The State College Police Department obtained an arrest warrant Monday for a Reading man after matching his fingerprints with those recovered from a note used in a bank robbery over the summer, police said.

Algis Diaz, 25, has been jailed in Berks County since Aug. 15, according to the Pennsylvania State Police at Reading.

The State College Police Department obtained a warrant for Diaz’s arrest Monday in connection with the July 15 robbery of First National Bank, 460 Westerly Parkway.

Diaz was charged with one count each of felony robbery, theft by unlawful taking or disposition and receiving stolen property, according to court documents.

Diaz also faces multiple charges in Berks County connected to the robbery, and will remain incarcerated in Berks until the charges are processed, police said.

After the charges in Berks are complete, Diaz will go to either State College or Lehigh County to face additional charges, police said.

The remaining charges in State College and Berks County prohibit Diaz from posting bail and he will remain in prison, police said.

At 9:09 a.m. on July 15 an unknown man robbed the First National Bank. According to police, the man presented a note to the teller.

The note stated that the man had a gun and demanded he be given “all of the cash,” according to police documents. The teller gave the man $6,159 from a cash drawer, police said. Though the man fled the scene in a vehicle, the incident was captured on security cameras, police said.

No bank employees or patrons were harmed during the First National Bank robbery, police said.

Penn State U. quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno will travel to New York City in January to be the master of ceremonies at a THON benefit.

For the third year in a row, a group of newly graduated Penn State students will host the THON Hope Gala in New York City at the Capitale banquet venue, with proceeds benefiting the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.

During the past few weeks, Hope Gala organizers have given clues to Penn Staters in the NYC area at local bars and via Facebook about who the emcee is this year.

Hailey Apter, Class of 2007 and communications chairwoman for the fundraiser, said the gala started out as four people active in THON during college getting together after they graduated so they could stay involved with the organization.

“Last year the emcee was football player LaVar Arrington,” Apter said. “We’re really excited for Jay Paterno to come.”

Since there is a large alumni network in the Big Apple, Tina Clabbers, Class of 2008, said the Hope Gala is beneficial because it taps into a big alumni resource that was virtually untouched before the gala was created three years ago.

Apter, who was a public relations captain and danced her senior year at Penn State, said the event is a continued success, attracting between 250 and 300 attendees each year.

“Last year we made over $25,000,” Apter said, “We’re hoping to top it this year.”

The gala consists of a silent auction, a cocktail hour and a three-course sit down dinner during which a featured THON family speaks.

Kicking off the evening, the silent auction has been known to include items such as signed Penn State athletic memorabilia, VIP tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and tickets to fly out to Los Angeles and see comedian Chelsea Handler.

Clabbers, another communications chairwoman, said the event has had mostly young attendees in past years, but this year, organizers are trying to gear the invitations toward more prominent alumni within the city.

“We want to spread the word to the older crowd,” Clabber said, “So next year, they will already know of this event and already have it budgeted and put into their schedule.”

Apter said she hopes the audience will broaden enough to possibly get people to attend who danced in the ’70s or ’80s.

The gala, set for Jan. 21, 2011, will hopefully bring in even more people than last year, Apter said.

Sean Shapiro, overall chairman for the gala, said there has been an increase in volunteers getting involved, items being donated and awareness around New York City since the event began in 2008.

“Being a part of Penn State, we have such a great alumni association,” Shapiro, Class of 2008, said. “And we’re just really excited for this gala to get bigger and better as time goes on.”

Paterno could not be reached for comment by press time Monday.

While millions of Pakistan’s flood victims celebrated Eid al-Fitr — the end of the holy month of Ramadan — at relief camps on Saturday, Pakistani students at Penn State U. are doing their part to contribute.

To help the flood victims, Yasar Awan, president of the Pakistani Student Association, said a fundraising dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center’s Heritage Hall.

Awan (senior-science) said tickets will be sold on the ground floor of the HUB-Robeson Center from Monday to Friday for $15.

The event will be catered by India Pavilion, and will include traditional dishes such as briyani , pita, curry and desserts, Awan said.

Awan said the funds raised from the dinner will be donated to UNICEF, a United Nations organization that works to help children and provide disaster relief.

Izzah Khan (freshman-English and public relations) said she witnessed how the flood damaged a large part of her country. When the flood hit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa an area of northwest Pakistan, she was in Karachi, the southern region of the country, visiting her relatives.

Though her home in Karachi was not affected by the floods, Khan said she saw many students traveling around Pakistan to fundraise and deliver food donations in the wake of the disaster.

Khan said because of the flood, a lot of Pakistanis were not interested in celebrating the most important festival in the Islamic calendar — Eid al-Fitr. She said the festival is near equivalent to Christmas in the United States in terms of importance.

“A lot of people lost their homes — water is everywhere,” Khan said. “It is not a situation to celebrate Eid.”

The Pakistani government also urged its citizens to avoid festivities at Eid and tocelebrate it with simplicity, according to a press release issued Friday.

In a typical year Pakistanis would have started the morning with Eid prayer, Khan said, and then enjoyed the rest of the day with their relatives and friends.

But in the aftermath of the floods, no one is in much of a mood to celebrate, Khan said.

“This year’s Eid festival is being celebrated on such a moment of history, when a large part of country is under the devastation caused by pre-Ramadan floods,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a speech to his country. “Millions of fellow countrymen are homeless and facing severe difficulties.”

Khan said even those who choose not to attend the dinner can still help by donating money to help the flood victims.

“You went to a football game for $75 — you can definitely give $10 to save a life,” she said.

The worst floods in Pakistan’s history began in late July after a monsoon struck and swamped one-fifth of the country. The monsoon killed more than 1,700 people and left more than two million homeless, according the latest U.N. report.

Pakistan’s disaster officials have said the death toll is likely to rise “significantly” when the missing are accounted for.

A new Knowledge Commons that will provide students with a number of technology services is currently under construction in Pattee Library — a major renovation that will be available for students by the next academic year.

“We had wanted to do it for a long time since a number of major research universities have instituted similar spaces,” said Daniel Mack, the Tombros librarian for classics and ancient Mediterranean studies and head of the arts and humanities library.

The new space will definitely come in handy to students who use technology in their work, Mack said.

The Knowledge Commons will feature a number of resources for students, including video production areas, podcasting facilities, service kiosks, study areas and integrated help desk areas.

University Libraries began construction on the project last spring, and Mack said the project will be completed by 2011.

Catherine Grigor, manager of public relations and marketing for University Libraries, said the project has been coming in stages.

Initially, the maps library was moved from Pattee Library to Paterno Library, Grigor said. The Foster Auditorium was also moved from Pattee Library to Paterno Library, with the original auditorium becoming a new reading room, Mack said.

Grigor said a public website with the Knowledge Commons’ design will launch this week.

Mack said the project was set into motion after a $2.5 million joint donation by Anne and Peter G. Tombros and Jean and John R. McWhirter last February.

“We’re able to do things like this from amazing alumni. Without them, we wouldn’t even consider a project like this,” he said.

Though the project had been an idea for quite some time, Grigor said the project really got underway after the donation.

“Unless you have money, you cannot move forward. The money has to be in place to get approval,” she said.

Anne Tombros and Jean McWhirter have been longtime friends and members of the Libraries Development Board. As a result, they’ve become familiar with the libraries’ aspirations, Grigor said.

For the past two or three years, library officials have continued to benchmark what other university libraries were doing and how they could mimic that success, Grigor said.

The new technology that will be incorporated into the library comes as no surprise to many students who spend most of their studying time on the computer.

“I use computers way more than I use books. I’ll definitely be more willing to use the library than I do now,” Wendy Kaufman (freshman-graphic design) said.

Mack said the reason behind of the project is to really focus on the students.

“People think libraries are dead. They’re not,” he said. “It’s all about the resources that are available to students.”

Penn State U. recently received $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of State to research security enhancements that will be used in U.S. embassies and other government facilities abroad.

The Penn State Thomas D. Larson Transportation Institute will use the funds to study anti-ram barriers, specially designed gates meant to stop vehicles traveling at high speeds, which could be a security threat, said Zoltan Rado, director of the Penn State Crash Safety Research Facility.

The College of Engineering will collaborate with the College of Information Sciences and Technology to evaluate security risks for different government buildings and to determine what security measures will provide the most effective protection, said Daniel Linzell, director of the Penn State Protective Technology Center.

Part of the research will be dedicated toward designing aesthetically pleasing and unobtrusive anti-ram barriers that will still provide adequate protection for U.S. personnel and buildings, Rado said.

“The intention of the work we are doing is not only to protect our interests and people, but to do it in a way that is as palatable as possible,” Linzell said.

Rado said the U.S. doesn’t want the barriers to the U.S. embassy in Paris, for example, to look like a fortress, whereas in places that are more hostile to the U.S, barriers might be designed to be appear more obtrusive and secure.

“You might want some of these buildings to be open deterrents,” Rado said. “Like, ‘Hey, don’t even try here.’ ”

Rado said Penn State’s Crash Safety Research Center — a facility that allows researchers to crash cars and trucks at high speeds — will use the grant to test the effectiveness of different anti-ram barriers.

The facility allows researchers to collect data about the impacts and the effectiveness of the barriers, Rado said.

Potential designs for the barriers are studied using computer simulations in conjunction with tests at the facility.

“We do a lot of computer models of the proposed crash test to get an idea of how things will perform,” Linzell said.

The simulations are compared to actual results of the facility’s tests, which allows researchers to create an accurate computer model of how the barriers will react in different situations.

Michael Casper, information specialist for the Larson Institute, said that though Penn State was awarded $3.6 million, the U.S. Department of State could grant more money in the future depending on the success of Penn State’s research.

Asimwe Proscovia was given a new future when she was 14 years old.

Through Invisible Children, a non-profit organization seeking peace in Uganda, Proscovia was chosen to be a part of the Legacy Scholarship Program because of her level of vulnerability and academic potential.

She was mentored, given supplies and provided with an education that otherwise would have been out of reach.

“I was so happy about it. I knew I could have a future and my dreams would come true,” Proscovia said.

The Ugandan native, now 19, was raised by her grandmother. As a child, Proscovia’s father was killed in the brutal rebel warfare that has been raging in the northern area of the country since the early 1980s.

The recent graduate of Gulu Secondary School is now on the road. As part of Invisible Children’s Face-to-Face tour, she and four interns are traveling across North America.

The group will meet with students today, to share their stories and show how Invisible Children is rebuild educational programs in a region ravaged by violence.

“For me, and I think for all of us, it’s an opportunity to do something that’s bigger than ourselves. It’s an opportunity to serve,” roadie Steve Robison said.

The fall 2010 Face-to-Face Tour is Invisible Children’s eleventh to date and the second ever to include scholarship students and employees from the non-profit’s Ugandan staff.

Each stop features a screening of one of the organization’s nine documentaries and the opportunity to talk to individuals with both devastating and uplifting experiences to tell.

“Everything that’s being done is a collaboration with the people in northern Uganda to help empower them,” Middle America team leader Jenna Ingrassia said. “There’s so much media that brings it over here, but to physically bring students and employees who have lived through war and who can talk to you and share their stories face to face, it really puts a different spin on the situation. It’s just so effective.”

One such employee is Lorna Peace, a 23-year-old education assistant and former French teacher from southern Uganda. She took a semester off from university to go on tour and will finish her post-graduate degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution next November.

“It’s not just to help those right now, but it’s to help the future generation, those who will come after us,” Peace said.

After a two-year process for the first project by the Norman Public Arts Board, a three-story structure was celebrated by the board Friday.

The piece, called “Indian Grass,” is located in the middle of the roundabout at the intersection of Main Street, Acres Street and Carter Avenue.

“Public art provides many things to a community including a sense of a community, encouraging and reflecting the community. It’s free and accessible to the public and it also shows a thriving arts community, which Norman definitely has,” said Larry Walker, Public Arts Board chairman.

“Indian Grass,” which weighs in at 16 tons of steel and towers over the roundabout at 29 1/2 feet, was commissioned to Juan and Patricia Navarrete of Taos, N.M. The couple was selected by the board from 62 submitted proposals across the world.

“The issues involved were the size and the scope of the piece, meaning the scale in relation to the surroundings. It also had to be a piece that could be observed while driving past. The proposals were to be reflective of central Oklahoma,” Walker said.

The funds were raised by 320 private donations from all over the city for the Public Arts Board and the Norman Arts Council. Those wishing to further public art in the city can make a donation along with their monthly utility bill or direct donations to the Art and Public Places fund, in care of the Arts Council.

“I think it’s a really cool piece. I got to watch the piece be constructed, and it really brings personality to the area without seeming too out of place,” said Terran Loveless, Norman resident.

The Norman Public Arts Board was established by the city in 2007.

The Integrity Council asked faculty representatives on Monday to support revisions to Oklahoma U.’s Academic Misconduct Code that would help students and faculty work together in academic-misconduct cases.

The changes include switching to a more student-run system, simplifying the code, making the document more accessible to students and adding provisions regarding the Internet and other technologies.

OU’s prestige is linked to the integrity of its academics, Integrity Council Chairwoman Elizabeth Miracle said.

Academic misconduct, which includes fraud, plagiarism, cheating and other forms of using someone else’s work, diminishes original thought and thus degrades the university, said Miracle, political science and international security studies senior.

She said updating the code will help focus it and make it easier for students to understand. The last revisions to the code were made in 2004.

“The theory behind this is that students have a better perspective on what it’s like to be a student, as opposed to administrators,” Miracle said.

Miracle said the revised code will resemble a constitution, laying out basic principles that both students and faculty agree with. This revision aims to help students and faculty work together to find the truth in cases of academic misconduct.

The Academic Misconduct Code defines and outlines punishment for academic cheating.

If OU is known for its academic integrity, other institutions will recognize this fact and place more value on the work and students who represent the university, Vice Chairman of Integrity Council Zekiel Johnson said.

Miracle said the council hopes to model the code’s punishment as a rehabilitative system, rather than a punitive system.

Students who violate the code can attend an integrity course, which would focus on the importance of academic honesty and how to avoid misconduct.

Teaching students about academic misconduct is the first step, said Johnson, psychology and international studies senior.

“Many of the cases we see are simply from ignorance,” Johnson said.

The Integrity Council is a student-run organization that encourages integrity on campus and advises the provost on misconduct cases, said Greg Heiser, associate provost and director of Academic Integrity Systems.

Of the 218 cases of academic misconduct in the 2009-2010 school year, 50 cases dealt with freshmen, 36 with sophomores, 28 with juniors, 74 with seniors and 28 with graduate students, Miracle said.

The largest number of cases came from students in the College of Arts and Sciences, followed by students in University College.

“About half of these cases are plagiarism, the others were everything else from improper collaboration to good old-fashioned cheating,” Heiser said.

The Faculty Senate will vote on the Integrity Council’s proposed edits at a meeting later in the semester.

When Phil Bates took the first snaps at quarterback in Ohio U.’s game against Wofford, it appeared the quarterback had finally made it.

Bates, a redshirt junior, had waited since the end of 2008 to play in a game after his transfer to the Bobcats from Iowa State U.

But the dream debut never happened. Bates left after two series’ against Wofford with a left thumb injury. He completed only one pass but ran for 61 yards on five carries.

“People saw glimpses of what I could do,” Bates said. “And then I got hurt and couldn’t really do everything that I wanted to.”

After sitting out Saturday’s 20-13 loss against Toledo, the quarterback is poised for his second chance. Bates’ frustration about the injury transformed into excitement as he returned to practice yesterday in preparation to play Ohio State U. Saturday.

“I feel like I’m almost back,” Bates said. “I’m glad to be back, and I’m praying that nothing else happens injury-wise.”

Instead of being upset about his spoiled debut, Bates has handled the situation calmly.

He was energetic at the team’s practice yesterday, joking with teammates during practice and taking extra snaps with receivers coach Dwayne Dixon after all the other players had left.

“I’m trying to enjoy myself,” Bates said. “When you get too caught up and aren’t having fun, you can’t perform how you want.

“This week, I’m just trying to get back to the fundamentals and have fun.”

Bates’ journey to this season began two and half years ago when he first arrived on campus. Because of NCAA rules, Bates had to sit out his first season after the transfer.

Leading the Bobcats’ scout team during both spring and fall practices, Bates waited patiently for his chance to break into the starting lineup this season.

“We’d do anything possible to get (the defense) ready,” Bates said. “We’d go at them hard, and when they succeeded by getting some interceptions and stuff, it felt like we were a part of that.”

In the spring, Bates finally got his chance to lead the Bobcats’ actual offense and took a majority of the team’s snaps throughout practice. His work culminated then, when he completed nine of 17 passes for 115 yards.

He also showed off his scrambling ability when he ran for 65 yards.

Despite Bates’ spring performance, fellow quarterback Boo Jackson, who was given a medical redshirt, competed with Bates for the starting job.

Even with the injury and competition for the starting position, Bates said he’s ready for a breakout game.

“I feel like it’s coming,” Bates said. “I try to take it week by week and just execute plays and have fun.”

After hitting four of his five field goals last week, Temple kicker Brandon McManus came through with a game-winning kick in overtime to give the Owls a 13-10 victory against Central Michigan.

“Both teams really fought hard, real competitive game.” Temple coach Al Golden said via the Mid-American Conference teleconference. “We made a lot of mistakes and we got to get better in those departments, but I was glad our guys finished it and we came out with the win.”

Chippewa quarterback Ryan Radcliff threw for 299 yards but was intercepted twice.

Offense was prevalent in the contest between Gardner-Webb and Akron. The Zips came up short in overtime, 38-37.

Gardner-Webb gained 391 yards of offense, and Akron gained 389. Akron running backs Nate Burney and Alex Allen rushed for 119 and 110 yards, respectively. Allen also added three touchdowns.

Miami, too, used the ground game to help overcome Eastern Michigan. Thomas Merriweather led the rushing attack with 105 yards and supplemented quarterback Zac Dysert in the 28-21 victory.

Kent State lost to Atlantic Coast Conference opponent Boston College, 26-13. Kent State stayed close to BC, but the Eagles pulled away in the third quarter on two touchdown passes from Dave Shinskie.

“(I’m) really proud of the way our players played, we got into the fourth quarter with Boston College with a chance to win the game in spite of five turnovers,” coach Doug Martin said. “Our defense played outstanding. Four times in short field they were able to hold Boston College to a field goal.”

Tulsa outlasted Bowling Green, 33-20. Quarterback G.J. Kinne threw for 356 yards and two scores for the Golden Hurricanes. Falcon quarterback Matt Schilz threw three interceptions.

Baylor handled Buffalo, 34-6. The Bulls’ defense could not contain Baylor’s dual-threat quarterback, Robert Griffin III. He led the Bears’ attack with four total touchdowns.

A 17-point third quarter did not provide enough momentum for Ball State to overcome an early deficit, and the Cardinals fell 27-23 to Liberty.

Wrapping up MAC play, Western Michigan responded to last week’s drubbing at the hands of Michigan State by beating up on Nicholls State, 49-14.

Alex Carder continued to play well and threw five touchdown passes replacing star Tim Hiller.