Because of a new ban on concerts in general-purpose classrooms, the holiday concerts of several campus a cappella groups may have to be moved or canceled pending further university investigation.

The ban was implemented at the beginning of this semester, but groups have not come into conflict with the policy until now, with some concerts just days away.

The ban came as a result of misuse of the facilities in past years, said Robert Myrick, an architect with Penn State facilities resources and planning who is responsible for general-purpose classrooms (GPCs). He said, for example, that there were incidents of people dancing on and breaking desks and spraying silly string and confetti without cleaning up.

"It's just irresponsible behavior," he said. "Last year seemed to climax."

The ban was made possible under university policy AD-62, which is also responsible for the ban on food and drink in classrooms. According to the policy, the university "has total discretion to disallow any activities that are not appropriate for the GPCs."

GPCs include rooms in the Forum building, where many a cappella groups have held concerts in past years.

None of the Above (NOTA), an a cappella group, has held concerts in the Forum each semester for at least the past six or seven years, Michael Beck, the group's business manager, said.

Beck said he began planning a concert for this weekend at the beginning of October.

"I still have yet to hear back from [the university], and my concert's in like four days," he said. "It's been like pulling teeth trying to get our concert to occur."

Beck said he expected the university to make a decision yesterday or today about whether NOTA could use the Forum. He said the group has reserved a band practice room in the music building, which is not subject to GPC regulations, if the Forum is off limits.

Beck said the university had proposed other venues, like the auditorium in the HUB-Robeson Center, but most HUB venues cost money and are often booked by LateNight Penn State on the weekends.

The Pennharmonics, another a capella group, is also "still scrambling" to hold its end of the semester concert, according to Greg Heleniak, the group's public relations manager.

Heleniak said he has never really received an explanation for the ban and has written to university officials about it.

"If you're taking academic space away, there's no real venue that an organization can use to hold their concert," he said.

Neither NOTA nor the Pennharmonics said they had had issues with cleaning up the rooms in the past.

Myrick said the ban would remain in place until the university knew which groups were causing the problems. He said individual groups were being approved on a case-by-case basis.

"These are things that are being investigated before we say yes or no," he said. "If there's not issues with the group in the past then they'd probably be able to use [a GPC]."

No Refund Theatre, a student group that holds free theater performances in the Forum on most weekends, has not been affected by the ban, Myrick said. He said the group had a "good understanding" of the university's regulations and has treated the university's classrooms responsibly.

Myrick said policy AD-62 was formed as a result of meetings involving facilities resources and planning officials and "other people up the line." He said there were some committees involved that had student positions, such as the university committee on instructional facilities, but students often have not shown up.

Myrick said the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) had been contacted to fill the student position on the committee this year. Jay Chamberlin, UPUA president, has said his facilities chair would probably fill positions like this one.