The QC, Vol. 75, No. 19 • April 13, 1989

              QUAKER CAMPUS
/hlnmp I XXV Numher 19 ^5 5"l ADril 13   1989
Volume LXXV, Number 19
April 13, 1989
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Midday Fire on Franklin Street
Jumps Two Blocks to Met Garage
By Anita Rafferty
Last Thursday's 105 degree
weather led to a fire at an
apartment building under
construction on Franklin Street,
spreading to areas on Penn and
Earlham Street, including the
Metaphonian House garage on
Earlham.
Junior Gina Lujan lives in the
Met house and said, "It's a scary
thought that a fire two blocks
away can come to our house. I am
really thankful that somebody
spotted it and called the fire
department."
Storage Space
The Met's garage was used by
Whittier College as a storage
place, said Jim Surwillo, director
of the Physical Plant.
He said the items lost in the
ASHES TO ASHES: A firefighter works to put out the
smoldering remains of the garage behind the Met House
on Earlham after it caught fire last Thursday.
Magazine Solicitors
Dupe Students in Scam
By Dan Bronstein
Have you been approached
lately by an overly aggressive,
friendly, traveling magazine
salesman? Did he work for a Texas
based company and have no I.D?
Did you ever get the subscription
you ordered?
According to a recent California
Community College Police
Chief's Training Bulletin,
numerous incidents of fake
magazine solicitors have been
reported. Magazine salesmen
roaming college campuses and
shopping malls, have been
approcahing "customers" using
overly aggressive techniques to
sell their products. In many
incidents, these techniques have
gone as far as resulting in battery
charges against salesmen.
Also at Whittier
Although Whittier College is a
no soliciting campus, the students
are not safe from these salesmen.
Junior Chris Perkins is one
student who has been
approached by one of these
solicitors. "If it was a con-job,
it was a very good one," Perkins
said.
A very friendly but aggressive
man came to Perkins' apartment
and told him he was traveling
across country, selling magazines
for a Texas based company.
Perkins said he told the salesman
he wasn't interested and didn't
have enough money, but the
solicitor persisted. .
The salesman continued to tell
Perkins that he needed to sell the
most subscriptions for his company to win a free trip to
Mazatlan. He said he was doing
well in the competition and would
appreciate Perkins' solicitation.
When Perkins refused a second
time the salesman showed him
his prices and the company's
letterhead.
"My first initial thought was that
this is a rip off;' Perkins said.' 'But
when he showed the prices, they
were very good. It seemed like a
really good deal, not a rip off
because he showed the company's letterhead; which looked
authentic."
Finally, in an effort to get rid of
the salesman, Perkins said he
picked the magazine of his choice
and told him all he had was seven
dollars. The salesman said that
was enough to start, and he would
be. billed for the rest later.
No Checks Please
According to Whittier College
Security Chief Jim Williamson,
this is a common occurrence.
"If you offer them a check, the
salesmen will tell you it takes too
long for the checks to clear and
for them to be paid. They say that
Please see ISSUE page 3.
blaze were catalogues for admissions, doors, platforms, a vacuum
cleaner, floor machine, desks,
dressers, voting booths, office
partitions and sign standards.
However, "the garage was the
biggest loss of the whole deal
because it was a convenient place
to store things that we don't use
very often," he said.
The garage will not be rebuilt,
Surwillo said. The charred
structure will be knocked down
and the cement floor will be left.
Surwillo said that if the fire had
spread to the college,' 'We would
have evacuated the buildings.'' He
also said there was not much '
danger of the campus buildings
going up in flames because the
materials used to build them are
1
not flammable.
Junior Firefighters
Students were not only
involved in the fire, but also in
prevention of the fire.
"I think a number of buildings
on Penn Street are still standing
because of |Whittier College
students'| early involvement,"
said professor of sociology Leslie
Howard.
Senior Scott Crabb, who wet
down some of the roofs of
surrounding buildings to avoid
their getting caught on fire, said
20 or 30 people were on
individual roofs.
"It was neat to see all those
people get involved with it.
People can pull together," he said.
KWTR Leaves Air Early Due To
Technical, Personnel Problems
By Kathy Seymour
Whittier College's radio station,
KWTR, which has been plagued
with numerous problems in the
two years it has been in existence,
has been shut down for the
remainder of the year.
According to station manager
sophomore Heather Robinson,
KWTR will not be back on the air
because of technical problems,
such as equipment damage.
She said out of the two turntables and two cassette decks
they own, there is only one
functional turntable left.
"I'll be petitioning BOG for a
bigger budget for next year,"
she said.
Other Problems
Other problems have arisen
over recent controversial incidents involving alleged racism
and profanity. Wednesday night's
dinner show and Thursday night's
'Neil and Bob Show' are the two
programs in question.
Sophomore Andy Roach
organized a petition with 109
signatures that was printed in last
week's Quaker Campus regarding
an incident that happened the
evening of March 29.
Roach wrote that he heard on
several occasions derogatory
remarks about homosexuals and
the Student Gay Alliance.
"They would also play
comedians' albums that were
negative toward gays. Eddie
Murphy was played once" along
with another one, Roach said in
an interview.
He said he was not out to
condemn the people, "because
I think we all have prejudices,
but we should be more cautious
about expressing them."
, The next problem was on
Thursday evening's 'Neil and Bob
Show.' The dispatcher working
Security that evening received
two phone calls complaining
about the behavior in the radio
station. One was from an unidentified caller off campus, not
affiliated with the school. The
other was from a member of the
Palmer Society.
The Palmers had been rehearsing for Spring Sing in the Club and
reported that they were being
harassed. Irv Rosner, the Security
officer on duty that night, went
down to the radio station to
investigate.
Drinking in Station
Upon arrival, Rosner said he
found approximately 10 to 12
people in the station and many
were drinking alcohol. He cleared
the people out, asking them not
to return. The disc jockeys
involved, Chris Smith and Chris
Sinfield, cleaned up the mess
they made and were, according
to Rosner, "very cooperative."
Rosner also said he tried to get
Sinfield to let him take him home
because he was "really bombed."
Sinfield denied both of these
statements. He said. "No, we
weren't bombed, we just had a
few beers." He later said they had
consumed "mass amounts."
Both disc jockeys admitted to
making the rude comments.
Smith's said tha no one ever told
them they couldn't say such
things on the air. Both D.J.'s said
they had been told that if they
were going to say something
derogatory they were to disassociate themselves from
Whittier College, which they said
they did.
They also said they told their
listeners that if they had a
problem with what was being said
they should call up and tell them.
"No one ever called us," Smith
said.
Sinfield added, "We were just
having a good time, but maybe
we did get out of hand."
Right to Opinion
Robinson said "There's only
so much I can do. As a college
station the people should have
the right to voice their opinions
as long as they disassociate
themselves from the college."
Dean of students Barbara
Green called a meeting between
senior Vanessa Mills, Communications director for the Board of
Governors, and Robinson. The
outcome of that meeting was to
ask the disc jockeys to quit. Green
said she is also pursuing the
drinking factor in this incident
because it is against college
policy to drink in the radio station.
"I think the radio station is a
great idea," said Green. "I just
hope people learn from this
experience"
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