As a former member of the University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC), I am used to people complaining about how the student activity fee is allocated. Unfortunately, many people who express their opinions about it are either ignorant of the process of allocation or simply close-minded. In the same way that the First Amendment of the Constitution was not set up to protect the speech that we all like, the process of allocating student activity fees was never intended to only support programs that all students agree with. Members of the committee in charge of distributing the money are given excellent tutelage and do a commendable job of allocating based solely on university policy, not personal opinion. There were countless times when I disagreed with funding certain programs but voted in favor of giving them money because they fit the criteria laid out by the university.

For those Penn State students who do not approve of Ann Coulter, myself included, I would advise them to take a page from the conservative groups on campus. When Howard Dean came to campus in 2004, members of the College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom attended his speech, listened to what he had to say without creating a disturbance and then lined up to ask him questions during the approved time. People need to remember that this is a college campus and that there is nothing more important than the free exchange of ideas, even those ideas that some consider "hate speech".

Amanda Sponsler

Class of 2007

Former UPAC member, former Young Americans for Freedom member