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TWENTY-TWO/The Press/November 3, 1989. After the quake, students are trying to put their lives back together Some are 'still sleeping outside', others can't study By Amy Hudso·n College Press Sen•ice anything but 'Earthquake Ne}Vs' Like everyone else involved in the devastating earthquake that shook the San Francisco area Oct. 17, students are trying to put their lives back together. In doing so, they're facing closed campus buildings, nights camped outside, canceled classes and even guilt feeling. One psychologist predicts it will take a long time for college life to return to normal and that, in the trauma's wake, students' grades may suffer. \There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of stress, at this point,\ said Bill Georges, assistant housing director of Stanford University, where 304 students may be forced to move permanently. The quake immediately displaced 420 Stanford students. At the University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC), just eight milJs from the epicenter of the quake, some dorm residents were \still sleeping outside to rest their 11erves\ four days after the initial shock, reported Armin Quiring, a campus hotline volunteer at UCSC. Most of the colleges in the area canceled classes for at least one day, and some, like Golden Gate University, San Francisco Community College, UCSC and Stanford were shut down for three days. Some schools were relatively undamaged. At the University of California at Berkeley, for example, one student reported watching in fear as the quake threatened to burst the huge windows of the library and shower everyone inside with glass. However, the windows held, and the campus in general suffered seemingly few structural consequences. About 200,000 students are enrolled at the 23 major two-year and four-year campuses in the area hit by the quake, which registered 6.9 on the Richter Scale and was felt as far as 350 miles from its epicenter. Officials were still trying to figure out the number of dead. A week afterward, the death toll had reached 4 7 people, with another 160 people still missing. Almost 3, I 00 were treated in area hospitals for injuries. At least 6,300 people were displaced from theirhomes,4,500 in Santa Cruz. Near Santa Clara University alone, the quake caused five deaths and 900 injuries, damag- ing as many as 800 houses and 150 businesses. Emergency officials' first estimates were that it would take at least $260 million to put Santa Clara back together. No fatalities have been reported at any of the college campuses in the area. Stanford may have suffered the worst physical damage of the schQ()ls in the region. Twenty-four of its 240 major buildings have been closed \indefinitely\ because of struc- tural damage, reported spokeswomaqJ;:ileen Walsh. Students were shuffled into temporfty housing, and classes relocated to temporary build- ing space, she added. Even those who survived without significant damage to their routines had stories to tell. Robyn Carter, a UCSC sophomore, was in class when the quake hit. \Usually I don 'teven get up (during an earthquake). But then it didn't stop, and I got really scared.\ Students sitting nearest to the classroom exit crowded under the doorway, generally the safest place to be indoors, leaving the rest of the class to dive under desks. It wasn't until the students filed outside, where they were greeted by huge billowing clouds of dust, loose rocks everywhere and the sound of piercing emergency sirens that they had an inkling of the temblor's severity: After witnessing such scenes, many students report having a hard time thinking about school. \I haven't been able to study anything besides earthquake news,\ Carter said. College life for the students caught in the earthquake is not likely to return to normal soon, observed Daniel Sachau, a psychology professor at Mankato State University in Minnesota. After major disasters, Sachau said, people experience different degrees of post-traumatic stress, from slight depression to amnesia, where a person literally denies the incident ever happened. Students. he added, might find it difficult to concentrate on school after what was, for most, a terrifying experience. Some might even be inclined to drop out. \I would think a few college students. especially those from out of state, might take it as an excuse to go somewhere else,\ Sachau predicted. In response, Stanford President Donald Kennedy ordered professors to \consider the stress of the event\ in postponing assignments and exams in the coming m()nths. Most other schools like Golden Gate University announced they would open their safe classrooms, but leave it to professors to settle their students' schedules for the time being. David Brodie, a student at the University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, said his feelings went from terror during the quake to \a good feeling\ the next day. The daily routine of classes and studying, he said, was interrupted. ''It was like summer break or something. You feel guilty if you're having too much fun.\ \I feel sort of guilty because nothing bad happened to my house,\ Carter added. ''For a lot of people, it's a vacation.\ Indeed, there were reports of post-quake tennis matches and beer parties from some students who, Sachau suggested, may be trying to cope by pretending it did not have an effect on them. Some can'lpus residents a1ready have resumed a seemingly noncha1antview of earth tremors. An aftershock measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale rocked 15 ,OOOfans who showed up to watch the U niversicy of Utah-Stanford football game at Stanford Stadium Oct. 21. After a few moments of apprehension and confusion, however, officials merely restarted the game. Down the coast in Los Angeles, where \The Big One\ long predicated by seismologists is expected to tear up the area some time during the next 30 years, students profess not to be worried. \I'm not really afraid of it happening,\ maintained Kris Lindquist, a junior at Occiden- tal College in Los Angeles. \It's just something I accept. I know it's coming, but it's just part of life.\ Two years ago, a Southern California quake killed aCalifomiaState University-Los Angeles student when a concrete slab fell on her. Sachau believes theN orthem California quakes will have a lasting impact on all the students who endured them. \It wouldn't surprise me a bit if their perfonnance level dropped for the rest of the term.\ · 23 major colleges affected (CPS)- Among the major two and four year campuses affected by the earthquake in California Oct. 17 were: San Francisco State, Stanford, Golden Gate, California State at Hayward, Santa Clara, Lincoln and San Jose State Universities, as well as the universities of Califor- nia at Santa Cruz and California at San Francisco. Also in the area are St. Mary's, San Francisco Community, Ohlone, Mills, Merritt, Chabot, Patten, Armstrong, Laney, Evergreen Valley, San Jose City, Vista and Ga- vilan colleges. Collegians in the region also attend classes at The Academy of Academy of Art in San Francisco, Heald Institute of Technology, San Francisco Art Institute, Col- lege of Alameda and the Heald Business colleges in San Francisco, Oakland and Hay- ward. I ~ ~ ~~~nc~co • ·l~~~~~~.~-..._p Berkeley ....... san Franc:isc:o State U. ~'1 • U.C.·Berketey ~ u.c .. san Francisco ~ ~ U. cl San Francisco ~ .l~~~·~•l Oakland ...... GolUB Gate Unlv. ~ • ~ s.F. commuRily College J .f. • Merritt College 1; St. Mary's College orCA ~\'\J A'*&_! fl • '' ' Palo Alto e Stanford Unlv. U.C.·Santa Cruz - .. Santa Clara Unlv. - ·., Santo ~ .a Cfi;IZ .&. ... ~~ . c.s.U.·Havward San Jose • San Jose State Univ. . . -· . . ~~ -~~-.c.~ .......... &1'1ill\'lt'•t! ...... ~?.»tt'W'\~'\-·\\-\ .. ,........:tt~'~~ .................. . ~-~~·••..,.....,_..,.._,.. ... ._ .... ...,...a ... a..-oto..a,..~a·~\a\.-..M~._._. .... ,IJITM..,:Ii2 • IV/Jo tt w d; tl u c fi S€
