The Daily
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Published independently by students at Penn State
Nobel writer to speak
"Beloved" author Toni
Morrison will visit
Penn State on April 7.
By Sarah Peters
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Award-winning author Toni
Morrison will speak at 8 p.m. on
April 7 in the Eisenhower
Auditorium, hosted by the Paterno
Fellows program.
Morrison, author of novels
including - Beloved, - "The Bluest
Eye" and "Song of Solomon, - won
the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in
A - • IINJM
A truck delivers a large portion of materials for Penn State's Millennium Science Complex. The project began in September 2008 when Penn
State's Board of Trustees approved $215 million for its construction. The 275,600 square foot complex will be state of the art, featuring
research labs and classrooms. It will also feature green roofs to reduce rainwater runoff and increase the longevity of the roofs.
BY THE NUMBERS
r , •
PSU ranks 4 m grad
rates among public four-year
colleges.
PSU ties for
PIO., 1 0 in
At
grad rates among public and
private four-year colleges.
PSU
ranks
high
By Colleen Boyle
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Pennsylvania has joined a
coalition of 17 states pledging to
increase university graduation
rates, but Penn State already
ranks highly in getting students
to commencement day.
The states will be
working with Washington, D.C.-
based Complete College
America in order to set goals,
establish benchmarks and
develop plans to graduate more
students, according to its Web
site.
"Pennsylvania signed on to
the multi-state Complete
College America initiative in an
effort to mobilize the common
wealth's leaders to think hard
and collaboratively about how
we as a state can increase
See GRAD RATES, Page 2.
If you go
What Toni Morrison to speak
When: 8 p.m. April 7
Where: Eisenhower Auditorium
1988 and the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1993.
She's the latest recipient of the
Penn State Institute for the Arts'
Medal for Distinguished
Contributions to the Arts and
Humanities.
Though admission is free, tick-
Alumnus sentenced in Va.
By Greg Galiffa
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
A Penn State graduate was
sentenced to 15 years in prison
by a Fairfax County jury Friday
in connection with the 2008
shooting of a taxi driver in
Virginia, Fairfax Court officials
said.
Evan D. Gargiulo, 23, was sen
tenced to 12 years for second
degree murder and an additional
three years for use of a firearm in
the murder, Fairfax Chief Deputy
Commonwealth Attorney lan
Rodway said.
Gargiulo, Class of 2008, was
arrested Nov. 4, 2008, after he
shot taxi driver Mazhar Nazir in
Maya Angelou tickets expected to sell out
By Laurie Stem
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Maya Angelou's upcoming
appearance is already drawing
Penn State students to ticket
offices in droves, and box office
representatives said they expect
a full house for the event.
Angelou will speak at 8 p.m.
next Tuesday at the Eisenhower
Auditorium as part of the Student
Programming Association's
Distinguished Speaker Series.
During the first day of distribu
tion of the free tickets for the
upcoming appearance of this cel
ebrated poet, author and civil
rights activist, box office repre
sentatives said they saw long
lines at many points on Monday.
Dawn Feaster, a box office
assistant who was distributing
student tickets at the HUB-
Robeson Center, said 550 tickets
were given out at that location
alone on Monday. The tickets can
ets may be required, according to
an Institute press release. Details
on ticket distribution have not yet
been released.
Prior to the lecture, Paterno
Fellows can attend a reception
where director of the Africana
Research Center and Penn State
English Professor Lovalerie King
will deliver a brief introduction,
according to the Paterno Fellows'
blog.
Sue Paterno said she'd like to
meet Paterno Fellows, and Joe
Paterno may attend, according to
the blog.
See MORRISON. Page 2
the back of his
head two days
before. Gargiulo
pleaded not
guilty by reason
of insanity and
self-defense,
Rodway said.
Gargiulo's Gargiulo
attorney Steven
Garver believes
the jury ruled the case as sec
ond-degree murder which car
ries a 5- to 20- year sentence
because there was no evidence of
malice.
"He didn't go out that night
looking to kill anybody," Garver
said. "He had no malice toward
that taxi driver"
110) ,
also be picked up at the
Eisenhower Auditorium, Bryce
Jordan Center and the Penn State
Downtown Theatre Center.
"It's been busier than we
expected," Feaster said. "We
were surprised [Monday]."
Economist Ben Stein spoke as
a part of the series on Feb. 3.
Feaster said Stein's lecture did
not sell out, but they do expect to
distribute all 2,500 tickets for
Angelou's appearance.
See ANGELOU, Page 2.
Toni Morrison will speak as part
of the Distinguished Speaker
Series. She has won the Pulitzer
Prize and the Noble Prize.
The trial began March 8 and
ended late Friday afternoon.
Garver said while he and
Gargiulo were upset with the out
come of the case, they were
thankful Gargiulo wasn't convict
ed of first-degree murder, which
could have handed him a life sen
tence.
"The jury sentence suggested
while they were disturbed by it, it
was not as bad as it could have
been," Garver said.
Rodway said because the story
of the case was only from
Gargiulo's perspective, it was dif
ficult to increase the sentencing
to first-degree murder.
But he was still satisfied with
See ALUMNUS, Page 2.
Students get tickets to attend Maya Angelou's speech. Angelou will be
speaking March 23 as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series.
psucollegian.com
Locals
react
to tax
Some bar owners are
against the proposed
drink tax, and officials
don't think it will pass.
By Megan Rogers
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Though borough officials
would like to institute a 10-per
cent tax on poured liquor in bars
and restaurants, they don't think
they'll be able to anytime soon.
Representatives from the
Pennsylvania League of Cities
and Municipalities including
State College Mayor Elizabeth
Goreham
proposed the
drink tax during
a March 8 rally
in Harrisburg as
one of its four
initiatives to
raise revenue
for struggling
municipalities Goreham
across the state
But State College Borough
Council President Ron Filippelli,
who supports the tax, said
municipalities'
right to enact
the tax would be
a tough sell in
state legislature
because law
makers hesitate
to raise taxes
during an elec
tion year.
"This kind of
tax, I think they view as bad pol
itics for them in their jurisdic
tion," he said. "I don't think leg
islatures are interested in rais
ing taxes on constituents."
Though Goreham has said
she does not support raising
taxes, she recognizes the bor
ough spends a lot of money on
alcohol-related services. A tax is
needed to raise revenue to pro
vide services like police and
clean-up crews, she said.
She called the tax "voluntary,"
since people would be choosing
to pay the tax by attending a bar.
But supporters face an uphill
battle. Legislatures have not
shown any interest in bringing
the proposal to the House or
Senate floor, Goreham said. And
downtown, businesses and stu
dents are firmly against it.
State College Tavern
Association President Jennifer
Zangrilli said the association
does not support the proposed
drink tax. Some bar owners said
if the right to tax was given to
municipalities, downtown bars
would be hit the hardest.
See DRINK TAX, Page 2.
Filippelli