Faculty Senate members review rental agreement
By KEVIN NAFF
Collegian Staff Writer
A University administrator will
have a second opportunity Tuesday to
explain to Faculty Senate members
the recent lease agreement between
University Trustee Mimi Coppersmith
and Penn State. Any future action the
Faculty Senate may take, however,
remains unknown.
The Faculty Senate Committee on
Academic and Physical Planning will
meet with University Vice President
for Finance and Operations Steve Gar
ban to discuss the recent lease
agreement, which some faculty mem
bers perceive as a possible conflict of
interest.
On July 28, Garban and University
President Bryce Jordan met with Fac
ulty Senate Chairwoman Janet
Atwood and Senate members Thomas
Merritt and Peter Deines to discuss
transaction procedures and the con
flict of interest issue.
The meeting was prompted by fac
ulty member concerns about the
transaction, said Merritt.
Coppersmith has declined to com
ment.
The second meeting with the stand
ing committee is intended to give Gar
ban the opportunity to explain the
same information to the full commit
tee and answer any remaining ques
tions.
Possible conflict-of-interest questions
surround Coppersmith's transaction
By SHARON L. LYNCH
Collegian Staff Writer
Questions about a potential conflict
of interest surround a recent Penn
State business transaction with Uni
versity Board of Trustees member
Mimi Coppersmith following the close
of a half-million-dollar deal between
the two parties.
In Coppersmith's most recent trans
action with the University, she leased
Transfer of DER responsibilities meets disapprova
By JOE TARR
Collegian Staff Writer
A bill that would transfer many responsibilities
from the heavily burdened Department of Envi
ronmental Resources to the Department of Health
received disapproval from representatives of both
organizations at a hearing yesterday.
The legislation would transfer the Sewage
Facilities Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and
the Public Eating and Drinking Place Act, as well
as other statutory functions to the health depart
ment.
State Rep. Camille George, D-Clearfield, pro
ponent of the bill and chairman of the House Con
servation Committee, said there have been many
complaints from citizens and businesses concern
ing the way DER is managed. Many eagos handled
by DER have resulted in careless procedural mis
takes, or long delays in the issuance of permits, he
said at a meeting at Elby's State College Inn on
Route 322.
"The Department of Environmental Resources
has been given more responsibilities every year,
and there are those who believe it has become
Mimi Coppersmith
While Faculty Senate standing com
mittees can propose legislation, it is
unclear whether the group will take
any action following the Sept. 12 meet
ing, Atwood said. She added the com
mittee could decide to have the matter
reviewed further or simply do nothing.
"I have no idea how they will handle
it," Atwood said.
As part of the transaction, Coppers
mith would receive about $390,000 and
possibly an additional $lBO,OOO from
about 10,000 square feet of space to
Penn State in The Towers complex,
403 S. Allen St.
Leading members of the Faculty
Senate recently requested meetings
with top administrators to learn more
about Coppersmith's deals with the
University.
But while faculty members voiced
their concern over appearances,
Senior Vice President for Finance and
Operations Steve Garban downplayed
unwieldy and unmanageable," George said.
Representatives from both departments agreed
DER functions need to be evaluated and changed,
but disapproved of having the Safe Drinking Water
and Sewage Facilities acts transferred to the
health department.
Arthur Davis, secretary of DER, said changes
need to be made in the department but questioned
if transferring many of the duties would be the
right solution
I believe the remedy lies in strengthening
management so as to improve our ability to serve
the people of Pennsylvania, not in dismembering
the agency," Davis said. "Some of these organi
tations could be lifted or moved, but what is the
effect on the organization after some of these
duties are lifted?"
Suzanne Yenchko, director of environmental
resources for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Busi
ness and Industry, said she is in favor of transfer
ring some of DER's current duties, but not all.
The regulation of swimming pools, restaurants,
public eating and drinking places, organized
camps, could be more effectively controlled by the
Department of Health, Yenchko said.
the University for leasing about 10,000
square feet of office space in The Tow
ers, 403 S. Allen St.
Trustees approved the transaction
at their July 15 meeting, with Coppers
mith abstaining from the vote.
Academic and Physical Planning
Committee Chairman Robert Hein
sohn said faculty members, including
some members of Faculty Senate,
approached him with questions and
concerns about the lease.
"People have conveyed to me (that)
the administration and trustees'
actions should have been conducted
differently," Heinsohn said.
"There are perceptions of conflict of
interest. (Coppersmith) is vice-chair
of the trustees and is doing business
with the University - a profitable ven
ture for her," he said.
Merritt, however, saw no conflict. "I
don't think there was a conflict of
interest, the issue was mentioned but
there was no breach of procedure as
the board operates," he said.
During the July meeting with Fac
ulty Senate members, Garban dis
cussed the procedure by which
Coppersmith was awarded the con
tract rather than focusing on any pos
sible conflict of interest, Atwood said.
Deines said, "It was a very good
meeting, it gave us a good idea of the
wider context - the space crunch at the
University. I don't have any misgiv-
Please see REVIEW, Page 10.
the discussions, saying they were just
a matter of exchanging information.
Despite verbal and written requests
for an interview, Coppersmith has
declined to comment on the appear
ance of a conflict of interest. The vet
eran trustee recently underwent
surgery at the University's Milton
S. Hershey Medical Center and has
been recovering at her home.
Garban will meet with the senate's
Please see CONFLICT, Page 10.
However, the monitoring of waterworks permit,
water pollution, sewage treatment plants, and
drinking water should all remain DER functions
in order to link them with other water enforcement
programs, she said.
The director suggested a private managerial
study to determine and make recommendations
for any changes.
The bill is not scheduled to be voted on by the
state House or the Senate but there will probably
be more hearings to discuss the legislation, George
said.
Robert Zimmerman, a health department rep
resentative, also agreed some functions could be
transferred but that the Safe Drinking Water Act
and the Sewage Facilities Act should remain under
DER management.
He said DER has more technical know-how and
personnel to handle those areas, adding that trans
fers would require considerable coordination of
related programs between the departments.
"Both departments would need to develop or
maintain duplicate skills related to environmental
engineering and regulation areas for which
there is an affinity in DER and an absence in the
Roe lawyer: Case based
on Constitutional rights
By ISABEL MOLINA
Collegian Staff Writer
Using personal anecdotes and experiences, the lawyer for
"Jane Roe" in the 1973 Supreme Court case which legalized
abortion described her feelings about arguing Roe vs. Wade
and its implications.
Sarah Weddington became involved in the legal battle over
abortion when several women from a "consciousness-raising
group on problematic pregnancies" approached her with a
question.
"(They) said the law in Texas is that abortion is lawful only
to save the life of the woman and for no other reason. And
they said there were a lot of women who were going to Mexico
for illegal abortion. They said there are some good places,
but there are some really bad ones . . . Can we tell them
where the good places are to go? I did know not the answer
to that question, but I said I would go the library and look it
up. And the journey to the library has been 20 years long,"
Weddington said.
Weddington discovered that in early American history
abortion was considered at most a misdemeanor and no fed
eral laws prohibited it.
An intriguing modem sculpture adorns the front of The Towers complex, 403 S. Al
len St. Questions have arisen about a possible conflict of interest after University
Trustee Mimi Coppersmith, who owns the building, leased 10,000 square feet of
its space to Penn State.
Department of Health," Zimmerman said.
Throughout the hearing, George strongly
emphasized that sewage and drinking water reg
ulations should be transferred to the health depart
ment, because that is where a lot of complaints
against DER have been targeted.
"I think this administration has gone above and
beyond what can be expected," George said ref
erring to the current DER management.
The legislation would also require the transfer
ring of personnel from DER to the health depart
ment.
"If you receive the same staff and the same
mandates you are likely to operate the same way,"
Zimmerman said, critizing the bill.
George said he did not think the current prob
lems would continue in the health department
because the personnel would be working under a
different philosophy.
DER was formed in W7O and each year it has
been given more and more responsibilities, he
said. If the bill is passed as it is, DER would con
tinue to regulate mining areas, forests, parks,
water, and air among other things, making sure
they are kept up to state standards.
In the 1850 s medical professionals urged restrictions on
abortion, citing risks to a women's health, Weddington said.
And when medical professionals called for an end to such
restrictions in 1969, they did so because they hoped to regulate
safe, legal abortion practices, she added.
While further researching the question, Weddington dis
covered several court cases which cited the right to privacy.
"Now frankly, if I said to any of you, where in the Consti
tution did they me the word 'abortion?' You would say to me,
`lt's not in there.' And if I said to you, where in the Constitu
tion is the word 'privacy?' You would say, 'lt's not in there,'
Weddington said.
When the Constitution was written, privacy was a devel
oping concept, she said. Those who wrote and ratified the doc
ument were concerned with governmental intrusion into
personal issues although they included no explicit statement
of privacy, she said
Weddington said she decided to use that concept - the indi
vidual's right to privacy - to argue in court against Texas
laws restricting abortion.
To argue the case on this basis she needed to prove three '
issues: Abortion was a fundamental right; pregnancy
impacted on a woman's well-being; and the state had no com
pelling reasons to regulate abortion.
Diplomats
forced to
flee Beirut
By MOHAMMED SALAM
Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon The U.S. am
bassador and his last 29 American staff
members were forced out of Lebanon
yesterday by Christians, including
about 1,000 massed outside the embas
sy, who claim the United States sup
ports Syria.
Two helicopters landed at the cora
poiu.d about 7:30 a.m. and a third hov
ered overhead, apparently providing
cover, while the 30 Americans were
evacuated, a witness said.
It is the first time an American
ambassador has been pulled from Leb
anon since the sectarian civil war began
14 years ago, and the move at least tem
porarily ended the American diplomatic
presence in the country.
State Department spokeswoman
Margaret Tutwiler angrily blamed the
Christian army commander, Gen. Mi
chel Aoun, for the move, saying he
threatened to expose U.S. Ambassador
John McCarthy and his staff to a "good
dose of Christian terrorism."
She said that before the evacuation,
an unidentified telephone caller had
threatened to shoot down the U.S. heli
copter that brought supplies to the
embassy and that an unidentified pro
test leader said people in the embassy
entered and left "at their own risk."
The Americans will return when
"conditions permit," Ms. Tutwiler said.
On arrival at the U.S. military's
Rhine-Main Air Base outside Frankfurt,
a weary McCarthy told reporters last
night that "as soon as those questions
of security and safety can be resolved
. . . it would be important for us to
resume the work that we were doing in
Beirut."
McCarthy and his staff flew in on a
U.S. Air Force C-130 transport plane
from Cyprus. They are expected to
leave West Germany for the United
States today, but no further details were
immediately available.
Students with cars parked in Park
ing Lot 44 by Beaver Stadium must
move their vehicles by 6:30 p.m.
Friday due to Saturday's football
game. Cars can be parked in Park
ing Lot 80 until 4 a.m. Monday, at
which time students may move
their cars back to lot 44.
WEATHER
Today through tomorrow, consid
erable cloudiness through the peri
od. There Is a slight chance of a
shower tonight. High today 77, low
tonight 63. Warmer and more
humid tomorrow, high 82.
Ross Dickman