuses, they reduce the
percentage of women students at University
Park.
The Office of the Registrar reports that during
Winter Term 1983, women accounted for about 30
percent of the 44,122 undergraduates and 37
percent of the 6,015 graduate students at the
University, including Commonwealth campuses.
Spring Term enrollment figures are not yet
available.
At University Park, 44 percent of the
undergraduate and 36 percent of the graduate
an asphalt paved path, fraternity members imitate the Greek races of the days of yore. The chariot race is one of this week’s Greek Week events.
Collegian
ceremony is not approved.
USG President Emil Parvensky
said he has noticed more students in
favor of a fall commencement than
any. otherjsssue; including the
Beaver Stadium Concert Proposal.
Parvensky said he sent a letter to
James Dungan, secretary of the
Calendar Conversion Council,
concerning student support for the
commencement ceremony.
The letter said Parvensky
understood and agreed with the
decision to' end fall commencement
under the semester system;
however, he said he thought there
should be a ceremony for those
students caught in the transition.
temporary injunction order.
Williams said that if the injunction is lifted, he
will continue administering lie detector tests in
the investigation because three officers have yet
to take the tests.
Lisko said 12 officers were asked April 2 to take
the tests and that nine have already taken it.
During questioning, Lisko attempted.to prove
that any police department member could have
had access to Abernethy’s desk during the hours
of the break-in.
Williams said any officer can enter the building
at any time.
In addition, the entrance to Abernethy’s office
has no door. However, Williams explained that
not just anyone can walk by Abernethy’s open
office because its doorway is within another
office and is perpendicular to a corridor.
Another objection raised by the officers is that
the lie detector tests might be used as a condition
for employment.
Williams denied that charge and added the
results of the lie detector tests will not lead to
criminal proceedings.
Goodall argued that the lie detector test is used
frequently in criminal investigations, although
Williams said this is the first time his department
has used the test in internal investigations.
“The polygraph is used to weed out suspects in
an investigation,” Goodall said.
About 2,000 students will be
graduating after fall semester, he
said:
He said Dungan was concerned
with repeating a commencement
ceremony every fall if the
University allows commencement
this year.
Parvensky said if there are as
many students graduating every
fall as this year, there should be a
graduation program under the
■ semester system in the future.
The letter proposed that the fall
commencement ceremony take
place on January 7.
Parvensky said the Calendar
Conversion Council will present its
final recommendation to University
President John W. Oswald on May
13.
Parvensky said the Student
Advisory Board will discuss the fall
commencement issue at its meeting
this afternoon.
students are women. Last fall, 52 percent of the
3,085 freshmen admitted to the University Park
were women.
Although men still outnumber women at the
University, the gulf between the two has de
creased since restrictions on the number of
women accepted to the University were lifted in
the early 19705. Admission limits were removed
by Title IX, a federal law that banned sex
discrimination in education programs and insti
tutions that receive federal aid.
Until 1972, the Office of Undergraduate Admis
sions set a ratio whereby five men to every two
women were admitted to the University.
Please see ENROLLMENT, Page 18.
Thursday, April 28,1983
Vol. 83, No. 166 18 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
President Reagan receives applause from of a Joint Session of Congress
on Capitol Hill yesterday prior to speaking on El Salvador. At rear are Vice
President George Bush and Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill Jr.
Central America
to national security
By TERENCE HUNT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON President
Reagan urged a skeptical '
Congress last night to embrace his
arms and economic program for
Central America, claiming the
United States has “a vital interest,
a moral duty and a solemn
responsibility” to save the region
from leftist revolution.
But Sen. Christopher Dodd of
Connecticut, responding for
Democrats, called Reagan’s
policy ignorant and “a formula for
failure” that can only lead to “a
dark tunnel of endless
intervention ”
In a rare address to a joint
session of the House and Senate,
Reagan said, “I say to you that
tonight there can be no question:
the national security of all the
Americas is at stake in Central
America.”
“If we cannot defend ourselves
there,” said Reagan, “we cannot
expect to prevail elsewhere. Our
credibility would collapse, our
alliances would crumble, and the
safety of our homeland would be
put at jeopardy.”
“Join me in a program that
prevents communist victory in the
short run, but goes beyond to
produce, for the deprived people of
the area, the reality of. . .
progress and the promise of more
to come.”
Reagan’s nationally broadcast
address was primarily an attempt
‘The national
security of all the
Americas is at
stake in Central
America.’
—President Reagan
to salvage a proposed $llO million
in U.S. aid for the besieged regime
in El Salvador. Congress so far
has balked over all but $3O million
of that.
' In an unusual if not
unprecedented arrangement,
members rose from the floor after
Reagan concluded to debate his
presentation. And Dodd,
designated by Democrats as their
chief spokesman on the issue,
denounced Reagan’s entire
approach to. Central America as
ignorant.
Dodd, a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and
a Peace Corps volunteer in the
Dominican Republic from 19G6 to
1968, said “the painful truth is that
many of our highest officials seem
to know as little about Central
America in 1983 as we knew about
Indochina in 1963."
But Reagan pressed Congress to
approve his full request for aid for
all of Central America, totaling
about $6OO million for 1984.
vital