NEW KIND OF TEST AT AMHERST, ON THE DAY THE URNS WENT DRY

AMHERST, Mass. -- On any given day, the coffee house in the Amherst College
campus center offers a dozen brews, plus espresso. But today the pots were
covered with white shrouds, and the dispensers in the dining hall were empty.

This was the day that coffee was banned forever from the campus.

Or so it seemed. Actually, it was an elaborate class project staged by an
art student, Andrew Epstein, and pulled off with the help of friends and
the administration.

While not exactly the War of the Worlds, students and staff members did
panic when they showed up for their morning cup and found signs that read:
"In order to curb the use of caffeine at Amherst College, the sale and
distribution of coffee are no longer permitted on campus. Effective
Immediately." Questions were to be directed to the Caffeine Control
Coordinator.

And indeed, the dining services, which were in on the joke, brewed not a
drop today.

Mr. Epstein, who is 22, conceived the Day of No Joe as a final project for
his art class on social sculpture, to draw attention to what he regards as
the hypocrisy of drug laws. A painting is easily ignored, he said, but
remove part of a person's daily routine, and notice is taken.

"I came upon this idea of trying to re-create Prohibition by taking away a
substance that's been culturally domesticated, to make people aware of
their own substance abuse," Mr. Epstein said.

He recruited friends to act as black-market coffee dealers, who sat outside
the dining hall and offered bootleg java at inflated prices. "Hey, you need
coffee?" Dan Farbman, 22, a senior, hissed from behind his dark glasses. To
entice hard-core addicts looking for a quick hit, he added: "Espresso
beans, 10 cents a bean." Some bought; many averted their eyes or just said no.

Several confused students attended a news conference at which Mr. Epstein
enumerated the dangers of caffeine. "Is this for real?" one asked.

The true art of Mr. Epstein's work was in persuading the college to go
along with his scheme. The student government approved his plan in a
closed-door session late one night. He also met with Charles Thompson, the
director of dining services, and Tom Gerety, president of the college, who
gave their tacit blessing.

A college administration supporting the legalization of drugs, however
indirectly? DeWitt Godfrey, the assistant professor who oversaw the art
projects, said Mr. Epstein, who is known around campus for his involvement
in Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, was wise to couch his proposal as
art, not policy.

"I suspect if he had come to the administration as an activist, there would
have been much stronger resistance," Mr. Godfrey said. "It shows us how art
has this kind of peculiar permission."

Mr. Thompson, the head of dining services, said he had trouble sleeping the
last several nights, knowing that he and his staff would be on the front
lines when people discovered that coffee was no more.

Denying his customers a product "went against everything I believe in my
job," he said. He planned to post signs on Wednesday apologizing for the
inconvenience, and offering hazelnut and other specialty coffees in the
dining hall as penance.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Mr. Thompson admitted.

Mr. Epstein had originally proposed to stage his coffee ban next week --
finals week. But Mr. Thompson objected, feeling that that would constitute
cruel and unusual punishment.