University Dally Kansan
Friday, April 20. 1979
3
Union fire still mystery after 9 years
Rv LOIS WINKELMAN
Staff Reporter
Nine years ago today students listened to Judy Collins on their radios. They protested the draft. They marched in front of Strong Hall.
Wesco Hall was only Wescos Hole, the dug-out site for what was to be a 25-story humanities building, the Yuk was the most popular bar, and someone set a fire bomb there.
When firefighters finally extinguished he flames early the next morning, the building had received more than $2 million n damage.
Firefighters contained the fire in the south wall of the Union, but 40,000 square feet of the building was not in danger.
The fire shocked administrators, students and government officials near the end of what had been a fairly calm semester. Since the late '60s, KU had
spawned frequent demonstrations, some violent.
THE YEAR BEFORE the Union fire, students opposed to the draft attempted to burn the Military Science Building to protest the presence of ROTC and military recruiters on campus. They successfully canceled the annual ROTC review by surging onto the field at Memorial University in Chicago and suspension for several KU students, including the newly elected student body vice president.
Student rights was one of the most turbulent issues of that period. Students pickedet Strong Hall and demonstrated for a voice in University government.
When a new student code was adopted in the spring of 1969, the Student Senate was established. For a while, students settled down.
CHANCELOR E. LAURENCE
chalmers to deliver a Senate early
date. SU is calmer now.
Two weeks later, David Awidy, student body president, echoed Chalmers when he told the Kansas Board of Regents, "I do not foresee any demonstrations on campus. Awiy was a member of activist organizations and had participated in many protests.
But during the third week of April, the Gambies store downtown was gutted by a blaze.
Several Molotov cocktails were thrown in various parts of town, causing minor damage.
Then for three days, disturbances erupted among students at Lawrence High School. On the third day, police used tear gas and mace to break the disturbance.
Black students received threatening
phone calls and the Black Student Union urged all boys to arm themselves.
But still, no one was prepared for the events to come.
Students rescued approximately $50,000 worth of art from the burning building.
THE NIGHT OF the fire, Frank Burke, Kansas Union director, arrived at the scene shortly after the fire was reported. He and students aided the firefighters by hauling houses, working on the burning building and keeping the crowds from interfering.
The next day, Burge issued a statement of gratitude to those students. "It was a tremendous display of efficiency and effectiveness," he said. "The students were willing to do anything within their power to come up with the Union building to a minimum."
The burning of the Union triggered a five-day wave of violence in Lawrence.
Govern. Robert Docking declared a curfew in and around Lawrence lasting from 8AM to 5PM,Extra police,National Guardmen and Extra police busy through the night investigating curfew violations, fire bombings and abandoned school building was destroyed by Fire.
THE CURFWE AND the violence continued. Sniper fire could be heard throughout the city. Another fire bomb damaged the Military Science Building. A trash bin behind Strong Hall burned. A Molotov cocktail thrown in a KPL substation near Daisy Hill caused power to go to the residence residence hills there and in Stoffer Place.
Officials and Lawrence citizens soon thought the curfew was causing more problems than it was solving. They petitioned the governor's office and the
curfew was ended. For two more nights violence continued, and then tapered off.
Even though arson was immediately suspected in the Union fire, Chalmers said he did not think it was the work of left-wing conspiracy. He said the rash of fires in Lawrence and on the campus suggested the fire was set by a vromianiac.
"I do think it is the work of one person, or perhaps two or three," he had said.
NO ONE EVER discovered who set the bomb that burned the Union.
Even if there was enough evidence to arrest a suspect, the Kansas statute of liability for assault could not afford a arsonist two years after the crime, unless the suspect has left the state during those years.
KU is calmer now. But students still listen to Judy Collins on the radio. They still protest the draft and they still march in front of Strong Hall.
Nurse shortage may have effect on new hospital
By PATRICIA MANSON
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA—The University of Kansas Medical Center might have trouble finding enough nurses to staff its new hospital, a medical officer told Kansas Regents yesterday.
The official, Masahiro Chiga, hospital administrator for the Med Center, said, "With the new hospital, we will have more positions opening up. We also operate the largest number of intensive care beds in the Kansas City area.
"With the legislative appropriations, I believe we should have an adequate number
of positions. Whether we can fill these
positions is another question."
Dykes also said an increase in the number of students enrolled in the Med Center's nursing school would ease the shortage. The Regents recently voted to increase the school's enrollment next fall from 65 to 125 students.
Most of the remaining construction work will be repair of the cement panels that make up the outer walls of Bell Memorial, Miller said.
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All 600 beds will not be filled when Bell Memorial first opens, David Robinson, vice-president of Bell Memorial.
Although the hospital will not accept patients until July, the staff has begun moving equipment into the building, Russell Miller, a vice chancellor, said.
The basement level contains the general supply and purchasing department and the
"All of the construction is essentially completed as of today." Miller said.
Chiga and other Med Center officials met in Topeka with the Regents' Health Education Committee. The full board is scheduled to meet today.
"When we move, we won't expand the number of beds by a great deal because we
CONTACT SUA FOR DETAILS
Last May, 140 panels were found to be chipped and cracked. KU officials said last week that 94 of the panels still had not been repaired.
"That contractor has been trying to get some patching and improvements made within the last few weeks." Miller said. "He seems to be taking us more seriously."
Bell Memorial, the new hospital, will begin accepting patients in July. It eventually will contain 600 beds, 214 more than the present hospital.
Chancellor Archie R. Dykes told the committee that a pay raise recommended by the Kansas Legislature for nurses might the night shift would help reduce the shortfall.
The contractor, Vincent DICardo, has told KU and state officials that the repairs will be completed in time.
"The failure to have a shift differential has been the greatest deferment to building a bridge."
don't have the personnel," Robinson said. "I should call the number of beds by order if I have longer stay."
The Med Center's shortage of nurses reflects a nationwide shortage, Robinson said. He said the Kansas City area needed about 200 or 300 more nurses.
films sua
Friday & Saturday,
April 20 & 21
JULIA
(1977)
Dir. Fred Zinnemann; with Jane
Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason
Robards. Based on a story by Lillian
Hellman. Winner of 3 Academy
Awards.
*No Friday matinee!*
(1975)
Midnight Movie SUPERVIXENS
The Festival will include 12 short animated films by Susan Piper. *Katherine* Laughlin and Sally Crulkshan (including the film 'quel' *QUACI* UTIL II TITT ACACKADERI)
Tuesday, April 24
Judy Garland
A STAR IS BORN
Monday, April 23 WOMEN'S ANIMATION FESTIVAL
Dir. Russ Meyer; with Sibi Earbank,
Charles Pasquale RATED X: AGE IDS WLL
BE CHECKED AT THE DOOR, SO BE
TO BRING THE TIME TO THE FILM
(1955)
Dir. George Cukor; with Judy Garland,
James Mason, Charles Bickford. The best of the three versions of this book is by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin.
Wednesday, April 25
Film Noir:
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
Dir. Billy Wilder; with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanway, Edward G. Jackson. Screenplay written by Wilder; Marianne Heller, based on James M. Cain's novel.
(1944)
All films M-R shown in Woodruff Aud,
at 7:30 unless otherwise noted. $1.00
admission.
Weekend shows also in Woodruff at 3:30, 7:00, 9:30 or 12 midnight unless other noted, please 15.15 admission.
Use Kansan Classified