A run
By Ryan Van Winkle
Campus Correspondent - Syracuse
University
College Press Exchange
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (CPX) -1 can re
member only one piece of advice be
fore everything falls into madness:
Look into the eyes; maintain eye
contact.” 1 am stark naked and ner
vous when Joel screams, “Let’s go!
Naked guys, naked guys running at
you!” We’re heading fast down the
street, pounding the pavement in a
fleshy madness. “Don’t look away,”
I think. “No fear. No fear.”
It’s Halloween, and, despite the
cold, grain alcohol and adrenaline are
warming parts of me that have never
seen the sun. We’re huffing fast down
the street, past people dressed as
President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky,
flappers and pirates. Joel’s thin, grace
ful frame is directly in front of me.
His arms are flailing and his bare feet
thundering across the ground as the
crowd cheers.
Some gasp, others laugh.
Some move out of the way quickly.
Some are frozen in place, prompting
Joel to shout at them, “Naked guy
touching you!” Men scream from a
dark porch, “Put some clothes on!
Freaks! We don’t want to see you!”
Such criticism, not to mention the
risk of arrest, social rejection and
catching cold, has never stopped Joel
before. Not as he ran naked through
UNC Students ‘Patch’ together
film-making experience
By Amy Cappiello
College Press Exchange
Campus Correspondent -
Chapel Hill
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (CPX) - Word
traveled fast that Universal Pictures’
“Patch Adams” would be filming on
the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill’s campus in May and
June. Students, faculty, administrators
and local residents eager to get a be
hind-the-scenes look at the cast and
crew, especially funny man Robin
Williams, clamored for a piece of the
action. What many say they got was
enough experience to help them de
cide that movie making has its bright
moments but certainly isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be.
Chosen to appear in the film after
submitting a Polaroid photo of them
selves, hundreds of extras getting paid
only minimum wage spent one 14-
hour workday shooting the film’s fi
nal scene, which focuses on a gradu
ation ceremony,and Williams’ bare
behind.
"I arrived at the set at 5 a.m. and
pretty much hung out all day,” said
Laura Brayton, a senior biology ma
jor. “We spent hours outside sitting in
folding chairs watching Robin Will
iams moon the world. It was really
repetitive and boring.” To make mat
ters worse, the bright Carolina sun
was scorching, especially for those
donning long-sleeved, polyester duds
suitable for the 19705-era film about
Hunter “Patch” Adams, an unconven
tional doctor who uses humor to treat
his patients.
Want to teach? Signing bonuses are up
By S.L. Wykes
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Call it a gold rush, in reverse.
Stanford University students who are
considering teaching careers got pro
sports treatment last week when Mas
sachusetts educators came calling
with $20,000 signing bonuses.
Recruiting teachers from nation
wide pools is increasing as districts
face mounting enrollments and a
graying teacher population. In recent
years, New York City sent recruiters
to Austria. St. Louisans have gone
looking in South Africa. Texans have
searched in California and Puerto
Rico. Virginia officials loaded up a
32-foot recreational vehicle last sum
mer and toured the East Coast.
But the hefty signing bonus is
highly unusual. Massachusetts’ bonus
program is just the newest addition to
a range of incentives that can include
low-interest housing loans, discounts
at restaurants, tax credits, free bank
through the mind of a streaker
restaurants, not as he ran the length
of an 8-mile-long golf course, and
certainly not as he ran in the buff by a
group of speechless first-year students
watching a movie outdoors during
orientation weekend. “Because it was
freshmen, they’re insecure and aren’t
going to boo,” he said. “It’s the up
perclassman, getting ready to go into
the capitalist, greedy society that can’t
deal.” Joel’s reveling in this moment,
too. He bounces on the balls of his
feet, yelling “Freedom!” at gawkers.
While shrinks could debate his
motivation, latent desires and person
ality traits for months, even years, it’s
now easy to see why Joel Colombero,
a senior at Syracuse University,
streaks: the adrenaline rush and the
raw logic of this lunacy are so appeal
ing. Though he has been streaking
since high school, Joel said he doesn’t
try to compete with those who run
onstage naked during the Emmys or
creepy guys who have a thing for gray
overcoats. “Most of the guys who
have done stuff like that are really
f**ked in the head,” Joel said. “I’m
just a really normal guy. I don’t
smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t do
drugs.”
While his claim to normalcy is du
bious, many may find Joel’s rationale
for baring his bod in public impec
cable and refreshingly honest. This is
not, after all, a guy who hides his head
while running naked down the street.
"Hell yes,” he replied instantly when
“I think the funniest moment of the
day was when (Williams) came out
and looked at all the extras and said,
‘l’m so sorry they made you wear
these clothes. They were ugly in the
’7os, and they’re still ugly,”' said
Pamela O’Connor, director of press
and marketing for the university’s
Center for Dramatic Art and an extra
on the set.
UNC-
One big condition the university set
before allowing the filming to happep
on campus was that its students get a
chance to learn something from the
process. So, besides serving as extras,
students also were recruited to work
in the casting, lighting, press and
wardrobe departments. Many students
said those jobs sounded far more
glamorous than they actually were.
Without getting many details, Chris
Bramley, a senior communications
studies major, accepted a job work
ing as an assistant to the casting staff.
He thought his stint would be the first
in a long series of moves in a success
ful film career. Then reality hit. “I
never worked actually on the set,” he
said. “I was basically a gopher for the
casting people during the extras’ cast
ing days in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.
I was in charge of taking pictures of
people who came through lines and
of organizing people.”
The experience helped him chart a
different course for his career. “It defi
nitely made me realize that I didn’t
want to go into the movie-making
business,” he said, quickly adding that
a career in sports broadcasting now
looks more interesting and promising.
“(Film production) is so tedious. It
was ridiculous hours. They wanted me
ing and job shares with full medical
benefits. Stanford was the Massachu
setts team’s third stop in California.
Previous stops were in San Diego and
Berkeley. Another four dozen Ameri
can campuses are to be visited.
California has been recruiting in
other states, too, said Leslie Fausset,
chief deputy superintendent for edu
cational policy, curriculum and de
partment management. “I certainly
think giving incentives for people to
go into teaching is a good thing, and
certainly one of the superintendent’s
primary issues has been to raise the
salary of teachers.”
The first year of the Massachusetts
program is set to put 50 teachers into
a special training program this sum
mer and into classrooms by fall. That
small number won’t be for want of
interested applicants, said Massachu
setts’ Department of Education chief
of staff Alan Safran. “We’re getting
hundreds of calls," he said.
The program will expand to draw
National Cam
asked if he wanted his real name pub
lished. “I wouldn’t talk to you if you
didn’t!” He wants us to know him, and
he doesn’t mind if we wander through
the pale, white underbelly of his
psyche for a while, a mind that only
cops and counselors usually get to
explore.
“It’s an idealist thing,” Joel said of
his love for streaking. “Life is so mo
notonous. Sometimes you don’t feel
alive, and I want to make my life ex
traordinary. I’ve got to do something
crazy sometimes, or I feel I’ll become
one of them.”
“Them” being people whom Joel
considers anal and prissy. He said he’s
found quite a few in Syracuse, a far
more uptight place than his home of
San Jose, Calif. Everybody at school,
he said, is worried about passing the
social grade and saying and doing the
right things. So they do nothing, at
least nothing exciting that is. “Do
something, do anything,” Joel says
again and again. He has done a lot.
He’s double majoring in philosophy
and television, radio and film. He’s
on the university’s wrestling team and
participates in several campus groups.
And he’s streaked dozens and dozens
of times.
Joel got his start streaking during a
California statewide swim meet when
he was still in high school. Somebody
joked before the meet that it would
be funny if a swimmer’s suit came off
during a race. Joel thought so, too, so
whenever it was convenient for them,
no matter what else I had going on.”
Despite any perceived down sides,
the chance to work with the “Patch
Adams” cast and crew provided the
perfect training ground for those stu
dents determined to forge careers in
film production, O’Connor said. “It
was a great experience for them to get
to have contact with Robin and all of
the other actors in the film,” she said.
Despite the seemingly endless out
takes and long lines, many students
agreed that the filming could, at times,
be fun.
“I’m not sure I’d ever do it again,
but it was definitely worth the time,”
said Cynthia Eakes, a junior history
major who served as an extra during
the movie’s grand finale. “I got to ex
perience movie-making first-hand. I
wasn’t aware of how much work it
takes to make a movie.”
University officials say they’re
pleased with the way the filming,
which also pumped $2 million into the
local economy, turned out and that
they will consider future requests.
Offers are likely to roll in because
North Carolina is now ranked third in
the nation for overall film production,
behind California and New York. Ac
cording to the North Carolina Film
Office, more than 400 feature films
and six network television
series,including Dawson’s Creek,
which is filmed in Wilmington, N.C.,
have been filmed there in the last 19
in 150 students next year, Safran said,
to eventually provide the state with
25 percent of the new teachers it needs
each year. Massachusetts teachers
with a bachelor’s degree can expect
to make about $26,000 annually.
Teachers with master’s degrees can
make slightly higher.
Massachusetts is fighting against a
system that easily can attract teach
ers to affluent districts but has a harder
time luring them to very urban, high
need districts where salaries are not
as competitive, said Ann Duffy, a con
sultant to the Massachusetts education
department. “We have lots of quali
fied teachers, just not where we need
them. The challenge in Massachusetts
is how do we redistribute them.”
Those who accept the Massachu
setts offer must commit to working
in the state for four years, although
not necessarily in the first set of co
operating districts that have offered
jobs. Those districts are all urban, in
the Boston area.
us News
he practiced diving repeatedly with
his suit untied to make sure it would
fall off at just the right moment. He
convinced the team to let him swim
the last leg of a 50-meter relay. He
dove into the water, and his ploy
worked.
“I almost drowned I was laughing
so hard, swallowing water, the suit
down to my knees like a parachute,”
he said. “But it really bothered me not
knowing if anyone saw me.” Plenty
of folks among the crowd of 2,000
that gathered for the event guaranteed
they had. Joel’s team lost, many of his
fellow swimmers walked away with
out saying a word, and his coach shed
a tear, but a streak addict was born.
“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,”
Joel said. “We had two squads at this
meet. We really weren’t supposed to
be there at all. We had no chance of
winning.” These days his biggest
ambition, as far as running around in
the buff goes, is to streak through the
Carrier Dome during a football game.
That hasn’t already happened because
Joel said he’s afraid of the response
he’d get, which, of course, could
mean the revocation of his diploma.
And it’s a good response, laughter,
cheering, pointing, whistles and cat
calls, that makes a streak successful,
Joel said. “It’s all about the reaction,”
he said. “If I saw someone doing
something crazy I’d love it. It tran
scends our fears. Let’s us know that
life isn’t dismal. I don’t do this be-
Oh, your aching back? Check your backpack
By Amy Cappiello
Campus Correspondent-UNC-Chapel
Hill
College Press Exchange
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (CPX) - Ever
stopped to consider that your back
pack might have something to do with
your backache? Bags might come in
an array of hip styles and colors, but
with the number of back injuries ris
ing in schools and on college cam
puses, physicians and chiropractors
say it’s important for students to con
sider function over form.
In 1997, the U.S. Consumer Prod
uct Safety Commission estimated that
more than 240 children were treated
in hospital emergency rooms for back
pain related to their backpacks and
book bags. More common is the
gradual emergence of pain that comes
after years of putting undue stress and
strain on the lower back, a predica
ment many college students report
they now face.
Chas Gaertner, a chiropractor who
has set up shop near the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, esti
mates that most of his patients are
much younger than the typical crowd
hanging out in chiropractic offices. He
said about 80 percent of his patients
are either in their teens or 20s. Their
troubles are mostly posture related,
Gaertner said. He blames many of the
ailments he treats on book bags, es
pecially those that are overloaded.
“I’ve treated kids in the 4th and sth
grade that had backpacks bigger than
their torso,” he said. “I’ve weighed
bookbags that are 35-40 pounds.”
College students know plenty about
over-packed sacks, too. Without lock
ers, they tend to cram anything and
to $20,000
That’s just fine with Deborah-Anna
Reznek, a Stanford economics major
graduating in June and who came to
hear her home state’s pitch. She’s
from Concord, Mass., and fits what
Massachusetts is after: someone
who’s seeing many of her fellow eco
nomics majors heading toward lucra
tive careers in consulting. She may go
to graduate school some day, she said.
“But teaching is so compelling on an
ideological level. It sounds good to
change the world, to give back.”
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED: Appli
cations for the Massachusetts pro
gram can be obtained by calling (718)
388-3300, extension 323. The appli
cation deadline is March 1. For infor
mation about California’s teacher
training package, phone 1-888-
CALTEACH.
cause I want people to say, ‘Oh I’m
scared!’ and then call the cops.”
The least successful of his forays
into public exhibition happened when
Joel and his girlfriend decided to run
naked into the middle of a party at his
neighbors’ house. “Real frat boy
types,” he said. There had been ten
sion between the two houses al! year
that only intensified after Joel and his
girl decided to give the neighbors
something to get really mad about.
The couple bolted into the crowd and
started to use the dance floor.
Joel said people just turned and
walked away, which is not a good re
sponse. "C’mon, let’s party!” he cried,
jumping up and down to excite the
crowd. Someone turned off the mu
sic, silence. The neighbors made it
clear that they didn’t mind Joel’s girl
friend being there, but they wanted
him to leave, and quickly. Another bad
response. Joel spoke to one of his
neighbors later.
“He said, ‘I just cannot understand
that. Why? Why?”’ Joel said. “Some
people can’t understand that I’m do
ing something out of the ordinary.
They’re so set in how they think
things should be.” Joel said cops seem
to have the worst trouble breaking
away from the norm, especially when
they’re busy upholding laws against
public indecency. Joel has encoun
tered the police twice. Once after run
ning naked through a Denny’s
restaurant in California, and once
everything they could possibly need
in a day into one bag that they lug
around on their shoulders. Laura
Stoehr, a sophomore journalism ma
jor at UNC, schleps around on her
small frame a bag that weighs at least
20 pounds. Aside from books, she also
packs chapstick, a lighter, a sewing
kit and plenty of gum and tissues.
“I’ve never used the sewing kit, but
before I had it, I needed to sew on a
button,” she said. “I have terrible pos
ture, and the book bag doesn’t help,”
she continued. “But unless I start car
rying around a little suitcase on
wheels, there’s not a lot I can do about
it.”
Zach Finley, a first-year law student
at Harvard University, knows her
pain. He lives about five minutes from
campus and walks every day with a
shoulder bag slung across his body.
“Some days I have three classes, and
I have to carry six books and some
binders,” he said. “It’s not usually too
bad, but on those days I have to carry
six books, it’s pretty trying. I would
think my bag gets up to 20-25 pounds
on the extreme days.”
Gaertner warns that routinely lug
ging such a large amount of weight
can alter a student’s posture for the
worse. A properly packed bag equals
between 10 percent and 20 percent of
its carrier’s weight, he said “Most
people are creating a really bad alter
cation in their posture,” he said. “They
develop posture where they hold their
head like a turtle or a vulture.”
Good thing not everyone fills their
bags to the brim. Kristy Cannaday, a
senior economics major at Emory
University in Atlanta, alternates be
tween two backpacks, a trendy
leather satchel and a plain canvas bag.
Midshipman Could Be Expelled
For Sexual Misconduct
College Press Exchange
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CPX) - The Na
val Academy is taking steps to expel
a midshipman who has been accused
of raping a female classmate. Michael
Pilson Jr. has admitted to having sex
in a Naval Academy dormitory, an
offense punishable by expulsion,but
says his encounter with another mid
shipman was consensual.
The woman, whose name has not
been released, claims she was raped.
The Academy is not seeking to expel
her, The Washington Times reported
Tuesday. Pilson says the woman made
up the allegation to avoid being pun
ished. He also contends that he has
been treated differently than the
woman because he is black, and she
is white.
A spokesman for the university de
nied that race or gender play any role
in the university’s investigation of
while zooming down the streets of
Syracuse while wearing in-line
skates. That story, Joel says, is "the
most legendary.”
He used a rope to tie himself to'a
car, donned a ski mask, lit a cigar and
stuck about a half dozen roman
candles in this belt. The car took off,
with Joel trailing behind, sparks from
the candles flying into the air. ”1 heard
cheers,” he said, smiling. “It was like
a whole bunch of people doing a wave
up and down the street."
And then there was that stop sign.
Joel, not wanting to crash into the
back of the car, let go of the rope and
skated right into the path of a police
officer. "I'm naked and he's like,
‘What the hell are you doing?’” Joel
said. “All I could say was, ‘Officer,
do you want me to put pants on
now?’”
Joel wasn’t arrested that night.
Funny how that happens, he added.
Typically, cops get over their initial
shock and anger and think his stunts
are pretty funny. They know he’s not
out to hurt anyone, he said, and they
usually smile knowingly when he ex
plains, “I wanted to live a bit.”
No matter which one she’s using,
Cannaday said she only carries the
bare necessities. "Economics books
are big text books, so I don’t usually
lake them to class," Cannaday said.
“I have spirals, a folder, my day plan
ner, pens, pencils. That’s about it.”
Because bookbags are such an in
tegral part of just about every
student’s day, The American Acad
emy of Pediatrics offers several point
ers on how to use them: Use a hip belt
to take pressure off the shoulders, re
distributing weight to the hip and pel
vis.
Distribute your load by using all of
a bag’s compartments. Pace heavier
books and items closest to the back,
putting the center of gravity nearest
the pelvis.
Tighten shoulder straps to draw the
pack as close to the body as is com
fortable.
Pick a pack that has padding in the
straps and other areas that come in di
rect contact with the back to avoid jab
bing and discomfort.
Sling bags with one long shoulder
strap across the chest to better distrib
ute weight. Students carrying tradi
tional backpacks should use both
shoulder straps to ease the load.
Students who insist on the ever
popular one-shoulder look should pe
riodically shift their bags, using dif
ferent arms to carry their loads.
Lighten your load. Haul around
only the things you need. That last bit
of advice may be more difficult for
some students to accept than others.
"I carry a bus schedule, gum and the
parking tickets 1 got reduced as kind
of a personal victory,” said Anna
Pond, a senior at UNC.
what happened to the woman one
night last July. Academy officials say
they will not discuss the case further
because of privacy regulations.
A military judge threw out three
criminal charges against Pilson, rape,
burglary and conduct unbecoming an
officer, in October because he decided
the woman had been intoxicated at the
time of the alleged attack and could
not recall events in detail.
Nevertheless, Vice Adm. John
Ryan, the academy superintendent,
recommended Jan. 9 that a midship
man who is believed to be Pilson be
expelled for sexual misconduct. Navy
Secretary Richard Danzig ultimately
decides whether a student should be
expelled.
Pilson’s attorney is fighting the rec
ommended expulsion, which could
result in Pilson having to pay the Navy
$70,000 for educational costs.