Volume 4, No. 5
October 30, 1992

Pro Life Sign Defaced In HUB

Penn State Undergrad Runs
Write-In Campaign for State Treasurer

   In a related action last week, Penn State Students for Life filed an act of intolerance against unknown vandals who defaced a Pro Life sign in the HUB basement.

   On Monday ,October 19, members of Penn State Students for Life painted one of the HUB basement windows with the message "Abortion Kills Children." Sometime during the night the sign, painted with water soluble paint, was defaced by a vandal who wrote the word BULL into the sign.

   Penn State Police were summoned, and the action was logged as an act of criminal mischief. Police continue to investigate the case and no suspects were identified. In addition, the Office of ConductStandards was contacted and an act of intolerance was filed against the person re- sponsible for defacing the sign.

   In response to the vandalism, Penn State Students for Life staged a free speech picket in the HUB Basement on October 23. About fifteen students spent an hour Friday afternoon rallying for free speech and against political correctness and intolerance, said Caroline Brennemen, President of Penn State Students for Life.

   Marcus Ronaldi, a PSU Senior, is starting a write-in campaign for the position of State Treasurer. Ronaldi said he wants to bring the issue of the University budget being closed into the public debate, where support for the initiative has declined.

   Currently, Catherine Baker Knoll, the incumbent Democrat, is leading her Republican challenger by a large margin.

   Ronaldi's main reason for starting this "million to one campaign" is that he is not satisfied with the way the two front runners are addressing the issue of the university budget.

   Ronaldi said, "At this point I probably can't win but you (the students) can't lose."

   When asked how he decided to enter the state-wide fray, he told us that his friends and roommates

encouraged him to become politically active.

   "They asked me what [office] they should 'write me into."'Ronaldi got his start in politics early in life, his first experiences dating to his seventh year.

   An active member of the Penn State College Democrats, and a volunteer for the current campaign effort, he thinks more students should become involved in local and state-wide politics.

   Student apathy is a much decried problem affecting today's work-oriented collegiates, but Ronaldi sees it as a terrific experience, one which he would encourage others to share.

For more information on Mr. Ronaldi's campaign efforts, please call him at 234-2403. Tell him you read about him in the The Lionhearted!