Students Jailed in Fundraiser

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

That was the message given yesterday to more than 100 Harvard students arrested during the first-ever Phillips Brooks House-sponsored Jail-a-Thon to benefit the American Cancer Society (ACS).

PBH raised almost $1000 for the Society, said Lani L. Nelson '89. co-chairmen of PBH's Community Health Service. Nelson and Co-Chairman Jonathon R. Nebeker '90 organized the event at Harvard for ACS, which has sponsored Jail-a-Thons in the past on other college campuses. The Society will hold another fundraiser in Boston later this month.

Several jailbirds were awoken abruptly yesterday at 9 a.m. when PBH volunteers acting as jailors stormed their rooms, friends of the arrested students reported. At least one member of the PBH posse surprised himself when he "got his man" in a member of the opposite sex's room.

Those roused at 9 a.m. were not pleased. according to one witness. Many did not get the joke.

Students who found themselves victim to arrest had to pay $10 bail to get out of jail or call family or friends to pledge the money for them. Jokesters who requested their friends' arrests also pitched in $1 to the charity for the service. All money raised will be donated to the Cancer Society, Nelson said.

Residents of Wigglesworth Hall F-entry volunteered their rooms for a temporary jail, where prisoners were given classic jailbird garb of blackstriped hats and shirts to wear for the duration of their prison terms.

Kevin J. Benecke '90, one of 20 PBH policemen, said most prisoners faced charges for heinous crimes. Mather resident Tiffany B. West '90 was arrested for "impersonating a jelly donut," Benecke said.