Local leaders of all types gathered at the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St., to discuss what they agreed is becoming a bigger problem every year -- the drinking culture at Penn State.
Borough officials, district judges and Penn State administrators all met Tuesday night to brainstorm solutions for increased levels of underage drinking, binge drinking and drinking related offenses.
The public forum event, hosted by the CARE Partnership, divided participants into break out groups which discussed Penn State students' drinking habits, the relationship between students and borough residents, and potential ways to solve the problems.
When all the groups reconvened after two hours of discussion, two main ways to solve the problem surfaced -- increasing consequences for drinking related offenses and enhancing good will between students and other community members.
Magisterial District Judge Carmine Prestia floated between groups, and reiterated a request he made for increased maximum fines for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct at a State College Borough Council meeting on Friday.
"Give me the discretion to set the fine higher," Prestia said to one group. "$300 isn't enough."
Prestia said he didn't want to see the minimum fine change, so that he could still set a low fine for small offenses.
Many people at the forum said even students they talked to supported higher fines as well.
Zack Van Horn (senior-nuclear engineering) was at the meeting to fill a requirement for HPA 057 (Consumer Choices in Health Care), but ended up actively participating in his group's discussion, and presenting his group's ideas to the entire forum.
He said he would like to see higher fines and consequences for drinking offenses.
The forum's dialogue also steered from consequences for bad behavior toward improving relations between students and other community members.
State College Police Chief Tom King presented an idea that would package "life skills" into Penn State.
"Students need to know their rights and responsibilities as a college student in State College," King said.
He said students could use more reinforcement of what they cannot do, and that the program would also teach students what rights they have.
"For example, the borough is always ready to help students in disputes with landlords," he said.
The group King sat in on also presented an idea that council recently voted not to look into -- a downtown pedestrian mall.
King said in his presentation that a pedestrian mall could provide a venue for more events downtown unrelated to drinking.
