A video produced as part of a package to help faculty deal with "worrisome student behaviors" has caused a stir recently because of its depiction of an angry veteran, university officials and veterans said.
The video, which was posted on the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Web site, features an actor playing a new professor who feels threatened by a student veteran because he is unhappy with his grade. The actor portraying the veteran threatens the professor and says he deserves a better grade, "or else." The video is supposed to show how such situations should be handled.
Some veterans were offended by the brash and angry way the Iraq war veteran was portrayed in the clip.
"What really got to us was that the man who plays the department head in the video says, 'Oh, it was the veteran,' " said Maggie Kwok, president of the Penn State Veterans Organization. "What if it was 'Oh, the gay one,' or 'Oh, the Asian kid?' "
Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the university responded to the veterans' concerns as quickly as possible by removing the video.
"We heard them, we responded and there was certainly no intent to suggest that any particular student group was inclined toward worrisome behavior," Powers said.
The vignette was posted on YouTube on March 1, several days after the university had removed it from its own Web site, and has faced opposition since it appeared on the video sharing network last month.
"Obviously someone has taken our video and has posted it elsewhere," Powers said. "Since it has been posted on the Internet, we have received some e-mails from veterans and friends of veterans who have seen the video out of context."
Powers said the video was not meant to be seen on its own, but rather was meant to be viewed as part of a series that focuses on how to deal with "worrisome" students as well as where to obtain help if it is needed.
She added the videos were in place to help all members of the university community, including students.
The video, which was originally posted as part of a four-part module on the CAPS Web site in November, did not receive opposition until late February.
"On Feb. 26, we received an external complaint from someone who said they were a veteran and that they were offended by the video," Powers said. "On that very same day, Feb. 26, we took that video down."
Brian Clark, Penn State's director of veteran programs, said the video was inappropriate but was quickly dealt with by the university.
Kwok (sophomore-international politics), agreed with Clark and said she was pleased the university acted expediently in removing the offensive video from its Web site.
After the video was removed, Kwok said she sat down with Dennis Heitzmann, the director of CAPS, and he apologized to the veteran population on behalf of the counseling service.
Heitzmann could not be immediately reached for comment.
She added student veterans are a minority on campus.
"We [veterans] are such a minority that when people are asked to name a demographic, they don't always think of veterans," she said. "But we are a demographic, and we are a pretty small one at Penn State."
There are fewer than 1,000 veteran students at University Park and nearly 2,000 at all 24 Penn State campuses across the commonwealth, Kwok said.
And as of September, there were 543 students enrolled in Penn State's Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), which combines the enrollment of the Naval, Air Force and Army ROTC programs and includes some veterans, according to live.psu.edu.
Powers said Penn State has a good, longstanding relationship with the armed forces and is thankful for the feedback it received about the video because it will allow the administration to continue its service to veteran students.
Kwok said she appreciates the actions taken by the university.
"I really appreciate that we have moved past this and Penn State has realized that what it has done is wrong and there are other issues that need to be addressed about student veterans that would benefit student veterans," she said.
