THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
2 forces affect ROTC numbers
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Vol.87 No.7
Tuesday, August 31, 1976
See story page five
Staff photo by GEORGE MILLENER
Weenina aftermath
Baker University students comforted each other outside United Methodist Church in Baldwin City following a memorial service for the five Kappa Sigmas who died
Sunday in a fire at their fraternity house. The church, on the Baker campus, couldn't hold the entire crowd of 1,500 people.
Service brings painful memories
By COURTNEY THOMPSON
BALDWIN CITY—Baker University students and other friends began arriving at the First Institution Methodist Church at least an hour before memorial services were scheduled to begin for the five men who died fraternity house at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house.
The only sound heard in the sanctuary was the muffled rustling of paper as mourners used their programs to fan themselves.
An open Bible was flanked by five red roses, three on the left and two on the right, in memory of the five dead. The parents of the girl were given a rose at the end of the service.
FOUR KAPPA SIGMA brothers and a former housemothers stood at the entrance to the sanctuary consoling fraternity members as they arrived.
By 3 p.m., 1.100 people filled the church and many were standing in the rear of the church.
Dennis Domer, adviser to the chapter,
gave the eulogy to the five who died in the
fire, Stuart McCoy, Ted Bailey, David Sloop, Mark Morris and Steve Hoge.
"We have suffered losses, but none so tragic as that which occurred yesterday," he said. "We are here as friends to represent what these five men stood for."
DOMER STRUCK a sensitive chord when he spoke about each of the members in terms of what they had contributed to the university and to the fraternity. Many wept as a particular characterization of one of them became a personal remembrance.
Members of the dormer bowed their heads as of Domer said, "Many here have Stuart McCoy to thank for their lives. For it was he who discovered the fire and reported it. He did this as his last service to the fraternity.
“Our personal lives and experiences yesterday have taught us the true meaning of the word ‘fraternity’ of those who us with them, and I never forget those very fine five young men.”
JERALD WALKER, president of Baker University, said that although faith didn't provide the answer.
a rational explanation for such pain, it did direct people toward a fuller understanding of life by admitting the existence of such bard realities.
The somber occasion caused feelings of anger and frustration to surface in some.
Television cameras and reporters present in the church were seen by many members of the 2,800-resident community as an intrusion into a special, private moment.
BALDWIN CITY POLICE Chief George Rebman said he thought the residents were "a little leery of the press." That belief proved to be true as friction between mourners and news photographers developed outside the church.
Before anyone left the church, members of other fraternities were threatening to take away cameras if any pictures of the inmates or Kappa Sigma members were made.
Steve Menefee, olate shester, explained the feelings of the fraternity brothers.
"We didn't want a craft made out of it," he said. "There's a time and a place for it."
Swine flu immunizations delayed
The swine flu immunization program won't begin in Lawrence until after Oct. 15, according to Kay Kent, administrator of the Douglas County Health Department.
Kent said yesterday that the safety of the vaccine wasn't the primary issue holding up the campaign.
"It's the uncertainty of nuisance suits that has held the program up." she said.
By GERRY O'CONNOR
Throughout the period of negotiations between insurance companies, drug manufacturers and the federal government, the uncertainty of baseless or nuisance claims caused insurance companies to decline to insure the manufacturers.
HOWEVER, A BILL recently passed by
Congress will provide liability protection not only for the vaccine manufacturers, but also for "public and private agencies" and "medical and paramedical personnel" who participate in the program and who administer the vaccine without charge.
Kent said that with a vaccination program of such great magnitude, many coincident manifestations of other illnesses and disorders for which the vaccine would be wrongly blamed probably would ensue.
"The swine flu vaccine is as safe as any other flu vaccine in the past," she said. "The side effects are minimal and adverse reactions are very rare."
KENT SAID that Hong Kong B flu vaccinations would be offered in addition to the swine flu vaccinations.
Kent said there would be immunization clinics throughout the county, including one at Watkins Hospital. Others will be in Eudora, Baldwin, Lecompte and at the Douglas County Health Department on weekends.
Hong Kong B is a fui strain similar to the last major fui strain, Hong Kong A, which caused 30,000 deaths when it broke out in the United States in 1968.
She said the immunization would be more urgent to anyone more than 30 years of age.
It was an episode that won't easily be forgotten. But as the groups of mourners showly disbanded, a few expressions began to emerge. They became expressions of relief.
"I DON'T THINK we have any way of knowing what kind of turnout to expect."
See FLU page seven
AFTER THE SERVICE, most of the people stood on the lawn of the church. Groups of Kappa Sigma members stood very tall and very little and avoided outsiders.
The numbness of Sunday had been replaced by open emotion and distress among the fraternity brothers. Friends who were still on vacation could find the right words to stop the grief.
Staff photo by GEORGE MILLENER
Quiet departure
Fraternity brothers and other friends of the five Baker University Kappa Sigmas who died Sunday solemnly left United Methodist Church following a memorial service
Kansas state fire marshal plans increased KU housing inspections
BALDWIN CITY - Stepped up impact programs for organized housing at the University of Kansas likely will result from the fire that killed five fraternity members Sunday at Baker University, Fldib Dibansas state fire marshal, said yesterday.
The house in which five men were trapped and died wasn't in compliance with the state fire code, which requires at least two exits and a fire alarm always or a smoke or heat detection system.
Dibbern said he particularly had been concerned with the safety of off-campus housing at KU since a fire occurred in Lawrence last year.
"WEVE BEEN TRYING to upgrade our standards of inspection at all state universities and particularly at KU, he said. "Just last year we had to get a girl down from a third floor of an apartment in Lawrence, and since then we've worked with Lawrence Fire Department to crack down on fire safety inspection procedures."
the need for stiffer inspections requirements had become obvious.
He said that , since the incident at Baker,
Dibern said that, although the state fire marshal's office had previously left in charge of the fire department,
Fire study goes on; inspections disputed
See story page five
local city departments, the state would now take an active role in checking such
HE CONTINUED TO stress the authority of the state inspectors to enforce their judgment regarding unsafe living quarters, and said his office could close those residences or make them compel. Dibber added that the state would also be required with the state code could be required to use only the first and second floors of the houses.
Dibber said he was aware of a number of fraternities and sororities at KU that didn't meet necessary requirements and he was corrected that these faults be corrected immediately.
REPRESENTATIVES OF SEVERAL fraternity and sorority houses said Sunday that their houses compiled with local and state safety regulations. The regulations require adequate fire extinguishers, an early-warning alarm system and at least a fire alarm for the local nor state regulations require regular fire drills in private residences.
Larry Stemmerman, Lawrence fire inspector, said that the Lawrence Fire Department conducted inspections of KU's apartment complex. All buildings were not as safe as they should be.
"THERE'S A LITTLE something in all the sororites or fraternities that could stand correction," Stemmerman said. "But since we began the regular inspections ago, we've gotten most of them to cooperate with us in meeting regulations."
Dykes disputes studies on KU enrollment decline
By JERRY SEIB
College officials nationwide are playing the numbers game.
To play, they count students; how many students their schools once had, how many they now have, etc.
Chancellor Archie Dykes dismisses the pessimistic force with a firm insistence that the company is moving forward.
The stakes are high. On the line are legislative funds, new programs and jobs.
Recently, counting students of the future hasn't been much fun. Studies consistently have indicated that enrollments in colleges in Kansas and across the country fall steadily, if not drastically, in recent decades.
"ITHINK STUDENTS and parents are becoming more sophisticated in their selection of colleges." Dykes said last week. "Obviously that trend helps state universities of high quality."
Dykes predicted that KU's enrollment would stabilize during the next five years at current levels.
Such predictions come from studies indicating that higher education enrollment in Kansas hit a peak this year and is on the verge of a steady decline. One study, compiled by Kenneth Anderson and George Smith, professors of administration, foundation and higher education, predicts college enrollments in the state will drop from 116,624 this year to 84,372 in 1985.
of 22,000 students on the Lawrence campus and 2,000 on the Kansas City campus. There will be some fluctuations in enrollment during the 1980s, he said, but no drastic decline.
THE SAME STUDY predicts enrollments on KU's Lawrence campus through 1980. The study shows that enrolment will fall only slightly during the period, from 21,738 in 1975 to 21,344 in 1980.
But Anderson said he thought KU's Lawrence enrollment would begin dropping after 1980, and he said enrollment would level off at 16,000 in the middle 1980s.
Dykes said that the prediction was too low. "In the last three years we've had a larger number of hurricanes."
Dykes said that the prediction was too low.
three years were once predicted to be years of decline in university or largely determine its own development.
KU IS DETERMining its own destiny, Dykes said, by seeking the nontraditional student. Dykes doesn't refute the study's figures showing that the number of high school graduates in Kansas will fall from 35,000 last spring to 25,500 in 1983. The drop in students will cause KU to seek older students, he said.
The University is putting increasing emphasis on continuing education programs, Dykes said. Such programs allow college graduates to take courses at seminars around the state or by correspondence.
THERE ALSO WILL be more programs like the Linwood Center project, in which a Kansas City, Kan., public school was converted into a satellite KU classroom building.
Dykes said KU also would attract a greater percentage of traditional college students, the recent high school graduates. The attraction, he said, will be KU's professional schools, which train for careers in engineering, pharmacy, journalism, business, architecture and education.
Dykes said, however, that he had some reservations about the trend toward professional schools.
"I think there are some dangers," he said. "I don't think we want to look at a college education as merely training for a job. I think it's our role to articulate the need for the liberal arts in a well-rounded educational program before pursuing study in another field."
Dykes said a statewide or regional program to eliminate competition at small colleges and lower colleges.
HIGH-COST PRIVATE colleges will have the largest enrollment drops in the next decade, Dykes said, because of the higher cost of attending private schools.
State schools with lower quality programs will be affected by the drop in high school graduates, and the loss of jobs. In a greater danger, he said, and some colleges will close their doors during the next decade as a result.
ANOTHER RESULT of declining enrollments at some state schools might be a change in the way the
legislature funds programs. Rather than fund an academic program by the number of students it attracts, Dykes said, the legislature might money on the basis of the program's actual cost.
Dykes won't let the possible problems of the dampen his optimism about higher rates.
"I don't know very many young people who don't want to go to college, and I don't know very many parents who don't want to send their children to college," he said.
"I THINK THERE'S always a danger of excessive high expectations. But I also think there is
Even Anderson cautions readers of his study that the predictions may be too conservative. Increasing numbers of foreign students, students returning to college, and other students with low business have made predicting enrollments a risk business.
"The old steady base from which we used to predict is gone." Anderson said. "We never had this