Penn State President Graham Spanier spoke about the university's efforts to adopt a new file-sharing program, among other concerns, at last night's Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly meeting.

Currently co-chair of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, Spanier said the university hopes to have a free file-sharing service available to all students by next fall semester.

"We want to get a system in place before our students get in trouble," he said. "It's going to get pretty serious if we don't deal with it."

The program will allow students on and off-campus to access approximately 500,000 of the most frequently downloaded songs at no additional fee, Spanier said.

"I have a good feeling about this falling into place," he said. "What we end up with could be quite wonderful if we pull it off."

However, Council of Commonwealth Student Governments academic affairs director Kyle Templin said the program will only offer streaming access, not ownership, of files.

"The services are just 'tethered' downloading," he said. "It can transfer to an MP3 player on your computer, but can't be burnt onto a CD."

John Ten Hoeve, representative for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, said quality is sacrificed with streaming.

"Students won't be happy and the recording industry won't care as much," he said. "The whole system [Spanier] is proposing is going to have a lot of bugs.".

Templin added that once students leave Penn State they will no longer have access to the files.

Academic Assembly president D. Josh Troxell said, "What Spanier is doing is truly groundbreaking. This is the first time any educational institution is stepping up for students."

Last year, a congressional panel warned Spanier that the committee needed to fix the file-sharing problem or face consequences of new, unfavorable legislation.

"Some congressmen got really fired up," he said. "Some called students criminals and said they should be locked up."

Templin said the program will benefit students in the long-run.

"[The program] will change the perception Congress has of students as criminals," he said.

At the meeting, Spanier also addressed the members' concerns about state appropriations to the university.

He said the university expects to receive funds, but has no indication of when.

"This is not a good situation for Penn State and we have not seen very much movement in Harrisburg," he said.

Troxell said receiving late appropriations is not uncommon.

"The university will continue to function," he said. "More importantly the university is concerned about what next year's going to look like."

Spanier also responded to questions about student parking.

He said the university is attempting to become more pedestrian-friendly by providing incentives to park in lots on the outskirts of campus, although some have not yet been constructed.

"If you are willing to park further out, the cost will be smaller than anything we've had in modern history," Spanier said.

Mark Levin, vice president of operations for Academic Assembly, said he was not satisfied with Spanier's response on parking.

"He discussed the master plan, but he didn't give a time-scale," he said.