Beverly Hills Cop 2
Directed by Tony Scott
Axel Foley's back...where he doesn't belong! Starring: EDDIE MURPHY and JUDGE REINHOLD
98-ton tree crashes into Moore Science
May 20,1987
Work to enhance the engagement space
plaza in front of Myers Dining Hall with more
vegetation led to catastrophe Friday when a
300-year-old oak tree slipped from a crane
and crashed through the roof and second floor
of Moore Science, causing an explosion in a
science lab.
The engagement plaza—formerly a parking lot
for Village residents too lazy to haul their sorry
asses over to the dining hall for dinner—had
been a place of some controversy for months as
the college worked out plans of how to transform
the acre of asphalt into anything except a parking
lot with four picnic tables.
Plans to cover the space with either a
sheet of pink plastic or what would have
proved to be a World Record number of red,
white, and blue Lego blocks forming a giant
Confederate flag proved too costly, so when
an environmental group called the Forests of
Uninhibited Continuous Cultivation offered to
In this issue...
Campus News:
Squirrels return to white for spring 2
Turd found in Sims urinal 2
BC atheist rejected from grad school. 2
News:
God answers prayers of 6 year-old
terminally-ill child, "no” says God... 3
Pope announces candidacy for "OG”. 3
Sports:
Curling team announced at BO 5
Cycling admits efficiency of cars 5
Opinion:
Atheist won't shut up 6
Something you won't read anyway 6
Arts & Life:
Indie-band featured in car-ad 7
Theatre production "decent" 7
Odds and Ends:
STD crossword 8
IVIormon fashion tips 8
Syrian Hero 8
rip up the asphalt and plant 200-year-old trees
there, the college jumped at the chance.
“You wouldn’t think that trying to plant
giant old-growth trees into a space the size of
a football field between two buildings would
be that difficult, but it sure was,” said grounds
manager Lee Feator. “I’m about ready to
think this might not have been the best way to
transform that area.”
The first signs of trouble started early last
week, as cranes moving 200-foot tuliptrees into
place knocked down powerlines on campus,
causing a power outage lasting six hours and
ruining a “wicked” Facebook conversation
junior Bacon Chee was having. “I was totally
about to talk her into buggery,” said Chee.
But the real trouble came with the arrival of
“Virginia,” a 300-year-old live oak being moved
into place to serve as a focal point at the center
of the plaza.
“They say hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Feator
said. “On retrospect, maybe we should have
tried putting it in first, before all the others.”
The expansive crown of the oak tree would
not fit through gaps between the tuliptrees,
Feator said, and so to avoid having to remove
the earlier plantings, workers decided to try to
lift the 300-year-old tree, estimated to weigh
approximately 98 tons, over the other trees into
a 60-foot-wide hole dug especially to contain the
tree’s enormous rootball.
What happened next is unclear Witnesses
report that the specialty crane, normally used for
building skyscrapers, seemed to buckle under
the weight some 150 feet into the sky. As the
crane began to inch the massive tree forward
into place, the top of the tree seemed to pitch
forward, then did a 180-degree pivot from its
location, at which it fell out of the specially
constructed “nesf’ and into the western-most
edge of Moore Science building.
A chemistry lab class was being held at the
time, but because the incident took place on
a Friday, no students were actually present in
the class. The lab instructor, Jake Walker, was
able to escape unharmed, he said, because he
had seen the movie “Avatar” more than 25
times. “That part where the tree comes down
is awesome, especially in surround sound,”
he said. “I’ve seen it enough times that I have
memorized exactly how one should react if
one should find oneself underneath a massive
falling tree.”
“In fact, I was actually kinda disappointed
when the real thing happened, it wasn’t bigger,
more exciting,” he said. ’’The effects last Friday
were nowhere near as good as in the movie.”
College officials have not yet reached an
estimate on the damage to the building or what
it will cost to finish converting the plaza to old-
growth forest. “Obviously, we still have to figure
out what to do with the tree that is sticking,
upside down, out of Moore Science,” said BC
president Hugh Van Dom. “For now, we’re
going to leave it in place and try to work around
it as best we can—much as we’ve had to do for
the past few years in other ways as well.”
Students have mixed feelings about the
incident. One student who is enrolled in the
chemistry lab class in session at the time of
the incident was pretty seriously shaken up.
“I mean, think about it,” sophomore Gabe
Blunderballs said. “What if I had changed my
routine and actually gone to class that day? It’s
a good thing I never go to that class.”
Others are finding a silver lining in the
incident. An art student who asked not to be
identified by name said, “That tree—it’s just
so positively post-modern! I mean, look at it!
How art-deco! How da-da is that?” Another
art student who also asked not to be identified
said, “Don’t listen to what she just said. It’s
completely objet trouve.”
The explosion caused by the 98-ton tree
falling from the sky into Moore Science caused
some minor damage to the lab and to classroom
and office space adjacent to the affected area, as
well as blowing a 15-foot gash into the second
floor One faculty member in the building noted,
however, that the hole in the roof “really lets in
a lot of light,” and therefore should reduce the
need for electric light in the building.
The maintenance department has since
trimmed most of the extraneous limbs and
branches from the tree, but this too seems to
have had an unexpected consequence. Students
and faculty in Moore Science are reporting a
large number of oppossums, birds, and squirrels
in the building, animals presumably living in the
tree when it crashed through the roof
“For now, we’re trying to get along with
them,” said biology professor Rosa Boldfield.
“However, the language barrier has proven to
be a challenge.”