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 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.
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This is the post during which you find out about my criminal record. I’ve tried to hide it for too long. Now it looks like it is all coming back to haunt me. And I’d rather you heard about it from my keyboard.
At the age of nineteen, way back in 1992, I purchased a beer in a Philadelphia bar.
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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.
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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.
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FOCUS ON EXCESSIVE DRINKING
Community must find solutions together
Damon Sims and Tom Fountaine
One irony about the problem of dangerous drinking among Penn State students is that it can be either a wedge dividing town and gown or a common cause that binds our community as one.
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The Pennsylvania Superior Court dismissed a Montgomery County Underage Drinking citation where the Commonwealth relied on PBT results as the primary evidence of a sixteen year old’s guilt and introduced no evidence that the device had been calibrated as required by Pennsylvania law.
Proposed act unconstitutional, group says
Mike Joseph
STATE COLLEGE — A proposed borough ordinance to curb the impact of rowdy parties by holding hosts responsible for the illegal activities of guests has come under fire from a national organization that advocates individual rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union told State College in a letter Friday that the borough’s proposed “nuisance gathering ordinance,” which is scheduled for a public hearing Monday night, violates the U.S. Constitution.
STATE COLLEGE — Council on Monday began to look at a “nuisance gathering ordinance” intended to give police a new way to cite hosts with summary offenses if their guests break the law.
Police Chief Tom King told council the intent is not to replace laws but to add to what police have to work with now.
“We’re looking for additional ways for a local ordinance to supplement the crimes code,” he said. “When we can’t absolutely prove who furnished the alcohol … then tenants or property owners are responsible.” (more…)