Page Four, THE HILLTOP, April 28, 1979
Near Three Mile Island,
A College Fights To Stay Alive
CARLISLE, PA (CPS) — The news, ac
cording to one administrator, arrived
some 24 hours after the initial, disab
ling incident at the Three Mile Island nu
clear power plant near Harrisburg on
March 28.
Thus began a four-day effort by ad
ministrators at Dickinson College, a
small liberal arts school that sits some
26 miles away from the power plant, to
keep its students calm and its campus
open. After repeated radiation readings
by nuclear physicists on the faculty,
regular reminders to the students, sever
al all college meetings, and constant re
assurances all around, the administra
tors eventually lost their battle.
John Ross, Dickinson’s public infor
mation director, announced on Sunday,
April 1, that classes would, after all,
be suspended through April 9. The sus
pension came despite readings that in
dicated that, according to Ross, "there
is no danger to students on the campus.”
Evacuation plans extended in a 10-mile
radius from the power plant. Carlisle —
and Dickinson — are 26 miles away.
Nevertheless, student — and later,
parental — anxieties were difficult to
restrain. On Friday, March 30, Sarah
Snyder of The Dickinsonian, the school
paper, reported that “parents are driving
up here and taking their kids away. A
lot of people are on the roads hitch
hiking out of here.”
Ross suggested only that “a lot more
people left for home for the weekend
than would normally do so.” By Sunday,
the school administration received
“many, many” calls from students and
parents wanting to know if they should
return to campus for classes.
After two all-college meetings Friday
and Saturday night, the administration
gave students the option of leaving cam-
Second in “Saturday Seminars”
to be held April 28 at M.H.C.
The second of Mars Hill College’s
“Saturday Seminars,” a series of non
credit classes dealing with special in
terests or contemporary issues one
Saturday each month, will be held April
28.
The seminars are part of the college’s
community service and continuing edu
cation effort. This Saturday’s seminar
concerns estate planning and will be
taught by Edward B. Krause, a partner
of the law firm of Pitts, Hugenschmidt,
and Krause, with offices in Asheville
and Mars Hill.
Registration and a coffee hour will be
held from 9:30 - 10 a.m. in the lobby of
Belk Auditorium, adjacent to Wren
College Union. The seminar costs $5
and will begin at 10 a.m. A lunch break
is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. at which
time the class will resume and is sche
duled from noon to 1 p.m. at which time
the class will resume and is scheduled
to last until 3 p.m. The seminars are open
to the general public.
Most public officials and lawyers
agree that proper estate planning is now
more important than ever. Important
changes in state and federal inheritance
tax laws can cost an estate’s benefici
aries much of what is left to them
through ignorance. This class will ex
amine seven main topics including the
definition of what assets to include in an
estate; what happens to an estate with
out a will (the N. C. interstate laws);
what can be done with a will; the revo
cation of a will;, the legal requirements
of a will; and the administration of an
estate with the duties and problems of
an executor will be covered during
the morning session. Following lunch the
topics will include N. C. inheritance
taxes and new changes in the federal
estate tax.
Additional information about the semi
nar may be obtained from the law firm
of Pitts, Hugenschmidt, and Krause at
their Asheville number, 258-0220, or
from Raymond C. Rapp, Coordinator of
Programs for Continuing Education,
Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, N. C. 28754,
telephone 689-1166.
Elderhostel
pus, assuring them that they wouldn’t
be penalized if they fled until the crisis
in Harrisburg was over. “But a lot of
students,” Ross reflected, “felt that the
statement was somehow pressuring them
to stay.” On Sunday, President Sam A.
Baker released a new statement, sus
pending classes without officially clos
ing the campus for those who wished to
stay.
“We suspended classes because we
didn’t want the students to feel pressured
into staying. And, it wouldn’t be feas
ible to carry on normal classes anyway.
I think it’d be hard to sit through a lec
ture on Ceasar’s march through Gaul,
when all you really want to do is talk a-
bout Three Mile Island.”
Those students staying on campus —
Ross estimates “about 40 percent” of
the 1600-member student body remains
— will get an especially-developed diet
of classes during the suspension. Each
department has concocted unofficial
seminars and discussions. There’ll be,
of course, a series of what Ross calls
“nuclear teach-ins,” about measuring
radioactivity, the ways reactors work, and
how radiation is spread by the winds.
The classics department, on the other
hand, is holding a seminar on “The Last
Days of Pompeii.”
How did the administrators respond to
the crisis so quickly? Dickinson’s might
have been better prepared than others.
President Baker used to teach a course
on crisis management at the University
of Florida med school. Dickinson,
moreover, holds semi-annual adminis
trative seminars. Last fall’s seminar was
devoted to planning and the lab session,
according to Ross, was “an exercise in
emergency planning. Nobody believes
it when I tell them now, but it’s true.”
To Begin June 3
Elderhostel, an idea that combines
education and travel, was inspired by
the youth hostels and folk schools of
Europe but guided by the needs of older
citizens for intellectual stimulation and
physical adventure. The program, which
has a minimal age requirement of 60,
provides one-week experiences that
combine on-campus living activities and
academic classes on some of the state’s
and nation’s finest campuses.
The program began four years ago on
five campuses in New Hampshire. In
the ensuing years, phenonmenal growth
has resulted in a national network of
over 350 colleges and universities in
38 states. In four years, over 15,000
participants have shown that older adults,
most of whom are retired, are not with
drawn but rather are ready to take ad
vantage of this opportunity to enjoy new
experiences.
Nine campuses in North Carolina are
part of the Elderhostel network this
summer. Four of these schools are lo
cated in the mountains of Western North
Carolina. They are Appalachian State
University in Boone, Mars Hill College
in Mars Hill, UNC-Asheville, and Western
Carolina University in Cullowhee.
The combined programs of the four
schools will sponsor an Elderhostel ses
sion every week of the summer begin
ning June 3 and ending August 11. Mars
Hill will begin the summer’s activities
when the first of their five weeks be
gins June 3. Three courses will be of
fered each of the five weeks, includ
ing Appalachian Music and Folklore,
Appalachian Natural History, and Ap
palachian History and Contemporary
Social Issues. According to Raymond
C. Rapp, Program Coordinator for Con
tinuing Education, the five weeks of
Mars Hill’s Elderhostel are June 3-9,
June 17-23, June 24-30, July 8-14, and
July 22-28.
UNC-Asheville will begin its schedule
next with two weeks of Elderhostel on
June 17-23 and June 24-30. According
to Alice Wutschel, Associate Dean for
Continuing Education, three courses
will be offered including Western Re
ligions, Solar Energy, and the Life
and Literature of Thomas Wolfe.
Western Carolina University will be
the third school to begin activities when
they host the older citizens for five
weeks beginning June 24-30. The other
dates are July 1-7, July 8-14, July 15-21,
and July 22-28. Eleven courses are a-
vailable to the participant states Hal
Salsbury, Director of Continuing Educa
tion at the Cullowhee campus. These
courses include Appalchian Literature;
Appalachian Music and Dance; Art:
Studio Introduction to Imitationalism,
Formalism, and Expressionism; Domes
tic Political Affairs; Ecology for the
NlodC'
Non-Scientist; Jewelry Making. loj
Discoveries in Biblical
Southern Appalachian Culture; .
ing Investment Timing;
^'^ev
fete
by
'leers
Shakespeare’s Best Plays. ,
Appalachian State will host six
of the Elderhostel program beg
July 1-7 and continuing July ! gpt
15-21, July 22-28, July 29-August ^
August 5-11. In a statement fj |
Tony Gray, Summer School ^
the Boone campus, the courses sen gj of
include History of the Appalachia® jj, coordi
gion; Southern Appalachian p|,jl ^ scl
Southern Appalachian Religin“® °yles.
osophy and Beliefs; The American Nc,
Myth and Reality; Search Tkf, ®
terrestrial Life; Weather and Jfsio'
Role of Women in the 1980’s: Tc gjii ^ He
Production (limited enrollnj®® l k-alvai
the Many Sides of Thomas i jcs . ® Will
Those who attend the Elderhos ^ o the C
sion will live on campus in
halls normally occupied by )' ^ynn
during the regular school year, ^jj ht ’ Ueasi
towels, blankets, and pillows ,i|,, °rsl
provided by the participating gaff ^ I'ractic
Meals will be taken in the canjP pa*' ^ "ited C
teria and are included in the P^f’gaaS* cour
P'-^tyVith
hostelers have reported being P •
ly surprised at the quality and v
college meals.
In additon to the academic "> prcj
Elderhostel offers its participan (;ol about
Ulici a iia pal "* **'
range of extra-curricular activn'^gj.{ar'JJj'''to thei
lege campuses are havens for Pj is
ing artists, so musical concerts a Tl’
ings at the theatre are comma
dleg®”' no»’
coun
■lUs of
ne
mgs
physical facilities of the couce- pi
as the gymnasium, swimmi ®,g]
tennis courts, libraries, and sp tk.
lections, will also be availab
hostelers. Tours to nearby
or cultural sites are being P, , toUf,*'
toc'r 10
well as nature walks and seen*® gy
T*flP trital r»rtc* a-vr>1iiC1\/6 Ot
The total cost, exclusive , -—
and from the school, is
son per week. All efforts have dJ pe Jogatj
to keep this cost within the rang Sau
'jk}
lu Rccp iius cusi wiiniii ““".‘■.Ug (a ‘ '^^**
sons on fixed incomes and tn^ jg c'' ijbicipg,
nafina „11 aoTeB'*. |. I):ii .
pating schools have all agree |. gj|| ^
the program on a non-profit an sP®W.®the
Additional information n** frO***. '
times and courses is available
program director of each *^ gcl*,^
They are Tony Gray, Sumn* .^,gr5'
Director, Appalachian State U .
Boone, N. C. 28607, Telep
pro
262-3045; Raymond C. l^'nies
Coordinator for Continuing fg-„
1; t-OM
Mars Hill College, Mars HijJ' ^
Continui'*«-^W!;°''^
telephone 704/689-1167; Al*ce
Associate Dean for ContinuHJ'’. g
tion, UNC-Asheville, Ashe*d J.V
28804, telephone 704/258-020 'g £
Salsbury, Director of age
'^1
cation. Western Carolina
Cullowhee, N. C. 28723
704/293-7397.
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