Thursday March 24,1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No.119 (USPS 650-640)
Inspectors cite fire safety violations
By Ric Brack
Kansan staff writer
State fire marshal's inspectors found that at least 25 campus buildings were in violation of the state fire code last December, but it will be years before all the violations are corrected.
Kansas adopted the National Fire Prevention Association's life safety code 15 years ago, Markley said. All buildings that have been built since 1973 must meet standards set by that code.
"They have a reasonable length of time to bring things into compliance," said Paul Markley, chief of the fire prevention division of the state fire marshal's department. "The question is what a reasonable length of time is."
by the code.
The problem with KU buildings is that many were built before 1973. Of 25 buildings in violation of codes, two, the Spencer Museum of Art and Wescoe Hall, were built after the life safety code took effect. Another five have had additions or renovations since then.
According to Kansas statute, the state fire marshal can grant a variance from the requirements of the code if an investigation shows that non-compliance doesn't pose a life safety hazard.
But Markley said, "You could always go back and say every violation of the code is life threatening."
Violations
A complete list of campus buildings and the safety-code violations that inspectors found is not included. But according to records from the fire marshal's December inspection, 10 buildings on campus do not have required fire detection and alarm systems, not including residence halls. Among those buildings are Allen Field House, Snow Hall, Jolliffe Hall, Baehr Audio-Reader Center, and Sudler House and annex, the building that houses radio station KJHK.
Markley said that fire doors, which don't meet the codes in eight buildings, also concerned him. Inspectors found deficiencies in Learned and Stauffer-Flint halls, Sudler House and annex, Baehr Audio-Reader Center, the Facilities Operations main building, Allen Field House and two apartment of human development buildings at 14th and Louisiana streets.
Twelve buildings that reportedly lack required emergency lighting are Allen Field House, Snow Hall, Spooner Hall, Hoch Auditorium, Learned Hall, Mallott Hall, Robinson
Center, Spencer Museum of Art, Spencer Research Library, Wescoe Hall, Foley Hall and Blake Hall.
Markley said that he expected most of the violations found during the December inspection to be corrected by the time of the next inspection, which will be later this year.
Funds scarce
money for improvements and repairs is allocated to the University by the Board of Regents based on a list of needs submitted by University officials. But according to Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, there is little hope that enough money will be allocated to bring all buildings up to code.
Facilities Operations workers have begun implementing some of the improvements and repairs suggested by the state fire marshal's office, said James Modig, campus director of facilities planning, but most must wait until funds are available.
"We are facing the problem that we have very little money on this campus for those kinds of projects." Ramaley said.
A cost estimate for all the repairs will be ready late next week. Modig said.
University officials are beginni to make a list of all repairs that need to be made. After
the list is complete, it will be submitted to the Regents.
Funds from that process will be available after July 1. But Modig said that Regents money was usually scarcity for repairs, let alone upgrading to meet the fire codes.
"I'm not sure the Regents money can cover the fire marshal's list alone." Modig said. He said that many other areas could become safety problems if neglected.
"A roof problem can become a structural problem and that's a safety hazard too," he said.
Residence halls
Markley said that major improvements in pre-1973 buildings were being made under a variance, according to a schedule agreed to by University and state officials.
For example, the office of student housing began installing smoke detectors in residence halls during the summer of 1986. But now only Joseph R. Pearson, Gertrude Selards Pearson-Corbin, and Oliver halls have permanent smoke detectors.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing,
said that smoke detectors would be installed
in Lewis and Templin lalls this summer, at a cost of about $73,000 for each hall.
According to the schedule, alarm systems at Hashinger and Ellsworth halls will be installed during summer 1989 for about $40,000 each. McColm Hall will be upgraded during summer 1990, at a slightly higher cost.
Stoner said that alarm systems already installed install requirements, as will the tool kit.
"That's why they granted us more time." Stoner said.
Markley said the fire marshal's office considered both the quality and the amount of money spent on improvements in working out an acceptable timetable.
Lawrence fire chief Jim McSwain said that a standpipe system was installed in the residence halls during summer 1986 at the request of his department. A standpipe is a permanent system that provides firefighters with water on all levels of a building, eliminating the need for hoses to reach throughout the building.
Med students' futures revealed at match day
But Markley said water distribution to many campus buildings was marginal at best. Major improvements to KU's water system have not been made since 1965, according to a 1966 study that showed that the capacity of the existing system may be inadequate to provide the required fire flows to many areas of campus.
By James Buckman
Kansan staff writer
KANSAS CITY. Kan - Nervous laughter filled Reike Auditorium at the University of Kansas Medical Center yesterday as 116 medical students awaited their destinies.
Ruth Jacobson/KANSAN
The fourth-year medical students were participating in a nerve-racking yearly ritual called "match day." They gathered to receive envelopes revealing the hospital at which they will serve their residencies for the next three to five years.
Peter McLeary, from Omaha, Neb., said before envelopes were drawn from a box, "I've been wondering for three months solid where I'm going to be for the next three years. I just want to get it off my mind.
To say the least, some of the students were a little nervous as the list of names was read.
Match day is the end of a lengthy process in which the students decide where they want to do their residencies. They submitted their top choices in February, and a computer in Evanston, Ill., matched them and about 20,000 other medical students across the nation with available resident jobs. The computer tries to grant the highest choice possible to the student.
"Sick to my stomach is probably a good description," said an ecstatic Anne Schloesser, from Topeka, who received her first choice and was glad the wait finally was over.
Claude Warner, from Salt Lake City, said, "There is certainly a lot
Fourth-year medical students gathered to receive envelopes revealing the hospital at which they will serve their residencies for the next three to five years.
Jerilee Lehman waits anxiously to find out where her husband, Karl, Portland, Ore., fourth-year medical student, will be assigned to for his residency. The couple were happy to find out they would be going to Oregon, which was his first choice.
of stress to it. My wife is probably going nuts."
The process moves quickly, with some students ripping open their envelopes and screaming. Others stare at their envelope for a while before getting up enough nerve to see what's inside.
Before the drawing begins,
every student pays $1 to a pool.
The last person called, the one who
has to endure the wait while every
one else finds out their assignments,
wins the pot.
Some weren't sure whether the stress of the wait would be worth winning the cash.
The end of the ceremony provided a twist to the tension-filled day.
"It would be nice to have the money, but I don't want to wait that long," said Cindy Spiller, from Kansas City, Kan.
But Andy Tsen, from Manhattan, said he would not mind the wait if he was last and won the cash, even if it was only a little more than $100.
"We're money-hungry doctors," he said.
While Tsen, his name apparently the last to be called, walked up to receive his envelope and the
money, Tim Peters, from Mount Angel, Ore., sat in the crowd knowing something was wrong.
"I was panicking," he said. "I thought, 'Wait a second, I didn't get called.'"
But a closer examination of the box revealed that Peters' envelope had stuck in a crack inside the box, making him the last recipient.
An obviously relieved Peters, the missing envelope in hand, wasn't too worried about the technicality of who the money actually belonged to.
Laura Zeiger, coordinator of student affairs in the School of Medicine, said the students were relieved because the day was the culmination of their years in school.
"I'm going to split it with Andy," he said. "It's only fair because he had his own set on it."
"Most of the students are finished with medical school, or they will be by the end of next month," she said. "Now is just a time for relaxing, and they will start their residency position on July first."
AIDS decision left to students
Delay for referendum result could leave KU out of study
By Jeff Moberg
Kansan staff writer
After more than three hours of debate, Student Senate voted last night to let the student body decide if the University of Kansas should participate in a nationwide study to determine the percentage of college students who test positive for AIDS.
The study is being conducted by the American College Health Association and the Centers for Disease Control.
The ACHA gave KU until April 1 to enter the study, but if it still needs universities to participate by April 12 the matter would be decided by referendum during next month's Senate elections.
Senate elections.
Jason Krakow, student body president, said the debate was one of the best Senate ever had.
Arakow said that he thought Watkins Hospital officials would be pleased that, if necessary, the issue would be decided by the student body.
"Watkins was concerned that Senate did not come to a clear decision on this, and I think they will appreciate what we did," Krakow said.
At first, Senate voted 22-20 that KU should enter the study and disregard the recommendations against the proposal by Senate's AIDS Task Force.
But after a brief recess, Roger Templin, Nunemaker senator, motioned that the resolution be put to
a referendum. Templin said he felt that because the Senate was not clear-cut on the decision, the student body should decide.
"All this would take is another sheet of paper at the election," he said.
The study calls for the 20 participating universities each to send 1,000 blood samples by January to the CDC in Atlanta for analysis. Blood samples would be chosen randomly from students who had blood tests at student health centers. Only demographic information, including race, sex and age would be linked to the samples. To further assure the anonymity of the samples, every 10th one would be discarded. At KU, a student would have less than a 10 percent chance of having a part of his blood sample sent in for AIDS testing.
In about nine months, the study's results would be released in regional and national percentages only. Watkins would receive $5,000 for participating in the study. Charles Yockey, the hospital's chief of staff, said the money would cover the costs of drawing and shipping blood samples.
After the resolution passed narrowly, Yockey said it was exactly what the hospital had not wanted to happen, because it did not want any bad public coming from the issue
What we wanted was an over
KU to start bidding process in April for building of development center
See SENATE, p. 6, col. 1
By Donna Stokes
Kansan staff writer
The center, a 270,000-square-foot building, designed in a stair-step configuration by the Topeka architectural firm Kiene and Bradley, has long been in the planning. And it should be ready for business by the fall semester of 1990, a facilities planning official said.
A model of a four-story Human Development Center sits inside the east doors of Haworth Hall, where within two years a walkway may link Haworth to the new $12 million building.
A $9 million federal grant was allotted for the building in fall 1984, but $3 million in matching funds had to be raised before definite plans were made.
Alen Wiechert, University director of facilities planning, said bidding for construction on the center would begin in late April.
Ed Meyen, building committee chairman and dean of education, said that a variety of sources, including alumni and friends of the University, made the contributions needed to match the federal grant.
HDFL, other departments plan move into new building
Sidney Roedel, administrative assistant for human development, said the center would house the departments of human development and family life, special education, and speech-language-hearing: sciences and disorders, as well as the Bureau of Child Research and the Gerontology Center. The radio-television program also will be housed in the center but will not be paid for by federal funds.
The center will include a comprehensive research and training facility for the handicapped, along with research suites, clinics, lecture halls and seminar classrooms.
Meyen said a private source provided money for the radio-television
Most HDFL offices are now in Haworth, although some departments, such as the Bureau of Child Research and the department of special education, are scattered
"When everything is said and done, we will have about the same amount of space that we do now," Roedel said. "But it will be nice to have a new building where all of the departments can be grouped together."
throughout main campus and West Campus.
James Sherman, chairman of human development, said it was inefficient for faculty to run back and forth between an office in Haworth and a separate research area.
"What the new building will do is bring everything back home," he said.
The center also will include the Institute for Lifespan Studies, which is a reorganization of existing units with an emphasis on the process of human development throughout the lifespan, Sherman said.
"In the past 20 to 25 years the emphasis has been on child development," he said. "There hasn't been
as much emphasis beyond adolescence. The institute will provide a focus for increased efforts in studying development beyond childhood."
The east wing of the first floor of Haworth Hall will continue to house the infant and preschool laboratories. Roedel said.
Biological sciences will move to the area in the center of Haworth that HDFL offices and classrooms now occupy.
"The plans have not been finalized," he said. "There is no funding vet for the project."
"The construction drawing should be finished between now and June, and we will start taking bids for construction in July," he said.
Computer Center
Wiechert also said the multi-level parking garage, recently approved by the Board of Regents, definitely would be built directly north of Allen Field House.
If plans become final, the building will be on the south side of campus between Robinson Center and the Computer Center.
The Associated Press
Nicaragua, contras agree to cease-fire
SAPOA, Nicaragua — The leftist Sandinista government and U.S. supported contra rebels signed an agreement yesterday for a 60-day cease-fire to start April 1, both sides announced in a joint communique.
It was the first concrete step toward ending a six-year-old war that has killed more than 40,000 people.
"I think, I hope and I believe that we have made a start, a firm start to end this war that is killing
... sons of the same country, sons of the same mothers," said contra leader Adonn Calero.
President Daniel Ortega arrived at the meeting site for the announcement.
Both sides scheduled a meeting in Managua, the capital, for April 6 to start negotiations on a definitive truce.
The contras agreed to accept
Within the first 15 days of the 60-day truce, the rebels agreed to move into specified zones in Nicaragua. Delegations from both sides scheduled a meeting in Sapo on Monday to work out those zones
only humanitarian aid from a neutral organization, meaning the United States could not provide military assistance.
Joao Baena Soares, secretary-general of the OAS, read the details of the agreement after Cardinal Miguel Obando y bavo, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Managua, offered a brief prayer asking that Nicaragua be blessed for "all it has suffered."
In the agreement, the Sandinistas agreed to release 100 contra prisoners on Sunday. The rest of the 1,500狱禁狼 would be released at a date to be worked out at the April 6 meeting.
The 1,800 former National Guardsmen in prison will be released after a final truce agreement is reached.
The government also said it would guarantee freedom of expression without restrictions, in accordance with a peace plan signed last August by five president of Central America.
The Nicaraguan government said it would grant gradual amnesty and allow all political exiles to return to the country without fear of persecution.