Wednesday June 8.1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 146 (USPS 650-640)
Frat may be charged for violating fire code
By Karen Boring
Kansan staff writer
City Prosecutor Jerry Little said yesterday he would file charges against the Triangle fraternity next week for failure to comply with city fire codes.
Jim McSain, Lawrence fire chief,
said in a videotaped press conference
on May 5 that after the April 26, 1987,
fire at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity
house, the Lawrence Fire Department developed a program to bring all KU greek houses into compliance with the fire code.
The department inspected the 37 active greek houses in June and July 1987, said Fire Marshal Rich Barr. The corporation board of each house was given a list of violations and was required to turn in plans of compliance, including a schedule for completion, by January 1988. A corporation board is a group of alumni that acts as landlord of the house.
The Triangle board turned in a statement to Barr, asserting that all required changes had been made. Little said. However, when the fire marshal inspected the Triangle house on May 2, he found that none of the changes had been made.
The only course of action that the
fire department is interested in with the Triangle house is prosecution." Little said. "The next step is filing charges against that fraternity."
Ron Gast, Triangle corporation board president, said a new board, including himself, was elected in February and that the original plan of compliance had been submitted by the former board. Gast said he and other board members learned of the fire-code problems from the house's student officers after the May inspection.
The board is taking bids so it can make a new plan of compliance, Gast said. He anticipated no problems with meeting the December deadline.
"We want to get costs in mind first," he said. "I think we will have a firm plan by this summer and have some of the work completed by September."
Five other Greek houses also are under investigation by the city prosecutor's office, Barr said.
The Alpha Kappa Lambda andLambda Chi Alpha fraternities and theAlpha Chi Omega sorority have not come to agreement with the fire department on plans of compliance with the fire code, Little said. The
Tau Kappa Epsilon and Phi Kappa Tau fraternities also have been submitted for investigation.
"They either have not submitted plans of compliance or the compliance time frame is not acceptable." Little said. "What I'm trying to do is to open the lines of communication."
The project involves obliterating grandfather clauses, under which older structures do not to have to comply with fire codes enacted after they were built, he said.
Normally, the fire department inspects greek houses twice a year to ensure that existing fire equipment is working properly. Barr said. The present fire-code project, however, involves seeing that the existing equipment adequately complies with today's fire code.
"If they do not involve sprinkler systems, because sprinkler systems are a very large project from a structural standpoint, we are requiring those plans of compliance to be completed by December 1988." Barr said at the press conference. "If they involved sprinkler systems, then we extended that deadline by one year."
DIVAN MILKMART/AMCAN
Give it a twirl
Terri Maness, Lawrence resident, twirls batons with glow sticks attached to the ends. Maness entertained golfers during the Moonshine Night Golf Tournament on Saturday night at the Orchards Executive Golf Course. The tournament was a benefit for the Achievement Place Boys' Home.
Water safe, tests indicate
Cancer-causing chemical no longer present at Lindley
Kansan staff writer
By Monica Hayde
Warning notices were posted in the building on May 20 after state and University inspectors found high levels of a cancer-causing chemical in the water in Room 107. But the latest tests have shown that no health hazard exists, a University statement released Saturday said.
For two weeks, signs were posted inside and outside Lindley Hall warning people not to drink the water in the building. On Friday, they were removed.
Inspectors from the Kansas Department of Health and
"Tests have not been run campus-wide, but they are in the process of being run," he said. "However, the water coming into Lindley Hall is of acceptable quality, so the assumption is it's probably of acceptable quality going into all the other buildings."
Bearse said it was unlikely the water in any other campus buildings was contaminated.
Steve Cater, University environment, health and safety officer, said no one knew why such an elevated level of ethylene dichloride was in the water.
"It's quite possible we'll never know where it came
Official reverses Hoch ruling
By Paula Messbarger
Kansan staff writer
A state fire official who said in April that Hoch Auditorium might have to be closed because of fire hazards now says it is a safe building.
Paul Markley, who is chief of the fire prevention division for the state fire marshal's office, said after his April inspection of Hoch that the 61-year-old building was too dangerous to use because of fire-code violations.
But Markley said Monday Hoch is safe and can be used by the University of Kansas for classes and con-
THE ARTS
MOVIES
Making It 'Big'
'I need an enormous amount of encouragement to do anything—even go out to dinner'; *Marshall*
Rocky starts don't deter Penny Marshall; crisis turns her on
A's Laverne on ABC's "Laverne and Shirley." Penny Marshall danced the schiemel-schlamazel, fell down more ramps than Chevy Chase and fought off hurricanes. She helped to make the sitcom one of the top shows on television for seven seasons. Yet her comedic success never convinced her that she would ever be able to direct. The self-deprecating New Yorker believed she was too indecisive to bark orders at grips and gaffers, too klutzy to figure out Steadicams and too shy to instill inspiration in actors.
But witness this act of self-assertion. In the final weeks of production on her soon-to-be-released movie, "Big," she is discussing a song for the sound track with James Brooks, the executive producer. As co-director of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and director of both "Terms of Endearment" and "Broadcast News," Brooks is one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He is urging her to use a sophisticated Gershwin tune "Woody Allen would do it in a minute," he pushes. But Marshall his Gershwin would clash with the rock heard elsewhere in the film, so she stands her ground. Taking a drug on her Marlboro, she chides, "But what a transition to Billy Idol."
And what a transition for Penny Marshall. After being dumped from her first directorial project, "Peggy Sue Got Married," and being called in at a moment's notice to barely revive her second, "Jump-in Jack Flash," Marshall seems to have hit it big with "Big" at the age of 45. Twentieth Century Fox is so high on her sophisticated comedy about a kid who wakes up an adult that the studio pushed up its release to June, when the movie will go head to head with Eddie Murphy and George Lucas.
shall has vice versed "Vice Versa" and its ilk. Instead of going strictly for laughs, she makes you feel the terror of the transformed man-child. At the end of his first day in a man's body, when he's run away from home and is panicked, Joshua holes up in a New York City floophouse and cries himself to sleep as police sirens screech outside.
In "Big," a 13-year-old boy (Joshua Baskin) goes to bed one night wishing to be "big" and wakes up the next morning in the body of Tom Hanks. The problem is that he still views life as that Little League kid. While the plot bears some superficial resemblance to the rash of age-swap movies that have come out recently, director Mar-
Like the grown child in "Big," who survives by putting his immaturity to work in a toy company, Marshall has learned to turn disabilities into assets. A chronic pessimist, she prepares for every day as if disaster were imminent. "The truth is," says brother Garry Marshall a creator of TV's "Happy Days" and director of films such as "Nothing in Common," "without a
No Liz Tiernan; Penny grew up reading Variety. She performed in her mother's Bronx dancing school, on local TV and at VA hospitals. But she never thought she could act. "I wasn't Elizabeth Taylor beautiful and I talked Bronx, not English," she says, laying on her New York accent really thick. Still, she took the walk-on parts (Nurse 2, Hippie 1) she could get on various TV shows, and her career began to develop. Her first substantial role was as Oscar Madison's secretary on TV's "The Odd Couple," which her brother helped develop. The breakthrough came in 1975 when
criss she can be a little dull. At 'The Battle of the Network Stars,' she would lay in the grass and whine. But when the gun went off, she was Wonder Woman."
NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS 45
rkley said. e in opera-
the lack of
[ a sprink-
rea. Mark
be closed
rected the
However,
ty officials
mure there
at Hoch,
that con-
mergency
ayed during
Hoch is safe as is. The
e has three
Paul Marklev
delete this
ier, because
alternative
emergency lights are in operation.
ation.'
; it another
He said not having a sprinkler would not make it necessary to close. You
state fire marshal's office
main concerns when inspecting a building: fire alarms, clear exits and emergency lighting that comes on when the power goes off. Hoch has all three, Markley said.
no potential music in the
person, I've open," he concerned, K. I have no
"The sprinklers are there to protect the buildings," he said. "We care about the buildings, but our main concern is getting the people out."
MAY 1988
or and disc he was not ision would
Tom Anderson, director of facilities operations, said the problem with the original inspection probably was a result of a KU Facilities and Operations employee who was sent with Markley on the inspection. Anderson said it was common practice for KU employees to assist the fire marshals during inspections. He said the employee probably was not familiar with Hoch and its lighting system.
Hoch Auditorium once was used as the home court for the Jayhawks basketball team until Allen Field House was dedicated in 1955. Hoch has had a long history of safety and structural problems, which led to the formation of a building a new performing arts center within the next few years.
"There is an emergency lighting system, and its been there for at least 15 years." he said. "The problem was, no one asked the right person."
James Modig, campus director of facilities planning, said his office and a committee appointed by Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, are reviewing possibilities for using Hoch once the new performing arts building is completed. Modig said some suggestions were offices, classrooms or an addition to the new science library.
"We're looking for the general needs of the campus." Modig said.
As for the near future, not much will be done to Hoch, he said. Some of the stonework will be repaired this year under the fiscal year 1988 budget. But there will be no projects for the fiscal year of 1989 because the Board of Regents did not approve the requests.
Dukakis finishes with nomination
The Associated Press
Michael Dukakis clinched the Democratic presidential nomination with a four-state flourish Tuesday night and forecast a "golden opportunity" to win the White House in 1988. Republican George Bush labelled himself the underdog heading into the fall campaign but said, "I'm fighting back."
The three-term Massachusetts governor began the night needing about 150 delegates to achieve a mathematical lock on the nomination. He was winning more than 131 in New Jersey, Montana and New Mexico combined, and early returns from California showed him ahead for more than 200 delegates.
Dukakis dominated Jesse Jackson coast to coast on the final night of a grueling Democratic primary marathon. He was winning primaries in New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico and California by margins of 2-to-1 or more.
Dukakis emerged as the winner of the Democratic primary marathon and owner of a lead over Bush in the nationwide public opinion polls. But Bush, who wrapped up the GOP nomination six weeks ago, holds formidable Electoral College votes against Hillary Clinton and West, and Republicans have won four of the last five presidential elections.
Thus, the prospect is for a close general election, and Bush and Dukakis seemed to share an eagerness to begin.
"My friends, what a golden opportunity this is for us," Dukakis said as he savored his nominating triumph in a speech in California. He pledged to use his campaign to stand up for factory workers thrown out of their jobs with no warning, to ease the burden of families hit by medical bills and to "share the rage" of those living in neighborhoods threatened by drugs.
"Every day between now and November, the American people will want to hear how we intend to build a strong and vibrant future for our country," he said. "They aren't interested in slashing attacks: They want to judge our positive ideas for change."
Bush pushed uncontested primary victories in all four states and said, "I think I can overcome this deficit (in the polls)," he said.
In a television interview, he likened Dukakis to Walter Mondale, the landslide Democratic loser in 1984, for refusing to rule out a tax increase. "I'll rule it out," Bush said in an interview with CBS, and rely on a spending freeze to reduce the deficit.
He decried the "gloom and doom" that he said was emanating from the Democrats and said the polls would change as he began to establish his own political identity. "When we get through in the fall talking about opportunity and peace and numbers of jobs and how much better things are and what I'll do to keep it that way, I think I can overcome that deficit." he said.