Penn State students have been lobbying in the capital area for increased state funding for Penn State. I suggest they lobby Graham Spanier to drop plans to move the Dickinson School of Law to University Park.

That would free up the $60 million needed to build a new law school; additional millions would be saved each year by not running two law campuses.

Even better, it would restore credibility to President Spanier's fund requests. When the PSU president reinterprets the written pledge to keep the School of Law in Carlisle "in perpetuity" to mean "until I can dissolve its Board of Governors," the legislature and the governor are understandably skeptical of the basis for any funding requests. The Penn State Principles require that individuals conduct themselves in an "open, honest, and responsible manner" and "not tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception."

The Code of Conduct condemns "false or inaccurate reports" and "academic dishonesty."

President Spanier's editorial on music piracy states, "Ethical standards should not be considered simply a matter of individual choice. What we communicate to the next generation will largely determine if we will live in a just society ... Penn State (is) ...teaching our students about integrity and proving that the higher education community still values ethical behavior ..." President Spanier's actual conduct in the Dickinson School of Law issue resembles an unscrupulous bait and switch.

Lofty words but devious actions -- that is not described anywhere in the Penn State Principles, but can be found in the dictionary under "hypocrisy."