e Mars Hill College
IdAINFID
Full details on grand
jury probe of MHC fac
ulty-student prayer
group — see page 3.
Sol. MIX No. 28754
WARS HELL, NORTH CAROLINA
April, 1970
SU Takes Over Administration Buiiding
and Mrs. Gorge Peery (he’s supposedly of the political science department) were
to defend their home last week in the midst of the confusion that erupted in
j mountain hamlet when 700 Baptist Student Union members took over the Administration
'"■dir
"3 of Mars Hill College.
Campus News Round-Up
5 ®''lng partially recovered from
®®vere bout with the dreaded
lower” fever, several depart-
■ivy
of Mars Hill College have
’’'fin/ ^'’oounced a list of depart-
achievements and have al-
bg|^®'03sed some of the plays now
Of y made by individual members
.j. departments.
® art department, in complete
th''‘
,®^®ment, has announced that
|oog)^°l'o9e has finally granted en-
funds to construct a formal
soig®®'l6ry for the exposition and
Thg^ °f art work done by students.
arg^93llery, which is expected to
%a *°urists from as far away as
by ^®'^ille, should be completed
Poin,®®®mber of 1972. Modern ap-
ciog^^oats of the building will in-
'6
..10 . -■ » ...w.... a a-.
hoa. ®®oment) and will be well-
the f ®faps and running water (in
the of a creek flowing through
'®atocj
Ton.
Mr,
during the summer tourist
Porj ■ Babelot of the music de-
^td-a T has announced that two-
Iri fu'®®tf miles of the catacombs
dog ® Fine Arts Building will be
to the Religious Depart-
WfiQ tor use as labs for students
j^^ister for the new course in
Ti^^ttucation.
ttlsfory department proudly
hfira that two faculty mem-
Ciillj David Nicely and Mr. Larry
y I'fork' completed their Joint
A Brief History of the
is 1, *7
^®hn.
ond/or Immorality of Ghen-
Mr. Jim Whyatt, Librarian, has said
that the library will have copies of
the book on the shelves in record
time, i.e., within seven years of
the second publication.
The business department will be
dissolved at the end of this sem-
ster due to mismanagement. (Edi
tor’s note: The Landslide staff tried
fervently to acquire more informa
tion on this very serious matter but
the faculty members of this depart
ment had gone on a daisy-picking
trip up Mount Bailey. The last
meeting of the business department
professors was taped but the mumb
ling was impossible to decipher.)
The mathematics and physics de
partment, in an effort to update its
facilities for students in upper level
courses, has ordered 28 stainless
steel abacuses from a company
based in Hong Kong. The abacuses
(or is it abacci?), along with
framed copies of explicit directions
for their use, will be stored in a
special laboratory to be construc
ted immediately adjacent to the little
glass house affectionately known as
Wall's Outhouse.
Two weeks ago a truckload of
color televisions was delivered to
the education department to be in
stalled in various county schools so
that students on the Block Program
might be able to evaluate the im
pact of the educational programs on
elementary age school children.
Since that time no one has seen
(Continued on P. 4)
In an unprecedented exhibition
of brutal force, the Baptist Student
Union, approximately 700 strong,
overtook the Administration Build
ing of Mars Hill College on April 1
after three nights of rock hurling,
marches and burning of local Vet
erans Club meeting rooms.
Led by BSU President Don Mc-
Castkill and President-elect Rich-
and Sparkerman, a delegation of 32
militant ministerial students organ
ized the attack after a list of 95
demands, which had been nailed to
the door of the building, had been
torn down by Registrar Robert Chip-
man as he left his office on the af
ternoon of March 26.
The attack, which was completely
unexpected by the administration
and staff, has left the town in a
state of shock and the campus in
a state of disaster.
Students had been expected to
leave campus on the afternoon of
March 27 for a 10-day spring break.
However, following the incident of
March 26, BSU leaders decided to
call a required meeting of their
membership during spring break
and set up temporary headquarters
in the office of the Hilltop, which
has long been suspected of harbor
ing subversive elements.
The SDS chapter of the Asheville
High School, learning of the BSU’s
efforts to organize an attack against
the administration due to their
“latent ignorance of the needs of
students in a modern, responsible
society,” provided homemade
bombs, noisemakers and extra long
rubber bands to the BSU officials
and promised to solicit boxes of
cereal and other high protein food
supplies from Buncombe County
SDS members for local use in this
push for academic liberty.
On March 29, at approximately
11 p.m., after two days of highly
technical strategizing. President Mc-
Caskill led a small group of men up
Girls’ Hill where three mammoth
sling shots were positioned in trees
and loaded with hard rolls which
had been meticulously stolen from
the college cafeteria.
Meanwhile, President-elect Sparker
man, armed with his trusty guitar,
led a small parade of women
Book Review
through the main thoroughfares of
Mars Hill. The group, singing a med
ley of songs including Give A
Damm, Bridge Over Troubled Water,
We Shall Overcome, and Sweet
Hour of Prayer, drew a crowd of
approximately 16 sleepy citizens
and 34 howling dogs.
After an exhausting journey the
length of Main Street (both blocks),
the group returned to the Hilltop
office for rest and recuperation.
The next morning. Dr. Freed
Berkeley, frustrated president of the
college, called an emergency meet
ing of the Bored Trustees to dis
cuss the parade of the previous
evening. It was hurriedly decided
that the event had been fostered by
a particularly enthusiastic series of
local revivals and the meeting was
dismissed. Later in the day Presi
dent Berkeley flew to Nairobi, Ken
ya, to discuss the feasibility of a
foreign exchange program for col
lege presidents.
In an exclusive Landslide inter
view, which took place on the morn
ing of March 30, President McCast-
kili said, “The requests which were
made by this organization were quite
within the scope of feasibility for
this college at this time. For ex
ample, we requested that an ABM
research center be established in
the Wall Science Building within 30
days of our notice, which was posted
on March 26. Such a proposal could
not have been reasonably rejected;
the college has the funds and the
staff to provide for such a center.
“We are tired of this college per
ceiving itself as a pastoral refuse
for anti-social citizens. In order for
the American society to physically
survive, to protect its intellectual
personality and to further develop
its moral potential, anti-social ten
dencies can no longer be tolerated.
This is supported by Obadiah 42:8.
“We also requested that the Col
lege assume responsibility for re
placing the slum housing which it
condescendingly provides for its
rather feudal community. I can only
say that I am greatly grieved that
this situation has necessitated phy
sical force, but I am ready to de
fend my position at whatever cost.”
At this point in the interview Mc-
Castkill broke off his conversation
and returned to be with his brood
ing, weary troops.
For the next two days Mars Hill
was repeatedly besieged by a bar
rage of flying paper munitions,
pebbles and rubber bands. Just af
ter morning coffee break on April
1, some 700 students, looking half-
starved after a three-day-long diet
of cereal, stormed the Administra
tion Building. All persons who had
been in the building escaped with
the exception of Business Mangier
Violent Hindersome, who was held
as hostage. She was released six
hours later when personnel from
the Physical Plant delivered 3500
McDonald’s hamburgers to the
front steps of the building in answer
to a demand made by an unknown
faction of the BSU..
One of the most surprising ac
tions which followed in near suc
cession to the actual taking of the
building was that Robert Helvin,
Chaplain of the College, resigned
from his job and aligned himself
with BSU forces. It is understood
that he “felt an undying loyalty to
the BSU and had to go with them.”
About twilight the town of Mars
Hill ordered its police force into
action, and the BSU and the Mars
Hill Police Department engaged in
a heated battle which lasted until
the final EverReady battery in the
last flashlight went out a few hours
later.
President Berkeley, who had been
wired of the situation by one of the
Bored Trustees, called President
Mixum in Washington, D. C., and re
quested that a detachment of fed
eral troops be ordered onto the
scene. President Mixum said that
he couldn’t remember where North
Carolina is but that he would try
to do something.
No federal troops have appeared
so it seems that Mixum never re
membered where North Carolina is
or that federal troops somewhere
are AWOL At any rate, Mixum is
not "bringing them together.”
In a statement made to one hel-
meted Landslide reporter, Helvin
said on the evening of April 1, “I
have an Excedrin headache you
(Continued on P. 4)
All The News That's Fit To Print
Setting a phenomenal record of
four consecutive months on the
best seller list. Mars Hill College
Catalogue continues to hold the
number one slot on the top ten in
the fiction list.
Reporting to be the offerings and
requirements of a fictional college
in the mythical village of Mars Hill,
nestled in the smog-choked Craggy
Mountains of North Carolina, Cata
logue reveals the stirring passions,
agonies and joys inherent In oper
ating a small, church-related insti
tute of higher learning according to
the morals and standards of the
early 18th century.
Written in a straight forward, no-
nonsense style, which is almost
as vague as the situations it relates.
Catalogue reflects the same hope
less frustrations which led its au
thor or authors to choose to remain
anonymous. Reading like a cast
from a Fellini movie, the staff and
faculty of this mythical institution
defy the human imagination. Per
haps this lack of reality reinforces
the general lack of credibility in the
whole make up of the incidents
which occur.
The overlaying tone of the book
is one of total indifference in an
atmosphere of benign mistrust and
hostitlity. Perhaps the only bit of
feeling is portrayed in the hero of
the novel, the student body.
The real Importance of this little
book is not in the surface situations
but rather in the well-hidden mean
ing which supports the theme of
the small mountain institution —
that is, that Victorian Ideology Is
not dead but merely dormant.
A sequel to this magnificent piece
of literature is now being prepared
in collaboration with scholars from
Bob Jones University and, accord
ing to the anonymous authors, will
be a light unto the path for this
dark world. Undoubtedly, it will
match if not surpass Catalogue In
sales.