THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY DECEMBER 2010
NEWS
5A
>> GREEK LIFE
Fatal fires spark prevention effort
Fraternity, sorority organizations monitor fire hazards in greek housing
BY MATT ELDER
Following the deaths of two fraternity members at nearby universities, the KU greek community is making fire prevention a priority.
Panhellenic requires the University's sorority chapters to have fire drills and inspections by Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical units each semester. During the drills, members of the fire department check each house to make sure fire codes and requirements are met.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, cooking accidents are the largest cause of fire injuries on college campuses. In addition, 50 percent of adult fire fatalities involve people under the influence of alcohol.
Within the past three weeks, two students living in fraternity houses at the University of Missouri St. Louis and Nebraska Wesleyan University have been killed by fire. Closer to home, the University of Kansas' greek community continues its precautionary programs to manage potential fire risks that accompany large fraternity and sorority houses.
Fire Safety Tips
"All chapters on campus have to be careful about living together," said Susan Schwarz, Memphis, Tenn., junior, and Panhellenic Association vice president of risk management. "Being in a communal living space is very difficult and prone to any type of accident."
Do not overload electrical circuits and be sure that extension chords are used properly.
》 Maintain and regularly test smoke alarm and fire alarm systems. Replace smoke alarm batteries every semester.
Erin Gregory, Leawood junior and Panhellenic president, said the fire drills typically happen during the early hours of the morning to add realism. Gregory said the department monitored both how long it took for each member to exit their house and inspected the property for fire risks. If the house fails either the fire drill or inspection, the department returns to do the same routine two weeks later. Gregory said Panhellenic was thankful for its close relationship with the department and Panhellenic's decision to oversee each individual chapter.
"They understand the necessity of passing the drills," Gregory said. "They take them very seriously and have the best interest of the chapter's members at heart."
building for fire hazards. Ask your local fire department for assistance.
Regularly inspect rooms and
Conduct fire drills and practice escape routes and evacuation plans. Urge fellow students to take each alarm seriously.
The KU Interfraternity Council also continues to ensure each member chapter's safety as well. The
IFC worked closely with the fire department to begin its Greek Fire Academy last year.
Source: United States Fire Administration
lan Lang, Wichita senior anio IFC president, said each house was required to send their house president, manager and vice president of risk management to the fire department's training center where the leaders of individual chapters learn about fire safety, proper fire extinguisher usage and sprinkler systems.
"It's a priority," Lang said. "We focus a lot on alcohol and hazing prevention, but if a fire happened it could obviously affect many more
people."
Lang said KU fraternity chapters regulated and mandated fire safety on an individual basis, unlike the Panhellenic;
Members from each KU chapter of the Panhellenic and IFC gather for a seminar each spring to review fire safety tips and other risk management issues.
Kansan staff writer Matt Elder can be contacted at melder@kansan. com.
— Edited by Derek Korte
POLITICS
Defense Secretary approved by Senate Robert Gates claims office with 95-2 vote
BY ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to confirm Robert Gates as defense secretary, with Democrats and Republicans portraying him as the man who will help overhaul President Bush's Iraq policies.
The 95-2 vote was a victory for Bush, who named Gates to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Nov. 8, a day after voters gave Democrats control of Congress for next year.
Even so, much of Gates' support stemmed from his pledges to consider new options in Iraq. The vote coincided with the release of an independent study lambasting Bush's approach to the war, increasing pressure on the White House to change course.
Sens, Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky., voted against Gates.
Gates said at his confirmation hearing this week he does not
think the U.S. is winning the war and that all options for changing the administration's approach must remain on the table.
"It seems to me that the United States is going to have to have some kind of presence in Iraq for a long time ... but it could be with a dramatically smaller number of U.S. forces than are there today," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The committee voted 24-0 to support Gates to succeed Rumsfeld, who became a symbol of the unpopular war and often sparred with Democrats.
Committee Democrats said they decided to endorse Gates because of his frank assessment of the Iraq war and his openness to change. Many of them said they saw the Iraq Study Group's report and the change in leadership at the Defense Department as the necessary impetus for a different approach to Iraq.
>> WAR IN IRAQ
Report suggests changes as violence increases
BY KIM GAMEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Ten U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Wednesday, a major blow on the same day a high-level panel in Washington recommended gradually shifting U.S. forces from a combat to a training role.
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group released recommendations for changing course in the country, saying President Bush's policy in Iraq "is not working." The Iraqi
government said the U.S. report did "not come as a surprise," and it agreed that Iraq must take the lead in its own security.
"The situation is grave, very grave in fact, and cannot be tolerated." Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said on the
said two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in Baghdad and a Navy sailor were killed in Anbar province on Monday.
"The situation is grave,very grave in fact,and cannot be tolerated."
The latest deaths raised to at least 30 the number of U.S. troops who have died this month. At least 69 troops were killed in November and 105 soldiers were killed in October — the highest amount for a month since January 2005.
At least 2,918 service members have been killed since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
pan-Arab satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya. "Absolute dependence on foreign troops is not possible. The focus must be on boosting the Iraqi security forces."
BARHAM SALEH Deputy Prime Minister
The U.S. military said in a statement that 10 Americans had died in four separate incidents but gave no further details, pending notification of relatives. In addition to the 10 casualties, the U.S. command
In other violence Wednesday, two mortar rounds landed and exploded in a secondhand goods market in a mixed Shiite-Sunni area in central Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.
said police officers Ali Mutab and Mohammed Khayoun, who provided the casualty totals.
About 25 minutes later, a suicide bomber on a bus in Sadr City detonated explosives hidden in his clothing, killing two people and wounding 15, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
on the large slum since Nov 23, when a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people in the deadliest single attack since the Iraq war began more than three years ago.
A total of at least 75 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Wednesday, including 48 whose bullet-riddled bodies were found in different parts of the capital.
The latest eruptions of Iraq's unrelenting sectarian violence came hours before the release of a study by the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.
"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating." the commission warned in the report.
It recommended the U.S. reduce political, military or economic support for Iraq if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress toward providing for its own security.
On the highly emotional issue of troop withdrawals, the commission warned against either a precipitous pullback or an open-ended commitment to a large deployment.
"Military priorities must change," the report said, toward a goal of training, equipping and advising Iraqi forces. "We should seek to complete the training and equipping mission by the end of the first quarter of 2008."
be some details on which we differ.
He did not elaborate.
"The recommendations, at least principle, are in agreement with the national Iraqi vision that calls for reinforcing Iraqi capabilities.
He also warned that improving the battlefield capabilities of the Iraqi armed forces would not be "the
"Military priorities must change. We should seek to complete the training and equipping mission by the end of the first quarter of 2008."
IRAQ STUDY GROUP
magic wand that brings a solution in one day.
of anonymity due to security concerns.
Some Iraqis, while critical of U.S. strategy in Iraq, said they feared any new policy would lead to more suffering for their country.
The attack came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged university professors and students to ignore a Sunni Arab insurgent
Elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen broke into a school in western Baghdad at noon, killing its Sunni headmaster in his office, then instructing teachers not to return, an Iraqi army officer said, speaking on condition
"They (U.S. officials) are defeated in Iraq. So they are trying to seek for an outlet to get out of their plight in Iraq. And I think the outlet will be at the expense of the Iraqi people." Maan al-Obeidi, a professor and political analyst at Nahrain University in Baghdad, told AP Television News.
group's warnings to avoid class, calling them "desperate attempts."
The group had sent e-mails to students and posted signs at schools and mosques saving students should stay away while it cleanses the campuses of
Shiite death squads, according to a statement from al-Maliki's office late Tuesday.
The government also announced the capture of a senior aide to Abu Hamza al Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over as leader of al Qaida in Iraq after his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air-route in June.
Mouwatak al-Rubaie, the government's national security adviser, said U.S. and Iraqi forces captured the aide, though he did not specify
Coalition forces have also detained several leaders of Ansar al-Sunnah, an insurgent group allied with al-Qaida in Iraq, al-Rubiae added.
where or when. He said 60 percent of al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership has now been captured or killed.
U. S. ground and air forces also conducted a raid targeting foreign insurgents near the trianan border, killing a militant who opened fire on an aircraft, the U.S. command said.
"The noose is tightening around Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and I can say with all confidence that al Qaida in Iraq is undergoing a very real leadership crisis," al-Rubaie said at a news conference.
The early morning raid took place near Khanaqin, a remote desert area 85 miles northeast of Baghdad where U.S. forces have helped Iraq soldiers set up outposts designed to stop foreign insurgents and their weapons from crossing into Iraq.
A coalition aircraft left the raid when it took small arms fire from a vehicle below; it returned fire, destroying the vehicle killing its armed insurgent, the command said. One suspected militant was detained in the raid, which resulted in no U.S. casualties, the statement said.