As a member of the student body, I am pleased that students exercised their right to freedom of speech yesterday at the rally for civil liberties, which protested the installation of cameras downtown. However, while these cameras are to be placed in areas dominated mostly by students, these cameras are not just about the students.

As a lifelong member of this community and also a member of the student body, I am in the unique position to see both sides of this issue and I am very much in favor of placing cameras in certain areas downtown.

Perhaps if they had been in place a few years ago the riot that occurred could have been prevented.

The impacts of this riot did not just affect the Penn State students involved, they had some serious impacts on the community as well.

Furthermore, it was not the students or Penn State who paid for the thousands of dollars worth of damage, it was the State College community's tax dollars that paid for this ridiculous display of irresponsibility.

So students, before you make the decision to oppose these cameras, remember that it is not just you that they will effect.

When you go home for the summer and after you graduate, you are leaving behind a community that is not composed of only college students, but of lifelong citizens of State College and their families -- who might just not feel like paying the price for your drunken, irresponsible acts.