It seems dissatisfaction with the president is not exclusive to George W. Bush.
For more than a year now, anti-sweatshop protesters have tried to get Penn State President Graham Spanier to sign the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP) to ensure that Penn State merchandise is made using humane labor.
For more than a year, Spanier and the university have resisted, citing anti-trust concerns. Fed up, the protesters became more active, dumping letters in Spanier's office, playing whiffle ball in Old Main and most recently sitting-in at Old Main with the intention of getting arrested.
If the protesters want Spanier's attention, they have it -- but not the kind of attention they should want. The university is exercising its legal right to press charges, and the protesters could face $2,500 in fines or a year in jail each for the criminal defiant trespass charges they face.
No matter how you look at it, that's a high price to pay for social activism.
The students fought back, gathering signatures on a petition asking that the university help plead their case. In some ways, it's similar to asking a victim for sympathy.
Regardless of the impact it will have on the judicial process, Spanier's appeal on behalf of the students would be an extraordinary gesture of good faith.
They aren't asking him to change his mind about the DSP (at least not in the petition), and they aren't asking him to endorse their clearly illegal behavior. They are simply requesting that he ensure that the punishment fits the crime.
Though they had lofty goals, the sweatshop protesters still had no right to stay in Old Main past 5 p.m. when it was closed to the public.
They planned to get arrested and got their wish -- and should pay the consequences.
But these consequences should be fitting, and as the head of what is billed as a "student-centered university," Spanier should ask that all students be treated fairly.
From this experience, the protesters should learn their lesson and next time try a more effective and legal means of getting their message across.
But this circumstance also gives Spanier a chance to show that he does have students' best interests at heart by extending this much-needed olive branch.
After all, students can't pay tuition when they're behind bars.
