Burning of the shanty remembered!

[redheadbed]

I looked up Valparaiso University on Wikipedia and found this story of interest:

During the 1988-1989 school year, a mock shanty town was erected on campus to show solidarity with victims of apartheid in South Africa. Mike Weber and Phil Churilla, two columnists for VU's student newspaper The Torch, wrote a column critical of the protest due to student use of portable CD players, wool blankets and packaged food in the shanties. A few days later the shanty town burned down and a culprit was never found.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valparaiso_University#Student_activism

:crazy

Does anyone have any further info on this? (It happened after my time at VU.)

[deadcatbounce09]

What about the article? If someone has a copy of the article could they post it?

[redheadbed]

Aug 25, 2010 10:57:45 GMT -5 deadcatbounce09 said:

What about the article? If someone has a copy of the article could they post it?

I looked up the 2 authors on the VU alumni guide and I could not find Mr. Weber (although I did a Google search on him, and it seems that he works for HomeBridge), while Mr. Churilla is a cop in Nashville (assuming I have the right Phil Churilla).

[valpo89]

You've got to be kidding me. I looked through the Wikipedia entry, and under "notable" alumni it lists Paul Oren, sports reporter, The Times of NW Indiana. I wonder who put that one on there.

[fredskinner]

The shanty and all subsidized housing close to the union deserved to be burned .

[redheadbed]

I received an email from one of the authors of that article (or someone claiming to be him) saying that Jarvis Cocker from Pulp read the article and used it as the basis for the hit single "Common People"

Nice! :clap

[agibson]

Interesting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_People_%28song%29
mentions some other inspiration, but there can be more than one thread to a backstory.

[redheadbed]

Sept 13, 2010 2:36:34 GMT -5 agibson said:

Interesting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_People_%28song%29
mentions some other inspiration, but there can be more than one thread to a backstory.

Actually it seems somebody was pulling my leg.

Although I certainly see how the Weber-Churilla article exposes the same flaws as the Pulp tune.

[fredskinner]

I heard Theta Chi alumni will be at the Franklin House around 1:00 pm. Since I'm an ex TC, I would like to make sure the exact time since I gotta drop of my mom off (former Phi O & Sig Tau white rose class '47) at the chapel.