Starting Friday, the Graduate Student Association will stop showing second-run films in Chambers Building because of lack of attendance.

Previously, GSA had shown movies in Chambers Building that had finished their regular theatrical run, but the proliferation of videocassette recorders among University students cut into the theater's appeal, said Pete Warren, GSA's film manager.

But movies at Kern Graduate Building and the Carnegie Cinema, 113 Carnegie, are doing well, Warren said. Those theaters show first-run international films and movies that don't play downtown. GSA has never competed with Cinema World, the company that owns all of the movie theaters in State College, Warren added.

Thomas Kelly (junior-advertising) said the Chambers Building closing would negatively affect his movie-going because he normally goes to see second-run films.

But Anu Athavale (senior-mass communications) said that although she prefers movies on the big screen, the Chambers Building closing won't have much of an effect on her movie-watching habits because she either rents videos or watches cable.

Those habits have contributed to the cancellation of the film screenings. The films GSA sponsors are funded by ticket sales, Warren said, adding that attendance at Chambers Building was too low to support movies there. The association is only allocated enough money each year from the University to show a weekend of free international films at the end of each semester, Warren said.

A Student Organization Budget Committee policy states that it will not allocate money to events that charge an admission fee, said Bill Briggs, student affairs financial officer. Because of this policy, GSA does not receive funding for its regular films and there is not enough funding to offer free films in the volume GSA currently does, Warren said.

At some other schools -- including the University of Texas and the University of Nebraska -- film series are run by university-sponsored student activities funds, Warren said.

The University of Nebraska's University Program Council sponsors a series of international films every Sunday, said Greg Schuster, the council's event director. Funding for the series comes from a $1.01 component of a student activities fee, Schuster added.

With a student activities fee currently being considered at Penn State, Undergraduate Student Government President Chris Saunders said if the fee goes through, a film series funded by that fee is a possibility.

"I could foresee some of that money going to (a film series)," Saunders said.