Despite overwhelming student opposition, the State College Borough Council approved the protocol for surveillance cameras in Beaver Canyon last night.

While camera use has been approved in principle, council still must vote to accept a bid or reject
all bids at its May 5 meeting. No direct action will be taken to install cameras until a bid is approved.

In a 4-3 decision, Council President Richard McCarl, and council members Cathy Dauler, Jean McManis and James Meyer voted in favor of the plan. Tom Daubert, Elizabeth Goreham and Janet Knauer dissented.

Citizens, many of them students, packed council chambers, pleading, urging and expressing discontent for nearly two hours before the vote.

"Town and gown relations are on the line with this issue," USG town senator Kristen Kofmehl said. "Please listen to your constituents."

Of about 30 people who spoke before council, only Cpl. Mark Argiro of the State College Police Association was in favor of the cameras.

At one point, State College Mayor Bill Welch interjected, expressing his opinion that cameras might deter people from throwing objects from balconies in Beaver Canyon. Police officers have been hit on the head with thrown objects, such as beer bottles, on multiple occasions.

"When those people kill someone down there, and I believe it'll be when, not if, I want to be able to tell the widow that borough council did everything possible to prevent it," Welch said.

However, some members of the audience disagreed with Welch's reasoning.

"People who are drunk do not care about cameras," Dan Leathers (junior-history) said.

If a falling bottle kills someone in Beaver Canyon, having the incident available for replay would not make a difference, he added.

Interfraternity Council President Steve DiOrio said all four fraternities along Beaver Avenue are opposed to the cameras. He stressed that alternative measures such as additional lighting and placing police officers on the street would be more effective measures.

Knauer requested the help of student leaders in finding alternative solutions. "While we would all like human solutions, we all know human solutions are extremely expensive," she said. "I'm asking you to go to Penn State and ask them to help us with the human solutions we would all like to see."

Before the vote, Knauer proposed three amendments to the protocol, all of which gained approval. The changes included amending State College Police Chief Tom King's advisory committee to include two members of council instead of the chair of the pedestrian traffic safety committee.

"Council is responsible for this action," she said. "Having two members gives us a good insight into what is going on."

In addition, all camera footage would need council's approval in order to be released unless existing laws already require its dissemination. Lastly, images would be stored for up to 14 days, as opposed to the originally proposed 30.

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Ian Rosenberger was disappointed in council's decision.

"It takes away a right, maybe not constitutionally, but personally, and that's saddening to me," Rosenberger said. "I think people are going to see this as an 'us versus them' situation and that no-man's-land that is College Avenue is going to get wider."

Paul Cronin, Off-Campus Student Union president, agreed with Rosenberger.

"I'm irritated that it seems that certain council members did not take a repeated student input into consideration," Cronin said. "We gave them facts, reasons and alternatives and they didn't listen."

Rosenberger said student leaders will not give up.

"It's not over; it's just getting started. We [student leaders] wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't fight this from here on out. The least we can do is to attempt to influence Penn State's involvement."