Last Tuesday, Penn State President Graham Spanier sent a memo to state legislators addressing Sex Faire, a recent event sponsored by student group Womyn's Concerns.

In addressing the Legislature, Spanier took on a conciliatory tone: "I found components of this event offensive and embarrassing to Penn State. I want to apologize to you, as I have many others, for any discomfort caused by actions of some of our students who, while presenting what they felt was an educational program, exceeded bounds of good taste expected by most Pennsylvanians."

We understand that Spanier was caught in a compromising and difficult decision — he was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. We even understand the reasons why he needed to address the Legislature to assure them that Penn State in no official capacity endorsed the activities of a feminist group eager to stir controversy.

We don't understand, however, why he needed to apologize on behalf of these students. They're not the ones who are sorry, and he shouldn't attempt to speak for them. They've demonstrated that they can speak for themselves. Spanier can apologize for his own discomfort, but many of the students for whom he claims to speak are perfectly at ease with Sex Faire. Instead of apologizing for the students, Spanier should have shown support for students' rights to free speech and expression. Even Gov. Tom Ridge had the common sense to dismiss Lawless' petty threats to suspend funding as "an overreaction" and "an irresponsible suggestion."

Ridge said that while he believes that the university has a responsibility to monitor student activities to ensure their adherence to community standards, he is a "proponent of academic freedom."

Ridge hit on two very important points: community standards and academic freedom. Community standards at a university campus are very different and far more liberal than they are at Montgomery County, which Lawless represents, or even Harrisburg, for that matter. More important, a university is as strong as its students' ideas.

If students can't express their thoughts and feelings, the vitality of a learning environment is compromised and a free marketplace of ideas becomes a dull and restricted reiteration of the dominant ideology's perspectives.

Tomorrow, Spanier has to face Lawless and his own special brew of new McCarthyism.

Dr. Spanier, stand strong and support your students — if not for Sex Faire, then for the idea of free expression that is ultimately at the root at this issue.