COLLEGIAN 100 YEARS
April 1887 'April 1987
PSU student, 3 others die
Plane hits
backyard
swingset
By MIKE LENTO
Collegian Staff Writer
A University student and a family
of three were killed when a Cessna
172 Skyhawk II piloted by the student
crashed into the back yard of a Fer
guson Township home at 10:55 a.m.
Saturday.
Steven R. Gizzi, 22, a senior from
Pittsburgh majoring in finance; Ter
ry C. Chrobak, 27; his wife, Sandra
Chrobak, 24; and their son, Brant
Hemphill, 3, were pronounced dead
on arrival at Centre Community Hos
pital, Ferguson Township police said.
The Chrobaks lived at 523 Marjorie
Mae St. in Patton Township, police
said.
The plane crashed into a swing set
in a back yard about 20 feet from the
home of John LeClair, 20 Holly Circle,
police said. No one on the ground was
injured by the crash, police said.
Gene Maylock, a Collegian photog
rapher who lives next door to the
crash site, said he was walking out
his back door when he heard a plane's
engine roar above.
"Instantly I could tell it was too
low," Maylock said. "I said to my
self, 'Something's wrong.' It was
heading for our place."
He said he had run to the phone to
call police when he heard the crash.
"The neighbor screamed simulta
neously when the plane hit," Maylock
said. "I'll never forget the woman's
voice. . . . I know they have several
kids and they have a swingset in the
back yard."
Maylock said he ran out with his
camera. Meanwhile, neighbors began
running toward the plane.
"There were some guys working on
the roof" nearby, he said. "The plane
buzzed right over them. They didn't
even know what was happening until
it was on top of them."
Campus groups escalate search for prof
By LISA NURNBERGER
Collegian Staff Writer
Several University international groups say
political oppression and torture problems that
students may feel snuggly removed from in State
College have hit home with the December 1984
disappearance of University Professor Boris Weis
feller.
According to a Chilean police report, Weisfeiler,
who went to Chile on a hiking trip, drowned while
attempting to wade across the Nuble and Los
Sauces rivers.
But U.S. officials, the former Chilean judge who
initially investigated the case, and the Chilean
Mathematical Society, which asked for the case to
be opened last year, think otherwise.
A petition requesting a congressional investiga
tion of the math professor's disappearance will be
circulated this week by the Penn State Undergrad
uate Amnesty International Campus Network in
conjunction with the Undergraduate Student Gov
ernment's Department of International Affairs.
The groups are calling for an investigation
because "there are too many mysterious circum
stances surrounding (Weisfeiler's) disappear-
the
daily
Rescue workers take a body away from the wreckage of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk II plane, which three passengers. Collegian photographer Gene Maylock witnessed the accident and was one of the
crashed outside a Ferguson Township home, killing pilot Steven R. Gizzi, a University student, and first individuals on the scene.
Another resident of the housing
development said: "When I saw the
plane, it was coming in low, close to
the rooftops. Then it nosedived,
veered to the right, and the right wing
hit the ground."
The neighbor said he was working
in his yard at the time, about three
houses from• the site of the crash. He
added that another neighbor was
walking his dog nearby and children
were playing in the yards of neighbor-
ance," said David Tubbs, former president of the
University's Amnesty International chapter.
Critics of the Chilean police raise these ques
tions:
• Since Weisfeiler had already crossed the
river with a guide the same day he was declared
missing and knew it was dangerous, why would he
try to cross it again?
• Why was Weisfeiler's body never found?
• Why were police who investigated the case
transferred to another area several months after
the disappearance?
Why did Cofre Vega, the chief of the Reten El
Roble police post, hide the fact in his originial
testimony that his patrol had prevented Weisfeiler
from using a cable car to cross the river because
he was not a registered traveler?
According to A ria/isis, a Chilean magazine, the
patrol had been sent to search for the professor
after a native reported seeing a stranger who
appeared to be wearing Army fatigues.
The, patrol confronted Weisfeiler and he turned
back without crossing the river.
But Cofre's testimony contradicted that, claim
ing that the patrol never found the professor but
saw his footprints on the beach near the river,
olle • ian
ing houses in the development.
"I don't see how it missed hitting
either the homes or the kids playing
nearby," he said, adding that he and
the other neighbors were "very fortu
nate."
The plane was owned by the Nitta
ny Aero Club, a University flying
organization of which Gizzi was a
member, police said. Gizzi had taken
off from the University Park Airport
shortly before the crash, police said,
but they said the cause of the crash
had not been determined as of yester
day.
Administration investigators were
expected to complete their probe of
the crash site yesterday. However,
Gizzi was the third club member to the FAA investigation report with the
be killed in a plane crash in the past cause of the crash will probably not
two months.
.Club. ,members John_ _be.available for_about a month..
Houtz of State College and Marie
Gebura of Buffalo, N.Y., were killed
Feb. 22 when their plane crashed in a
field in Halfmoon Township.
Ron Spicer, a line service employee
at the airport, said Federal Aviation
Engineering students protest
over sophomore evaluations
By CHRISTINE NICHOLAS
Collegian Staff Writer
Sophomore engineering students
are banding together to fight against
mid-fourth semester evaluation for
entrance into their majors, contend
ing that faculty and advisers had led
them to believe they had longer to
meet grade requirements.
The students are writing letters to
administrators and signing petitions
to protest the early evaluations.
Two such students Mike A. Mill
er and John Hricko hoped to raise
their grade-point averages to meet
the 2.68 requirement for industrial
engineers. But as a result of the early
evaluation, in which the students'
fourth semester grades do not count,
they received their next choice
environmental engineering.
Because they are upset about not
getting their desired majors, Miller
and Hricko have spoken to faculty
advisers in the Engineering Advising
Center, visited College of Engi
neering Dean Carl Wolgemuth, and
set up an appointment with Carol
Cartwright, dean for undergraduate
programs and associate provost, to
discuss their dilemma. They are also
according to the magazine.
Critics ask that if that were the case, why
wouldn't Weisfeiler have used the cable car, which
was only feet from where police said he tried to
cross.
The most widely held theory by disbelievers of
the Chilean police is that the professor, a Soviet
Jew, is being held captive in a Chilean colony the
United Nations has accused housing a torture
center.
Tubbs said there is a chance Weisfeiler is being
held because the colony "may be embarrassed to
release him if they abducted him with no reason."
Stanley Shephard, spokesman for the U.S. Em
bassy in Chile, said the colony, called Colonia
Dignidad, was founded by German immigrants
allegedly connected to the government and in
volved in extracting information.
Shephard said last year that he suspected foul
play in the disappearance.
According to a 1976 United Nations report, "In
Colonia Dignidad, prisoners have allegedly been
subjected to different 'experiments' without any
interrogation .. . to 'tests' on the limits of resis
tance to different methods of torture, such as
Please see MISSING, Page 4.
Monday April 13, 1987
Vol. 87, No. 167 20 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
@1987 Collegian Inc.
in crash
Deputy Coroner Kerry Benninghoff
said Gizzi's autopsy was scheduled to
be performed yesterday at Centre
Community Hospital. He said he did
not know about funeral arrangements
for Gizzi.
considering legal action against the
University.
They plan to show that administra
tors are "changing the rules when the
game is almost over."
Sophomore engineers who did not
get their choice of major can sign up
to be reconsidered, Wolgemuth said.
As of Friday afternoon, 54 engineers
had signed up for reconsideration.
He said that if the students get their
grades up after this semester, they
may get a space in their chosen
major provided that space opens
up. Students with the highest grade
point averages will be accepted into
majors first.
Miller and Hricko said faculty ad
visers in the Engineering Advising
Center have told them to "buckle
down" and get their fourth semester
grades up, since those grades would
count toward evalutation for their
majors.
Engineering advisers and faculty
last week also expressed concern that
students were led to believe often
by advisers that they would have
four full semesters to meet require
ments.
In addition, the students cited let
ters from Wolgemuth saying that
_ -
happy birthday
Break out the cake and the candles, everybody this is it. The Collegian
celebrates its 100th birthday tomorrow, with a special 24-page pullout
section that tells the who, what, when and where of the first century of
Penn State's student newspaper.
inside
0 In 1961, John F. Kennedy formed the Peace Corps to send Americans
to help people in foreign countries. Today, the legacy of that dream
remains Page 3
index
comics 18
sports 11
state/nation/world 6
weather
Today through Tuesday, mostly cloudy with showers of rain and wet
snow. Highs near 40, low tonight 34 Ross Dickman
Collegian Photo / Gene Maylock
The Walter E. Beezer Funeral
Home, 719 Spruce St., Philipsburg,
will handle arrangements for the
Chrobak family, Benninghof said. No
other funeral information was avail
able yesterday. - - -
Sandra Chrobak is the daughter of
Darrell and Mona Wood of Philips
burg. Terry Chrobak is the son of
Rudolph and Shirley Chrobak, also of
Philipsburg, a representative for the
funeral home said,
engineering students "will not be
admitted to a major until after the
end of the Spring Semester, when
your Spring Semester grades can be
included in your grade-point aver
age."
The students will use the letters and
their advisers' statements as evi
dence to persuade administrators
through the letters and petitions
that the implementation of the enroll
ment policy is different from what
administrators said it would be.
The letter will include what stu
dents have been told about their eval
uations, what has actually been done,
and how they believe administrators
should reconcile the problem.
Hricko and Miller want the Univer
sity to add a "grandfather clause" to
its evaluation policy, so that only
incoming engineers would be affected
by the early evaluation.
Also, students have approached Joe
Scoboria, president of the Undergrad
uate Student Government Senate, to
ask for the USG's support.
In contrast to the students' opin
ions, University administrators be
lieve the interpretation of their
enrollment management policy has
Please see ENGINEERS, page 3