Sara Ganim
August 30, 2010
STATE COLLEGE — Two weekends into the fall semester, State College police say they are seeing a higher than normal number of alcohol-related calls downtown.

“This is a non-football weekend, not a special event,” said State College police Lt. Chris Fishel. “And we still had 88 people cited for various offenses.”

It comes as university officials are imposing harsher penalties for excessive drinking.

Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims said Monday that this year for the first time, any student cited for underage drinking will now have to go through the university’s judicial affairs process, along with paying the criminal fine. (more…)

By Zach Geiger
Collegian Staff Writer
Since the start of the semester two weeks ago, State College Police said they have seen a noticeable increase in criminal activity in the borough, despite no major events.
But don’t expect them to be unprepared for the first home football game.
During the weekend of August 20 there were 14 minor law violations, eight DUIs, five incidents of public drunkenness and one non-DUI felony aggravated assault with five defendants, police said.
And last weekend — the first weekend since classes began — police report there was an even larger increase in this type of activity. (more…)

Measure would triple price underage drinking offenders pay

The impact of alcohol-related crimes on municipal government and a proposal to raise the maximum fine for underage drinking to $1,000 will be the focus of a public hearing Monday in State College by the state Senate Majority Policy Committee. Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, plans this fall to introduce this legislation, which would also allow individual municipalities to “opt in” and charge those found guilty of any drinking-related offenses an extra $100 fee.
(more…)

Sara Ganim
August 19, 2010 11:25am EDT

UNIVERSITY PARK — About 4,000 students every year get more from their time at Penn State than just a diploma.

They leave with a notation of discipline on their transcript — often accompanied by a criminal record — that can haunt them as they apply for jobs, apartments, loans or grad school. (more…)

By JEFFREY ROSEN
Published: July 19, 2010

Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.
(more…)

By ABBY GOODNOUGH and KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: July 24, 2010

The accident that killed Kathryn Underdown had all the markings of a drunken-driving case. The car that hit her as she rode her bicycle one May evening in Miller Place, N.Y., did not stop, the police said, until it crashed into another vehicle farther down the road.

The driver could not keep her eyes open during an interview with investigators, according to the complaint against her, and her speech was slow and slurred. But the driver told the police that she had not been drinking; instead, the complaint said, she had taken several prescription medications, including a sedative and a muscle relaxant.
(more…)

BY TERESA ANN BOECKEL
Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 07/10/2010 11:27:54 PM EDT

York County’s district attorney likes having the option; defense lawyers would like to see the mandatory minimum repealed.

Most of the City of York falls within a drug-free school zone, so an adult convicted of even a first-time offense could face time in state prison.

(more…)

Amends Titles 18 (Crimes & Offenses) & 42 (Judiciary) further providing for expungement of criminal history record and for juvenile records; and providing for expungement fee.
(more…)

Sara Ganim and Anne Danahy Centre Daily Times

STATE COLLEGE — The night that freshman Joseph Dado was found dead at the bottom of a campus stairwell, Penn State’s vice president for student affairs, Damon Sims, says he made a conscious decision not to have a knee-jerk reaction.
(more…)

In taking leadership stand, we must welcome students
Elizabeth Goreham

From its beginning State College has been a college town welcoming students and embracing their traditions. That is why our fraternity district was built within a neighborhood where professors and their families lived, frequently with student tenants. Our downtown grew naturally across the street from Penn State.

Over time the increase of students outpaced the population of the town and now students outnumber permanent residents. This makes the once easy connection with students more difficult, sometimes impossible. Still, just about everybody who lives here has a proud connection to Penn State.

Student life commonly includes drinking. In the past few years, however, dangerous drinking has accelerated. Issues related to alcohol abuse threaten the high standard of living neighborhoods have traditionally enjoyed.
(more…)