Fire FIREMEN MOUNT ladders as attempt to fight the , blase caused by lightning Monday night In' Graduate Hall. A large crowd gathered to: watch the firs. which caused an as yet Fire Draws Crowd; Smoke Covers Area BY DOROTHY DRASHER (See Related Pictures and Story on Page 3) Hundreds of rain-soaked stu dentsi watched firemen fight flames which gutted the 'attic and Much, of .the third floor of .Grad- Date Hall Monday night. Townspeople. too, many s of them arriving after students had flocked to the scene, clustered under other people's umbrellas when a second thunderstorm followed after the fire had ,started. - LIGHTNING FROM the firit Storm caused the initial fire to start. Before the flames were seen leaping from the dormers minutes later, a dense acrid smoke had spread over much of the campus and several blocks .of the down town area. - The smoke, fire sirens and' fire enginei heading towards -campus drew the early crowds and ddzens of students, mostly men were seen rushing up the mall minutes later. Others . hurried from residence halls and across campus to 'see the fire. ' Rumors about the Ideation of the fire were numerous and trav eled rapidly. Some in the down town area said ! a transformer wai hit on 'one -of !the women's resi:- dence halls in the Pollock area. , i . , Study Abivad Pkins Expansion Efforts are now being made to arrange five foreign ,study pio grams in 1963, Dagobert de Levie, director of the Study Abroad, said Tuesday, • Negotiations have been under way since May with two leading SpanAh •uliiirersities to establish a program in Spain, de Levie said. ' Forty students have been tenta tively accepted , for this term abroad. • PROGRAMS WILL be con tinued in Strasbourg. France, ind 'Cologne, Germany; 50 students have , been tentatively accepted to go to France and 25 to Germany. "We are also attempng to,or ganize a program in E ngland for the spring -term 1963," de Levie said. Under this plan; architec • tune students would take courses in architectural design and art plus the liberal arts, he added. The Study Abroad committee Strikes Grad mita _ amount of damages. Uninorsity officials did say, howvrer. that replaciment •alnetcf the property and span . lost was $1 mil lion it today's construction costs. 'Others in the Pollock area specu lated that the fire was; in West Halls. I I A report later came ,hack that a radio station in Lewistown had called shortly after the fire 'started to check a report that Old Main had burned. • The fire was confined to the vast dormer of Grad, Hall for the first few minutes. Powerful hoses ;were concentrated on the area, but the flames roared 'up about po feet in the air and enveloped most of the third floor. Dozens of fire hoses snaked across the lawn in front of Grad Hall. • i Some students searching for a better vantage point were warned not to step on' the hoses. The force of water from a break at any point could cause a serious ac cident,. a campus patrolman ex plained. • REACTION FROM the specta tors ranged from sarcastic com ments such as "bring on the marshmallows" to those who ex pressed anxiety over valuable records 'and papers which - might be destroyed. Students, some of them barefoot and In 'bermudas, volunteered their services to help firemen with (Continued on page six) also hopes to - plan a term of study in England preceding the University Chapel Choir's tour of Europe next summer, de Leyie said. No agreement his.definite ly been reached on:either English Plan or a program :in Spain, he added. The choir members.would par ticipate in an accelerated eight week program, leaving three or fpur Weeks for a tour. The archi tecture program would be 10 weeks long. )f Ben Euwerna, deanf the Col lege of the Liberal Arts under vkhich the Study Abroad program Frates, is scheduled to visit rance, Germany and Spain this fall to conclude agreements, de - Levie said. Announcements of the students-. participating will then be made; pending the out chme• of final applications and iOterviews of those students ten tittively acctipted. #itittittrr VOL-4;No. 10 UNIVERSITY PARK. PA.. THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 23. 1962 FIVE CENTS Wharton Examines Costs For Larger Auditorium By NANCY McCORICLI Dean Wharton, president of the Undergraduate Student Govern ment, said yesterday that he checked the costs and facilities of the Ohio State University's new auditorium to uncover the prob lems that Penn State would en counter in constructing such a building. • ALLISON WOODALL. USG Congressman, and Wharton at tended the leadership conference of the National Student Associa tion last week at Ohio State Uni versity in Columbust, Ohio. This is th. last Inuit of The Summer Collegian. The first issue of The Daily Collegian will be published on Orienta tion Sunday. Sept. IS. -. De Levie also said that the Uni versity hopes to establish a Lib eral Arts Study Abroad program in England for the spring term 1984. This term would be open to all students of the University without foreign language facility who possess an interest in the liberal arts, he added. IN OTHER STUDY Abroad de velopments, de Levie said that in September a representative from the University of Cologne will visit the campus to explore the possibility of changing the cur rent program into a genuine two-way exchange program. An overwhelming majority of students who participated in the first Study Abroad term this spring consider it "the experience of their lives," de Levie said. The program not only aids linguistic skill but, gives students a pro found understanding of present day .daveloPinent3,, fit, said- . . Replacement Value Seen as $1 Million (See Related Pictures and Story on Page 3) Lightning from a summer thunderstorm struck the . for mer Graduate Hall building at 6:20 p.m. Monday and sparked a blaze which area firemen fought for . several hours. The fire was considered) the worst blaze on - campus since the destruction of the Chemistry Annex 25 years ago. REPLACEMENT VALUE of the space lost through the fire is approximately $1 million at today's construction costs, University officials have been unable to place an exact. dol lar figure on the loss until further study is completed by them and insurance company officials. The fire started during a severe storm when a bolt of lightning struck the third floor of the building's east wing. The building, which now houses the Division of Counseling, the University Placement Service - and Teacher Placement, Division of Academic Research and - Services and other Uni versity agencies, was renovated during the past year frpm a dormitory to office - space. The structure was built in 1889 as a women's residence hall and was occupied from 1958 to 1961 by 80 graduate stu dents. On the basis of a preliminary examination, offiCiala said that it Is probable that the entire structure, which has about 33,000 square feet of floor space, may have to be re placed. University officials are currently studying whether to repair or raze the building. The roof structure and third floor of the building de stroyed by the fire and walls and floors of the first and second FM A BETTER PENN STATE Ohio State's auditorium, which seats 3,072 people, cost approxi mately ;4.5 million. Wharton said. The acoustics and lighting are excellent, and these are two problems that hazard entertain ment programs held in Recrea tion Hall-and Schwab, he added. Recreation Hall has a seating capacity of about 6,000, but the bleachers.,are uncomfortable 'for the audience and the backstage facilities are lacking for gtiest performers, he said. In Schwab the sight line to the stage is poor from many seats, and the audi torium only holds 1,500 people, he said. WHARTON SAID that he was sure that University administra tors were concerned about the lack of a larger auditorium. so the main objective - of the USG Auditorium Investigating Com mittee would be to work with them to accomplish its construc tion as soon as possible. Students can help in this pro ject, Wharton said, by making suggestions about what facilities Hot Weather Likely to Return; Showers Seen for Saturday (See Related Story on Page I) The relatively cool, dry air that has dominated the local weather scene during the past two days should begin to give way to warmer temperatures and j,in creasing- humidities today. Hot and humid tropical air is advancing northeastward from the central and southern states in , ad vance of an energetic storm in the Dakotas. Sunny skies and increasing southerly winds may boost the rcury to 85 degrees this after noon, and the arrival of I the tropical , air in bulk tomorfrow Hall (Continued on fie sir) ToUrgian 'are needed in a new auditorium, by using their personal contacts and even by interesting business men to form a corporation to do nate money for its construction. Wharton explained that this corporation system has been used by other universities, and that the corporation gives the building to the university to operate after its completion. Wharton said he also compared judicial systems with other uni versity representatives. He *aid that Penn State actually has one of the better court systems in th, United States, but that investi gation would continue to Improve Ideas were also exchanged on Ways to get students interested in participating in activities', he said. Incorporating the idea of one of the "'Big 10" schools, Whar- _ , ton said that USG would like tO• publish a booklet describing ell the campus activities and c lub!. It would be similar to the fresh man handbook, he added. should boost the temperature to 90 degrees. The eastward movement of the Dakotas' storm system will be as sociated with increasing shower and thunderstorm activity in Pennsylvania late tomorrow and Saturday. Significant amounts of rainfall could acompany this storm, which togetiler with the heavy showers of Monday evening could spell the end of the worst and most pro longed drought in the 78-year history of local weather records. Cooler and drier air should fol low in the wake of - the storm latip Sunday or Monday.
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