Has it not been made abundantly clear that the vast majority of the student body vehemently opposes the installation of surveillance cameras on East Beaver Avenue?

According to the referendum question responses in the April 7 Collegian, 5631/6688 students (84 percent) who had an opinion are against the university helping to fund the cameras.

Why is the administration offering to help fund this invasion of privacy when it's not even on campus? There are security cameras on campus in several hidden locations already.

This is scarily similar to George Orwell's classic 1984, where video cameras captured every moment of every citizen's life.

There has been only one actual riot (by definition, involving damaging acts). Two gatherings occurred since, but involved only a crowd of students shouting across Beaver Avenue; no one was doing anything illegal.

Police arrived to disband the crowd and, attempting to prevent a riot, succeeded in provoking riotous emotions in crowd members (pepper sprayed students for crossing the street?) when, if they hadn't come, the group would have dispersed.

Cameras are no more a deterrent than eliminating Acme Pizza. Recent studies also show that sufficient lighting reduced robbery and rape in parking lots by 58 percent as opposed to cameras 4 percent.

I ask State College Borough Council member Cathy Dauler: How will this "end the issue"?

Don't you see how many more problems it will create? Kudos to Council members Tom Daubert and Elizabeth Goreham for standing up for the student body, but if the rest of the council want Big Brother watching us, then install cameras.

Students will gather, if not on East Beaver Avenue, then West Beaver Avenue, Atherton Street or College Avenue.