Superstition and Science : The Triskaidekaphobes Grow Nervous at Pierce

Although superstitions of the Dark Ages have supposedly yielded to modern psychology, the number 13 has darkened the mood of some psychology professors and students at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Over teachers’ objections, school officials re-numbered campus buildings and declared that, from now on, the psychology classroom complex will be “Building 13.”

Worried psychology staff members protested the change on grounds that it will cause confusion and scare away students who see a link between an unlucky classroom number and an unlucky class grade.

“The number 13 could affect our enrollment,” Wayne Hren, Psychology Department chairman, complained to the campus newspaper.

On Friday, Hren denied that his 17-member staff is superstitious. But he conceded that “some people are afraid of the number 13.” He quickly added that “any learned person knows that a number by itself has no particular significance.’

Some students said they wouldn’t press their luck in the new Building 13, however.

“I guess I won’t be taking any more psych classes. No thank you. The number 13 is bad luck,” said sophomore Alicia Richards, 20, a theater tech major.

Freshman Kim Mallonee, 18, was also leery. “Even though I’m a psychology major and shouldn’t believe in the ethics of superstition, I don’t like it,” she said. “I think lots of students will stay home on Friday the 13th. . . . they’ll freak out on that date.”

College officials said a private consulting firm recommended the new numbering system for buildings and classrooms. A confusing combination of letters and numbers now identifies facilities on Pierce’s rambling 400-acre campus.

Updated campus maps and fall-semester schedules bearing the new numbers went to the printer Friday, said William Norlund, a college vice president.

“The Psychology Department basically wanted to skip the number 13,” Norlund said. “Maybe they’ll have a lower enrollment on Friday the 13th. But the department called our attention to it too late.”

Others doubted that the number will worry most psychology students--who know the fear of the number 13 by its psychology textbook name: triskaidekaphobia.

James B. Reidy Jr., computer science department chairman, said his classroom building was designated No. 13 on the old campus maps and “it has not caused a single problem in the 13 years I’ve been here.”

Reidy, also is president of the faculty senate, said Hren told a faculty committee meeting that the psychology staff didn’t like its new number. “I can’t believe people in psychology are superstitious. . . . I can’t believe this is happening in a collegiate atmosphere.”

Sophomore psychology student Samy Parsa offered a solution to the dispute.

“They should make the biology classroom building No. 13,” he said. “That’s where I get my worst grades. That’s the unlucky building at this college.”