There’s nothing the matter with this place,” one student says, “except we could use more girls.” The college itself is distressed that girls are outnumbered four to one, and goes to extraordinary lengths to rectify the situation. Karlyn Weideman, who was the editor-in-chief of the Parsons College newspaper until she was fired last week for “writing negatively about the school,” provides an interesting example of the process at work: “I was about a B student at high school in Denver. The Parsons recruiter came around and made his presentation. All I did, really, was leave my name with him. Two weeks later─although I’d never even applied - I received a phone call telling me I’d been accepted and would receive a $600 per semester service scholarship. No one asked to see my grades, my transcript, anything. I know why now. It’s because I was a girl.”

Despite the shortage of girls, most students give Parsons a four-star rating as a party college. One result has been a distressing rash of campus scandals. Last February two former coeds received suspended jail sentences after the bodies of their newborn were discovered hidden on campus. Townspeople complain bitterly about the drinking parties - including a classic that was held in a cemetery crypt - and the wild driving that follows these blasts. Minor thievery plagues both campus and town.

Roberts, whom students call Doc Bob, deplores the scandals, but brushes aside other slurs upon his institution. “When I first came,” he recalls, “this college was accepting just about any student the minute he walked in the door. We were proud to take anybody. But we knew from the outset that we couldn’t just draw on the local area.”

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