Your Hosts

Spring 1994
Todd DuPriest and Justin King

Fall 1994
Justin King

Spring 1995
Clay Chambers

Fall 1997 thru Fall 1998
Brian Holaway

Spring 1999 thru Spring 2001
Ryan Gates

Fall 2001 thru Fall 2002
Daniel Everson

Sprin 2003 thru Fall 2004
Jeremy Howard

 


You'll find below what appeard on the History page when The Lipscomb Underground was in publication. Since its passing, there have been small waves running through alumni conversations about the state of The Underground and why it has fallen out of distribution. A number of very good theories have surfaced as to why this is the case, but it must be understood that things like The LU have life cycles. Lipscomb saw this with The Bald Bison, which was very short lived, and she saw it with the Lipscomb Underground. In fact, it could be argued that there were a number of sub-life cycles during the days of The LU. (rg)



Let's face it. Many associated with Lipscomb University have read (or at least heard about) The Lipscomb Underground. Just as many have sent in their opinions to be published in countless issues, they have made The Underground the only real source of free-speech on campus.

Well, one of the founders of The Underground is going to give us a history lesson. But it's not your usual history. I give you Justin King.



My name is Justin D. King. I am a graduate of David Lipscomb University, class of '96. Very few things remain at Lipscomb this hour that I was a part of during my stay. Well, nothing else legal that I will print here. The one thing that remains is a long-ago-thought-dead "rebellion in itself" newsletter that myself and a good friend of mine began distributing early in our Freshman year. That friend of mine was Todd A. DuPriest and our brain child was The Lipscomb Underground.

The Underground had humble beginnings. The newsletter was first inspired as an alternative to some other newsletters that I was (in hindsight) fortunate enough to be placed on. These newsletters were, how should I say this, bland. Dan Quayle bland. Beef Boullion bland. You get the idea. Todd and I's frustration with the lack of "je ne sais quoi" that these publications possessed coincided with the "split" of the chapel services, the addition of the (gasp!) shorts policy and the removal of a very cool, and very liberal Dean of Students.

The first issues went out to mainly our friends. The first replies came in slow, but steady. Everyone was ready to discuss the ills of Lipscomb, how bad it is to put the words "suck" and "God" together in a sentence and how silly, childish and satanistic Social Clubs were. Our first distribution list totaled 27 people. By three weeks we had put out ten Undergrounds and our membership broke the 100 mark. Yes, we were on to something. It was great. Every issue was published out of Sewell 105 and some of the first regular contributors were myself, who wrote The Underground, DuPriest, Chris Challice, Jason Wade, Brandon Potter, (the staunchest defender of SID) Steve Shirley, Judy Smith (now working in the Chapel office?), Patrick Cameron (who reminded us nightly that we were all going to Hell), James Stone, Eric Tryggestad, The "infamous" McReynolds brothers, and the man we all knew as "Pan" who invited us to dine with him at the "Satyre Cafe." And yes, Todd. I named it The Underground. It was from a line in Les Miserables inspired by my time in Sewell Hall, "Make for the sewers, go Underground"!

As great things go, The Underground faded somewhat in it's second year as my school duties increased and the Lady Bison's basketball team went for the National Championship (Sarah, that offer of marriage still stands.) But a fresh group of Freshmen joined The Underground's ranks. Such people as Clay Chambers and your present master Brian Holaway added their "cheese" to the Underground. Alas, my grades hit rock bottom from putting out a "LU" every other night and "LU's" began comming less frequently than before. Patrick Cameron, yes folk's, PAT CAMERON! put out an Underground for me, DuPriest came to my aid once or twice and Clay Chambers also assisted with an issue or two. But alas, the Underground was dormant for my entire Senior year. It broke my heart to see my child dying after only two years of life.

In the fall of 1997, an old friend of mine came to me and asked if he could revive the LU. I told him he could give it a shot and I would simply hope for the best. This man's name, of course, was Holaway. Brian does things a little bit different than I did. But the principle is the same. The Lipscomb Underground is a place open to everyone, closed to no one (we even had the Space Shuttle on board for two issues and the White House for one, that damn SS). It is a place with no censorship. No authority. No Dean's list. No social clubs. Just you, your wits and your ability to shout louder than the other person. Brian, I am so thankful to you for doing that thing you do. And people, if you haven't tried it yet, Brian just picked up the pieces, shook them twice, rolled the dice and this is what he has to offer.

Never die: ":THE LIPSCOMB UNDERGROUND"


Kindest personal regards
Fraternal Member
Order of Stormy Knights
(ju)Stinking Class of '96
Jagman@BLomand.net




(and now from Brian Holaway)

Now I have departed, making way for another editor. His time for leaving will come quicker than he can imagine, but his work will be appreciated just as Justin's was and mine hopefully will be.

Lipscomb University is not life. However, neither is The Underground. They are both, though, part of our lives, no matter how seriously we take them. The one piece of advice I can give to those still there (or enslaved there, if you prefer :) is to remember to enjoy life. Make the most of it every day, thank God for Lipscomb University, and thank God for the fun that is The Lipscomb Underground.

Brian Holaway




(Ryan's thoughts)

My time did indeed come and go faster than I could have imagined. It was a fulfilling experience and one upon which I can look back and have no regrets. I mean it.

My goal concerning The Underground was to facilitate free expression among the students of Lipscomb University, and that was most certainly accomplished. We talked about vital issues and provided humor in even the most humorless situations.

Now it's Daniel's turn to carry on this tradition and I have full faith that he will be a more-than-capable host. To future hosts: be an avid historian of Lipscomb and The Lipscomb Underground. It'll tell you where we've been and where you're going. To all LUers: Treat the LU and its opportunities with respect, but also have fun with it.  Students  should always be given a voice.

I feel honored to have been a part of The Lipscomb Underground.

Ryan G. Gates
Lipscomb University, Class of 2001
The Lipscomb Underground Host, Spring 1999 - Spring 2001
The Ohio State University College Of Veterinary Medicine, Class of 2005




(Musings from Daniel Everson)

About a month into my stay at Lipscomb University, I heard rumblings of this mysterious thing called "Underground." What was this "Underground?" It sounded cool and exciting, a bit rebellious and glamorous in a "tell authority and censorship where they can stick it" type of way. So I asked around about it, found out how to get on the list to receive it, and began to take it in every week.

Some people skimmed The Underground... not me. I inhaled it. I read every line, sometimes twice, looking for the secret meanings between the lines. I relished the assumed identities, the shady personas and the weekly discussion/flame wars/cheesy filler. Yes, I was a geek. But I was a driven geek, a geeky rebel looking for a cause.

What was being printed in the Underground at the time was WAY better than anything in The Babbler (as it continued to be ever after, and had been far before I arrived at Lipscomb). The LU was the inside scoop on politically-based faculty sackings, unfair administration policies, and Social Club mishaps. If it happened, you heard it on the Underground first (sometimes you only heard it on the Underground, if you heard it at all).

So after spending some time assimilating the culture of the Lipscomb Underground, I became one of the biggest weekly posters. Under the pseudonym "The Reverend Lloyd Floyd (Freud)" I began spewing sarcastic, twisted religious teachings to remind people just how stupid and ignorant uninformed fundamentalist theology can become. I was inspired in this pursuit primarily by Landoverbaptist.org (which, I understand, has since been blocked by Websense, imagine that!). I also occassionally posted under my own name, or other assumed names, on various other topics. My posts were often stream-of-consciousness, train-of-thought, pointless musings, but occassionally I said something humorous or interesting (or so I've been told). Soon, I had my imitators: Pope Bubba and King Beej, posting their papal and royal proclamations.

Then out of the blue, I was picked by Ryan Gates (a true Lipscomb legend) to succeed him as host, a job that I relished. It was a great time, helping to shape the forum of the Lipscomb Underground, while simultaneously helping to shape peoples' ideas. One memory in particular I hold very fondly and near to my heart... I can proudly say I popularized the phrase "chapel all-stars" in the LU. After that, "Chapel All-Stars" became the de-facto term to refer to those who sat in the middle of the basketball court during chapel. It caught on like wildfire... everyone used the term, even non-LUers. In those days, before people picked their own seats, we used to have assigned seating, and only "good examples", administration-sanctioned "student leaders" and RA's were allowed to sit down there. Needless to say, I never got an invitation... but with one turn of the pen, I completely invalidated the entire concept for ! the majority of the campus. Lipscomb wanted you to look like these people and be just like them... but instead of being looked up to, they became something to laugh about for the 95% of the campus not beautiful or perfect enough to be one of the chosen.

Alas, all good things must fade... and although my stint as host began with a burst of concentrated energy, it ultimately fizzled out and faded. In the presence of a lack of true campus controversy, students lost interest in the LU. Only the truly disenfranchised continued to post, most often only to bash one another needlessly. The end of my one year as host was mentally draining, and I lost most of my energy and enthusiasm for the LU. Yet, I was prepared to return after the summer to one more year of hosting it until the unthinkable happened... in a technological update, all my distribution lists (totalling 600 or so email addresses) were completely wiped out. Without a correct and accurate list of who had joined since the beginning of my tenure (and with many of the older names I DID have records of being out of date) I had no way to get out the LU. So the LU lay dormant for half ! ;a year, and it may have been for the better (as painful as it was for me to see it sleep for so long).

But a miraculous thing happened to the Underground on the way to the cemetary... in the absence of the Underground, people realized just how much they had missed it. They remembered a time when there was a censorship-free forum to discuss ideas that couldn't be discussed anywhere else, and to break news that couldn't be broken anywhere else... they remembered that there had once been a place where the quietest, meekest, most invisible people could cloak themselves in grand pseudonyms and have their voices heard all over campus. They remembered, and they missed it. I can't tell you how many people asked me "so Daniel, when's the LU coming back?"

So ultimately, The LU, after lying fallow for a season, was ready for a makeover; it was ready to be reborn into something resembling its past glory. And ultimately, it was reborn into something arguably even greater than before (or at the least, as great as ever). In the hands of Jeremy Howard, it took on new life and became once more what it had always been intended to be; a place for the non-perfect, non-sanctioned student leaders to spark dialogue and inform student opinion. And that's worth a heck of a lot more than cheap plastic, interchangable pretty boys and girls appointed from above to be what Lipscomb "ought to look like." Instead, the LU once more showed what Lipscomb really DID look like... in all its imperfect, doubting, faithful, diverse, beautiful, ugly glory. And as long as the LU is a place where all of those people can come together and speak their minds uninhibited, th! e LU will be serving its purpose.

Long Live the LU.

Daniel Everson

LU Host, Fall 2001-Fall 2002


So there you have it. All the glory that is....

...the LIPSCOMB UNDERGROUND!!!


 
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