Annenberg School would like to buy another vowel

Walter Annenberg would not be pleased. His school of communications was transformed overnight from the Annenberg School for Communication to the "Annenberg School for C u i i ." According to police, a vandal accomplished in one night something which has taken the Oriental Studies Department nearly two years to do -- he changed the name of a school. University Police Lieutenant Susan Holmes said yesterday that building administrators noticed yesterday that nine silver letters that are part of a sign on the north side of the communications building were missing. Holmes said the incident was reported to police at 9:57 p.m. yesterday, and that no one reported seeing the robber strip the building of the aluminum letters. The letters are valued at $300 apiece, Holmes said, adding that the total loss is about $2700. She said that the vandal might have wanted to sell the aluminum letters to a recycling plant. But Annenberg Dean Kathleen Jamieson doesn't think an environmentally-conscious robber would get very much for them. Despite the high cost of custom-made letters, Jamieson said, "There is [not] a big street demand for the letter 'O' right now." While University Police keep an eye out for the missing silver letters, Jamieson may have found a solution of her own. "We are going to put the kind of glue that lifts cars on the remaining letters and go out there tomorrow to see who's stuck to the letters," Jamieson said. The dean-turned-detective said she has one possible motive for the robbery. "My theory is that you'll find an optometrist on campus who is piecing together the letters to spell the name of a new department." In a separate and unrelated incident, a burglar stole two Sony Walkmen out of two separate desks in Meyerson Hall yesterday afternoon, Holmes said. Three other lockers were forced open, but nothing was taken, Holmes said.

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