The Daily Collegian
Student faces assault charges
Police say a 22-year-old
man is charged with eth
nic intimidation after an
incident Wednesday.
By Casey McDermott
COLLEGIAN STAF WRITER
A Penn State student faces
charges after he swung a knife at
another student he had taunted
for speaking Spanish, the State
College Police Department said.
Robert Skinner, 22, is charged
with one count of felony aggravat
ed assault, one count each of a
misdemeanor simple assault and
ethnic intimidation and one count
of a summary offense harass
ment.
He was arrested in connection
with an incident that occurred at
about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday out
side of the Acacia fraternity house,
234 Locust Lane, police said.
No one was injured as a result of
the incident, police said.
Skinner, of Hermitage, Pa., did
not return an e-mail requesting
comment by press time
Wednesday.
Juan Jafit Morales, the student
Skinner approached, said he was
PSU announces TEDx speakers
By Micah Wintner
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
You Tube sensation Jordan “DJ
Earworm” Roseman is coming to
Penn State in October.
Roseman is one of 14 speakers
attending a TEDxPSU event
scheduled for Oct. 10. The day’s
theme is “attend, listen and
enlighten,” Zach Zimbler, presi
dent and general of The Lion 90.7 es and talks on its website
FM, said during a radio announce- ted.com that have been viewed
ment of the speakers on The Lion by more than 250 million people,
Wednesday night. Zimbler (junior-. TEDxPSU executive director
supply chain management and Steve Garguilo said,
information sciences and technol- The Xin TEDxPSU signifies an
ogy) said Roseman is famous for independently organized TED
his music “mash-up” videos in event. The TEDxPSU event is
which he combines several pop headed by an executive team
songs into one. made up of Information, Science
Schreyer Honors College Dean and Technology (IST) alumni and
Christian Brady said during the Zimbler, a current IST student,
announcement that Technology, With a list of potential speakers
Entertainment, Design (TED) is a well into the hundreds, Garguilo
nonprofit organization founded in said it took an organization com
-1984-dedicated to ideas worth mittee of morethan 100 people to
sharing out in the open. . reduce the list to 14. The commit-
TED features videos of speech- tee wanted to bring in speakers
Sustainability Starts with You.
Want to make your
campus more
walking with two friends near
Highland Avenue and Locust
Lane when Skinner confronted
him for speaking Spanish and
asked where he was from.
Morales (senior-industrial engi
neering) said he told Skinner he
was from Colombia.
Skinner then made derogatory
statements about Morales’ ethnic
ity, Morales said.
Skinner began to argue and
eventually pulled a knife on the
student, swinging it at him,
Morales said. Morales said he
ducked out of the way in time to
avoid being cut, but the blade did
slice his shirt.
Police said a witness told them
Skinner threatened to stab the
student, then threw a bottle of
liquor on him and charged at him
with the knife. The witness told
police Skinner then ran into the
Acacia fraternity house, police
said.
But in a statement provided to
police, Skinner denied swinging
the blade at Morales.
Skinner told police an argument
broke out between three other
men and him, and one of the men
began swinging punches at him,
police said. Skinner said he pulled
a knife out and told the men to
If you go
What: TEDxPSU event
When: Oct 10
Where: Schwab Auditorium
Details: Attendees can register
at tedxpsu.com
sustainable?
■BRTTA
LOCAL
leave and also said he made com
ments to the other men that
denounced their Colombian her
itage, police said.
Skinner was taken to the Centre
County Correctional Facility on
Wednesday after he was arrested
at the Acacia fraternity house and
released for 10 percent of his
$35,000 bail, jail officials said.
A preliminary hearing has been
scheduled for Sept. 8 at the Centre
County Courthouse, according to
court documents.
University Park Undergraduate
Association (UPUA) President
and former UPUA Student Life
and Diversity Chairman Christian
Ragland called news of the inci
dent an “eye-opener” and said he
was sorry to hear about the con
flict. Ragland (senior-political sci
ence) said similar incidents are
probably often underreported,
and he wants to take this as a cue
that Penn State needs to work
harder to improve race relations
and educate students about diver
sity.
Morales said many minority
students are targeted because of
their heritage and their problems
too often go unnoticed.
To e-mail reporter: cmms773@psu.edu
from outside of Penn State as well
as showcase some of Penn State’s
researchers, Garguilo said.
As Zimbler announced the
speakers he provided their back
grounds, which ranged from
architecture, humanities, busi
ness, sociology and more.
Michael Pritchard, inventor of
the Lifesaver water purification
bottle, and Tonee Ndungu, a
media consultant from Kenya, will
also speak.
Garguilo said each speaker
brings something unique to the
podium.
“We are equally excited about
everybody,” he said. “Everybody is
going to have an amazing talk,” he
said.
Garguilo and his team have
been working on the event since
March he is looking forward to
seeing all the hard work come
together.
“I think TED is truly a revolu
tion of global education,” he said.
To e-mail reporter maws43B@psu.edu
WMH
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A broken elevator In University Towers forces tenants to climb stairs.
Residents annoyed
by broken elevator
By Colleen Boyle
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Since the elevator broke in
University Towers Apartments
this summer, resident James
Lenz has taken the stairs to his
seventh floor apartment.
After weeks and countless
trips up and down the stairs,
Lenz said he is furious his
requests for a fixed elevator
have been ignored.
He noticed the elevator was
broken on July 5 a situation
that has left residents without
another option to get to their
apartments for at least seven
weeks.
Lenz (senior-security and risk
analysis) blames the apartment
company Associated Realty
Property Management (ARPM)
for failing to repair the eleva
tor quickly while he continues to
pay his $9OO per month rent.
“You run into people on the
stairs and eveiyone seems
angiy,” he said. “I gotta go down
and up and down and up. It’s
really a pain.”
ARPM President Mark
Bigatel said control over the
repairs has been delegated to
the elevator companies Eastern
and Otis and is out of his hands.
The elevator —which is 12 years
old requires a new computer
part, Bigatel said.
After building a new control
panel in the elevator, repairmen
found that other changes needed
to be made and other parts had
to be ordered—including pieces
yet to be manufactured.
“They found that they needed
another part to meet safety
m- m
Thursday, Sept. 2,2010 I 3
requirements,” said Bigatel.
“It’s been a long four weeks for
all of us.”
Over the weekend, workers
are scheduled to work overtime.
By early next week, Bigatel esti
mated, the work should be com
plete.
But for now, the elevator
remains at a standstill.
Building resident Sam Robins
said she notices that other resi
dents are very upset by the lack
of an elevator, especially when
venturing down to the basement
to do laundry. Residents contin
ue to speculate about when they
will be able to ditch the stairs,
she said.
“There’s all this confusion and
nobody really knows,” Robins
(junior-psychology) said. “When
we signed our lease, the elevator
was considered as part of the
convenience. It sucks.”
Despite the inconvenience of a
broken elevator, Bigatel said his
main concern is safety. Ensuring
a completely safe elevator, he
said, along with complications in
the repair work is why the eleva
tor has been out of commission
for so long.
“Safety people from the state
come in to certify the elevator,”
he said. “They can’t just put a
part in and get it going. It has to
be all certified and safe.”
Still, Lenz said he’s outraged
by how the company has han
dled the situation.
“Every time you call about it,
they rush you off the phone and
we just have to accept it,” he
said.
To e-mail reporter: cabs3s6@psu.edu