Nervous Nannies take over administration; set crazy rules

Last year Penn State fans started a wonderful tradition of setting up tents and camping out in front of the student admission gates at Beaver stadium so that they could get the best seats in the student section. It wasn’t a planned organization, but a spontaneous idea by a few excited fans that blossomed into something huge; something so big that players and coaches stopped by to visit and thank the students for their support. When the motley ban of campers dubbed themselves Paternoville, and camped out the entire week before the Ohio State game a new tradition was born. ESPN caught wind and featured the city of tents on Gameday and even the big man himself, Joe Paterno stopped by and chatted. If school officials have anything to say about it, that tradition will end soon.

Thursday the first tents appeared in anticipation of the big game against Michigan next Saturday. But this time the would-be campers were met by campus police who informed them that the university has now put in a bevy of new rules including the ban on tents until 6:00 a.m. Thursday of the next game. Tents must also be cleaned up by 8:00 a.m. on game day. They were told to vacate immediately which wasn’t met very warmly.

"I think they're ruining tailgating and pre-game stuff," sophomore Dan Baird said. "They got rid of drinking during the game, which is understandable. ... But half the fun of Penn State football is surrounding the game."

The university claims they are worried for students’ safety, hence the new rules. Fine and dandy, I have no problem with concern over the safety of the campers, but what the hell does the 6:00 a.m. Thursday limit have anything to do with safety? What safety problems arose last season to warrant concern you might ask, university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz claimed that someone plugged in an extension cord during a rainstorm and that "There could've been electrocutions there." That’s it? That’s the sand in Mountz’s short that’s keeping her and other officials up at night? Please… this is a paternalistic overreaction by overpaid officials that are afraid of getting sued, period. It has nothing to do with the safety of students. If extension cords are a problem, ban them… it certainly wouldn’t stop people from coming, but what the hell is with the time restrictions?!?



With a name like Annemarie we're guessing Ms. Mountz lookes something like this.





I have the misfortune of working for a company that was bought out by a very large corporation and I can’t help but draw parallels here. When the very large, unnamed company took over they brought in an overzealous EHS (environment, health and safety) guy that wanted all of us to wear steel toed shoes; and I’m a software engineer. Yes I am at such a high risk of a broken toe typing away at my keyboard sitting at my desk. These new Paternoville rules follow these same asinine, arbitrary lines of thought. Let’s over-administrate and error on the side of anal so there is no way we can get sued.

Here’s the real problem: by applying the time restrictions they may have inadvertently caused problems come next Thursday. How are they going to handle the pecking order come 6:00 a.m.? If there are 100 students waiting to set up tents Thursday morning who gets the front row? Are officials going to be there to sort it out? Hell no, they will be asleep in their soft beds dreaming about a bubble-wrapped world were nobody gets hurt. There could be some real tension if Person A claims the best position in line and Person B disagrees. Maybe we could set up a cage match or even better a survivor style competition of strength. You can imagine if a fight breaks out that will be the opportunity the administration is looking for to put an end to it, because it’s obvious that’s what they want anyway. It’s really sad that an otherwise great university has to squash the enthusiasm of a fantastic student body.