Volume 124 Issue 137
kansan.com
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
ANNUAL RELAYS BRING TOP ATHLETES TO KU Competition starts today with downtown shot put PAGE 10
LITERARY JEWELS Top five books for students PAGE 5
CAMPUS
False campus alarms come with a real price
RACHEL SALYER rsalyer@kansan.com
Students who have been forced to evacuate buildings for nonexistent fires may be relieved to know that of the hundreds of responses Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical makes to campus every year, only a few are caused by people with mischevious intentions.
According to the KU Office of Public Safety, in 2011, three fire alarms were determined to be pulled maliciously, and in 2010, 14 alarms were maliciously pulled.
Of the three alarms pulled in 2011, two were at Jayhawker Towers Apartments and one was at the Art & Design building. In 2010, five alarms were pulled at Oliver Residence Hall, the most of the year.
In 2010, one citation was issued for a false alarm at Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall. No citations were issued in 2011 for false alarms.
Maj. Chris Keary, assistant KU police chief, said it is hard to determine a suspect after the alarm is pulled.
"We investigate these the best that we can," Keary said. "A lot of times when we get there, we know what station was pulled but everyone is gone at that point, so establishing a suspect can be difficult."
Jim King, chief of the prevention division for Douglas County Fire and Medical, said it takes about 30 minutes for safety officials to ensure that the building is safe after reaching the fire alarm site. He also said that it costs about $200 each time safety departments respond to a malicious alarm, considering employee wages, gas and vehicle maintenance for the responders.
In most campus buildings, when a fire alarm sounds, the KU Emergency Communications Center is notified and dispatches the fire department.
"I know a lot of people think the trucks are out here all the time and that it's because someone pulled the alarm," Keary said, adding that in most cases the alarms are working properly, but are occasionally triggered by smoke from cooking or an overheated engine.
King said when the alarms are falsely pulled, people are less likely to trust the alarms the next time they are pulled.
Garrett Holm, a freshman from Kansas City, Mo., who lives in Oliver Hall said he doesn't take alarms as seriously because one was pulled falsely last semester.
"When the alarm goes off, I still go outside eventually," Holm said, "but it's like slowly and I don't really care because I know the building isn't on fire."
But King said the department's biggest concern is having a crew responding to a malicious alarm when a legitimate emergency occurs.
"It's not about the money," King said. "It's hard to measure the impact, but if we have a true emergency and we could have responded differently or gotten there faster, it could be the difference between life and death."
Edited by Caroline Kraft
FIRE ALARM
RESPONSE
Average time needed to respond to a malicious fire alarm in the residence halls: 30 minutes Cost to respond: $201.90 per half hour
BREAKDOWN OF COSTS:
Wages for 15 fire crew members: $178.12
Diesel fuel for trip from Fire Station No. 5 to Daisy Hill: $15.78
Maintenance: $8.00
Maintenance: $8.00
Source: Jim King, fire marshal and chief of the prevention division for DCFM
CHILE'S PATH TO LIGHT
IESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
Harry Swartz, a graduate student from Lawrence studying Spanish and Portugese, gives a brief background on the dictatorship of Chile in the 1970s before presenting a documentary on behalf of the Latin American Studies Film Festival Tuesday night at Stauffer-Flint Hall. The award-winning film "Nostalgia for the Light" was directed by Patricio Guzmin, who along with his footage, survived capture and torture while in Chile. The film documents a search 25 years later through the Atacama Desert for bodies of missing loved ones.
POLITICS
Human rights activist and students call for intervention in Syrian violence
Radwan Ziadeh speaks at the Dole Institute of Politics Tuesday afternoon. Ziadeh is the founder of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria and has testified at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva twice.
JESSICA IANASZ/KANSAN
MARSHALL SCHMIDT
mschmidt@kansan.com
Syrian human rights activist Radwan Ziadeh said the international community needs to get involved in the civil strife and conflict in his country.
Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, spoke at the Dole Institute of Politics Tuesday afternoon.
Ziadeh said the international community should respond to the human rights violations as it did in other instances of the Arab Spring, such as in Egypt and Libya. He called for the creation of a safe zone between Syria and Turkey, as well as air strikes and enforcement of a no-fly zone in Syria.
"This has become a tragedy not only for Syrians who are living inside Syria, but also for us," Ziadeh said. "Syrians living outside who cannot do anything to help our brothers, mothers and sisters living in Syria."
Ziadeh said the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has imprisoned more than 50,000 people, killed 12,000, and displaced more than a million of its citizens in the course of the conflict, which began in March 2011.
Hanny Sawaf, a senior from Damascus, Syria, attended the lecture to answer questions about KU students from Syria. He said his family is relatively safe from violence in the capital, which is stable compared to other parts of the country.
Although Ziadeh was not certain when or how the uprising would end, he foresaw the eventual overthrow of the Assad regime.
"I see hope," Ziadeh said.
"I understand that there's going to be some questions about how the opposition would handle governing if they were put in power,"
Sawaf was in Syria this past January, and although he had expected the conflict to be resolved by now, he thought the international community should intervene.
Sawaf said. "I just believe that any solution is better than what they have now."
"The U.N. should not allow what's going on in Syria to go on anywhere," Sawaf said.
Kristin Nance, a junior from
Topeka, helped the Dole Institute host the speech, as a study-group coordinator. Nance said it might be hard for American students who have never experienced a revolution to grasp the full scope of the situation.
"Programs such as this allow students to become not only educated, but engaged," she said.
Edited by Ian Cummings
ADMINISTRATION
University offers separation program
In an email to University faculty, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Jeff Vitter outlined a voluntary program that would allow faculty and staff members to apply for early separation.
The University is offering buyouts for eligible faculty and staff at both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses.
"The Voluntary Separation Incentives Program is intended to prioritize our funding toward investment in the goals and strategies identified by the KU community in Bold Aspirations," Vitter said in the email.
According to the email, University faculty and staff are eligible for the program if they are at least 62 years old or have 85 points under the Kansas Public Educators Retirement System and have at least 10 years of service at a Kansas Board of Regents institution or with the Board of Regents office.
The email said each application would be reviewed individually and granted based on whether there is a benefit to the University.
Faculty and staff already on a phased retirement agreement, current University retirees who have been re-hired, and faculty and staff on approved long-term disability are not eligible for the program.
Employees who are approved for the program would receive a lump sum cash payment equal to one year's base salary, with a $100,000 maximum.
"This is an important decision, and I encourage eligible faculty and staff to consider their situation carefully," Vitter said.
— Luke Ranker
BUSINESS
Two alumni to receive award on Thursday
The University of Kansas School of Business will honor two alumni Thursday in a private ceremony.
David Booth, founder and co-CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors, graduated from the University with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968 and a master's in business in 1969.
Booth purchased James Naismith's original 13 rules for basketball in 2010. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Kansas Endowment Association. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business is named in his honor.
David Murpin graduated from the University in 1975 with degrees in business and engineering.
He is president of Murfin Drilling Company Inc and chairman and CEO of Murfin Inc. Murfin Drilling Company ranked No. 1 in oil production in Kansas in 2008 and 2009. Both companies are based in Wichita.
Murfin is a member of the KU School of Business Board of Advisors and a trustee for the University's endowment board.
According to a University press release, the School of Business established the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 to honor outstanding graduates. The school has recognized 46 alumni with the award.
Other alumni and the school's advisory board nominate candidates for the award and then select recipients based on the their business success and service to their communities. The award ceremony will be held at the Oread, 1200 Oread Ave.
CLASSIFIEDS 9
CROSSWORD 4
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
all contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Luke Ranker
Don't forget
Stop by the Hawk's Nest at the Kansas Union to sample burgers at the Earth Day Burger Grill-Off. The event is from 1 to 4 p.m.
Today's Weather
A
A beautiful day with
mostly sunny skies
and a high of 78. Still
breezy with a south wind