NEWS AND NOTES FROM RIPON COLLEGE

SOURCE: Ripon College Days
Decision made to move Merriman House off-line starting in the fall of 2010
The Haunted House, which was held this past weekend at the Merriman House might be the last of its kind, as starting in the fall of 2010, the house will be vacant. This vacancy is due to a ruling at the Oct. 2 Operations Committee meeting.

The house, which has been occupied by Phi Kappa Pi members for the better part of the past seven decades, was deemed unsafe to live in. The ruling allowed the college to give the fraternity the needed six months of warning before taking the building off-line.

The decision to take the building off-line doesn't necessarily spell the end to the building. The future of the house is much cloudier, as there are many options that have been explored and many others that are being considered.

Internal investigation ongoing following three related acts of vandalism Sept. 29
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning Sept. 29, three different Ripon College buildings were pelted with rocks. At least six baseball-sized rocks were projected at a panel in Great Hall, a hallway in Johnson and a residence room in Scott Hall.

The incident in Scott Hall was the most evident, as the breaking of the windows and shattering of a mirror awoke two sleeping students. Even though nobody actually got hurt, two people in Scott Hall could have been injured. Ryan Dwyer, hall director of Scott Hall and Josh De War, the director of residence life are first and foremost concerned for the safety of the student.

"My number one priority is to make sure every student in the building is safe. We wanted to make sure that they didn't have glass on them or were injured in any way," says Dwyer.