Jim Lynch, director of the International Students and Scholars Office, has been running the International Festival in the HUB-Robeson Center since he came to Penn State in 1978.

Last month he was informed that it might have to be cancelled this year.

One aspect of the festival is a massive potluck-style dinner called the International Fair. Global student organizations are invited to prepare and serve ethnic foods from their countries of origin.

This year, the fair will not be included in the festival because home-cooked food is not allowed to be served on campus anymore.

Several student-run events, many of them multicultural in theme, are being either cancelled or dramatically changed due to the new food policy adopted by management of the HUB-Robeson Center.

Stan Latta, director of Unions and Student Activities, said the new policy was adopted in response to mandate made by last month the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Under this mandate, no food prepared in a private home can be sold or used in a public eatery like the HUB-Robeson Center.

"We knew sometime last spring that this was an issue," Latta said. "To be honest, we should have been doing this ten years ago."

Curt Speaker, a biosafety officer for the university who helped develop the policy, said his major concerns were to comply with the law and to prevent food-borne illness. "The university is in a very precarious position," he said. "God knows what people might sue you for."

But Lynch said that although he realizes continuing to allow groups to prepare and serve food on campus creates a liability for the university, he would have liked to have been informed of the administration's decision earlier.

"I think the issue is it happening in the middle of the year and on such short notice," Lynch said.

Members of the Caribbean Student Association, like many others, are having a difficult time getting food for their annual Caribbean Experience event on such short notice, said Trinia McDonald, the group's president.

"It's very, very hard to get a caterer who is knowledgeable of Caribbean cuisine," she said. "We don't really know what to do."

Even if they do find a satisfactory caterer, McDonald said this year's event will probably cost her group about $7,000, which is at least $3,000 more than last year.

Lynch said the management of the HUB-Robeson Center provided a list of approved caterers, but he questions if they are capable of preparing ethnic meals.

"From what I saw of that list, they were pretty standard meat-and-potatoes caterers," he said.

For those caterers who will provide ethnic meals, the price will likely be high, he added: "A caterer's not going to do that for free."

This expense is a particularly harsh burden to groups that have been denied funding for food by the University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC).

UPAC Chair Jason Lane said the decision was made to stop allocating these funds for two reasons: to discourage groups from preparing and serving food in ways that are inconsistent with government regulations and to settle the debate over how to determine what food programs to fund.

International Students Council President Edem Adubra said, "The problem with this decision is that food is essential to our programs."

He said food preparation is an important aspect of events run by a lot of multicultural student groups because older people in the community would often teach younger people about their culture in the process.

"It's a way for us to get together with the community and learn from each other," he said.

He added that his group is working with Lynch and others to develop a taskforce to salvage the programs that have been affected by the new food policy.

Latta said his office is working to identify off campus venues that student groups can use for their events and make it easier for groups to work with caterers to prepare ethnic foods. "Our goal is not to detract from our diversity programs on campus," he said.

Speaker suggested that in the future student groups could prepare food with university employees in approved kitchens, such as those in dinning commons.

He said he did not intend to interrupt the activities of student groups. "To be honest . . . it didn't cross my mind," he said.