A disgruntled former Penn State graduate student, claiming he was 'the object of a pattern of repression and harassment," has filed a civil action suit against University President Bryce Jordan and University Police Services.

A four-page complaint written by Thomas Harrison, former administrative assistant for the Graduate Student Association, includes allegations that date to the 1987-88 school year and involve several organizations and offices, including GSA, administrators in Old Main and University police.

In his complaint, Harrison names as the most controversial point of contention an incident involving University police that he said occurred at 8:50 a.m., June 9, 1988.

Harrison claimed four University policemen detained him for more than an hour and took away his driver's license. He also contends the officers forced him to partially paint over a message on his car that read, "PSU = (two small swastikas)."

He replaced the swastikas with the word "fascism."

But as with most of Harrison's complaint, it is his word against the University's.

Harrison said he realizes he has undertaken a daunting task with little precedent: he contends he is one of few individuals to file a suit against the University's president in the school's 135-year history.

"I'm one of only a few people who have taken things this far. . . . People have been telling me not to go through with it," he said.

For more than a year, Harrison has repeatedly brought to local media a thick file of what he says is case documentation to local media and requested his story be printed.

But he did not file suit until Jan. 5. Harrison has no attorney to prosecute his suit. But if the case does reach court, he said he will be forced to hire one.

David Stormer, director of University Police Services, said his office has no written record of the incident involving Harrison and the officers.

Because of a University policy to not comment about pending litigation, Stormer refused to answer any further questions. University spokesman Bill Mahon returned a phone call placed to Jordan's office, citing the same policy.

Much of what Harrison claims has happened to him stems from a 1985 encounter with Craig Millar, associate vice president for student services.

At that time, Harrison, who was an employee in the International Student Office, said he informed Millar that Penn State dropped more than 20 courses on non-white, non-Western cultures since 1978.

Determining the exact numbers of such classes that have been dropped is difficult. But it has been a common complaint from members of the black community and other interested groups that a lack of faculty has resulted in either the dropping or inability to offer non-Western courses.

Harrison said Millar told him such information should be "none of his business and not to investigate these things too closely."

Millar refused to comment about Harrison's allegations, citing the same University policy as Stormer and Mahon.

Harrison also claims he told Lamar Kopp, deputy vice president for international programs, that he was going to inform three visiting African ambassadors of the dropped courses. Kopp told Harrison that he "can't do that, that would be bad for Penn State, " according to the complaint.

But even Harrison himself doesn't attribute the encounters with Millar and Kopp as the cause of the alleged acts of harassment detailed in his complaint.

"I don't know why I've been persecuted. I can only assume that what I wanted to do was not pleasing to the administration," he said.