Seventy-Fifth Year of Publication
dki% trojan
1912 — 1986
Volume Cll, Number 5
University of Southern California
Monday, September 8, 1986
MIKE MEADOWS / LOS ANGELES TIMES
Los Angeles firefighters go through the charred remains of the Sigma Chi house Friday morning.
jLucky to be alive’
Sleeping fraternity members face perilous blaze in morning disaster
By Gordon Gary
Assistant City Editor
Members of the Sigma Chi fraternity said they are "lucky to be alive" after a devastating electrical fire early Friday morning almost entirely gutted their house on 28th Street.
At least 55 members were in their rooms asleep when the fire started.
Most of them spent Friday afternoon trudging through soggy, black mush and burnt debris that littered the hallways of the building, looking for personal items they might be able to salvage.
Gary Svider, a public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the fire was caused by an electrical explosion. Damages were estimated at $450,000.
Several members of the fraternity said the fire started because of an overloaded wall socket.
As the cleanup progressed, fraternity members and their friends searched through the rubble of their possessions, trying to find such articles as car keys, wallets and books that might not have been destroyed completely in the fire.
"This is my lovely room. Like it?" said James Stowitts, a Sigma Chi, as he gestured toward a burnt-out shell, full of most of his worldly possessions. Stowitts, who is a member of the university's baseball team, was holding his charred baseball mitt and a team sweatshirt as he surveyed the damage.
"I was sleeping when my roommate woke me up and I ran out into the hallway. I saw there was a lot of smoke coming up from the floor.
"We started pounding on doors, getting people up and getting them out of here. We ran down the stairs and couldn't even get down the hall because it was totally engulfed in flames and smoke and everything," Stowitts said.
"It was just totally unbelievable, sitting over there (by the house's volleyball court) watching, knowing your room is just getting thrashed. I have nothing now. I have no I.D. and my wallet's gone. I don't even have any underwear," he said.
Stowitts got out on the ground floor, but some others chose to jump out of their windows. Svider said paramedics treated some people at the scene for minor cuts and bruises as the result of falls from windows and broken glass.
Eric Close, another Sigma Chi active, said he woke up to the sound of electrical explosions that "sounded just like fireworks."
"I heard people screaming and the fire alarm started going and I got really scared, jumped out of bed and (woke up my) girlfriend and my roommate. And when I opened the curtains to look out, the window to the right of my room exploded and flames came out and started igniting the trees," Close said.
Stowitts recalls seeing a fraternity brother (Continued on page 7)
Housing dilemma abates; several contracts available
By Gary Sutton
Staff Writer
Even though 300 students now live in Promenade Towers because of a one-time shortage of university housing, the Housing Services Office advertised last week in the Daily Trojan that there were spaces available on or near campus.
In August it appeared there was not enough space to house all the students who wanted to live in university housing, but the situation is changing, said Joan Miles, manager of Housing Services.
Gradually, more spaces are becoming available because of cancellations and because a portion of Parkside Apartments, formerly used to house families and graduate students, is slowly being converted into a co-ed undergraduate housing facility. Eventually 180 spaces will be open, not including spaces available last month, she said.
David Blackmar, assistant director of Housing Services, said that every student who wants a university housing contract will get one. "Students will get housed," Miles said.
As of last Friday morning, the final day of the housing lottery, there were about 33 available spaces, a majority of them in apartment
David Blackmar, assistant director of Housing Services, said that every student who wants a university housing contract will get one.
complexes, and mostly for undergraduates, she said.
The spaces that have opened over the last week would not have been enough to accommodate the large number of students who were placed at Promenade Towers.
Students wanting to live in university housing will be given a contract on a first come, first served basis. The housing lottery ended last week.
All in all, the housing situation is much improved this year over last, Miles said. The addition of Promenade Towers as a housing facility has been the key, she said. Without it, the Housing Services Office would be unable to give a university housing contract to every student who wants one.
According to Miles, there really isn't a housing shortage, "but that isn't to say we don't need more housing,'' she said. Although this year's problems have been surmountable for the most part, the situation may be more difficult a year from now.
In all likelihood, Promenade Towers will not be used for university housing for the next academic year, and that will add to the ever-increasing demand for a university housing contract, Blackmar said.
The housing office is currently making plans in anticipation of the extra spaces that will be needed for next year.
Fraternity population sees steep decline; fire, destruction, renovation close 5 frats
Sigma Chi fire adds to string of houses lost over past year
By Glenn Wakai
Staff Writer
The fire that gutted the Sigma Chi fraternity house early Friday brings the number of fraternities that have lost their houses in the past year to five.
Of the 29 fraternities on the Row, two have had house fires, one was suspended, one leased its house because of a lack of members and one lost its house to demolition, said Ken Taylor, director of Greek Affairs.
The Kappa Alpha Psi fraterni-
ty house has been leased to 19 cinema students this semester. The new tenants will have an option to renew their lease for the spring semester as well, said Grover Babcock and Erik Haugen, both sophomore cinema students.
Most of the older Kappa Alpha Psi members adjusted well after their house was leased, since the fraternity was established without one. They had only lived on the Row for two years, Taylor said.
The Kappa Sigma fraternity was suspended last year after some of its members harassed members of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity following Greek Week events.
Kappa Sigma members had accused Sigma Alpha Mu of cheating after the latter was pronounced the winner of the week-long series of events.
Kappa Sigma is renovating its house while the fraternity is under suspension.
(Continued on page 10)
The Daily Trojan recently received an All-American rating from the Associated Collegiate Press competition. This is the highest rating bestowed on a college paper and it qualifies it for national competition. See story on page 3.