Administrators reduced damage fees for student activist Olivia Guevara yesterday, saying it incorrectly estimated how much it would cost to fix an Old Main door they allege Guevara damaged.
Judicial Affairs recently found Guevara (graduate-labor studies) guilty of damaging university property by chalking anti-sweatshop messages in late September. She was originally asked to pay $408.96 in restitution fees and received a seven-year citation on her academic record.
Judicial Affairs reduced her fees to $136.32 yesterday, citing a $108.32 fee for labor costs and $28 fee for equipment as determined by the Office of Physical Plant (OPP).
Guevara has alleged from the beginning of the incident that she is being singled out to quiet her activism. Forty-eight Penn State professors signed a letter addressed to Penn State President Graham Spanier last week, asking him to drop her charges.
Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon refused to comment further yesterday, saying in an e-mail message that he doesn't think the university has anything more to say about "this minor vandalism case."
University officials say the chalking scratched a door on Old Main, and that Guevara admitted to the damage. Guevara has consistently held that damages to a door were never discussed during her Judicial Affairs meetings and that the first time she heard of the scratched door was when a reporter asked her about the charges.
Guevara originally faced criminal charges for the chalking incident, but Centre County District Judge Jonathan Grine dismissed the charges for lack of evidence.
At the beginning of the criminal hearing on Feb. 5, Penn State University Police Officer Roxanne Snider informed the judge that she was reducing the restitution costs from $408.96 to $381.92 because she did not have sufficient evidence to identify Guevara for all of the chalking.
Despite Snider's reduction of the fees in criminal court, Judicial Affairs kept Guevara's fee at $408.96 until yesterday.
According to e-mail correspondence between Guevara and director of Judicial Affairs Joe Puzycki, Judicial Affairs received an e-mail message from OPP on Feb. 23 confirming that the cost to fix the door was still equal to $408.96, and that Guevara must pay the full amount.
Guevara said she asked both OPP and Puzycki Feb. 23 for a copy of the e-mail explaining the costs but she never received it. A request sent to Puzycki by The Daily Collegian for a copy of the OPP fee confirmation letter on Feb. 28 was ignored.
Guevara received e-mail notification from Puzycki that OPP adjusted the damage amount yesterday morning.
"After specific work order information was requested and after breaking out individual work costs, we found that the cost to restore the doors of Old Main was actually limited to $136.32, not $408.96. The $136.32 includes $108.32 (labor) and $28.00 (equipment)," Puzycki's e-mail message read.
Puzycki could not be reached for comment yesterday on the adjustment of the restitution fees and OPP employees referred all questions to Mahon.
Guevara released a statement yesterday that said the money she is using to pay for the fees is a collection of donations from 48 professors and other student and community leaders.
"I am paying this because the University will put a hold on my student status, which would inhibit my ability to conduct research on my thesis and thus affect my ability to graduate in May of this year," Guevara wrote.
