Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 Getting Around Penn State students, administration work together to improve accessibility .S.U. PERMIT REQUIRED Increase in students leads to record By Daniel Bal COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER | drb226@psu.edu Penn State officials announced yesterday another increase in the amount of students for the 2003-04 academic year, which has led to a record enrollment university-wide. Overall enrollment stands at 83,177, which is an increase of 139 from the 2002-03 academic year. At University Park, enrollment rose from 41,445 to 41,795, an increase of 350 students, or 0.84 per cent James Wager, assistant vice provost for enrollment management and university registrar, said the uni versity plans for a deliberate slow growth within established bound aries. “If we get too big, it starts to stress critical people support systems,” he said. John Romano, vice provost and Inside H V* . . ♦1 4 By Adam Fabian fAFF WRITER | fabianad@psu.edu is like every other college classes. He plays sports, tars on the weekends. He’s tost students, when Hantz i the morning, his route to from his Atherton Hall •m room depends on his lood and energy level. “It lepends on how lazy I feel the morning,” he says ith a slight laugh, noting an -utilized shortcut through ÜB. aren’t always this easy for imputer science major. He 1, adapted and gained .>nd Maggie Redden, a fresh i Hiester Hall, things aren’t te thought they might be. 'unications major has a ground floor and a room- be loud sometimes living so dose to the door, Redden says, but she likes it nonetheless. She hears every thing; she can say hello to everyone. Their lives sound like every other Penn State students’ but there are dif ferences. Hantz isn’t like everyone else. Neither pointed out we try to fix,” he said. “We’re Without the ADA, however, the cam is Redden. Nor are the other 748 other always looking for suggestions.” P us would likely be much different than Penn State students receiving services -««« *t 4)5 toda 0 r » stew K ooll * 2 , the university’s from the Office for Disability Services. THE ADA OF 1990 facilities access coordinator, said. In fact, Hantz is a double above-knee In 1990, President George Bush he sa y s - accessibility is much better amputee. He has been in a wheelchair signed the Americans with Disabilities today than it was 20 years ago. ever since he began attending school as Act into legislation. “We’ve come a long way, baby,” he a young boy and will be The act sought to establish a prohibi- “IThe law] is a dam good piece of for the rest of his life, tion of discrimination on the basis of dis- legislation.” Redden also uses a ability. The law, based on findings by the ftcrmip ADffllNn wheelchair, and has U.S. Congress, noted that at the time, uc Hnuunu about 43 million Americans had one or Despite changes and efforts by UAC, more physical or mental disabilities, a said the campus would never be number likely to increase as the popula- See ACCESSIBILITY, Page 5. tion continued to age. Before the legislation became law, many places were difficult to access but now accessibility is required everywhere. Many disabilities covered under the law are not visible. Problems with vision, hearing, dean for enrollment management, said Penn State attempts to maintain enrollment numbers between 40,000 and 42,000. “[The numbers] have to do with the available facilities, number of fac ulty and staff, and how can [the uni versity] accommodate that number on and off campus,” he said. “We do everything possible to keep the num ber in that range.” Romano said the university attempts to calculate what the enroll ment flow will look like and what the projections will be for each campus. “We try to administrate these flowjs so we don’t have too many students,” he said. University spokesman Tysen Kendig said Penn State has taken a hard look at the capacity of the Uni versity Park campus and believes it has the ideal number of students. “We’ve got a record enrollment and are continuing to see a growing CONTACT THE NEWS DIVISION 865-1828 Creamery starts flavor contest Soon University Creamery customers will have another flavor of ice cream to choose from. To celebrate Penn State's 150th anniversary in 2005, the Creamery will develop a new flavor dreamed up by customers. Anyone can suggest a flavor name and ingredients until December 31. | LOCAL, Page 6. Coming tomorrow: No Refund Theatre to perform Ist musical ever ltau# Published independently by students at Penn State used it for as long as she can remember. She got polio around the age of 1 and has been paralyzed ever since. Bill Welsh, director of the Office for Disability Services, works with these students and employees. It’s his job to ensure they can get around, go to class es and get anything else that may be needed to live comfortably. With more than 700 buildings on cam pus, some of which are more than 100 years old, the task of providing access can be daunting for Penn State. The campus, as well as downtown, must be compliant with the Americans with Dis abilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which has only been around for 13 years. The campus, meanwhile, is about 150 years old. But given Penn State’s size, loca tion, topography and the varied weather conditions of central Pennsyl vania, ADA Coordi nator and Universi ty Access Commit tee (UAC) Chairman Bill Ritzman believes the campus is accessible. Although he says Penn State’s campus isn’t perfect, he said the committee is always working to make improvements. “It’s an ongoing process, but anything CLOSER m '■* LOOK interest in the university,” he said. Although it seems class sizes would continue to grow, Kendig said students have not shown any con cern. “More and more students say they are surprised and enjoy the fact that class sizes are 20 or less when they get into their major concentrations,” he said. Wager said the university is work ing on a number of initiatives to regu late the number of incoming stu dents, but the university does not have any plans to change or cap the number of students admitted. “There are also places where we want to increase the amount of cer tain types of students, without increasing the number as a whole,” he said. “There are certain target areas where we want to see increas es, such as international students.” The university recently announced a marketing campaign to draw more CONTACT THE BUSINESS DIVISION ON THE WES 865-2531 www.coHegiaii.psu.edu President of MPAA to speak Football record hurts business Movies, universities, and file-sharing The Nittany lions’ 2-5 record has not will be a topic of discussion and debate only affected their overall standing, but this afternoon when Jack Valenti, presi- has also let down area businesses that dent of the Motion Picture Association of partly rely on a good home-game America, visits the Penn Stater. The turnout. Some vendors have noticed a event will include lunch and is spon- decrease in their sales and number of sored by the Penn State Faculty Staff customers because of the Lions’ losing Club. I ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Page 9. streak | LOCAL, Page 4. Jeff Hantz is one of about 750 University Park students who receives services from the Office for Disability Sen/ices. mobility and even heart troubles are included, requiring accommodations to be made based on the functional limita tions of the individual Ritzman said reasonable accommoda tions are made for Penn State students and employees based on their limita tions. Fbr example, a sign language interpreter is provided for a student with a hearing impairment. Priority schedul ing and priority snow removal are also offered to students in wheelchairs. Accommodations are also made for employee settings. In tlie case of a disabled Penn State worker, it is Ritzman’s responsibility to ensure appropriate modifications are made to the structure and the manner of the work. “Eveiy case is looked at on an individ ual basis, and a lot of time and attention to detail goes into each employment accommodation we work with,” Ritzman said in an e-mail message. enrollment students to Commonwealth Campus es instead of University Park as their first choice. Wager and Romano do not antici pate the number of students surpass ing the designated limit of 42,000. Romano said there are forces that See ENROLLMENT, Page 2. Patemo responds to arrest By Robert Spruck COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER | fjs336@psu.edu Penn State football coach Joe Patemo isn’t happy with Tony Johnson and for once it has nothing to do with his play on the field. Johnson was arrested early Friday morning for driving under the influence. His blood alco hol level was at 0.136 percent, which exceeds the state’s 0.08 legal limit. Patemo said yesterday at his weekly press conference that he would suspend Johnson for the incident. “I am probably going to have to suspend him for a game or so,” Patemo said. “Because I have to send a message to the squad that it is inappropriate to be out in the middle of the week having a couple of drinks.” But Patemo later contradicted himself and said that he hadn’t made a decision on the situ ation. “I said I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “I really don’t know what I am going to do.” Patemo called Tony Johnson “a really good kid” and “a hard worker.” He claimed that the media would cause Johnson’s situation to become out of control. See PATERNO, Page 2. 2 athletes to attend alcohol program By Nicole Charsar and Rob Riva COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS nmcls2@psu.edu, rerlsB@psu.edu Penn State football players Jeremy Kapinos and E.Z. Smith both had their cases decided this week. Kapinos, a punter for the Nittany Lions, was found not guilty on the charge of disorderly conduct and entered a provisional guilty plea to the charge of underage drinking. “[The prosecution] did not prove the element of the crime and that [Kapinos] did it,” District Justice Ronald Homer said in reference to the disorderly conduct charge. The underage drinking charge was Kapinos’ second in as many years. He was charged in an earlier incident on Aug. 25,2002. Kapinos was referred to the Youthful Offend ers’ Program for the alcohol violation. “There was no hearing, he just uses the Youthful Offenders’ Program,” Horner said. “It’s a summary offense. He pays the fees, and then it is dismissed.” The program is an alternative to the stan dard fine and permanent police record for youths cited for underage drinking or drug use in Centre County. Kapinos is required to pay a program fee of $175 and complete a total of 15 course hours of class. Both charges stemmed from events involv ing a fight outside of Nittany Apartments on September 7. Smith, an offensive lineman, was cited twice for underage drinking, once on July 27 and once on Aug. 2, outside his residence at Nittany Apartments. Smith was found not guilty on the second underage drinking charge, but he pleaded a pre-adjudication disposition in regard to the first charge. As with Kapinos, Smith was referred to the Youthful Offenders’ Program. Upon completion of the course, the underage drinking charge will be dropped. Smith was suspended from the football team by the Office of Judicial Affairs and has not played in any games this year. ©2003 Collegian Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS Aits.. Briefs . Calendar 3 Opinions Classifieds 13 Scoreboard 11 Comtes 15 Sports ........ 10 Crossword 15 The Scam.. Horoscope 13 Weather... 10$ off campus Vol. 104 No. 65 .9 Local .. .2 National
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