Underground
in Norman
It sounds like a variation on
the old Mickey Rooney-Judy
Garland dialogue: some
stylish Universityof Oklahoma
students, bored with the
town’s "tame" music scene, de
cide, "Hey, kids, let’s put on a
club!” And so they did. last fall,
creating Subterranea. now
the hippest thing going in mid
dle-of-the-road Norman.
Prime out-of-town bands, like
Minneapolis hard-core favor
ites The Replacements, and lo
cal faves, like Desenestration,
have played everything from
reggae and psychedelia to
hootenanny folk. Says 19-year
old cofounder Michele Via
simsky, a business and broad
casting major, "! think this
place really needed it. I was,
like, feeling the void.”
Subterranea, a reference, of
course, to "underground,”
started with a budget of
$1,500 in an empty store The
five young entrepreneurs
painted the interior black and
built the club’s sole furnish
ings—black boxes for sitting,
standing or dancing—accord
ing to the design of a student
architect. So far, though, de
spite crowds of up to 250 on an
average night and 450 on a
I'AUI.S MOW HI
Filling the void: Oil’s li/um England, Ridgeway and Vlasmisky
good one. even raining the $600
a-month rent is a challenge
Not that the music's bad Says
loyal customer Mike Mitchell,
a 2<>-year-old film major. "Its,
like, every one of their bunds
is good.” It’s just that Subter
ra nea has yet to catch on in
the mainstream. "We do miss
the Yuppie crowd because we
don’t have tables.” says Janet
Ridgeway, a 21-year-old Sovi
et-studies major who works
part time elsewhere to help
earn money to run the club
"The way they dress, they
don’t want to sit on the floor."
Clemson’s
Good Sports
In the past few years Clem
son’s athletic department
has not scored too well oir
the field. The football team has
spent much of the time on con
ference and NCAA probation
for recruiting violations, and
the head coach has been sus
pended for a game next season
because of his behavior toward
game officials. I.4ist winter
two track coaches resigned
after some team members
were given an anti-inflamma
tory drug without required
prescriptions This was fol
lowed by the resignation of
the athletic director, and then
the president, who quit be
cause the trustees wouldn’t
give him permission to clean
up the athletic department.
Hut now the department
has moved, in a very public
fashion, to show its support of
academics Ten percent of the
school's net revenues from the
televising of Clemson football
and basketball games are be
ing set aside for a scholarship
fund to aid nonathletes, an es
timated $200,000 for the fiscal
*irr vritriliM
Sheltered Members of sanctuary network with masked refugees
year ending June JO "1 think
it is u very generous tiling for
the department to do." says
B. J Skelton, faculty chair
man of the Athletic Council. "I
think |they| want to show that
they are a part of thin universe
ty." New athletic director
Bobby Rohm son denies that the
contribution is intended to
mend fences, saying his depart
ment has always contributed
to the school By tithing from
TV revenues, however, the
couches may rouse* more cht*ers
from Clemson’s academics
A California
‘Safe House’
In u basement office on the
UCLA campus two Salvu
doran refugees talk grate
fully about how students have
given them shelter Jesus and
Maria, both 30, escaped their
country's civil wur, and since
November they and their 20
month-old daughter have
been living in a Los Angeles
"safe house” supported by stu
dents at eight area colleges Be
cause they are illegal aliens,
Jesus and Mariu cannot earn
enough money for food and
rent They say that the Inter
Campus Sanctuary Network
iICSNihas supplied not only
the essent ials for living, but
also a sense of security. "We
feel a lot more safe in the new
house," says Jesus through a
translator, "We
have the strength to
move ahead."
The ICSN hit* chapters
ut UCLA, UC-Rivencide, UC
Santa Barbara. Pomona,
Pitier, Scrippa School of The
ology, USC' and (California
State-North ridge. About 30
people some faculty and staff,
but mostly students—have be
come actively involved in the
project Melissa Moholt, a jun
ior biology major at Pomona,
says ICSN is growing in re
Hponse to the stream of Central
American refugees: "There
an* so many people here that
it was easy to sis- what we
needed to do."
But what they are doing
also runs the danger of crimi
nal prosecution: harboring il
legal aliens is a federal felony.
ICSN volunteers un lerstand
the risks but insist chat their
motives are humanitarian
They are also kept unaware of
the exact location of the safe
house, for their and the refu
gee-81 protection. Operators of
sanctuaries in Arizona, howev
er, have ls-en arrested and
the California safe house- may
not lx- safe forever.
HHKNIIA 1 .l-HAIS
A Hard Lesson
in Leadership
As an addition to Inst se
mester's curriculum Hol
lins (allege offered a
crash course in ffixxl control
On Nov 4. after five days of
continuous rain, a creek bor
dering the campus near Roa
noke. Va.,overflowed. The rush
of water converted a parking
lot intoa car swamp, inundated
four buildings and short-cir
cuited the heating and electri
cal systems Stranded stu
dents and faculty made the best
of the situation by playing all
night Trivial Pursuit matches
and dining on bologna and
peanut-butter sandwiches
shipped in bv canoe. But when
the rain stopped, it was clear
that the women's college had
sustained serious casualties:
damage was estimated at $4
million, including ,'W),(XX) li
brary books that were irrepa
rably waterlogged.
President Paula Brownlee
decided to cancel classes until
Dec 2, when cleanup oper
ations would be completed
Some students volunteered to
serve as runners between cam
pus offices since telephones
weren’t working. Others
formed a line in the library
basement and passed from
hand to hand the 20,000 sal
vageable books so that they
could be spread in the sun to
dry. More than 2(X) Roanoke
residents volunteered to
clean, dry and temporarily
store books for the library,
thus saving the school an es
timated $50 per book in re
placement costs. When classes
resumed, an intense night and
weekend schedule ended the
semester on time. "Hollins
students have proven beyond a
doubt,” said president Brown
lee, "that thiscollege los
ters and develops lead
ership in its women "
After the deluge:
Damaged library
~ books discarded
by Hollins
Maryland: Up in Smoke
At the University of
Maryland’s flagship Col
lege Park campus, where
there's smoke, there’s ire
That’s why cigarette smok
ing was banned, as of Jan. 27,
in most public indoor
spaces. Only in specified din
ing and lounge areas and a
few wide-open spaces will
lighting up be allowed
The tough restrictions
cleared the UM Campus Sen
ate after backers tapped
into the growing controversy
over the health hazards of
passive smoking to produce a
clear majority. Leading the
effort was David Inouye, an
associate professor of zoolo
gy, who had been trying for
three years to limit smok
ing. "I became concerned,”
says Inouye, "because in my
duties as professor I had to go
to the library or student
union and couldn't possibly
go without coming into con
tact with people smoking.”
Predictably, most smok
ers fume at the ban. Some
argue that the health risks
of secondhand smoke have
yet to be proved And Ira
Block, an assistant professor
of textile and consumer eco
nomics, scoffs at the notion
that smoking should be for
bidden because it may offend
nonsmokers. "There are
people who do not feel it nec
essary to bathe more than
twice a week,” says Block,
who has smoked for 30
years. "Should these people
be banned?” Maryland al
ready bars classroom smok
ing, but it may take some
time before the new rule
clears the air.
M.l USTKATION BY KIMB1.K MKAO
Campus Sale
For tale: One college campus
in historic Back Bay dis
trict of'Boston. Nine
teenth centun’charm. 20 build■
inf’s, including two former
governors' n’sidences, in and
around exclusice Beacon Hill.
Price negotiable above $100
million.
It’s not every day that a
campus goes on the real-estate
market, but Boston's Emer
son College is, literally, on the
move. Faced with an out
grown physical plant—and pre
vented by neighborhood Bos
ton groups from expanding
nearby or elsewhere in the
city—the 105-year-old college
has opted for urban tlight. By
the start of the '88- '89 academ ic
year, the school hopes to be
nestled intou77-acresiteon the
border bet ween the towns of
Lawrence and Andover, Mass.,
about 25 miles north
"Personally, 1 would have
preferred to stay in the city,”
says Emerson president Allen
Koenig. But the college will re
ceive succor courtesy of the
booming Boston real-estate
market. The sale will bring in
an estimated $105 million,
enough to build a new campus
with about $40 million left over
to boost Emerson's slim en
dowment of $750,000.
Student reaction is mixed.
Nearly all acknowledge the
need for better facilities: Em
erson basketball games, for in
stance, are played in a high
school gym, and the move will
help Emerson slip out of the
shadow of such neighbors as
MIT, Harvard and BU. Yet for
many the antique ambience of
the downtown campus sym
bolizes Emerson’s appeal. Says
senior Marlena Alexander,
"The suburbs would drive me
crazy.” Officials say it’s too
early to predict how the move
will affect enrollment.