On Wednesday, May 2, 2007, several students, staff and faculty members of Seton Hill University (SHU) learned that they have violated a Pennsylvania state law. After visiting the class project, �Crazy Laws,� they found that in Pa. it is illegal to sing in the bathtub.
Students enrolled in CA340 Public Discourse class each picked five states, drew them backwards, and found some absurd laws that are still recorded on the state legislatures today. Their posters were presented to SHU in the second floor Maura Hall solarium.
Examples of �crazy� laws include not being permitted to plow cotton fields with elephants in North Carolina, disturb birds in public parks in Hawaii, and play dominoes on Sundays in Alabama.
By Valerie Masciarelli,
Editor-in-Chief
On Wednesday, May 2, 2007, several students, staff and faculty members of Seton Hill University (SHU) learned that they have violated a Pennsylvania state law. After visiting the class project, �Crazy Laws,� they found that in Pa. it is illegal to sing in the bathtub.
Students enrolled in CA340 Public Discourse class each picked five states, drew them backwards, and found some absurd laws that are still recorded on the state legislatures today. Their posters were presented to SHU in the second floor Maura Hall solarium.
Examples of �crazy� laws include not being permitted to plow cotton fields with elephants in North Carolina, disturb birds in public parks in Hawaii, and play dominoes on Sundays in Alabama.
Vicki Mara, a junior and leader of the project, said the class decided to use the laws to make a bold statement about U.S. state governments.
�We are using our political voice to express the stupidity of these laws that the government has been too lazy to take care of,� said Mara.
People passing the solarium were asked to fill out surveys to document the public reactions
to the laws. Most responses were along the lines of shock and amusement.
�They�re ridiculous�Why would they pass these laws?� said Kayla Lukacs, a junior. Mara said that some of the laws actually have good reasons behind them, such as the law in Ohio that does not allow five or more women to live or meet under the same roof.
�It was�created during the time of the women’s liberation movements. It was to keep women from congregating,� said Mara, who happens to live in Ohio and has more than five females in her immediate family.
Many of the laws did not have reasons attached to them, and Mara said they were just chalked up to moral reasons. Some, however, will always have an air of mystery to them, which proved helpful to the class’s cause.
�When you find it’s illegal to wipe your car with used underwear in San Francisco, you remember that information because�when things are funny or outrageous, it’s easier for people to remember them,� said Landon Etchings, a senior, who was pleased to see people leaving his class’s project with, if nothing else, a conversation piece.
�As people walk away, they�re still talking about it,� said Etchings.
Course instructor Frank Klapak, professor in communication and education, gave the class the freedom to choose their course project, within limits.
�It was this or write a paper, and we chose this because it was funny and educational at the same time,� said Allyson Hepler, a junior.
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