A Penn State freshman fell about 55 feet from a sixth-floor Beaver Hall window just before midnight on St. Patrick's Day, Penn State University Police said.

Ryan P. Walton, 19, of Harleysville, was at a party in the supplemental room on the sixth floor of Beaver Hall when the university police showed up at about 11 p.m. and found "a significant amount of beer and liquor" in the room, according to a Penn State statement.

As the police questioned students in the hallway, witnesses said Walton knotted a bed sheet and a blanket together, tied one end of the constructed rope to a bed and climbed out the window.

He "did not even make it to the fifth floor before he fell to the ground," landing in grass, dirt and gravel on the northwest side of Beaver Hall in the Pollock Halls quad area, according to Penn State's released statement.

Walton, an information sciences and technology major and a Porter Hall resident, remains in Altoona Hospital, where he was flown by helicopter early Saturday morning, Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said yesterday.

On Saturday, Penn State reported that Walton suffered significant internal injuries and injuries to his back, arms and pelvic area.

At a Beaver Hall question-and-answer session last night, Residence Life directors told residents that they have been in touch with Walton's roommate, who reported Walton has had "a couple of surgeries," all of which have been successful. Walton is due for a few more surgeries at Altoona Hospital, Residence Life Assistant Director Mark Rameker said.

"As far as we know, he's talking," Residence Life Director Diane Andrews said. "Considering what could have happened, he's in good shape."

Rameker told the room of about 50 students that the office of Residence Life wanted to squelch any rumors that may be flying around the dorm by speaking directly to the students. He said he and Andrews had also spoken to residents of Porter Hall yesterday.

However, the pair declined to say anything about the ongoing investigation of the incident, explaining that they weren't aware of the exact circumstances of the night.

The university police log indicates that five underage citations were handed out to students at the party, during which police heard that someone had fallen from a window. The Penn State press release reports that the screen of the window had been pushed out but does not indicate whether Walton had pushed the screen.

Mahon said police were handing out the underage citations when they heard someone had fallen, but he declined to say whether Walton was trying to avoid police by climbing out the window.

"I wouldn't make that speculation," Mahon said.

He said police are continuing to inves-

tigate the fall and the party, which was busted by police because the students inside -- more than two dozen, according to Penn State -- were loud and refused to cooperate with resident assistants.

Early Saturday morning, outside her fifth-floor Beaver Hall window, Simone Tukeva (freshman-biobehavioral health) said she saw police taking pictures and staring up at the building. Her room faces the quad where Walton fell.

"The place where the bikes are kept was roped off with police tape," Tukeva said. "There were three policemen standing out there taking pictures of where he fell, and they were looking up at the window, trying to see what had happened."

Tukeva said she came back to her dorm at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Later in the day, she said the mood around her dorm was somber.

"People are just like 'I can't believe that happened,' " Tukeva said. "My roommate was really upset [Friday] night. Somebody was talking to my RA and said she was really upset, too."

Walton graduated from North Penn High School in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 2005.