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Tons of sun
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details, page 2
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Tuesday
April 28, 1987
Vol. 97, No. 142
(USPS 650-640)
Electrical short caused fraternity fire, officials say
By IOHN BUZBFF
Uncertainties still remain for homeless fraternity members
Staff writer
An electrical short in a second-floor study room caused the fire. Sunday that seriously damaged part of the building, the home house, investigators said yesterday.
See related story p. 3
Fire Chief Jim McSain, speaking before the investigation results were released, said the fire started on the second floor after fraternity members reset a breaker switch in the basement that was overloading.
"They kept clicking the break er at the breaker box." he said.
The fire quickly spread through the house, McSwain said, in part because of flammable ceiling material.
By JOHN BUZBEE Staff writer
McSwain said that the ceiling material would be illegal in new buildings but that it was allowed in the fraternity house, 1645 Tennessee St., because it was built in 1948. Oombustible material in the rooms
damage on its first from a blaze that swept through the upstairs. An electrical short caused the fire, investigators said.
Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity members may have a bite to eat and a place to stay tonight, but many still are without the notes and books to get them through finals after a fire seriously damaged their house Sunday afternoon.
The members, who are sleeping in different locations across campus, attended class yesterday, said Daniel Umiko. Overland Park soonbomore.
The house, 1645 Tennessee St. had severe smoke and fire damage on its second floor and water
"Everybody's going to class," he said. "They've got to talk to their teachers and see what's going on."
Fraternity president Ken Jones,
Leawood junior, said some members were having a little trouble with the teachers of the fraternity's plight.
"Some of them have been less than cooperative so far, but they don't know the whole story," he said.
Some members were hoping they could take their current grades as final grades in their classes.
"For those guys who lost everything, " Jones said, "I think that's certainly fair."
Jarret Rubis, Leawood sophomore, said, "I'm going to bring them all to my room and say, there's no books. There's no notes."
On February 8, inspectors found five fire code violations in the house. McSwan said. A follow-up investigation did that they had not been corrected.
also contributed to the fire's rapid spread through the second floor, he said.
Other members, such as Don Bowden, Overland Park sophomore, were having better luck. He
One violation was a plate that
See REACT. d. 9. col. 1
needed to be repaired covering a second-floor fuse box in the library. It is unclear whether that was the room in which the fire started.
The house also was found to have violations in its basement boiler room, improperly used extension cord wires wrapped around bed frames.
Fraternity president Ken Jones, Leawood junior, said the house was working to correct the violations at the time of the fire.
McSwain said traternity members tried to extinguish the fire before they called the fire department.
But Jones said that members called the fire department immediately and that they fought the fire until the department arrived.
"If there's any lag time, it wasn't on our side." Jones said.
Police tape show that the first fire engine arrived at the house four minutes after the first 911 emergency call from Room 3, on the house's second
floor.
"God, there is smoke everywhere," the caller said. "Tell them to hurry up." About seven emergency calls a day have begun on Monday beginning at 1:14 p.m. Sunday.
All the building's occupants escaped uninjured, but five firefighters were hurt slightly while battling the blaze. McSwain said.
Four firefighters suffered minor burns, and a piece of ceiling fell on another. They all returned to battle the fire.
"They took quite a bit of punishment trying to take the fire on an interior attack," he said.
The fire caused extensive smoke and fire damage to the brick building's second floor and water damage below that.
"If this would have happened at night, I would say we would have had me of the major disasters to occur in the last century," she raternity members live in the house.
David Wayne/Special to the KANSAN
MIAMI COUNTY AIRPORT — Using a special helmet-mounted camera, David Wayne takes a picture of some of his fellow skydivers as they complete a point formation.
MIAMI COUNTY AIRPORT — Skydivers from the Greene County Parachute Sports Center, near Paola, start a freefall after jumping out of a plane at an altitude of 9,000 feet.
David Wayne/Special to the KANSAN
Skydivers parachute from roofs and planes for stimulating thrills
By CHRISTOPHER HINES
Staff writer
MIAMI COUNTY AIRPORT — At an altitude of 3,500 feet, the pilot turns the nose of the plane upwind and throttles down the engine. The door of the plane swings open, and the plane flies backward and wondering. It's time to jump.
"When that door opened, I freaked out," said Scott Smith of Olathe, who skydived for the first time Saturday. "I was nervous all day, but when the plane left the ground, everything was cool."
With a steady rush of air coming from the plane's propeller, the next step is to put one foot out on the wing struts. The other foot is followed by the other one, and grab onto the wing struts. A smiley face painted on the wing provides
a point of concentration and some reassurance.
"I remember waiting for the word go from the instructor and then saw the plane go in the opposite direction with the smiley face getting smaller and smaller." The senior, who decided against the wishes of his mother to do his first parachute jump Saturday.
"You look down, and you see the highways, the lakes, everything. All the forests look like little green strips, and where you're supposed to land is just a little brown square."
"Count 1,000, count 2,000, count 3,000. I felt my chute pop before I reached my 10th count, and it felt lurched me back." Wilson said.
day at the Miami County Airport near Paola to spend the day parachuting. The group included members, cammers, mechanics and bartenders.
Some people may say that sky divers are crazy, have a death wish or are just stupid, but the jumpers at Greene County Sport Parachute Center in Poaula say the sport alludes have given the sport a bum rap.
"The only time you ever hear about skydiving in the media is when someone has an accident or gets killed," said Gene Riddle, who jumped into Royal's Stadium two years ago as part of baseball's opening day festivities but broke his foot.
About 25 people met early Satur-
"It was like jumping into a big
KU officials plan for midyear salary increases
See SKYDIVE, p. 6, col. 3
By ROGER COREY
Staff writer
Administrators from the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas Medical Center met yesterday to discuss ways of handling next year's scheduled midyear salary increase.
KU faculty are scheduled to receive a pay increase during the next fiscal year but only for the last six months of the year. Classified office workers, civil service and office workers, also will receive a midyear pay increase.
The pay increase was recommended by the state House and Senate conference committee April
The committee also recommended a 2.5 percent salary and wage increase for students employed by state universities. The fiscal year begins July 1 and increases would go up at all state universities January 1.
17. The committee recommended a salary increase of 3 percent for faculty and 2 percent for classified employees. The classified employees' raise would be in addition to regular annual salary increases.
The proposed increases have not been approved by the full House and Senate, but both houses are expected to meet after their recess ends tomorrow.
"We will have a budget that lists employee salaries at one rate for the first six months and at another rate for the second six months," said Theresa Klinkenberg, assistant director of business affairs.
She said a professor who made $40,000 a year for the first six months would get $41,200 for the second six months.
"The average amount paid to the professor for the whole year would be $40,600," she said. "That is called a hybrid salary."
She said KU faculty actually were getting a 1.5 percent pay increase. The advantage of the midyear 3 percent increase was that it would be
used as the basis for salary increases in 1989.
"The professor would get his 1989 pay increase based on the $41,200 amount." she said.
She said that the academic affairs office handled faculty salary increases and that the budget and personnel offices dealt with classified employee pay increases. The Med Center produces its own budget.
Keith Nitcher, director of business affairs, said faculty salaries in next year's operating budget would be listed in two columns, one column for the first six months and one for the second six months.
"We have to be careful not to give
Ward Bian Zimmerman, director of the KU budget office, said the administration would have to decide soon whether to develop two separate programs for different periods, or one larger budget period, that would incorporate the pay increase
Zimmerman said he favored a single budget because it would reduce the amount of administrative costs. But he said that when dealing with a $200 million yearly budget, a $2,000 worth of paper was not significant.
people the impression they're getting more money than they are," Nitcher said.
Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on how some KU Soviet and East European studies professors view U.S. Soviet relations. Tomorrow, we discuss a teacher Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms.
KU profs disagree on USSR
Staff writer
By PAUL SCHRAG Staff writer
"Every scholar in Soviet studies is grinding his own ax", said Roy Laird, who also is a professor of Russian literature. "I just grinding it harder than others."
In international politics, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union stands alone.
No other clash of ideologies and weapons carries with it the potential to destroy life on earth.
Beyond that, their opinions diverge sharply.
"If you don't understand the Soviet Union, you are an idiot. You can't cope with contemporary life, even in Kansas," said William Fletcher, chairman of the KU department of Soviet and East European studies.
Whether the United States should deal with the Soviet Union as an evil empire, a trustworthy equal, or something in between is endlessly debated. Even such experts as the professors in the KU Soviet studies department have widely varied answers.
They agree that their program is one of the best in the nation. They agree that KU's department of Slavic languages and literatures is the leading center in the United States for the study of contemporary Soviet literature.
Fletcher has a theory that is unique, as far as he knows, among scholars who study the Soviet Union and therefore the theory of terminal incompetence.
Fletcher said, "All of us, without exception, are people who have a continuing love for the Russian people."
"The Soviet Union has gone so far into incompetence that it cannot recover," he said. "It will continue to be a vast threat because of its misguided warfare, leading army, but as the years go by, it will become less and less relevant."
See SOVIET, D. 9, col. 1
Waiting game
Former KU standout Greg Dreel has had a difficult time making the transition to the National Basketball Association. He has spent most of his rookie season on the bench. See story page 11.
Special delivery
Protection Express is a phone-incondom delivery service started by four Kansas State University hospitals to promote safe sex. See story page 3.