AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: Riots mar Penn State weekend festival

The Associated Press Fourteen police officers were hurt in the 2 1/2-hour melee that involved up to 1,500 people hitting the streets after bars announced last call early Sunday, authorities said. More than 20 people were arrested. Three storefronts and 33 street lights were damaged. Although no looting was reported, property damage was estimated at $100,000. Rioters pelted police -- and one another -- with beer cans, toilet paper, branches and other flying objects, police said. Injuries to officers ranged from burns and broken bones to less serious injuries suffered from thrown objects. People tore down street lights and used the poles to smash storefront windows and vehicle windshields. Some stripped naked and burned underwear, witnesses said. People were throwing kegs and furniture out of windows to add to the fires. The incident occurred as tens of thousands of people descended on State College this weekend for the 1998 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, a popular summer reunion of Penn State students and recent graduates. ''It didn't seem all that violent, sort of like a pep rally but with fire,'' said Penn State freshman Marc Clair, who heard the noise from the riots and walked downtown to watch. ''I saw a couch on fire, a girl burned her bra.? It was pretty crazy,'' Penn State junior Greg Pezza said. Accounts differ about the cause of the riot, which began around 1:30 a.m. on a street lined by high-rise apartments popular among Penn State students. Police said a group of about 150 young people converged after a Frisbee game and became upset when told to disperse. Someone in the crowd threw a trash can into the street and set it afire, and within 10 minutes the crowd grew to include about 1,500 people. But witnesses said the conflict began when police confiscated, then returned, a ''party ball'' -- a miniature keg of beer. As revelers incited one another, witnesses said police retreated and formed a perimeter around the area. Witnesses said police charged in at about 4 a.m., firing tear gas and using nightsticks and pepper spray. ''They just started running down the street, hitting people with their riot sticks,'' Penn State alumnus Steve Onufrak said. ''It was, like, hit one guy, boom, he's down. Run a little more, hit another guy, boom, and another, and another. [They weren't hitting] people causing a lot of trouble, just any random person.'' Police received no complaints about excessive use of force, Lt. Diane Conrad said. ''This is probably? the most property damage of any incident I can remember in my 25 years at Penn State,'' said Tom Harmon, director of Penn State police services. ''It was very ugly in terms of the crowd's behavior toward police. The officers early on, when we were just lined up across the road and before we moved on the crowd, took a lot of flying objects.'' University police held 24 people Sunday, including at least 11 Penn State students, on charges including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Rioters finally dispersed around 4 a.m., after state police and several area police and fire companies joined local and university officers in crowd control efforts. Streets reopened by 8 a.m. Sunday for the last day of the festival.