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Friday, May 18, 2001
Contact: Peter Bailley
news@knox.edu
309-341-7715
It was a long, cold night for Knox Dean of Students Xavier Romano, with few of the comforts of home. But it was for a good cause, Romano noted, as he entered the century-old former Knox County Jail at 11 p.m., Thursday, May 17, as part of a fund-raising event staged by the Knox College Learning Center. The fund-raiser supported the Center's recent recognition banquet, held to honor 80 Knox students who work at the Learning Center tutoring other students.
The Learning Center took pledges on behalf of about a dozen College employees, and the employee who gathered the most pledges agreed to spend one night in the Jail. The stunt raised more than $1,100, according to John Haslem, director of the Learning Center.
Romano, Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Development, gathered the most pledges. "I'm glad that I'm able to help the Learning Center," he said. "I hope that my participation brought additional funds to the enterprise."
To soften the "ordeal," Haslem provided an inflatable mattress, and Romano brought along his dog, Pancho, to spend the night with him. Haslem and Melissa Helquist, the Center's Writing Coordinator, also gave Romano a plate of cookies and a book of stories by Edgar Allen Poe -- legend has it that the old jail is haunted. (Photo, right: John Haslem, with cookies; Xavier Romano, with Pancho; Melissa Helquist, with book by Poe. Download publication image.)
Romano "got out of jail" the next morning (Friday, May 18) at 7 a.m. -- early enough, he said, to get ready for an 8 a.m. meeting.
The other College staff members who volunteered to spend the night in jail were: Haslem, Helquist, Mary Burgland, Jonathan Powers, Sean Matheson, Duane Oldfield, Charles Mills, Brenda Fineberg, Margot Kinberg, Audrey Petty and Elizabeth Metz.
The former county lock-up is now used by Knox for offices and classrooms. The cell-block area of the jail, however, was restored by the College and is open for tours and for informal College functions. A student Halloween party was held in the Jail last fall.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,220 students from 47 states and 41 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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