CentreSquawker

ACLU under fire as prez visits Penn State

ACLU President Nadine Strossen and conservative politico Pat Buchanan are set to debate Wednesday night at Penn State's Eisenhower Auditorium.

Their appearance comes at an interesting time for the ACLU. The New York Times reports today that some longtime ACLU members have big quibbles with the organization's leaders.

The biggest complaints seem to involve how the ACLU treats its employees.

An unrelated press conference is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday in the basement of Eisenhower -- right before the Strossen-Buchanan debate. The CDT will be there. If there's anything in particular that you'd like us to ask Strossen or Buchanan, drop me an e-mail or leave a comment below.

Spanier has no love for Princeton Review

Quick: Go to Google News and punch in "'Penn State' and 'the Princeton Review.'"

You should get something close to 300 results.

Penn State, after all, was named the No. 2 party school by the Princeton Review earlier this summer.

To university President Graham Spanier, it's a "silly" ranking.

He said as much Friday during prepared remarks before the Penn State trustees.

"I mention this only because of all the media attention it got," Spanier said. "This particular 'review' is little more than a publicity stunt to help (the Princeton Review) sell their guide, and involves people going to a Web site and voting for the school they want to name the winner.

"It could actually be more reflective of a school's popularity, but it has no legitimate basis for its conclusion," Spanier went on.

He didn't stop there, though.

" ... the ranking little more than a clever marketing trick to get attention to (the Princeton Review) guide, and the media naively buy into it every year," Spanier said.

Indeed -- the Centre Daily Times ran an article about it Aug. 22 on page B1.

The Harrisburg Patriot-News went farther and ran its party-ranking story on page A1.

Spanier lamented that the news media don't give as much ink to more legitimate college rankings, such as those assembled by U.S. News & World Report and Washington Monthly.

The man has a point.

To read the full text of his remarks, go to this page on Penn State Live.

On the police, tailgate policy and bladder relief

I'm overdue in extending a word of public thanks to Penn State police officers Stephanie Brooks and Bradley Eckels.

They were generous in accommodating me and CDT photographer Michelle Klein at the Penn State-Akron game Sept. 2, when we covered the new, limited ban on tailgate drinking.

Klein and I walked the parking lots with Brooks and Eckels, watching how they interacted with fans -- and how the fans responded to the new ban.

But the most entertaining part of the day -- by far -- had nothing to do with the rule.

A young guy -- probably a college kid -- was relieving himself about halftime near the Bryce Jordan Center, in an east parking lot.

Brooks and Eckels spotted him and approached. The kid saw them, zipped up and took off across the field just south of the Jordan Center.

His friends cheered his escape sprint. Eckels pursued him a while, then turned back.

Some days, when more pressing police work is on the agenda, such pursuits just aren't worth the time, Brooks said.

Earlier in the afternoon, a drunkard approached the officers as they patrolled a grassy tailgate lot east of Beaver Stadium He was definitely drunk, and he was definitely in public. He just wanted to talk a bit about the foul weather.

Because he appeared a danger neither to himself nor to others, Brooks and Eckels said, they didn't give him any grief. They reserve citations for the drunks who pose a real problem.

Thing is, if they were to stop every intoxicated person in town, they said, they'd never get any real work done.

Considering that they work 20-hour shifts on home-game weekends -- well, that's saying something.

Papers exempted in PSU fight on trash

Leftover newspapers are a big litter problem in Penn State classrooms at University Park.

So why aren't the papers included in the classroom ban on food and drink that the university has imposed for the new academic year?

According to Deborah Blythe, the director of facilities planning, the newspaper litter is ugly and annoying. But, unlike food and drinks, newspapers don't cause damage to classrooms, she said.

And so the ban does not extend to the daily rags.

Four newspapers are readily available on campus -- The Daily Collegian, The New York Times, USA Today and the Centre Daily Times.