Penn State officials said it is too soon to react to an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate recommendation that calls for a committee to look into "philosophical and ethical" guidelines for on-campus surveillance cameras.

The Senate on Tuesday called for the university to create a committee with student members to determine policies regarding placement and use of the devices.

Bruce Kline, assistant director for Penn State University Police, said he chairs a committee that determines the technical guidelines for cameras, and a committee to look at Senate's concerns simply does not exist at this point in time.

"It doesn't have to do with where we put them," he said.

"There is no committee to address the concerns of the Senate, which include camera location and use."

Kline said the only university regulations for the cameras is university policy AD-53, which keeps the cameras out of classrooms and faculty workspaces without their consent.

"That's a policy we adhere to ... but that's an administrative policy," he said, adding that the committee the Senate recommended Tuesday night would have to be approved by the administration.

But administrative officials said they have not yet received the Senate's legislation. "We'll see how we can assist from our end, if it's practical," Penn State Spokesman Tysen Kendig said.

Currently, he said Penn State Police work with departments to determine camera placement.

"We have people who are experts on campus in law enforcement who are best positioned to make those judgments," he said.

Surveillance cameras are only in public locations, Don Reed, security systems specialist, said.

"I really don't think that [the Senate's legislation] will affect the way we've been using cameras up to this point," he said.

"They're all in public spaces," he added. "They're all visible."

Legislation sponsor Pollock/Nittany Sen. Alex Ibrahim said installing cameras in elevators in East Halls concerned him, but Reed said they were installed because of vandalism.

"Those are temporary installations of an investigative nature," Reed said.

Kline said Penn State Police use internal guidelines to determine camera placement, even though they have no written policy.

He said, for instance, that cameras are not located within computer labs but are instead installed in the hallways outside the labs.

According to university policy, cameras cannot be placed within classrooms without faculty consent.

Reed said Penn State Police apply that clause to placing cameras in the labs as well.

"It's probably less restrictive than our own internal standards," he said.