College Republicans Chairman Andy Banducci took to the radio waves in Philadelphia last week to argue against the Vote for Change tour stop at Penn State.

Banducci said it was not appropriate for the university to allow a Democratic fund-raiser to take place on its property -- in this case, at the Bryce Jordan Center.

If Banducci wants to speak out against the Vote for Change tour, that's certainly within his rights.

But by attacking the university for allowing the concert to come to the Bryce Jordan Center, Banducci is asking for other speech to be restricted.

The fallout would have been far worse if the university had said the Bryce Jordan Center could not book the tour just because it is a fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. Would it have been more fair to simply restrict that speech?

The bottom line is that the university is not trying to encourage events promoting and helping the Democratic presidential ticket while ignoring the Republicans. It's not a question of the administration supporting John Kerry but not George W. Bush.

The concert wouldn't be fair if say, a tour was supporting Bush's campaign and the Jordan Center would not host that. That's biased and restrictive of speech.

But just because there is a tour for the Kerry campaign does not make Penn State wrong in accepting it.

It's just a money-making operation for the Jordan Center and for Penn State.

With a headliner like the Dave Matthews Band, which has sold out the arena during previous visits to campus, the revenue potential is so high that it wouldn't make sense to turn down the opportunity.

If a big-name artist was participating in a similar kind of tour to raise funds for the Republican Party and Bush, the university would be just as willing to make money by allowing it to come here as well.

University spokesman Bill Mahon said this concert has been handled like any other -- the political incentive didn't have any influence. And it wouldn't influence anything if the tour were a Republican fundraiser either.

Besides, it's not as if students don't know ahead of time that the money they dish out for a ticket is going directly to the Democratic Party, because they are informed when they make the purchase. There's nothing underhanded about it.

Banducci can say all he wants that the tour should not stop here, but Penn State and the Jordan Center has given its artists the right to free speech, and there's nothing wrong with that.