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Columbia's
Mean Streak
Call them the anti-fans.
While their football team
was losing to Princeton
last month-its 35th straight
defeat, a major-college rec-
ord-Columbia "boosters"
cheered-for Princeton. They
sported "Beat Columbia" but-
tons and "Strive for 35" ban-
ners. And they were on their

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feet when Princeton scored af-
ter just 21 seconds. "I'm here to
see my team doing what they
do best," said Patrick Ball, a
Columbia senior waving a
Princeton pompon.
For Columbia players, the
three-year losing streak, which
broke the mark Northwestern
set from 1979-82, is no joking
matter. "I don't like being
called a loser," said senior de-
fensive tackle Matt Sodl, who
hasn't been on the winning end
of a game since he enrolled at
Morningside Heights. "Why
would they wish something
like this on their own class-
mates? It's insensitive," says
Lions head coach Larry McEl-
reavy of the negative cheer-
ing. "This shows a lack of
class." "A sick ritual," admits
Columbia senior James Marou-
lis. Confirmation came from
students who chanted "We're
No. 1!" as the game ended, for
whom the cult of losing seemed
an end unto itself. "If you're
going to be bad, why not be the

absolute worst?" said Hall
Morrison, a member of the Co-
lumbia marching band.
STEPHEN WEST in Princeton
No Kidding, It's
Colorado's Fool
Surely you jest: the Univer-
sity of Colorado appointed
a fool? It's true, and unlike
most fools, this one is official-
an antidote for the widespread
feeling that Colorado was tak-
ing itself too seriously. Enter
the aptly named Patricia Nel-
son Limerick, enemy ofpompos-
ity and past fool at Harvard and
Yale, who volunteered to enliv-
en the place with a firsthand
demonstration of the fool's role
in history and literature.
As a sideline to her main
gig-associate professor of
history-Limerick has given
Fool's Tours of the campus in

Seriously, folks: History professor
clown makeup and prepares Of-
ficial Reports on the folly she
finds. Her methodology: stop
students and faculty, pepper
them with impertinent ques-
tions ("Who's in charge?") and
scribble down answers.
Not everyone suffers the fool
gladly. Recent allegations of po-
litical discrimination within
the political-science depart-
ment led her to search for "op- 4
pressed conservatives." When
Limerick asked people their
political affiliation, they be-
came "unpleasant, hostile and
jumpy," she says. Conservative
Edward Rozek, a political-sci-

SUDHIR-PICTURE GROUP
Lonely: True Columbia fan


A Freshman
Penny Pincher
Thanks to a clever fresh-
man with strong faith in
the old saying, "a penny
for your thoughts," folks across
America are breaking open
their piggy banks. You can no
longer buy a piece of bubble
gum with that copper coin, but
Mike Hayes calculated that if
you collect enough of them-
2.8 million, to be exact-you
can finance four undergrad
years at the University of
Illinois.
Near the end of the summer,
when most new freshmen were
anticipating Composition 101,
Hayes wrote press releases ask-
ing for pennies and sent them to
26 NE WSWEEK ON CAMPUS

news agencies and syndicated
columnist Bob Greene. "It just
sounded like a funny idea,"
says Greene, who featured
Hayes in a September column.
It caught on: within one month,
Hayes says, he collected more
than 70,000 letters and $20,000
from every state in the nation
and a few other countries, in
average piles of 25 to 30 cents.
"I don't really feel like I'm beg-
ging," Hayes said in Greene's
column. "I honestly believe
that a penny means so little
these days that no one will feel
that it's a hardship to send a
penny to me." But at 22 cents a
stamp, the other major benefi-
ciary is the U.S. Postal Service.
ROBIN GAREISS
in Urbana-Champaign
Raking it in: Fund raiser Hayes

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