Not to Offend You My Dearest Liege, But Your Ass Is Hanging Out.

Today an editorial in the CDT takes Penn State to task for the way it controlled the flow of information last weekend following a stand-off and suicide at the on-campus Nittany Apartments. Here is the core of the editorial.

Last week, tragically, a young man visiting his sister at Penn State shot and killed himself in a campus apartment after an eight-hour standoff with police.

The incident raised many, many questions, and it is the job of the fallible men and women who work at this institution to ask them, even the tough ones.

How many students were in danger? Was alcohol involved? Was this just an isolated incident? How safe is the campus? Did the police handle the situation properly?

In matters involving public safety and law enforcement, these questions are usually directed to -- and answered by -- law-enforcement officials and their overseers. But because this incident occurred at Penn State, all information released to the public came from Penn State -- from highly capable professionals, certainly, but from the university, nonetheless. Police directed all questions to Old Main.

Certainly, Penn State officials had insights, perspective and critical information regarding the tragic events of last Saturday night and Sunday morning. But so did police -- those employed by the university and those who work for other government agencies.

The public had a right to hear them, too, especially because the matter involved the public's own safety and fears for it. In this case, however, off-campus authorities were muzzled.

There should be no surprise that I agree completely with the CDT on this issue. Old Main cannot be trusted to give an unvarnished picture of anything which might tarnish the image of Penn State. I am glad that the CDT has come around to this opinion. But there was something very disturbing about the way this editorial was written.

The above passage was buried deep in the editorial, the bulk of which was taken up with defending the papers obligation to express the opinion. It went on and on about how good Penn State is to everyone and how the CDT was only doing its job as a watchdog. Well, the effect was to make the CDT appear not as a watchdog, but rather as a beat dog. (For more on this topic, see these previous post: 1, 2, 3, and 4. ) Nonetheless, this is a good first step for the paper. I hope that in the future the paper will be more confident in its role as watchdog.

Penn State Proud

Earlier this week, the Penn State propaganda portal Penn State Live proudly announced that Spanier had received the “Wings of Law” award from the authoritarian sounding Respect for Law Alliance for his contribution to national security.

This aroused my curiosity. What exactly was the Respect for Law Alliance? It turns out to be a nonprofit organization incorporated in New York and run by Arthur Gerwin a retired corporate lawyer. The idea that the organization has authoritarian proclivities is reinforced by Mr. Gerwin’s use the title General. He came by this title after spending three years of active duty in the Air Force during the early fifties. He then rose to the rank of Brigadier General while serving in the reserve. According to the group's web site the purpose of the organization surprisingly enough is to "promote and cultivate respect for law." This is achieved through holding monthly breakfasts, yearly award banquets, and junkets to places like Bermuda, which they call “offshore conferences.” Basically, Gerwin, the corporate lawyer, has found a way travel and hobnob with the rich and famous with tax free money. That shows a true respect for the law.

It would also appear that Gerwin’s strategy for bringing prestige to the organization is to give awards to prominent people. Amongst those who have received awards are Bob Schieffer , Wolf Blitzer and David Gergen. The banquets must really be something to get these folks to attend. The Respect for Law Alliance has also given Bernie Kerik an award. You can’t say they don’t have a sense of humor.

If you do a Google search for the organization’s name it will turn up the résumés of numerous lawyers and judges, most of whom are retired, in New York which list membership in the organization. My guess would be that these are friends of Mr. Gerwin or they are in it for the banquets and junkets.

So, Graham don’t let this award go to your head; Gerwin is not much more than an authoritarian self-promoter, just like you, but with a good tax dodge. Oh, I forgot Penn State has a good tax dodge too.

More on Shared Governance at Penn State

A few days ago I wrote a post which illustrated the sorry state of shared governance at Penn State with the example of the new Health Sciences Council. The council, which is made up entirely of administrators, will serve an advisory role which is actually delegated to the faculty through University Faculty Senate. There has not always been this disregard for shared governance at Penn State.

In the early 1990's, during the Joab Thomas presidency, Penn State was reconsidering how research and graduate education in the biological sciences was conducted at the University. This lead to what today is called the Life Sciences Consortium (LSC). In 1996, the Intercom, the print predecessor to Penn State Live, described the process which resulted in the formation of the LSC.

The LSC concept has evolved over a two-year period. A steering committee of senior faculty members from colleges with a life science component was originally charged with devising new approaches to research and graduate education for what was then referred to as a division of biological sciences.

The formation of the LSC, which came to fruition after Spanier's arrival, was driven not by administrators, but by faculty. This is the way shared governance is supposed to work, but no longer does at Penn State.

The Big Game Weekend at the Nation's Number Two Party School

Penn State played Michigan at home this weekend and proved why it is deserving of the Princeton Review number two party school rank. Here is a compilation of events from the Collegian and CDT.

• I made my voyage to Happy Valley this weekend, intending to see a great game between Big Ten foes at a campus that I remember being very friendly in 2001. My, how times have changed. I had all kinds of objects hurled at me throughout the weekend, including full beers and cupcakes.

• Stephen Rosenhurd, class of 2002, said he and his friends rushed from the stadium to get in line at the Gingerbread Man, 130 Hiester St., to "drown our sorrows."

  "The feeling of a victory is at the bottom of the bottle," Mike Turns, class of 2005, said.

• Penn State student Allan Rothrock was cited for disorderly conduct and public drunkenness early yesterday morning for slapping the rear end of a police horse on the 200 block of Calder Way, according to the State College Police Department.



• The young woman is barely conscious when the medics find her sitting curbside along East Beaver Avenue.It's just before 2 a.m. Sunday. Emergency medical crews at Beaver Stadium have already fielded some 30 to 40 alcohol-related calls and requests -- probably more than that -- since daybreak Saturday.

  
  

  But now the booze calls are shifting heavily, and predictably, into the downtown. Medics are girding for a hectic night, thanks to the nighttime Penn State football game against the University of Michigan.[...]

  The young woman is barely conscious when the medics find her sitting curbside along East Beaver Avenue.

  
  

  The woman on East Beaver, however, has turned white. Friends are with her, and someone was concerned enough to summon an ambulance.

  The woman doesn't want to go to the hospital. She won't tell the responders her name until they call in the police.

  
  

  Within 15 minutes, she's bound for Mount Nittany Medical Center. She's flatulent in the back of a Centre LifeLink ambulance.

  She tells her hosts -- paramedic Tracy Reagan and emergency medical technician Nichole Garrity -- that she's smarter than them.

  
  

  She is, she says, working toward a master's degree. Another smell -- alcohol -- drifts through the vehicle.

  Reagan and Garrity hold back. Later, they congratulate each other for not giving the woman any lip.

  "They'll never realize," Garrity says, "what you're doing for them."




• At about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Robert J. Voelker, of Tannersville, was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest after University police said he threw a can of beer at a state trooper and fought with officers attempting to arrest him. He was arraigned and sent to the Centre County Correctional Facility in lieu of $10,000 bail.

  
  

• [...]Philip G. DeCastro, of Ocean Township, N.J., was cited on disorderly conduct charges after he was allegedly observed throwing marshmallows at law enforcement near Section EA of Beaver Stadium at about 11:30 p.m, according to University police.

  
  

• Two males, one of whom was a Penn State alumnus, were apprehended for being publicly drunk in the State College Municipal Building courtyard about 3:30 p.m. Friday, according to police.

  
  

  State College police Sgt. Chris Fishel said the alumnus seemed unaware of his surroundings as he urinated in front of the police department's large windows.

  
  

  Numerous secretaries with a clear view of the male reported the incident to police.

• State College police said a Penn State student bit the owner of the Shandygaff, 212 E. Calder Way, after being denied entry to the bar around midnight Friday. Laurence Cheng, 21, allegedly stormed into the bar and was confronted by the owner. Cheng allegedly slapped the man and bit him on the hand. He was arrested and will likely be charged with simple assault according to State College Police.

• A University police officer was assaulted while attempting to arrest someone who was selling a football ticket. Charges have yet to be filed.

• At least two drunk pedestrians were injured after running into moving vehicles.

  Police said 22-year-old Raj Sahijwani, of State College, suffered minor injuries after he stepped into the path of a 1997 Honda Accord on East College Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday. He was cited for “intoxicated pedestrian.”

  While John Roy was “highly intoxicated,” State College police allege the 21-year-old from State College staggered off a North Atherton Street sidewalk onto the roadway, where he hit the rear of a 1990 Toyota Corolla. He suffered left hip pain, the police report said.

• Police also responded to an array of simple assaults and fights.

  At about 2 a.m. Sunday at the 500 block of East College Avenue, an unknown male punched James Zenex and broke his nose.

  Andrew Pascucci and Michael Peler were charged with disorderly conduct after State College police said they were fighting on East Beaver Avenue.

• A 43-year-old from Schwenksville was accused of being drunk and driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 after the Penn State-Michigan game Saturday night.

  According to state police at Lamar, Daniel Charles Preston told troopers he was heading to Bloomsburg from Beaver Stadium and did not know he was traveling west in the eastbound lane. State troopers stopped him just before midnight in Lamar Township, Clinton County.

  Preston, who was driving a 2003 Nissan Murano, was transported to Lock Haven Hospital. He will be charged with DUI, according to police.

The good news in all of this?

At the sole night game in 2005, drunks kept the medics busy. Forty people landed in Mount Nittany Medical Center that weekend for alcohol overdoses, and dozens more were treated for alcohol-related cuts and scrapes. The Nittany Lions won.

So far, this night has been relatively tame, probably because the Lions lost, medics say.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. There wasn't any good news this past weekend. The CDT reports today that Mt. Nittany Medical Center treated 48 alcohol overdoses over the weekend which is eight more than during the big game weekend last year. The paper also reports that there were numerous-no numbers given- other injuries seen at the hospital which were likely alcohol use related.

The Price of Self Expression in Georgia

The following is from AP via CBS.

A woman who was ticketed for having an obscene anti-President George W. Bush bumper sticker filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against a county in the state of Georgia and its officials.

Denise Grier, 47, of Athens, Georgia, got a $100 ticket in March after a police officer in DeKalb County, which is in the suburbs of Atlanta, spotted the bumper sticker, which read "I'm Tired Of All The BUSH--."

Although a DeKalb judge threw out the ticket in April because the state's lewd bumper sticker law that formed the basis for the ticket was ruled unconstitutional in 1990, Grier is seeking damages for "emotional distress" against the county, according to the lawsuit.

How the hell does a cop not know that a law was declared unconstitutional sixteen years ago? Either he was too dumb to know that the law was no longer on the books or he chose to harass the woman with a bogus arrest. Either possibilities leads one to believe that he must be a Republican.

Shared Governance at Penn State

A new advisory council was announced today at Penn State.

Penn State President Graham B. Spanier has announced the formation of the University Health Sciences Council. The council, which will build on the work of the Health Sciences 20/20 team, will be responsible for developing, recommending and promoting initiatives across the University to advance health sciences education, research, service and outreach.

The advisory role that this council will play is supposed to be preformed by the University Faculty Senate (UFS). This is from the UFS web site.

The University Faculty Senate is the representative body of Penn State's faculty with legislative authority on all matters pertaining to the educational interests of the University and all educational matters that concern the faculties of more than one college. In addition, the Senate is recognized by the University as an advisory and consultative body to the President on all matters that may affect the attainment of the University's educational objectives.

This council amounts to an end run around the UFS.

Now consider this. The council will be chaired by Harold L. Paz, senior vice president for health affairs, dean of the College of Medicine and chief executive officer of Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Here is the list of the remaining members.

Nan Crouter, director of the Social Science Research Institute and director of the Children, Youth and Families Consortium; William E. Easterling, director of the Institute of the Environment; Davie Jane Gilmour, president of Penn College; Madlyn L. Hanes, chancellor of Penn State Harrisburg; Peter Hudson, director of the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences; Daniel J. Larson, dean of the Eberly College of Science; Paula Milone-Nuzzo, director of the School of Nursing; Carlo Pantano, director of the Materials Research Institute; Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences; Fred W. Vondracek, interim dean of the College of Health and Human Development; Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts; and David N. Wormley, dean of the College of Engineering.

Do you notice anything about the make up of this council which which has usurped the advisory powers of the UFS, a faculty body? It is made up entirely of administrators. So much for shared governance at Penn State.

So dear undergraduate students, when you contemplate the fate of the USG, don't think that you are alone in having power unilaterally stripped from you. Faculty too have lost power as Spanier has gradually, over the course of his presidency, consolidated power in Old Main. Unfortunately the faculty, for the most part, are not as vocal as the students about the erosion of their power. But they should be even more vocal, because they are not transitory and consequently have far more at stake than do the students.

Pennsylvania Needs More Sunshine. DSL a Case Study.

On Sunday the Carlisle Sentinel published an editorial in favor of liberalizing Pennsylvania's sunshine laws.

Pennsylvania's laws governing open meetings and open records leave a lot to be desired. For one thing, if you ask for information and an official body refuses to cooperate, the burden is on the citizen to prove he or she has a right to the information.

That's completely the opposite of the law in most other states. Resolving such a dispute usually requires a trip to court in the company of attorneys experienced in this area of law. That's an expensive and unlikely proposition for an individual citizen - and that situation encourages some officials to brush off all such requests.

I am in full agreement with this and I also think that this example offered by the Sentinel perfectly illustrates the need.

As Sentinel readers are aware, the fate of a local Dickinson School of Law campus hung in the balance as the Penn State University Board of Trustees, meeting as quietly as it could, attempted to move the entire school to University Park in violation of a purchase agreement requiring the university to keep the law school in Carlisle “in perpetuity.”

It was a combination of judicious leaks from inside the institution and a series of court actions that headed off what might have been an institutional sneak-away of a kind not seen since the Baltimore Colts tiptoed off to Indianapolis two decades ago.

What I found most interesting about this passage is that the editorial board pulled its punch. Rather than singling out Spanier as the thief that tried to steal DSL, it shifts the blame to a faceless Board of Trustees. If you followed the Sentinel's coverage of the fight to keep DSL in Carlisle you know that it didn't hesitate at the time to single out Spanier. See this op-ed for example.

What has changed is that Penn State has agreed to keep an "equal" campus of DSL in Carlisle in exchange for one in University Park. While plans move ahead on the construction of the University Park campus using borrowed money, fund raising for the Carlisle renovations have stalled. Hence Carlisle is at this point still somewhat uncertain that Spanier will keep his word. Spanier has a notoriously thin skin and has, in the past, signaled one thing about DSL and turned around and done something else. I think the Sentinel pulled its punch because they feared retribution from Spanier if he was named as the thief.

By the way, I highly recommend the Sentinel's coverage of the DSL death match to anyone who wants insight into the ways of Spanier, Erikson, and Courtney. You can search their archives here. The story broke in 2003 and was resolved in 2005.

Bush KO'd

Via The Carpetbagger Report. Keith Olbermann says what must be said.

My Fault? No, It's Not My Fault!

The CDT has a story today about the increase in the number of students carousing at night in the Highlands neighborhood of State College this Fall. The anecdotal evidence is supported by an increase in the number of police calls this year in the time period of late August to late September over last year. Tom King, the police chief in State College, attributes the increased numbers to the increased number of freshman that Penn State admitted this year. Penn State flack Bill Mahon offers the following in response to King's ascertion about the cause for the increase number of calls for noise violations and disorderly conduct.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon, in an e-mail, said the volume of alcohol peddlers in town has a bigger impact on the booze problem than freshman enrollment.

"Based on statistics like the huge increase in alcohol-related emergency-room visits last year, the alcohol problem in State College was at its worst level ever at a time when Penn State's enrollment numbers were actually down," Mahon wrote. "The data indicate the number of student alcohol overdose does not appear tied to enrollment. Borough and campus police arrests for public drunkenness jumped sharply in 2005, when enrollment was down."

Two things are noteworthy in this response. The first thing is that Mahon chooses to address the question of public drunkenness arrests which was not mentioned by King. Then having misrepresented the problem he places the blame on booze peddlers and accepts none of the responsibility for the University. The blame shifting is part of Spanier's pr strategy for dealing with the bad reputation Penn State enjoys as a party school. Borough council member Jeff Kern shot back,

"I would hope that the university would have more respect for its student body and the town than to (attribute) a serious problem to the environment," he said. "I think there are behavioral issues that need to be dealt with, by both town and gown ... and I think we're just a little overwhelmed right now.

Kern showing backbone and standing up for the borough is a welcome relief. Typically when Mahon or someone else from Old Main tries to shift the blame for the drinking problem to the town, the claim goes unanswered.

Finally, why would Mahon bring up Penn State's drinking problem when that really isn't the issue? After all, Penn State would prefer not to have the spotlight placed on its drinking problem. This may have something to do with Mahon shifting the discussion to alcohol and then blaming the bar owners.

[Councilwoman Elizabeth] Goreham and Councilman Jeff Kern said Penn State ought to pony up some extra money to help finance the added patrols. The university pays the borough about $445,000 per year in an impact fee and an in-lieu-of-tax arrangement.

"We just got 2,000 extra people (freshmen) on a semi-permanent basis who have no impact on our tax base but have a significant impact on our expenses," Kern said.

Penn State is willing to talk about its alcohol problem if it can help it avoid taking financial responsibility for the problems it creates.

Silliness

Recently the marketing firm of Spanier, Erikson, Mahon, and Courtney, also known by the more catchy name Penn State, decided to change the name of Penn State McKeesport to Penn State Allegheny. The reason for doing this is likely that Penn State doesn't want to have its name associated with a depressed town in the rust belt. Fair enough. However, the folks at Allegheny College aren't too happy about this.

Richard J. Cook, president of Allegheny College, said yesterday he sees potential for confusion with his private institution in Meadville, Crawford County. He said Allegheny has asked Penn State officials including President Graham Spanier to reconsider, without success.

Dr. Cook's concern is that the Penn State campus will become known colloquially as simple the Allegheny campus or Allegheny and thus be confused in the publics mind with Allegheny College. Spanier was none too sympathetic with this concern.

Asked to comment, Dr. Spanier yesterday released text of a letter he sent to Dr. Cook assuring him there is no intent to cause confusion.

He said the public university branch and Allegheny College are vastly different, as are the profiles of their students. Those who apply to any Penn State location must go through the Penn State Web site, he said.

"We will never use 'Allegheny College' in any of our documents that make reference to our campus," Dr. Spanier wrote. "Moreover, we have no intention of ever using the title 'Allegheny' without 'Penn State.' "

Now the Post-Gazette, which published this story, notes that Allegheny College has gone to court in the past to protect its brand name. The paper fails to note that Penn State has also gone to court to protect its brand name.

Penn State is seeking compensation from University Orthopedics Ltd. for alleged damages and losses incurred due to the company's use of the word "university" in its name.

Penn State claims that because of the company's name, University Orthopedics, 101 Regent Court, misleads the public into believing the company is part of the various health services the school offers, according to court documents. The school is requesting that the company not use "university in any manner in connection with the rendering of orthopedic and related medical services."

It happens that Penn State lost this suit.

The point of this observation is that Penn State does not act on principle in these matters, rather it acts out of self-interest. Just as it claims to be a private institution when that is to its advantage and claims to a public one on those days when that works for it.

Juan Cole Gives Us the Big Picture

Juan Cole has an important new post at his site Informed Comment which ties together seemingly disparate facts in a coherent narrative which explains the action of the Bush administration in the "War on Terror".

The Bush administration has been about "the Greater Middle East" (including Central Asia). It has been about basing rights in those areas. It says it is fighting a "war on terror" that is unlike past wars and may go on for decades. It has been about rounding up and torturing large numbers of Iraqis, Afghans and others. This region has most of the world's proven oil and gas reserves.

Why is the Bush administration so attached to torturing people that it would pressure a supine Congress into raping the US constitution by explicitly permitting some torture techniques and abolishing habeas corpus for certain categories of prisoners?

Boys and girls, it is because torture is what provides evidence for large important networks of terrorists where there aren't really any, or aren't very many, or aren't enough to justify 800 military bases and a $500 billion military budget.

The post is based on the the insights of the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray . Murray was able to observe how the Bush administration behaved in Uzbekistan. This provided the basis for his understanding of the administration's motivations in hyping the "War on Terror". Go read the entire post. It is very convincing and very important.