VOL.100.NO.116
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1990
(USPS 650-640)
Fire in NY social club kills 87
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man bounced from a Bronx social club for quarreling with an ex-girlfriend returned with a fire of gasoline and set a fire that killed 87 people at the nightspot, which had been ordered closed, police said.
Most of the dead suffocated in thick smoke in the pre-dawn blaze Sunday, authorities said. Some people were trapped to death; others broke a hole through a wall to an adjoining hall in a desperate attempt to live.
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Emergency workers described bodies felled by smoke so quickly that they still had their legs wrapped around a bar stool, gripped
drinks or held hands. Only three people managed to reach safety by way of the two tiny exit doors on the front of the two-story Happy Land social club.
Authorities early today began raiding and shutting down some of the 173 other illegal social clubs that were there, said were operating in the city.
"People literally were stacked on top of each other," said Anthony De Vita, the Fire Department chief. "It was a firerap."
It was the deadliest fire in the continental United States since the 1772 blaze at the Beverly Hills Suppr Club in Southgate, Ky, that
killed 164 people. A New Year's
Eve 1986 fire at a hotel in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 96.
The fire occurred 79 years to the day after a blaze at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City that claimed 145 lives, many of them immigrant garment workers. That blaze led to reforms around the nation in workplace safety.
Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant and former boyfriend of a Happy Land's ticket seller, was charged with arson and murder, Police Commissioner Lee Brown said. He was to be arraigned later today.
Gonzalez, 36, was bounced from
the club after a quarrel in which he tried to woo back the woman, police said. After warning, "I'll be back," he returned and sprinkled gasoline on the floor, said Lt. James Malvey.
Gonzalez cried with remorse under question, said Lt. Raymond O'Donnell, a police officer who said he did it. "O'Donnell said
The impoverished Latino neighborhood near the Bronx Zoo was thick with mourners, who were asked to identify relatives from snapshots of the bodies posted on the wall of a high school.
Killed were 61 men and 26 women, most of them Honduran
and Dominican immigrants
"Most of the bodies were in dance clothes." Emergency MK McCarthy, specialist Christopher McCarthy. "They were out to have fun."
Alva Romero, a Honduran immigrant, lost six relatives, including a daughter, both brothers and a sister. Jerome Ford lost five relatives. The local Honduran soccer club lost several players.
Happy Land was ordered shut in November 1988 and a year later because of inadequate exits, sprinkler systems, emergency lighting and signs, Dinkins said. It had no liquor or cabaret license.
New count to increase federal aid for county KU students will make a difference
By Kathryn Lancaster
Kennon staff writer
Kansan staff writer
University and city representatives hope that problems with the 1980 federal census are not repeated in this year's count.
David Gunter, a Lawrence city planner, said that Douglas County lost between $3,700 and $3,800 in federal funds annually for each person not counted in the 1980 census. He believes that in Lawrence about 4,000 people, most of them students, were not counted in 1980.
By these figures, the county would have lost about $15 million annually.
The 1980 count fell short because some KU students did not fill out census forms, Guntert said. Workers for the U.S. Bureau must visit each household where no form is returned.
By the time census workers began their follow-up in May 1980, many students had left for the summer, he said.
In February, the City Commission allocated about $5,000 for an advertising campaign to remind students to complete census forms. Bank and utility bill statements have included reminders. Posters and buttons will be distributed at various places on campus this week
'Students are an integral part of our community. An accurate count helps ensure that students have a voice in Congress.'
Price Banks Lawrence City Planner
KU students are required to fill out the forms, which were mailed Friday, said Robin Eversole, director of University Relations.
Most of the 23,292 students enrolled at the Lawrence campus will be required to list Lawrence as their residence, she said. The forms require that people list the city where they will be living April 1.
Even foreign students, out-of-state students and those who are not 18 years old must list Lawrence as their place of residence, she said.
"Students might think that their parents can handle it for them." Everole said. "But their parents claim them while they're here."
By filling out the census forms, KU students are showing responsibility to their community, she said. Census figures affect the statistical profile of both the community and the University for the next 10 years.
"The University doesn't exist in isolation." Eversole said. "People need to fill out the forms accurately and on time. The only issue is whether people will take the time and energy to do it."
Census figures are used to determine how congressional districts are drawn and how federal government agencies are funded, Price Banks, city planner, said.
"A short census count cheats the county on representation from Washington," Banks said. "Students
See CENSUS, p. 5
Ice queen
John Rasmussen, Colorado Springs, Colo., freshman, sculpts a snow woman Saturday afternoon in front of Strong Hall.
Old Man Winter gives area a snowy reminder
By a Kansan reporter
Sergeant George Wheeler of the Lawrence Police Department said that on March 23 and 24 there were 27 wrecks reported in the Lawrence area. Of those accidents, three involved injuries. He said Iowa Street was clustered with accidents as well as the 23rd Street and Haskell Avenue intersection.
An unseasonable rush of cold air from the north dropped 4 inches of snow on Lawrence Friday, caused automobile accidents and postponed spring weather for about a week.
In addition, three people died over the weekend in Kansas in weather-related traffic accidents.
The hardest-hit region was the Kansas City area, which accumulated 175 points, said Matt Foster, student forecaster for the KU Weather Service.
"It's a bunch, but none of them were too serious." Wheeler said. "Most of the accidents were just non-injury bender-benders."
"Spring storm systems tend to be a little more radical because of the overall global weather changes, and that makes the change kind of violent," he said. "The warm is trying to take over, and the cold is trying to not let go."
Foster, Pittsburg junior, said an overrun between an Arctic cold front and a southern warm front from the Gulf of Mexico caused the snow. He said a change like this was too unreal for this time of year.
Foster said more spring-like weather and temperatures would come into the area by next week, after a moderate rise in temperatures beginning today.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Jay Callahan, 3, gets a push yesterday from his father, Doug Lawrence graduate student, while sister Lindsay, 5, watches.
Hungary
Socialists expect to lose vote
The Associated Press
BUDAPEST, Hungary - Millions of Hungarians cast ballots yesterday in the first free national elections in 43 years, and many expressed hope for the future and fear of the Communist past.
Premier Miklos Nemeth, a reform-minded Communist and a key engineer of the nation's convergence efforts, moments before he voiced that he was relinquishing control with a clear conscience.
As in East Germany, where Eastern Europe's first free ballot in decades took place March 18, the Communists were expected to fare poorly in the elections. They competed with 11 other national parties for parliament seats.
Despite occasional rain showers, voter turnout appeared brisk at Budapest polling stations, with election officials reporting a turnover of nearly 50 percent in some wards by May 28. The voting began and eight hours before polls closed. About 7.8 million people were eligible to vote.
Few irregularities were reported by 8 p.m., when the voting officially ended. Several international observers monitored the election.
Nemeth, who voted at a state-run kindergarten serving as one of 11,000 polling stations across the nation, declined to predict the chances of his Socialist Party. That party has governed since reform-oriented Communists formed it after defecting from the Communist Party in October.
"The only thing I hope for is that a strong government is created," Nemeth said, adding that only a government not hamstruck by the opposition could deal with the nation's ailing economy.
His comments reflected widespread acceptance, even among Socialists, that his party would not do well despite its role in steering Hungary to democratic reform.
Instead of crediting the Socialists for volunteering to play by democratic rules, most voters remember the excesses of more than four centuries that have made Communists unpopular throughout the Soviet bloc.
"I won't consider it an act of God if I don't make it into government," Nemeth told reporters. "I will hand over the reins head high and with a clear conscience. I don't have bitterness in my heart but satisfaction."
Hungary's last elections were in 1947, when the Communists won a relative majority, largely through fraud. A year later, they consolidated power and forced all other parties out of existence.
Throughout the monthlong campaign for 394 parliamentary seats, the Republicans convinced the electorate of their commitment to the multiparty system.
But pre-election opinion polls indicated the Socialists would finish no higher than fourth place, with a maximum 10 percent of the overall
A poll of 5,000 people published by the state MTI news agency less than one hour before polls closed indicated the center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum would finish strongest, with 31 seats.
Senate officers welcome perks as part of the job
By Eric Gorski
Kansan staff writer
This is one in an occasional series of articles examining Student Senate and it's role and responsibilities at the University.
With lotty political positions come perks, and KU student senators suffer no exception.
When the new student body president takes office, he will receive an office nearly half the size of Chancellor Gene A. Budig's, a secretary to share with four Senate officers who have offices in the Kansas Union, a trip to Washington, a blue parking sticker and a $400-a-month salary.
When B. Jake White, student body president, hands the Student Senate office keys to next year's president, a long list of responsibilities -- and a few perks -- change hands.
"I wouldn't consider them perks as much as part of the job." White said.
Part of Phase I of the Kansas Union renovation, completed in January 1989, included new Senate offices on the Union's fourth floor. The
"Compared to other student government offices in the state, ours is the best," said Jeff Morris, student body vice president. "When people from other schools come in here they're pretty surprised about how nice it is."
square footage of the offices, which were previously on level three, increased only slightly.
Of the five offices in the Union, the president's office is the largest, with 140 square feet. The treasurer's 137-square-foot office includes a Macintosh computer.
By comparison, Budig has a 340-square-foot office in Strong Hall. Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, has a 250-square-foot office.
Marci Francisco, assistant director of facilities planning, said the Senate offices were larger than graduate teaching assistant offices and some faculty offices. But she said she thought it was appropriate for student senators to have the space because the Union was maintained through student fees.
Student Senate Elections Student Senate Elections Student Senate Elections
Morris, whose salary is $375 a month, said Student Senate officers were paid for working 20 hours a week. White travels to Topeka for work, and he works on Friday and Saturday, he said, and works about 40 hours a week.
Morris, who left Lawrence this semester once for lobby day in Topeka and once for a weekend at home, said, "Basically, we live here."
During spring break, White traveled to Washington to lobby for improvements in student financial aid. The trip, made every year by the student body president, was paid for by Senate and by Associated Students of Kansas.
Senate' paid $360 for hotel expenses, ASK
gave $660 for airfare and the Office of Student Affairs allocated $400 for trip expenses. White said it was the only long-distance trip he took this year.
Although White often travels to Topeka and other Kansas cities for meetings, he said he had to pay for his travel expenses.
White said Senate was the only student senate in the state that didn't pay for trips made by the student body president.
"It's really odd . . . " White said. "Hopefully, we can work on this. I'm going to do everything in my power for the next student body president."
Donna Hultine, assistant parking director, said the student body president was the only KU student who qualified for a blue parking sticker.
White said Senate paid $100 for his sticker. He parks across the street from the Union in lot 16. The blue sticker is convenient because of his frequent trips around campus and out of the city.
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