Tuesday inside
Your cheatin' heart SenEx wants to form a task force to create a University honor code that would encourage students to report incidents of cheating. PAGE 3A
Crime briefs The offices of U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) and two businesses at 647 Massachusetts St. were burglarized during the weekend. Laptops were taken from each of the three offices.PAGE 3A
Bowl hype
Although predictions say the Tangerine Bowl should be a high-scoring bowl,the Kansas football team wants to prepare as usual, without the extra hype. PAGE 10A
Give me the ball Kansas junior forward Wayne Simien is not receiving the ball enough, according to coach Bill Self. PAGE 10A
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KANSAN
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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 15
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA KS 66601-3585
The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Questions about inspections
City inspectors face more than 3,000 open building permits
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
astairrett@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
925 Arkansas St.
It was not unusual that the porch at 925 Arkansas St. had no record of a final building inspection — more than 3,000 structures in Lawrence have no records of final building inspections. But, for this apartment something unusual did occur early in the morning of Sept. 21, 2003.
When Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical crews arrived at 1 a.m. at the apartment on Arkansas Street, they found a collapsed deck. According to the incident report, the 6-by-15 foot deck had collapsed along two sides and was held on one end by boards. The apartment's renter, University of Kansas football player Kevin Long, said there were 15 to 20 people, a keg and a cooler on the deck when it collapsed. Long was walking onto the deck but stepped back into his apartment when he heard the deck begin to collapse.
Two University athletes, Courtney Steinbock, a Lubbock, Texas, senior on the tennis team and Lindsey Weinstein, a Tarzana, Calif., junior on the softball team were treated for minor injuries after the collapse.
did not take place, said Victor Torres, neighborhood resources director for the city of Lawrence.
In Lawrence, final building inspections are required to close building permits. If a structure has not had a final building inspection, its permit is considered to be open. Having an open permit does not necessarily mean an inspection
Three possible scenarios exist as a reason for open permits; the building contractor did not call the Neighborhood Resources Department for an inspection, an inspection was conducted but
not recorded or there was a building violation and a reinspection was never requested. Torres did not know which applied in the 925 Arkansas St. incident.
However, the porch collapse could have been prevented, Torres said. The porch was not built to code, he said, although there were additional factors
"Clearly the load is what caused the collapse," he said.
Tim Pinnick, a city building inspector, was called to investigate on the morning that the porch fell. He believed the porch
causing the accident.
SEE INSPECTION ON PAGE 5A
Moore's appearance as speaker a no-go
By Paul Kramer
pkramer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
the semester-long battle to bring activist Michael Moore to the University of Kansas has failed, as Moore did not accept the contract offered to him.
The Center for Community Outreach had originally slated Moore as the keynote speaker for Into the Streets Week, an annual event
Moore
designed to motivate people to get involved in their communities.
Amanda Flott, co-coordinator of Into the Streets Week, said the timeframe in which Moore could accept the contract expired and progress needed to be made to have a speaker secured in time.
Speakers failing to accept an invitation is not uncommon said Kevin Hager, co-director of CCO.
Because of his new book, Dude, Where's my Country?, Moore's busy schedule didn't allow for a campus appearance.
"It was in our best interest to pursue other options." Flott said.
Hager said it was unfortunate that Moore would not be able to come after the amount of publicity for the proposed visit, but he didn't think Into the Streets Week would be compromised.
Moore completed his fall speaking schedule and began a European book tour without speaking to his agent. Hager said.
Hager said Moore tended to polarize people, and the favorite on the new list of speakers wouldn't.
The new speaker will not be announced until later in the week, as the CCO wants to avoid announcing another candidate before the process is complete, said Becky Harpstrite, CCO communications director.
—Edited by Cate Batchelder
Ali Malik,
Mundelein, ill,
graduate student,
was involved in a
one-car accident
yesterday afternoon
in front of Allen Field-
house. Police arrived
on the scene about
1:15 p.m. Lt. Schuyler
Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said
no alcohol or drugs
were involved. The cause of the acci-
Abby TilleryKansas dent is still unknown
No arrests in Burge brawl
Bv Joe Hartigan,
Johanna M. Maska and Amber Byarlay
editor@kansan.com
Kansan staff writers
About 75 people were involved in a brawl outside of the Burge Union at 1:35 a.m. Sunday, according to the KU Public Safety Office.
A report from the KU Public Safety Office stated that an officer broke his finger while trying to break up the fight after a non-alcoholic Delta Sigma Theta event.
An unidentified man, who the report said was a football player, was involved in a fight with another person that the officer tried to break up. According to the report, the officer's hand was inadvertently struck and his finger broken. No arrests were made.
Mark Dupree, Kansas City, Kan., senior, who attended the event, said he disagreed with the police report.
Dupree said two men who were not from the University of Kansas became verbally aggressive with other men at the party. Because the Burge requires police at any party, officers were already there. Dupree said the officers stood to the side during the fight.
"The cop asked me to go break up the argument," Dupree said. As Dupree was walking the men,out, they started to
"We want to encourage students to have functions. We don't want to make it so they can't have any functions at all."
Lisa Kring
Conference coordinator for the KU Memorial Unions
swing again. A fight erupted outside of the Burge. Dupree said the responsible parties were not KU students.
Maj. Chris Keary of the KU Public Safety Office said protocol for situations like the brawl varied.
Keary said what likely happened was that officers did not immediately have the manpower to break up the fight. He said the officers called the Lawrence Police Department for backup before trying to break up the fights themselves. Lawrence police arrived on the scene shortly after with officers from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
Most of the people involved in the
Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said none of the people involved in the brawl could be identified because so many were fighting.
The first officer on the scene said he saw several people running out of the Burge shouting and saying they were about to fight. When the officer entered the building he saw about 15 people in a stairwell throwing punches. Some of the people were lying down in the stairwell, according to the report.
fight ran away or drove off before they could be identified, according to the KU Public Safety Office report.
People then began running out of the building to the parking lot outside of the Burge, where fighting continued.
Lawrence police and Douglas County officers arrived and people involved in the brawl began to flee.
Lisa Kring, conference coordinator for the KU Memorial Unions, said she thought the situation was handled well by the KU Public Safety Office.
The Burge will hold a meeting today to discuss what happened and how the situation was handled. A committee 'of Burge employees, public safety officers and fraternity and sorority members will discuss if the policies for hosting parties should be changed.
"We want to encourage students to have functions," Kring said. "We don't want to make it so they can't have any functions at all."
Edited by Andy Marso
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