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Critics Bring Scrutiny to Deals for Campus Gas Drilling

November 7, 2011, 12:48 pm

By Scott Carlson

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is publishing a series of articles about gas drilling in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and its effects on and connections to higher-education institutions. (The Chronicle ran an article about gas drilling in the region last year, when colleges were just beginning to be approached by drillers.)

The first article in the series focuses on institutions that have struck deals with drilling companies, which use a controversial technique called “hydraulic fracturing,” or simply “fracking.” (Fracking involves boring down into shale, then using water, chemicals, and explosives to release the gas from the tight rock. Critics worry that the process can contaminate the environment, including groundwater.)

The article initially focuses on California University of Pennsylvania, where the nonprofit student association granted a company drilling rights on 67 acres that include sports facilities and student residences.

“A university spokeswoman, when contacted recently by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, initially said the association would not say whether it had a lease or had been approached to sign one,” the article says, although the group eventually provided the lease. But “the association says it is legally separate from CalU and not required to disclose the information, even though its offices are on campus and its executive director is a CalU employee.”

The article says that the university’s president, Angelo Armenti Jr., did not know the deal had been struck. The student association gets an upfront payment of $202,920, plus royalties of 18 percent on gas extracted.

The article also offers more details about leases at West Virginia institutions, like Alderson-Broaddus College, Bethany College, and West Liberty University.

The second part of the series—written by reporters at PublicSource, a nonprofit, public-interest news group that focuses on Western Pennsylvania—examines the links between corporate money and shale research at Pennsylvania State University and other institutions.

Penn State ranks fourth in the country in industry-sponsored research, and critics worry that research at the university will be tainted. Furthermore, the article notes, much of that research is off-limits to public scrutiny because it is protected as competitive trade secrets.

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  • 22280998

    A’s for everyone or I teach only via Distance Education (under an alias).

  • 11262324

    As our police chief said, “If we get a call that someone is brandishing a firearm in a classroom or that there have been shots fired, we will not hesitate to go in; however, we will shoot anyone who shows a firearm as there will be not time to distinguish the good guys from the bad.”

    So, pick your poison….

  • archman

    God forbid that the Arizona senators would give a @$ what the university law enforcement professionals have to say about more guns on campuses… I guess the politicians prefer getting their advice from more reputable sources, like cable news or their magic 8-balls.

  • sullivab

    If Obama wants to save Pell grants, maybe he ought to include a provision that the grants can fund the purchase of handguns by students. Surely no Republican would ever vote against a measure that included a provision to expand the presence of handguns in any setting.

  • pragmatist

    There are guns on campus anyway. Only an idiot would believe that passing a law prohibiting guns on campus would prevent people from bringing them. There are “prohibited” firearms on every campus. People have them in their cars, women carry them in their purses, men have them in their briefcases. Prohibiting them will do nothing to make it safer – unless you want to be subjected to searches of your person, your belongings, and your vehicle when on campus. How many of you liberals would go for that?

  • 22067030

    Speaking as a liberal in response to pragmatist, we can treat guns like other contraband. No searches or seizures without cause, but if you get caught, you discuss it with the judge. Or, for students, with a dean who will assign a 10,000-word essay on gun death statistics.

    —–GLMcColm

  • tbdiscovery

    Perhaps you should write the essay – there is much to learn. You’ll be surprised to know (or maybe not) that law-abiding citizens are not the problem.

  • eacclibrary2

    Personally, I say “hurray” to the Arizona Senate committee. Probably the only people that are currently obeying the no guns allowed are the staff and faculty. We need to be as well armed as our students. If someone is fearful that someone else will shoot back, just maybe they will not shoot in the first place.

  • edwoof

    Imagine you are having a grade dispute with a typical over-caffeinated, sleep-deprived, hung-over, sexually frustrated undergrad in your classroom after all the other students have left.

    Now imagine that they have a gun.

  • bcbailey64

    What a bunch of nutters. Seriously, Who in their right mind would advocate having guns on campus? Especially in Arizona…didn’t they just have a deranged student with a gun kill a 9 year old girl and brain damage a politician? What century is it? Oh, I forgot – we’re talking about the US and guns. That’s why it doesn’t make any sense from an international perspective. Or any intelligent and logical perspective.

  • willismg

    If I have one, too, I don’t have a problem.

  • http://whytheology.wordpress.com/ Trey Medley

    Next on the docket: guns in hospitals, guns in courtrooms, and guns for children in K-12 schools, but let’s make sure we keep guns out of state buildings like the Arizona capital, those guys are nuts.

  • oneadministrator

    When I’m allowed to bring a gun into their senate chamber, they can bring guns onto my campus…

  • gberkleycoats

    INSANE!

  • cwise1230

    Wonderful! We just had a shooting on campus the other day in our state, and then a few days prior my partner had a student go off on her in class and she was scared enough to file a report with campus police. I told her, like the other person on her mentioned, teach online. At least then they can’t find you as easily.

  • lewandowski

    Bravo for Chief Daykin. This was the same statement at U. of Texas in Austin by both campus and city police chiefs at last year’s event. They stated if they had seen a non-officer they would have shoot-to-kill that student or faculity in a crisis moment – there is no flag on one’s back to say that we are well meaning but full of bravado. Arizona would do better for their citiziens by supporting the Police than the gun lobby.

  • tptrekker

    Arizona, you are so pathetic these days. But we in places like Alabama and SC have to salute you. You are carrying so much of the baggage which has been on our shoulders over the years.

  • sgtrock

    I’ve been around guns my entire life. I served thirty years in the infantry and I own many guns and I love to recreationally shoot. I would never advocate concealed carry on campus. I am very leery of guns in the hands of over-eager amateurs. I don’t think any good could ever result.

  • rick1952

    What is the point of allowing guns on campus? Statistically speaking, there is no data that I know of that demonstrates that campuses are more dangerous than any other place in our society. In fact, most campuses are safer, and safest of all with respect to gun violence. Look up the statistics on campus crime which all colleges have to provide per the Clery Act – have I missed the gun crime wave on campuses across the nation?

    I grew up in neighborhoods where guns were unfortunately easily accessible and prevalent. What did the city get? More than 50 youth per summer dead from gun violence. That was during the 1960′s. When the crack epidemic and drug-dealing craze of the 1980′s and ’90′s brought 9 mm semi-automatics to prominence, police departments all over the nation had to change from revolvers to semi-automatics so as not to be out-gunned every time. And the death toll for youths increased exponentially.

    Why do we allow imagined fear violent criminal actions on campuses to push our legislators to permit guns on campus when there is a much lower incidence of such crime on college campuses than in the wider community? It seems that conceal carry and other advocates for guns on campus are advocating a solution in search of a problem.

  • lily141

    Ha, I can imagine that interaction. You both rest your hand guns on the desk and then attempt to calmly discuss why their final score was less than mediocre. Do you honestly think that if you have a gun tucked away in your desk and a student pulls theirs out first they are gonna let you go ahead and get yours too? Or are you gonna be the one to pull first?

  • willismg

    Nobody wants to use a firearm to settle such a dispute as this. And I would be thunderstruck if any professor would lay his out on the desk without good reason. Citing such a hyperbolic hypothetical situation is just downright silly.

    However, as seen in another story on this site, some folks resort to firearms for the most trivial reasons you can imagine. Unfortunately, believing that prohibiting guns will help only skews the odds in favor of the psychopathic cowards who think that brandishing and using their weapon settles all arguments. I think folks would be surprised just how much this dynamic changes when these types of people are faced with a person who actually shows some familiarity with a gun and is willing to use it in self-defense. As far as I’m concerned, anybody that pulls a gun on somebody else for such a trivial reason deserves everything he gets… including specifically death. And if the poor idiot gets shot, and is fortunate enough to survive, well then, maybe he’ll learn a lesson.

    These are not misunderstood youths who are making an adolescent mistake. And they are not folks “pushed over the edge” by being denied tenure at some southern university. They are psychos who, by showing their willingness to jump directly to deadly force with such shallow provocation, have forfeited all empathy on my part.

  • missoularedhead

    I do hope the legislation includes a provision for a fund for lawsuits. If this law passes, the first time a student threatens me with a gun, I’m suing the blazes out of the state for hostile work environment.

  • uiipbir

    Are guns allowed in Arizona House and Senate chambers?

  • _perplexed_

    Indeed, there should be a mandatory gun purchase for every 5k of Pell grant. Imagine: the NRA just lining up to lobby for increased student aid! Who could vote “No”?

  • sand6432

    The Republican legislators may have second thoughts the first time their son or daughter gets shot by a campus police officer responding to a call and sees that student with a gun in his or her hand.—Sandy Thatcher

  • awegweiser

    “Student Association”?Just what input did real students have on this transaction?
    So far it sounds to me like phony front organization for the gas people.
    And the University President did not know about this  
    And what will “student association” do with $202,920  (+ royalties)?
    This whole thing is as bogus as the crap we see on nightly TV about how safe this endeavor is.

  • 11134078

    Fracking aside—and this detestable procedure is a huge issue in the Finger Lakes area of NY which I love and where I live—the fact that “much of [research done at Penn State] is off-limits to public scrutiny because it is protected as competitive trade secrets” strikes me with horror. Research carried on in universities should be open. This simple principle used to be at the heart of the academic ethic. It should return there. 

  • billweare

    One of the major issues with this type of drilling/extracting procedure is with the proper installation of the well/casing.  An improperly installed well/casing down through the various strata present can create a pathway for the gas to migrate.  The current level of regulatory oversight that is exercised on a consistent and prescriptive basis is not robust according to some professional sources to guard against improperly installed/developed wells which can lead the the migration of the gas up into the aquifers and the troubling contamination issues.

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