Photo by Randy Bennett
Flaking of asbestos surfaces, a possible cancer hazard, is seen here on the ceil
ing of a hall in White Building. Though no hazard has been established to exist,
warning sign? have been posted to decrease the possibility of producing asbes
tos dust which might be dangerous if inhaled.
University dorm
canvass policy
jto be appealed
By LARRY GALLONE
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
American Future Systems President
Edward Satell said yesterday he will
probably appeal a U.S. District judge’s
decision that upheld a University policy
Prohibiting commercial canvassing in
the dorms.
Satell said the University objects to
American Futures Systems because it is
a commercial organization. “Our views
as commercial ideas are as valid as
Jollier ideas,” he said.
One reason the University opposed
American Future Systems, according to
Satell, was to protect the bookstores and
businesses downtown. Satell said his
company offers better deals and mer
chandise to the students. “We are
Imperialists for students and we do a
better job,” he said.
Raymond 0. Murphy, vice president
for student affairs, said the University
has an obligation to protect students in
residence halls from “harassment” by
salespersons. Because of the court
decision, “A measure of privacy has
been insured in dorm and residence hall
areas,” Murphy said.
The primary implication of the
decision is that the University policy on
Correction
A story in The Daily Collegian Jan. 31
about the expansion of the Pennsylvania
Higher Education Assistance Agency
grant program incorrectly reported that
$3,284 is one year’s tuition at the
▼University. Actually, the figure has been
assigned to the University, based on
tuition, for PHEAA’s use in calculating
the amount of individual grants to
University students.
HO iDITIOfI
As a fund raiser, it looks good to me
There are ways to raise money, and
then there are ways.
First floor Holmes Hall, Schuylkill
House, is looking for a girl
preferably a student who will take
off her clothes in front of an audience
for money. They plan to use the
striptease to raise money for their
house treasury.
Dave Karo (llth-QBA), coor
dinator of the project, said they would
like to have a co-ed as the stripper
because “we think she would be more
of a turn-on than a professional
stripper. As a student, she would
have the same sort of crowd appeal
as the girl who posed nude for
Genesis Magazine a few years ago.”
When asked if he thought the show
canvassing will probably remain the
same, M. Lee Upcraft, director of
residential life, said. Upcraft said a
student can invite a salesperson up to his
or her dorm room to operate on a one-on
one basis. To expand it beyond that
would be a violation of University policy,
he said.
Joan Ebbert (sth-math) said she had
to leave an American Future Systems
sales demonstration which she set up in
her dorm room. Ebbert said that women
present who did not wish to purchase any
item were requested to leave the
demonstration.
Satell said it is against the rules of his
company for any of his salespersons to
ask anyone to leave the room. He ex
plained that at a show’s end people who
wish to buy are asked to stay and fill out
order forms. “We don’t want those
poeple who do not wish to buy anything
to be put in a buying atmosphere where
they may feel pressured to buy
something,” Satell said.
The precedent set by the judge’s
decision is important, Chris Carey,
executive assistant of the Association of
Residence Hall Students, said. There
was a fear that if the decision went
against the University the dorms would
be opened up to anyone, he said. Carey
added that the current policy helps keep
students from being ripped off.
Carey said he does not think the first
amendment rights of American Future
Systems were violated but rather the
students rights to privacy were
protected. Carey said there may be
implications for other universities in the
area with regard to their dorm can
vassing policies.
“It is apparent that from the court’s
decision commercial speech is not
guaranteed absolute rights,” University
counsel Delbert McQuaide said.
COVER
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noNfiiTiorJs Accepted
might be just a little bit chauvinistic,
Karo said, “Maybe, but we’re also
planning to have a male stripper next
term, if the girl goes over big.”
The floor advertised in the classifed
section of The Daily Collegian this
week for a stripper, and Don Hanley
(sth-business), whose number ap
peared in the ad, said they have
already gotten “several calls, though
some were obviously gags.”
Hanley said the girl does not
necessarily have to be an ex
perienced stripper, but “she should at
least be half-decent looking and be
able to dance while she takes of her
clothes.”
Karo said there will probably be
two 15-minute shows in the first floor
Asbestos ceiling may be hazard
By MARK HARMON
and DAVID VANHORN
Daily Collegian Staff Writers
Asbestos, a commonly-used building material
recently linked with cancer when its fibers are inhaled,
has been identified in several University buildings
where flaking is evident.
One prominent asbestos area is in White Building. A
sample of the ceiling from the tunnel between the locker
rooms and a universal gym was sent by The Daily
Collegian to University Mineral Constitution Lab
Director Norman Suhr. Jfe concluded through X-ray
defraction peak patterns that it is “80 to 90 percent at
least asbestos, almost all asbestos as we could tell.”
A recent edition of American Laboratory magazine
said, “The greatest hazard from asbestos is the
inhalation of fine dust fibers and their retention.” This
led Suhr to conclude, “If it is not flaking, there is no
problem.”
However, some flaking has occurred in White
Building. Locker room attendant Verna Nearhouf
noticed, “If they hit that (the ceiling) jumping rope or
something it shreds into real little pieces” leaving
“dust and little pieces, flaky stuff. It used to be the floor
would be just covered with it” after students jumped
rope, ran, or used the universal gym, she said.
“It brushes right 'down to the floor,” locker room
attendant Phyllis Hauser added
White Building Superintendent Davies Bahr said
warning signs have been posted in the corridor stating
“No Activity in Tunnel. Rope Jumping, etc. Ceiling
flakes are dangerous to your health.” Bahr added that
because the health risk is small, the corridor will not be
closed off.
Manager of Safety Services Howard Triebold, Jr.
said the state standards for asbestos are five fibers,
greater than five microns in length, per milliliter of air
the^^
daily
Student loses suit involving damaged shirts
By ROBIN BUCCILLI
Daily Collegian Staff Writer 1
District Magistrate Clifford Yorks
yesterday ruled against a student who
claimed 22 of her shirts were damaged
by an allegedly defective dryer in Leete
Hall Nov. 28.
On Jan.. 22,, Yorks said the Uniy.ersi.ty
could launder the stained shirts before
the $357 in compensation requested by
plaintiff Susan Vlaun (sth-English
literature) would be considered.
Yesterday the manager of Housing
and Food Services, Jack D. Brown,
presented the shirts one by one to Vlaun
for inspection. She said 12 of the 22 were
still unacceptable and lowered the
compensation request to $5O.
Brown said the garment tags on eight
of the shirts Vlaun placed in the dryer
stated they were to be drip dried, not
machine dried.
Thornburgh defends state salary increases
HARRISBURG (AP) Gov. Thornburgh came to the
aid of his cabinet members and the state General
Assembly yesterday in a letter to Alfred E. Kahn, the
president’s adviser on inflation.
Responding to a disapproving letter he received from
Kahn earlier this month, Thornburgh said he thinks the
legislative and cabinet salary increases recommended
by the Commonwealth Compensation Commission are
fully justified.
The governor called present state salaries
“depressed” and said the suggested 12 percent cabinet
raise is “more than justified.”
He said his 18 cabinet members, whose pay ranges
study lounge with a two-dollar en
trance fee, at most. The shows will be
open to the campus, he said.
“We’re not exactly sure how much
we will pay the stripper,” Karo said,
“but it will be in the neighborhood of
$5O to $lOO.
You may or may not remember it,
but two years ago, Schuylkill House
had a striptease show to raise money,
but the stripper (a professional then)
was arrested by the University police
on charges of indecent exposure and
public ludeness. The charges were
dropped after her husband posted her
bail, Karo said. The house was given
permission to do that show as a
fundraiser by the coordinator, Karo
said. He said they have not asked for
permission to do this show yet.
Drop them a line
about your line
The Baronbrook Publishing
Company is currently asking college
students to help them determine the
“best pickup line” that is being used
in the country.
The line either funny, direct,
serious, intellectual or whatever
will te judged by a panel and the
winner will receive $l,OOO in cash.
The contest is being held through
February and the winner will be
announced March 31.
There will also be 500 other prizes,
ranging from $l5 to $lOO, for those
lines judged as the 500 runner-ups.
sampled. A danger zone called the threshold limit
value, TLV, is greater than five fibers at five microns,
he said, and is not likely to occur. He said that flakes
are momentarily airborne, and the probability of
inhaling a dangerous dose is “very unlikely.”
Air quality tests on exposure levels are done in areas
where staff are working with asbestos on the job,
Triebold said. A typical example, he added, is Schwab
where technicians people work with asbestos insulated
wire on theatrical lights. No air quality tests have been
done in the White Building tunnel, therefore it is not
known whether there are enough particles to be
hazardous.
“To reduce or eliminate the potential health hazard,”
Triebold said the ceiling material in White Building will
be removed.
Testing for asbestos has been done over the last three
to four years, according to Triebold. Ceiling material is
tested in buildings where asbestos might be, he said, or
from inquires from outside sources and “wherever
someone has expressed concern in the past.” Triebold
said his staff is alert to the possibility of potential health
hazards of absestos, especially in hallways and room
ceilings.
One of these buildings is Hamilton Hall in West Halls.
Resident Mike Peters (sth-architecture) said he was
concerned because the ceilings in the hallways and
rooms could be made of asbestos. Peters submitted a
sample to Elaine Young of the Health Education
Department. Young said she was “pretty sure” the
sample from Hamilton Hall is similar to the ceiling
material in White Building.
Triebold said a sample from Hamilton Hall will be
analyzed by the Bureau of Occupational Health
laboratory in Harrisburg, the same organization which
confirmed for Triebold that the White Building tunnel
ceiling was asbestos.
He said the eight shirts caused the
acrid odor from overheating which
Vlaun said she discovered after retur
ning to the laundry room 20 minutes
after putting her clothes in the dryer.
Vlaun said she had been laundering
those shirts in the dryer with her other
for the. past.year wjthout com
plications. '
Assistant Supervisor of University
Maintainance William C. Parker said he
sent workmen to examine the dryer the
morning after the incident and they
found nothing wrong.
“In a case where a University
machine malfunctions we don’t deny it,”
said Director of Housing Services
Donald T. Arndt in his closing
statement, “but in this case eight of the
22 items shouldn’t have been in the dryer
and this contributed to the problem.”
Vlaun said she cannot afford to appeal
between about $38,000 and $46,000, have not received a
salary hike in three years.
If they receive this increase, under the state con
stitution they would not be eligible for another raise for
the duration of their four-year terms, Thornburgh said.
“Thus, I find it hard to believe that your guidelines
could allow for a seven percent pay raise for each of the
next four years (or, in effect, a cumulative 28 percent
pay increase) while objecting to what in reality would
be a considerably lower increase, in the form of a one
time 12 percent increase,” Thornburgh wrote.
He also defended the 14 percent raise recommended
for legislators, saying it amounts to a 7 percent raise
All 501 lines will be used in a book
published by Baronbrook entitled
(that’s right) “501, Best Pickup
Lines.”
Entry blanks and rules can be
obtained through Baronbrook
Publishing Company, 631 Wilshire
Boulevard, Santa Monica, Calif.,
90401.
Eric A. Walker says
“I’m not dead yet”
The Daily Collegian received the
following post-humorous an
nouncement in the mail this week:
“I have just returned from a long
trip abroad and have been.scanning
past issues of the Collegian to bring
myself up to date on the news of the
world. I thought the article on Don
Kepler was very well done, but I was
disturbed to find myself referred to
as ‘the late university president Eric
A. Walker.’
“Now, if by late the Collegian
means tardy, I must protest for I was
never late at any tiipe for a meeting.
If, however, by late the Collegian
means dead, I must protest even
more vigorously; because I am
positive that I am not.”
The letter was signed, as you might
expect, by Eric A. Walker.
Since that time when we received
the letter, we have taken time to
investigate the matter and have
subsequently discovered that he is
indeed not dead, and we would like to
Ilegian
the case,
“An appeal would cost me $100,”
■ Vlaun said, “and I can’t receive legal aid
because this is a prosecution case, not a
defense case.”
Vlaun said she' spent three weeks
wearing borrowed shirts until she could
do secre,tarial work over term break to
earn the money to replace her wardrobe.
She said she hasn’t used the Leete Hall
laundry facilities since November and
that she intends to move off-campus in
two weeks.
Vlaun also has resigned as an ARHS
member.
“Seventy percent of the reason J
resigned is because I can’t deal with the
housing people,” she said.
But Vlaun believes she received a fair
hearing.
“I have less criticism of the case than
of the University Housing people,” she
squelch any rumors to the contrary.
But don’t take our word for it, invite
him to a party.
Betty Grabinski,
Please forgive me
Ever since I refused to take Betty
Grabinski to the prom my senior
year, and later discovered no other
girl in the entire world would talk to
me even to this day, I’ve been
suspicious that women have a secret
network of influence over each other.
Now I am convinved.
Charles Brown (6th-education)
received a “private and confidential”
letter in the mail from the “Glo-
Worm Society of the United States”
which said he has been selected “by
someone who knows what you are
like, and feels that you have all the
qualifications for us . . . you lucky
dog.”
(I know why I didn’t get a similar
letter; it was Betty she’s probably
one of “them.”)
The letter is signed by Karen M.,
the executive secretary of Glo-Worm,
and goes on to explain that it is an
exclusive and private society that he
has been asked to join.
Brown said he does not know who
recommended him and two of his
brothers at Tau Epsilon Phi frater
nity to Glo-Worm.
He also said he did not know a girl
by the name of Grabinski.
My question now is whether or not
“If it is asbestos, everyone who has lived in this
building is in trouble,” Peters said.
Hamilton Hall resident Warren Davis (sth-chemical
engineering) said he often would wake up in the mor-;
ning with a light dusting of ceiling flakes on his blanket.
Davis slept on the top bunk in a small double room. He
said he was not concerned about it, but “I would like to
know what it is.”
Thompson Hall, constructed at the same time as
Hamilton, may have the same problem with asbestos
ceilings.
People in the Health Education Department are
especially concerned. Ron Milito, professor of health
education, said that people should at least be told about
asbestos so they may make their own decision as to
whether they want to expose themselves to a potential
health hazard.
“People should be alarmed to the extent that they can
make their own decision,” Young said.
The sample taken from White Building was found to
be Chrysotile, the most common form of asbestos used
in industry. Suhr said: “There’s asbestos all over the
place... I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it were all over
the University.”
“The problem is with breathing it in,” he added.
“You’d have to have a fair exposure. Probably you
should have had masks if you installed it,” but “I doubt
there was any protection back when it was installed."
The American Laboratory article mentioned,
“Particle size and shape play an important role in the
inhalation and lung penetration mechanisms.”
Diseases related to asbestos fibers include;
asbestosis, a thickening and scarring of lung tissue;
mesothelioma, rare tumors specifically related to the
delicate membrane encasing the lungs and of a similar
membrane that lines the abdominal cavity; and various
other lung and bronchial cancers including fibrosis. '
University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by Students oF The Pennsylvania State University
said. “I think Yorks tried to be fair. But
this was an example of might versus a
little person.”
“I’m a student and I was in court by
myself,” Vlaun said. “The University
had specialists there to testify. I think
the University will strongarm any
student who brings them to court, but I
hope my case won’t discourage other
students from confronting the Univer
sity when they feel they’ve been ripped
off.”
Director of Housing Services Donald
T. Arndt said this case did not set a
precedent.
“Many students make claims against
the University and we try to investigate
them all,” Arndt said. “We represent the
interest of all the students and treat
them as fairly as we can.
“The results of this case speak for
themselves,” he said.
over two years. Lawmakers earn a base salarv of
$18,720.
“Given their duties and responsibilities and the
salaries of legislators in comparable states, I believe
these pay raises are perfectly warranted,” the
governor said.
Thornburgh criticized Kahn for not studying the
Compensation Commission report before objecting to
its conclusions.
In addition, he said the “nature and tone” of Kahn’s'
letter along with its premature public release may have
thrown a wrench into an effort to delay the effective
date of the raises. However, Thornburgh said he thinks
“things are back on the track in that regard.”
Glo-Worm is just another swinging
singles-type organization, or is it “the
real thing” that secret
organization of women I’ve always
suspected since my senior year in
high school?
Wire Story
Of The Week
OKLAHOMA CITY (UPI) A
writer, claiming his brain had been
pickled by beer containing 3.2 percent
alcohol, has filed a $2 million lawsuit
against Coors- beer and the tavern
owner who sold it to him.
Woodrow W. Bussey filed the suit
Monday against the Adolph Coors Co.
“This ingesting of Coors beer has
pickled the brain of the plaintiff,
rendering him incapable of writing
up to his potential or even writing in a
professional manner,” the lawsuit
said.
Don’t be frigid
Dress warm this bitter cold
weekend as today will be breezy with
gradually clearing skies, a flurry
possible, and the high a cold 10
degrees. Tonight will be clear and
disgustingly cold with a low of minus
4. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny
with a high of 12 and increasing
cloudiness is on tap for Sunday with a
high of 16.
Friday, February 9, 1979
V01.79.N0 122 22 pages
—written and compiled by
Bob “Suds” Carville
15*