After Rep. John Lawless, R-Montgomery, protested two Penn State events in the past few weeks, the Undergraduate Student Government Senate passed a resolution that would defend students' First Amendment rights.

According to the resolution, Lawless is supporting efforts to reduce funding for Penn State unless First Amendment freedom of speech-protected programs such as Cuntfest and Sex Faire are discontinued.

"It's essential, as a right to this nation, to say what we want," said Town Sen. Andrew Pope.

Lawless questioned the appropriateness of two controversial programs, Cuntfest and Sex Faire, hosted at Penn State by student organizations.

Cuntfest was an event sponsored by Womyn's Concerns and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, focusing on performance art, music and a reading from Inga Muscio, author of the book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence.

Sex Faire was an event that focused on healthy sexual relationships, while promoting gender equity.

"The Undergraduate Student Government is outraged by the suggestion that programs hosted by students at this university should have any bearing on the commonwealth's allocation of funds for Penn State" expressed USG's stand in the resolution.

Senate debate of the resolution mainly centered around the use of the term "informative" because it was used in reference to Cuntfest and Sex Faire and some senators thought the term was inappropriate to describe those events.

Many senators expressed their displeasure with Lawless's opinion of those events as "pornographic."

"That's totally subjective," Pope said. "I personally see it as free speech."

The resolution expressed USG's continued support of the constitutional rights of all students and encourages them to continue promoting awareness and fighting attempts by the state to limit student rights.

"I think we need programs such as Sex Faire that gathered hundreds of people because of shock value. It got so many more students there," Town Sen. Justin Zartman said.

Debates arose that the content of the recent controversial events was not educational.

"Many people disagree that they are not educational programs -- they can, it's their right. I believe people here at Penn State have a right to voice their opinion," said Pollock Halls Sen. Lauren Applegate.

Senators debated the content of the events could have been better represented in a more educational and informative way.

Some senators said the Sex Faire would have been more beneficial and less controversial if the focus would have been on dispersing factual information such as brochures concerning self-examination tests.

"I don't think as many students would have come (to Sex Faire) if University Health Services just had a brochure about testicular cancer self-examinations," Zartman said. "It lacked the shock value."