A group of Penn State administrators and student leaders is now ready to assess how controversial programs will receive space for events on campus.

Stan Latta, director of Unions and Student Activities, said the group will advise him on what to do if a room request form for a particularly sensitive event involving sexually or violently explicit material comes to his desk. Latta is in charge of allocating university space to student groups.

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG), Graduate Student Association and University Park Allocation Committee will be involved, USG President Rubina Javeri said.

Latta said Javeri would represent USG, although Javeri said USG and the other organizations are still in the process of appointing representatives to the group.

When and whether it meets is up to Latta, who has the final say on what action will be taken, Javeri said.

The group will determine reasonable controls to be placed on sexually or violently explicit events so as not to offend people, such as campus visitors, Latta said.

University protocol that took effect Aug. 21, 2001, says that the Office of Unions and Student Activities has the authority to restrict sexually or violently explicit programs to non-public areas, require warnings of the content to be posted, and allow access only to Penn State students or adults over 18. While remaining open to all Penn State students, some programs could be required to be held behind closed doors, such as last semester's Sex Faire, Latta said.

The policy of placing signs on doors is a gesture of courtesy to students not willing to see sexually explicit material, Javeri said.

USG Vice President Kris Ankarlo said he did not agree with the policy of placing signs on doors because they might stigmatize the groups holding the programs.

"The only people suffering from this are the Penn State students, especially the LGBTA [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and its allies] and Womyn's Concerns," Ankarlo said.

When organizations fill out a form requesting a room for a program, they must check a box if their programs will include sexually explicit or graphically violent material. This requirement was added after the protocol took effect. The organization must also explain the nature of the material. Latta will then consider the room request form.

Student organizations might be able to bypass Latta's approval if their program is coordinated with an academic department, Latta said. In such a situation, a faculty member could reserve space for the event, which would not require the completion of a room request form, he said.

Latta, who ultimately decides what controls will be placed on events, said he and the group will not alter the events but will make sure the organizers forewarn people of explicit content.

"Some of the people opposed to this called this 'a censoring committee'," he said. "I don't censor the events. ... We're not taking freedom of speech away, we're just regulating time, place and manner."

Latta said he has no set definition of what qualifies as sexually explicit or violently graphic.

An appeals process for programs denied space for an event does not exist, mostly because he has never denied a program, Latta said.

The only time a program would not receive a room would be if the content was deemed obscene, under the legal definition of obscenity, or if it involved physical acts of violence such as people hitting each other, Latta said.

Groups will be denied from organizing controversial programs in public places, Javeri said. No program will be denied space without the problem being explained to the group first, she said.