University students protesting on the sidewalk in front of Pollock Fields yesterday asked administrators to "free the hole."

"It just has its own rights," said Damon Buckwalter (junior-mathematics). "If you had a hole, would you put a fence around it? Would you capture it like that? I think not."

In an effort to show that student protests are ineffective, Buckwalter and other Monty Python Society members stood on the sidewalks outside Pollock Fields and handed out "save the hole" literature.

While construction vehicles made room for the basement of an office / classroom building to go up on Pollock Fields, the students protested the University's imprisonment of a hole.

Office of Physical Plant trucks honked to the orange signs that read "Honk for the Hole," "Holes are wholly free," and "End Construction."

A man in a white Saab stuck his thumb out the window and yelled, "free the hole."

The students sang, "We don't need no excavation. We don't need no hole to control."

"No darn construction on the field," continued the students. "Joab leave that hole alone."

Members took turns toting signs and yelling slogans from noon to 4 p.m.

"We know that it's not very likely that the construction will stop," said Alyce Wilson, president of the Monty Python Society. "We're making a comment on the student protests and how ineffective they really are and also we're making a comment on the construction going on."

Protesting the hole is part of the group's annual Ides of October mystery event. Last year the group performed skits on Old Main Lawn, Wilson said.

The society, which meets once every two weeks on Wednesday nights, has 30 official members although more students attend meetings and events, said Buckwalter, the group's official losing candidate.

Buckwalter has run for every society position, from vice god to propaganda artist, losing each election on purpose.

The Monty Python Society is the same group that climbs the Mall each spring. Several years ago the society ran Wimpy the gerbil for USG president, and one year they elected a dead hermit crab as their group president. Another year they almost elected Opus of Bloom County and Outland fame.

"Ending construction is a common joke at our meetings," Buckwalter said. "At the last meeting someone made a joke about the hole and its being neglected."

On the flyers the group claimed:

-- More than a million holes are known to be in captivity in the United States.

-- Those holes are denied their natural habitats of highways, farm fields and desert basins.

-- Construction sites, which are less humane than they pretend to be, keep the holes within wire fences scarcely large enough for breathing room.

-- It is not too late to protest the local building site and "Help Obliterate Land Extinction."

Two University students watching the construction from down the street said they thought the whole protest was interesting.

"I don't think there's anything they can do to stop it," said Wendy Yong (sophomore-exercise science and pre-physical therapy). "I don't see the big deal really."

After the workers set off a bomb blowing dirt into the air, the group applauded the construction workers efforts to make the hole larger.

"We get a lot of people coming by and honking and stopping at the corners," Wilson said. "Some people come by and say things to us. Some tell us to get a job."

"I don't think the Monty Python Society can really make a political statement," Wilson added. "This is pretty much a satire on student protest."