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 video-taped 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 alarm went off, 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 prose-
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."
Dave Nichergall/KANSAN
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
By Monica Hayde
Kansan staff writer
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.
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.
Inspectors from the Kansas Department of Health and
Bearse said it was unlikely the water in any other campus buildings was contaminated.
"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 students have been given of acceptable quality going into all the other buildings."
Official reverses Hoch ruling
Steve Cater, University environment, health and safety officer, said no one knew why such an elevated level of ethylene dichloride was in the water.
you know where it came
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.
'Hoch is safe as is. The
emergency lights are in operation
- Paul Marklev
state fire marshal's office
main concerns when inspecting a building; fire alarms, clear exits and emergency lighting that comes on after the attack. Hoch has all three. Markley said.
He said not having a sprinkler system above the stage would not make it necessary to close Hoch.
C O L L E G E L I F E
became public last year, are still considering options. Adecision, already postponed a year, is now scheduled for this fall, after several committees have reviewed the issues. Meanwhile, university president H. Keith H. Brodie has taken to reassuringly calling the forest a "sacred trust," which makes Saves the Forest activists very proud. "It doesn't seem like all of these committees would have been working so extensively if we hadn't gotten up and said, 'Whoa, you need to think again.'" savck Noid.
Hoch Auditorium once was used as the home court for the Jayhawks basketball team until Allen Field House was dedicated in 1955. Hoch has a long history of sports and structure, which led to the University's decision to build 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."
At the University of Texas at Austin, the Earth First! club is a small but vocal arm of a nationwide group trying to preserve nature and animals. A current project revolves around the black-capped viroa, a protected species of bird whose nesting and mating areas are threatened by developers, according to Earth First! members. The group also recently protested the annual "rattlesnake roundups" in nearby towns. These charity fund-raisers feature fries rattlesnake meat and a demonstration in which a handler is zipped into a sleeping bag with 20 snakes and tries to emerge unbitten—usually successfully. "Everything is centered around the capture, torture and killing of rattlesnakes," says Barbara Dugelby, state coordinator for Earth First! and a 1987 Texas graduate. Members locked themselves to a roundup fence and to two poles holding a banner which read, "Animal torture is no way to run a charity." The roundup, however, went on as scheduled.
CHRISTOPHER M. BELLITT with NANCY KINGEREN in Amherst, JOHN FOREMAN in JACKSON, LAURENCE LAZAROVICH in Los Angeles, MICHAEL MILSTEIN in BADAM, ADAM NAHSEBURG in Santa Barbara, JAMES CAGE in ATLANTA, FELLIW WILLIAMS in JAMAICA
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.
Saving snakes: Student at Texas roundup
30 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS
Once, a paradigm for the socially conscious student: Peace Corpsman in Botswana
Activism Lives. But Ouietlv
More than half of all college students say they feel strongly enough about a political issue to risk arrest at a demonstration. But fewer than one in five has ever participated in a protest. And not many students look with envy on the activist days of the '60s.
Can you imagine feeling so strongly about a political issue that you would participate in a protest against it? Or being arrested and booked by the police?
54% Yes
Have you ever participated in a political protest?
17% Yes 83% No
Political protest and activism were, in general, far more common than ever; this makes you wish you could have been in college during the '60s?
How do you feel about the amount of government spending on social-welfare programs, such things as child care and children's children of poverty, for the elderly?
Do you think that, in general, you are more likely to participate in a political protest now than when we were in high school? (%) 62% 34%
Are you involved in any charity or social-service activities such as working in a soup kitchen, helping retarded children, working in a hospital?
11 % Too much
56 % Too little
24 % About right amount
17% Yes 79% No
35% Yes
Have you ever considered joining the Peace Corps, Vista or some other full-time volunteer program after finishing college?
34% No
Compared with your parents' generation, do you think college students today are more or less involved in volunteer activities?
Which of these reasons comes closest to why you do volunteer work?
26% More 36% Less 31% Same
57 % Want to do something useful, help others; do good deeds for others
31% Enjoy doing work, feel needed
28% Want to learn and get experience
31 % Yes 66 % No
work experience, help get a job
25% Useful
28% Want to learn and get experience
Work experience; help me get a job
15% Religious concerns
25% Have an interest in the activity or work
Which of these reasons comes
most likely to motivate any
volunteer work on a regular basis?
72% Too busy; don't have the time
the lack of
of a sprink-
irea, Mark-
d be closed
rected the
However,
ity officials
armed there
or at Hoch,
that con-
emergency
16% No one ever asked me; no one approached me.
"We're looking for the general needs of the campus." Modig said.
13% Can't afford to; have to
12 % Not interested: in school to study
WILLIAMS FARROW AND CO.
For the Newswire on Camps Poll, The Gallup Organization conducted 412 free face-to-face interviews with college students on college campuses in New York and Wisconsin. Nov. 2, 18, 1977. The margin is above plus minus 0.5 units. *k* = response rate. The Newswire is not eliminated.
arkley said.
re in opera-
"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
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.
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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.
The Associated Press
Dukakis finishes with nomination
Michael Dukakis clinched the Democratic presidential nomination with a four-state flairfish Tuesday night and forecast a "golden opportunity" to win the White House in 1988. Republican George Bush labeled himself the underdog heading into the fall campaign but said, "I'm fighting back."
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.
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 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 advantages in the South 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.
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