Western Front - 1977 October 21

              • 1 WVVeCsMteCrlnIl . Front Western Washington University FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21,1977 VOL.70 NO. 9
The $100 put-down'
Group protests 'sexist' contest
MARCH FOR EQUALITY — Gayle Collins [left] and Katherine
Lord picketed in front of the Up & Up Tavern Monday night. A
group of over 40 demonstrators protested as exploitative of
women a "best looking negligee" contest that took place inside.
by BRUCE HYLAND
More than 40 demonstrators
picketed a Bellingham bar Mon­day
night to protest exploitation
of women while a "best looking
negligee" contest took place in­side.
About one-third of the
group was male.
The protesters, most of whom
were Western students,
marched and sang for more
than three hours in front of the
Up & Up Tavern, 1234 N. State
St. Many carried signs which
said, among other things,
"Down with the Up & Up" and
"The $100 put-down," referr­ing
to the contest's' prize
money.
"We're here to protest the
total exploitation of women that
this contest represents," Gayle
© Collins, of Western's Women's
1J Center, said. "Women should -
J? not be viewed as just a body."
to A spokesman for the tavern,
^ who asked not to be named,
J? said the contest did not exploit
•u or even center on women.
.a "The prize is for the best
o negligee," he said.
^ At least one of the seven con-
^ testants was .male.
Protester Steve Cook saw the
contest as "a put-down" and
the contestants as "playing a
role."
"I really don't respect a
woman who does everything for
me," he said. "She should do
things for herself."
Mark Tips, explaining his
participation, said the demon­stration
was "not a women's
rally. It's a people's rally to end
sexism — to do away with this
kind of garbage."
At one point, two male pro­testers
garrying signs entered
the tavern. They immediately
were met by proprietor Jim
Bring who confiscated and de­stroyed
the signs. A brief argu­ment
followed but there was no
trouble.
The Bellingham police were
on hand most of the evening
and checked on activities inside
and outside the tavern. No
trouble was reported and no
arrests were made.
The demonstration broke up
around 10:30 p.m.
South campus tops
Western's requests
Strange odor adrift in Arntzen
by SUE TAYLOR
New ceilings were installed
in Arntzen Hall this summer.
But students with classes in
Arntzen claim it acquired more
than a new appearance.
"It really does smell," senior
Kathy Stuart said. Another stu­dent
agreed. "You walk into
the halls and it hits you like a
shot," Blaine Barnscomb said.
No student interviewed had a
clear idea of exactly what they
smelled, but the majority said it
was hard to ignore.
"It's related to the new ceil­ings,"
Eric Nasburg, director of
facilities development, said.
The department is not sure
what causes the odor, he said.
The ceiling panel materials
are 95 per cent inorganic.
Technically, the panels cannot
produce an aroma, Nasburg
said.
The department studied the
problem informally. One theory
is the ceilings impair the venti­lation
system. Another possibil­ity
is the binder glue in the
ceiling panels, he added.
A complaint was filed with
the Whatcom County Health
Department last week concern­ing
the smell. John Woll of the
mathematics department said
he and several students were
concerned that the smell might
be a health hazard.
Dennis Larson, a health of­ficer,
came to Western to ask
about the smell. He maintained
be "could not smell anything
unusual." The Arntzen staff
and faculty members he talked
to said they had not noticed
anything, Larson stated.
The Health Department turn­ed
the complaint over to the
Department of Labor and In­dustries,
Joe Bottelli, state
safety inspector, said. A hy­giene
engineer also visited
Arntzen and reported he could
not detect anything abnormal,
Bottelli said.
Woll said it was unbelievable
someone would not notice the
smell. Woll teaches a morning
class in one of Arntzen's un-ventilated
basement class­rooms.
The administrators got wind
of the matter at the beginning of
the quarter. They thought the
odor would disappear after
classes began and the building
was given a chance to air out,
Nasburg said.
An investigation to determine
the cause of the odor is in prog­ress
and should be completed
within two weeks.
by LIZ RUST
A project that would improve
the south campus grounds has
been made a top priority in the
Capital Budget requests to the
legislature by the Business and
Finance Council (BFC) and the
university's long-range plan­ning
committee.
This request, along with 13
other proposed projects was
approved Tuesday by the BFC
and will now go to James
Talbot, vice president of aca­demic
affairs, University Presi­dent
Paul Olscamp arid the
Board of Trustees. The list
could be altered at any of these
stops, before it is presented to
the legislature Nov. 15 H. A.
"Barney" Goltz, university
planning officer, said.
The project to improve the
south campus grounds, costing
about $2.2 million, is left over
from the list of requests that
were not approved by the legis­lature
last year. Capital Budget
requests to the legislature are
every two years. All but two of
this year's requests are left
from last year's list as this is
the second year of this bi-ennium.
The legislature approved de­signs
for the south campus
grounds project in its 1975 ses­sion,
but refused to finance
actual construction work. Last
year the project (then a number
two priority) was not accepted
by the legislature, Goltz said.
The project would provide
outdoor field space for physical
education classes, intramurals,
recreation and athletics, Goltz
said. He added the project
would relocate the current ten­nis
courts and complete the
south campus streets, walks,
lighting and landscaping as far
as the Birnam Wood residence
halls.
The second priority of the re­quest
list is a project renovat­ing
Edens Hall and placing the
College of Business and Eco­nomics
there. The building does
not meet current codes for aca­demic
functions nor does it
comply with handicapped stu­dent
regulations, Goltz said.
The 52-year-old building,
which would require approxi­mately
$238,622 to renovafe, is
structurally sound, Don Cole,
vice president for business and
financial affairs, said.
The third priority on the re­quest
list is a project that would
add to Miller Hall and remodel
College Hall in order to bring
the Speech Pathology and
Audiology department out of
College Hall and physically
Cont'd on page 10
Inside:
The case for space
Frank Herbert, author of the "Dune trilogy," talked about
living in outer space when he spoke at Western Monday. Clay
Hartl has the story on page 3.
Yankees do it
Although split by inner turmoil through the final game of the
World Series, the Yankees came through to win their 21st
championship. Mike Navalinski looks at the series on page 13. CARS OF THE FUTURE — Michael Seal, director of Western's Vehicle Research Institute, was
at the Utah Salt Flats recently to test the performance of the Viking experimental cars. See
story on page 7.