Lynch sees
trend toward
no pledging
ByAMYGRUZESKY
Collegian Staff Writer
After two national fraternities abo
lished pledging last week and as their
local chapters search for ways to inte
grate new programs, the Interfratemity
Council president said he foresees non
pledging programs becoming a trend.
The local chapter of Zeta Beta Tau
fraternity made its official announce
ment to discontinue pledging last spring
and has already begun integrating a
non-pledging system.
But the local chapter of Tau Kappa
Epsilon fraternity, unenthusiastic about
terminating their pledging system, met
the national chapter’s decision last
week with strong opposition.
Interfraternity Council President
Tom Lynch said abolishing pledging
will become more common in the next
five years.
“It’s a growing trend,” he said.
Lynch said he believes the reasoning
behind the two recent decisions to abol
ish pledging lies in the issue of hazing.
“I think pledging in itself can be a
very constnictive experience,” Lynch
said. “But there’s uncertainty in the
national chapters about pledging and
it’s a question many of them are wres
tling with.”
Lynch said the conflict of pledging
arises when hazing overshadows the
pledging process. Ten years ago hazing
was much mere common than it is now,
he said.
“Today it’s still there, but (the
amount of hazing) is going down,” he
said. “And there are fraternities with
no hazing in their programs. ’ ’
Zeta Beta Tau’s new recruiting pro
gram is not at all similar to the usual
pledging system, said Craig Fisher, the
fraternity’s assistant membership
development director. Rather, it is
more of an inclusion process, he said.
Normally, Fisher said, interested stu
dents rush, get a bid, accept it if they
wish, pledge for 10 weeks to a semester
and then they are a fraternity member.
Every fraternity has a different
pledge requirements, he said.
Michael Liebowitz, secretary at Zeta
Beta Tau, said the pledging period has
been eliminated. Within 48 hours, the
pledges become full-fledged members,
he said.
Thai, during the next few weeks, new
members undergo an educational pro
gram, learning the history and values
of both the fraternity’s national and
local chapters, he said.
Fisher said the new system will be
one of equality, unlike the old one. All
prior responsibilities of a pledge, such
as scrubbing floors and washing dishes,
will be shared among all members, he
said.
Fisher said he believes class distinc
tions between members and pledges
encourage hazing. Because pledges are
considered a “lesser class,” they are
Please see ZBT, Page 10.
USG proposes 24-hour library service
the library would be without personnel assistance
from midnight to 8 a m., but staff would check iden
tification and protect library material during the extra
It’s four in the morning. Your 10-page English paper hours.
By DINA ELLIS
Collegian Staff Writer
is due in five hours, and the amount of research you’ve “I think its worthwhile for the library to be open all
done so far would embarrass a third grader. night. Students’ study habits are unpredictable,”
What do you do? Althaus said.
After Thanksgiving break, your problems may be Officials have been positive about lengthening the
solved. The Undergraduate Student Government and library’s hours, she said. But University officials seem
the University now are negotiating a proposal to open less positive about the proposal.
Pollock Library around-the-clock. James Wagner, vice president of business and oper-
In an effort to improve the academic atmosphere ations, said it is too early to tell if opening the library
at the University, USG President Janyne Althaus has for 24 hours will be possible,
been negotiating with University officials about open- “Funding is the main obstacle,” Wagner said. “It’s
ing Pollock Library on a 24-hour basis. Under the plan, something that hasn’t been planned in budget. This is
WEATHER
Today and tonight increasing
clouds and humidity, chance of
showers, high 82. Low tonight 66.
Saturday, decreasing cloudiness
and becoming less humid in the
afternoon, high 81. Outlook for
Sunday and Labor Day: Sunny and
cool, highs in the low to mid 70s.
Please see Friday Travel Weather
Mdp, page 2 Ross Dickmsn
Delectable
Stephanie Yeager, 2, eats a cup of bittersweet mint Ice cream. She sampled the ice cream yesterday afternoon at the
University Creamery.
University: Calendar photographer did not violate policies
By HARRY PAGAN
Collegian Staff Writer
First Amendment rights protect a University
adviser under fire for a calendar he photographed
depicting women students, a University spokes
man said yesterday.
Bill Mahon, University director of public infor
mation, said the University can take no action
against Mike Miller or his work on the 1989 The
Women of Lion Country Calendar because he did
not use University time or resources.
On Wednesday, the Undergraduate Student
Government’s Department of Women’s Concerns
requested the University join them in investigating
Miller, an adviser in general arts and sciences.
Miller has refused repeatedly to comment.
Although Mahon said the calendar could be con-
something we’d like to do and we’re positive about it,
but we’re not sure if it’s feasible.”
Althaus said she believes the extra hours would cost
the University about $20,000. She said the staff funding
might hamper the proposal.
Even if the University provides the funds, personnel
at the library must agree with the proposal before the
extra hours are implemented, Althaus said. Pollock
library employees may believe the facility would not
be conducive to study during the additional hours, she
added.
The library meets USG and University criteria for
an all-night study center, Althaus said. Pollock
Library is well-lit, centrally located and handicap
Please see LIBRARY, Page 10.
sidered insensitive and offensive, demands for an
investigation fail to take into account Miller’s con
stitutional rights.
“The U.S. Constitution permits him to express
free speech. It permits people to buy such a cal
endar. While Mr. Miller’s values are not the same
values shared by the University, that in of itself
is not a violation erf University policy or state law,”
Mahon said.
Mahon cited action taken last fall when Univer
sity officials pulled the calendar from the Penn
State Bookstore on Campus, citing its offensive
ness to women.
“There’s not much the University can do other
than to make the decision not to sell the calendar
on campus,” Mahon said.
Mahon also responded to a statement made by
USG’s Department of Women’s Concerns charac-
Finally, the
for bridge
By MARK E. JONES
Collegian Staff Writer
Pennsylvania Department of Trans
portation officials and state legislators
yesterday dedicated the 12.3 mile-long
Mount Nittany Expressway - a contro
versial span of concrete that required
$42.5 million and almost 30 years to
complete.
Completion of the $4.9 million bridge
- the PennDOT’s seventh and final
phase of the project - will facilitate
smoother traffic flow to and from Bea
ver Stadium, Centre Community Hospi
tal and the University’s proposed
research park, said Steve Garban, the
University’s senior vice president for
finance and operations.
The new bridge, at the intersection of
U.S. Route 322 and state Route 26, is
expected to be operational this week,
before the football season kicks off at
Beaver Stadium on Sept. 9, said Thom
as C. Idles, PennDOT district engineer.
“Here at last. Thank God almighty,
it’s here at last,” said state
Sen. J. Doyle CormanJr. (R-Belle
fonte) during an early morning ribbon
cutting ceremony beneath the new Col
lege Avenue Bridge.'
PennDOT is awarding the project’s
contractors $2,000 for each day the work
is finished before the required Oct. 17
deadline, Ickes said. However, for
every day the contractors lag behind,
they will be penalized $2,000 per day.
The Mount Nittany Expressway,
extending from Scotia Road in Patton
Township to Boalsburg, creates safe
and speedy access from the Centre
Region to Harrisburg and vice versa,
state Rep. Lynnß. Herman (R-Centre)
said.
The completed expressway will
encourage development along the high
way as well as the in communities it
skirts, many said.
PSU officials mum
on advocate position
New undergraduate named
to serve on search committee
By SHARON L. LYNCH
Collegian Staff Writer
University officials yesterday contin
ued to refuse comment on the national
search for a top administrative advo
cate for minority and women’s con
cerns, despite professional
recommendations that the process
involve student input.
A University spokesman said last
night that Nicole Batts (senior-second
ary education) will serve as the new
undergraduate representative on the
vice provost search committee.
However, throughout yesterday sev
eral committee members and adminis
trators either were unaware of the
student appointment or would not com
ment on it. The former undergraduate
committee representative, Courtney
Pinkney, graduated last month.
Batts, former president of the Penn
State Chapter of the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, could not be reached for com
ment.
A team of social scientists who visited
the University twice in 1988-89 to eval
uate the racial climate here advised
administrators to include students in the
vice provost selection.
terizing Miller’s conduct as “unprofessional.” He
said the University would investigate only specific
allegations of professional misconduct made on
his part.
“To say that Miller’s work on the calendar is
offensive and is an example of unprofessional con
duct is a generalization,” Mahon said. “As long as
he’s doing that on his own hours and resources,
and it can still offend people, it’s still protected.”
But USG President Janyne Althaus disagreed.
“What we are saying is that he is not doing this
on his own time and we’re asking the University
to investigate this,” Althaus said but could not to
cite specific allegations.
When asked to compare the PiKA (Pi Kappa
Alpha fraternity) calendar with the Women of Lion
Country Calendar, Althaus said the basic differ
ence in the PiKA calendar is that a student adviser
wait
is over
Work crews will install signs directing
football traffic from the expressway to
Beaver Stadium, said Dave Stormer,
director of University safety.
“We would hope a lot of people contin
ue to use other routes,” he said. “If we
don’t utilize those existing lanes, we will
have atremendous back-up.”
The expressway, which has a capac
ity of 40,000 vehicles per day, diverts
“undesirable” traffic such as tractor
trailers east of the University and down
town State College, said Mark Bigatel,
president of the State College Area
Chamber of Commerce.
“We have strongly supported the
completion of the bypass, even when it
was not a popular view to take in this
town,” Bigatel said.
Discontent began in the early 1960 s in
Oak Hall, a village that found itself in
the path of progress. Oak Hall residents,
who recognized that parts of their town
were slated for removal, criticized the
project.
Later, they garnered the support of
environmentalists concerned with the
highway’s impact on water quality and
noise levels.
In the mid-1970s a debt-ridden Pen
nDOT halted all work on the bypass.
State officials turned to the federal gov
ernment for support. Environmental
impact reports, necessary to obtain fed
eral funds, further delayed the project.
A union strike in 1964 and the College
Township Council’s decision to elimi
nate night shifts in 1985 made many res
idents wonder if the project would ever
be completed.
“The necessity, the location and the
design (of the expressway) were vehe
mently debated,” said Llovd Niemann,
chairman of the College Township
Council.
The final product was worth that dis
cussion, he said.
“Since students are likely to reject
any candidate if they have not had some
input, final candidates should have an
opportunity to talk with the Concerned
African-Americans and other groups at
Pennsylvania State (University) and
there should be some way that groups
can register their choices,” the scien
tists stated in their report.
The social scientists praised the cre
ation of a vice provost to coordinate and
oversee the University’s efforts on the
behalf of women and minority faculty,
staff and students.
They cited the absence of a central
ized monitoring or coordination of these
affairs as a key reason for the persistent
racial tension on campus.
Administrators continually refered
questions about the vice provost search
to Chairwoman Vasundara Varadan,
who would not say whether another stu
dent had been picked to replace Pink
ney.
Yesterday morning Varadan said she
could be contacted at her office in the
afternoon, but at 4:30 p.m. an assistant
said the chairwoman left town for two
weeks.
The search committee is back at
work this week reviewing more applica-
Please see VICE PROVOST, Page 10.
did not take the photographs.
“The PiKA calendar promotes the University
and its people. The pictures are taken on the Uni
versity campus and the models are fully clothed,”
Althaus added.
“The difference is the student-student interac
tion,” she said. “In the Women of Lion Country,
you have an adviser-student interaction and there
you have an imbalance of power, and with that
imbalance he’s using his influence to photograph
these students.”
Wendy Goldstein, director for public affairs for
USG, said Wednesday the publicity concerning the
calendar is a reflection of the current awareness
of women’s issues.
“... I don’t think there was this much concern
last year. I think that the situation at Penn State
is more sensitized,” she said.