With Acme Pizza leaving State College and Grillers closing down after a fire, Penn State students have a limited number of places to go to satisfy late-night cravings. This is a college town, but students have few places to go at night. Students are being forced to drive to out-of-town businesses to get something to eat on the weekends. This increases the likelihood of drunken driving.

If there were more late-night eateries, students would not have to drive to other venues. Some Penn State students say the primary reason for drinking is the lack of anything better to do. Town Sen. Mike Fazio has brought up that there needs to be a "safe environment" where students can go after the bars close. These are the kind of places Penn State needs — whether that means that HUB Late Night should be a little later or coffee shops should stay open all night.

There are few places to go to get food nor are there many places for students to go to relax at night. Most of the coffee shops downtown close early, the food places at the HUB-Robeson Center close early too, leaving the students without options.

If coffee shops were open later, some students might opt to go there rather than a bar. Coffee shops offer an intimate setting and often draw college students. Restaurants also offer an alternative meeting place.

But having one 24-hour restaurant downtown just doesn't cut it. This is a town housing about 40,000 hungry, bored students. Many other college towns have a lot of round-the-clock restaurants or take-out places. Not only would having more of these types of places decrease drunken driving, it would also help State College's economy. Students need late-night places to go during the week, too.

Students use the HUB-Robeson Center at night as a place to go and study every night of the week. But when there are students studying there are also often hungry students. However, when you look around the student union building at these times, every single food place is closed. Food venues in the building should be open all night.

Students cannot leave the HUB-Robeson Center to go elsewhere, becasue there are few restaurants that are open later — and those are not open late enough. College students stay up very late, if not all night. Students need pick-me ups to get through the heavy-duty studying.

The university and the borough have many ways to try and curb students from drinking. They put up signs in CATA buses urging students to drink responsibly, they offer HUB Late Night which doesn't appeal to all students.

It seems the university and the borough are doing everything except the most obvious — getting places to stay open later Downtown.