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Details page 6
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday
October 15, 1987
Vol. 98, No. 39
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
5 residence halls lacking required smoke detectors
By BEN JOHNSTON Staff writer
Staff writer
Six years after state fire codes were changed to require university residence halls to have smoke detectors in halls or rooms, five KU halls still do not have them.
Dean Milroy, associate director of maintenance for the office of student housing, said Lewis, Templin, Hashinger, Ellsworth and McColm halls did not have smoke detectors, but the housing office did plan to install them in those halls.
Paul Markley, chief of the fire prevention division for the state Fire Marshal Department in Topeka, said that since 1981, state fire codes have been updated. Mr. Markley has have a smoke detector in each room or 30 feet apart in each corridor.
"I am rather surprised KU still has five dormitories that do not have fire detectors, because fire detectors are safer," Markley said yesterday.
Markley said the fire office inspected the residence halls each year. But each year when the smoke detector rule was not met, the KU
lin in 1988, in Hashinger and Ellsworth in 1989 and McCollum in 1990, Stoner said.
"I had been operating under the assumption that the plan is acceptance."
But Markey said the nousing office was violating state law by not having alarms in the five halls. He said the housing office could be liable if someone was injured or killed in a fire in one of the halls.
I am rather surprised KU still has five dormitories that do not have fire detectors, because fire detectors are our top priority in fire safety. '
Paul Markley
Of the state
Fire Marshal Department
The faces behind Fraser Hall
Story by JENNIFER ROWLAND
Photos by Chad DeShazo
A t the crack of dawn on most mornings, students may be rubbing their hair. Please don't wash them.
Meanwhile, some workers at the facilities and operations are also busy with their morning routine, which includes climbing to the top of Fraser Hall at 7 a.m. and hoisting a U.S. flag and one of two KU flags up a thin, silver flagpole in two towers.
eyes, hipping the switch on the coffee pot, and stumbling to class.
Sitting in the basement of Snow Hall, housekeeping headquarters, three men who raise the flags talk about how it is just "part of a job," but their faces light up when stories from the chilly towers in the early morning creep into conversation.
Wes Barnhart, Fraser Hall housekeeping supervisor, has been raising the flags during weekdays for three months.
Barnhart said he remembered his first climb to the towers.
A week ago he said he found a duck in the stairwell when he was making his way up the two flights of spiral staircases above the eighth floor.
"I didn't really know what to expect the first time I went up
"You don't find too many things up there that time of the morning except for the pigeons." he said with a chuckle. "It was trying to get back out. It was pretty mad at the time."
there." he said.
But there are drawbacks to the early-morning duty.
"There are some mornings you don't feel like going up and messing with it," he said.
The U.S. flag is raised first in the north tower, then the KU flag is raised in the south tower. On game days and holidays the "special K," or ceremonial flag, is flown in the south tower.
The KU and ceremonial flags cost more than $100 each.
A thin metal pole punctures the clear blue sky through a square hole in the top of the tower, and the whistle of wind through eight vents in each tower makes the early morning chore a cold one.
Gordon Schulenberg, housekeeping supervisor who raises the flags on weekends, has been doing this since 1980.
He said the flag-raisers used to call the weather service each morning before attempting to retrieve his cellphone that got to be too much trouble.
"If the poles are shaking, you know it's too strong to put them up. If it's blowing 20 miles an hour down here, it's about 40 up there," he said. "When they start popping, it's just like a big whip out there. It just tears them up. If the wind goes down, we'd put them up. We just kind of use our own discretion on it," he said.
When snow and sleet falls in the winter, the job gets even
harder. he said
"I had them up there in the winter and had the ropes frozen. It's hard to wear gloves to put them up. You almost have to go bare-handed," he said.
Gerald Warren, Schulenberg's weekend assistant, clips the flag to silver rings while Schulenburg steadies the rope used to hoist the flag, to keep it from blowing in the wind. The clank of the claps on the pole makes a loud, ringing sound.
"We don't want to disturb the chancellor; That's about what it does." Schulenberg said.
Jack Beerbower, chief of housekeeping, said he used to raise the flags on the old Fraser Hall, which stood until 1965, and had to go through a trap door to get to the roof. Beerbower raised the flag for 26 years.
"They got it easy now for what old Fraser used to be. It's got to be easier than walking."
Phil Endacott, associate director of facilities and operations, said if an automated method were discovered to raise and lower the flags, KU would consider using it.
"We'd like to automate that and get it on a consistent basis. If you add up the costs of the flag plus the time it takes to manually put them up and pull them down, it turns out to be a significant amount of labor time involved," he said.
Jack Bowerbier, Chief of Housekeeping - night shift; Wes Barnhart, Supervisor 1; and Gordon Schulenberg, Supervisor 2, raise the U.S. Flag over Fraser Hall. The flags are raised from small ventilated rooms through holes to the outside.
"A jury would probably have to answer that question." Markley said. If they believed the University was negligent, or not making enough of an attempt to comply with the law, hey could possibly be held responsible."
Two halls are about the most that could be wired with smoke detectors in one year because the housing office has a limited number of electricians. Also, the cost of the installation would take money away from other projects such as roof repairs, Stoner said.
Don McConnell, assistant director of maintenance for student housing, said that Oliver still was being wired for the smoke alarms, and that the project would be completed by the beginning of next semester.
beginning Milroy said smoke detectors were installed in the scholarship halls in the early 1980s.
Stoner said smoke detectors had been installed in Jayhawk Towers some time after the housing office began operating the Towers in 1980.
NCE
support
from both. The load has to be shared."
Even though the amount of money KU receives from the state is 85.9 percent of the average amount received by peer schools, KU has the largest private endowment. KU's endowment totals $196 million. North Carolina has the second largest endowment at $105 million and Oklahoma has the smallest at $23 million.
KU's total spending for fiscal year 1987, which ended June 30, was $183.99 million. The Endow-
See PRIVATE, p. 14, col. 1
TOMORROW
Chancellor Gene A. Budig says KU will lose its best professors if the Kansas Legislature fails to approve Margin of Excellence this spring. What do legislative leaders say?
18
Also, the Board of Regents discuss Margin of Excellence and open admissions.
KANSAN MAGAZINE October 14, 1987