Assigned seating and a $2 per game hike in ticket prices are part of Penn State's plan for 1993 student football tickets.

The University's athletic ticket office has begun mailing season ticket renewal forms to about 61,000 fans. One change is the $2 per game increase over last year.

For students the $2 increase -- raising prices to $10 per game -- will be coupled with a plan for new assigned seating in the student sections. Student applications will be mailed on May 26.

"We have retained all the things that the students currently have available to them as far as class seating," Penn State Ticket Director Bud Meredith said. "(Students still have) the opportunity to be seated with fellow students."

Instead of the traditional season ticket that students are accustomed to using, they will receive a series of coupons, one for each home game. To be seated with friends, students will have to go to their assigned gate together on game day. There they will be given reserved seat tickets in exchange for their coupons.

The plan also includes provisions for groups of 20 or more students. Large groups would have to inform the ticket office on Monday or Tuesday of game week, and the location of their seats would be determined by the semester standing of the majority of the group.

Assigned seating came about in an effort to control overcrowding at football games. The problem became evident during the Penn State-Miami game last Oct. 10, when a smoke bomb was ignited in the student section. Several people were injured because they could not evacuate due to overcrowding in the walkways and aisles.

Ben Stevenson, a member of the committee that designed the plan and newly elected coordinator of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, said there still will be some bugs to work out when football season arrives.

"Liability is an important issue and it was something we did have to address," Stevenson said. "I really hope that it works as we feel that it's supposed to, but that certainty is unknown until the beginning of the season."

The new assigned seating plan will be accompanied by an increase in ushers in the student sections, partly to curb the problem of alumni and recent graduates migrating into the student sections, Meredith said.

But not all students are optimistic about the new ticket plan.

"I don't think they'll be able to enforce it," said Craig Magnuson (junior-mineral economics). "Once you get inside the gates it's pretty much chaos anyway."

Chad Hafer (junior-industrial engineering) said he will probably buy a season ticket, even though he does not like the idea of a price increase.

"As long as the University gets their money, I don't think it should matter where we sit," Hafer said. "Any price increase is ridiculous."

The increase is due in part not only to the need to generate additional revenue to support Penn State's 28 varsity sports, but also from the imposition of a new local-impact fee.

The fee will provide a portion of the ticket revenue to local municipalities under the terms of a previously announced agreement with the University.