I I
PA LFW
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FRMAY, OCTOBER 29, 1954
PAO~ ~T1~NT THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY. OCTOBER 29, 1954
me.r m. r.y vv+ ++ rrms sm T w.v a.. xs
INNOVATION ON CAMPUS:
Undergrad Library To Centralize Books
Ryan, ZahnRaze
Note Code'l
Fatal for
By JIM DYGERT
Although three of the 10 Univer-
sity building projects under con-
struction concern libraries, none }>
of them can compare with the
planned Undergraduate Library.
Under study by a committee
headed by Director of the General
Library Frederick H. Wagman, the
proposed library would concen-
trate undergraduate books in one
building. They are now scattered
among several divisional libraries.
The new library would be an
innovation on the University cam-
pus, according to Wagman. Books
would be easily accessible because
of open shelving in place of the
closed stacks in use at the Gen-
eral Library,
Central Collection
As a central collection of under-
graduate books, the library would
have from 100,000 to 150,000 vol-
umes, including more books on re-
serve for use in undergraduate
courses.
"More instructors could conduct
classes without requiring students
to buy texts, because of the in-
LIBRARY STACK UNIT ON NORTH CAMPUS NEARS
creased number of books on re-
serve and other undergraduate
books the library would have,"
Wagman said.
An important feature of the
proposed library is its planned
comfort, which would include
lounge furniture, private study
tables, and a coffee bar in the
basement.
Probable Site
Probable site of the library, ac-
cording to Wagman, is the ground
now occupied by the Automotive
Engineering Laboratory. The auto
lab is destined for destruction as
soon as a new Automotive Engi-
neering Laboratory is built on the
new North Campus.
Before construction on the new
library ever gets underway, how-
ever, crowded conditions at the
General Library will be somewhat
relieved by completion of the
$500,000 Library Stack Unit on the
North Campus in December.
Funds for the Stack Unit have
been appropriated by the State
Legislature, as has been the money
for drawing up the plans of the
Undergraduate Library.
To house 300,000 volumes and
the bindery now in the General
Library, the Stack Unit was begun
last spring to provide storage
space for books not in every day
use. Tentative plans for the fu-
ture aim at room for storage of
600,000 additional books.
Another library on the Univer-
sity's construction schedule, the
Medical Library, is being built as
a wing on the Kresge Memorial
Building on $650,000 from the
Kresge Foundation. It is expected
to be finished by next June.
Intended to collect all the medi-
cal books now diffused around the
campus, the Medical Library will
provide a central library of more
than 100,000 volumes for the med-
ical center on Observatory Hill.
Law Library Addition
A third library project in pro-
cess is the $675,000 addition to the
Law Library. Begun in June to
provide more stack and work space
as well as more office rooms and
carrells, the addition is being fin-
anced by a State appropriation of
$250,000 and $425,000 from the
William W. Cook endowment fund
income.
Funds for the new Undergrad-
uate Library are being requested
from the State Legislature this
year. No estimate of the cost is
available, as the architects have
not yet completed construction
plans.
Wagman indicated that the
ground now occupied by the Auto
Lab would be the best site avail-
able for the new library.
NIYU To Give
Law Awards
New York University will again
award its annual Root-Tilden Scol-
arships, worth $6,600, to outstand-
ing s e n i o r pre-law students
throughout the country.
Twenty scholarships are award-
ed annually on a competitive re-
gional basis.
Under terms of the grants, a
candidate must be at least 20 years
of age, but not more than 28, and
he must be an unmarried male
citizen of the United States.
Applications for 1955 must be
completed by February 15, and
should be sent to: Dean of the
School of Law, New York Univer-
sity Law Center, New York 3, New
York. Final selections will be made
late in March.
Design WantLed
Persons interested in drawing a
program cover design for the 1954
Union Opera, "Hail to Victor!"
nay contact Stu Lerman, '56 at
NO 2-4431 or NO 3-8786.
Two free tickets will be awarded
to the persons drawing the win-
ning design.
Read and Use
Daily Classifieds
Infractions
(Continued from Page 1)
Motivating the meeting was a
"recognition of the impact of the
emergency," and determination to
set up procedures for dealing with
fire hazard infractions.
Because the University lacks au-
thority to deal with infractions,
city inspectors were to determine
violations and then notify Univer-
sity officials who would follow up
with their own inspectors.
Plan Falls Through
"Although the city was very will-
ing to cooperate," Dean Rea said,
"the plan fell through because
funds could not be found to pro-
vide for an additional city inspec-
tor."
Working under a new depart-
mental set-up, Ann Arbor now has
a separate five-man building de-
partment headed by Ryan.
While University officials have
met with Ryan several times, no
attempt has been made to reinsti-
tute the procedures set up during
the 1951 meeting, according to
Dean Rea.
"It is now a matter of necessity
and we will certainly take steps to
alleviate the problem," Dean Rea
said.
"We have been trying to find a
part-time qualified housing inspec-
tor but as yet we haven't found
one," the Dean of Men reported.
Both Ryan and Dean Rea emph-
sized the near impossibility of
checking all Ann Arbor residences
for infractions. "We couldn't begin
to touch all units occupied by the
6,000 students living outside of
University housing," said Dean
Rea.
10-Year Check
Ryan said it could take as long
as ten years to check every mul-
tiple dwelling in town. Since com
plaints are given priority rating,
Ryan explained, inspections could
be considerably speeded if tenants
reported violations.
Rosa Lueck, landlady for many
apartments rented by students,
told The Daily all her units met
fire regulations. "We are in full
compliance with the laws," Mrs.
Lueck said. Bruce Green of Ann
Arbor Trust Co. also claimed units
rented by the company meet all
requirements of the building code.
Wednesday night's fire followed
in the wake of a half-million dol-
lar blaze last February and a
rooming house fire on S. Thayer in
March.
Campus Drug and four other
stores were gutted February 12,
1954, in what was termed "Ann Ar-
bor's worst blaze since Haven Hall
burned down in 1950." Faulty wir-
ing was listed as the cause.
March 23, 1954, firemen quelled
flames after they raced to the top
of a wooden rooming house, owned
by Harold Lueck. Lueck saiq ciga-
rette ashes apparently caused the
blaze but a tenant claimed, "No
one ever goes down to the base-
ment. It was probably spontaneous
combustion-that place is a match-
box and always littered with junk.
Both faulty wiring and conditions
which might lead to spontaneous
combustion are in violation of the
building code.
Cause
Stll
TWO
Unkniown
(Continued from Page 1)
INTO THE SMOKE AND FIRE GO THREE LOCAL FIREMEN WITH THEIR APPARATUS
Zahn said yesterday the fire
started in a kitchen built on what
was formerly part of the front
porch. "The fire started there
and spread into the open hallway
behind it," he commented. "From
there it traveled up the steps and
into the upper stories.
"The house had recently been
painted," Zahn continued, "which
gave impetus to the fire. As for
the cause, we're not sure what it
was.
"Carelessness, an accident or
an electric appliance left on may
be the reason for the fire's start."
Alarm Received at 2:35 a.m.
Firemen first received an alarm
on the fire at 2:35 a.m. Zahn
said. "We were there two minutes
later-we received the alarm and
made a good response.'
Probably the first alarm turned
in, he continued, was from four
students living in the basement
of the gutted home. Robert Mc-
Millan, '55, Harry Athanson, '55,
Joseph Krahl, '55, and Robert
Schissel, '56E, awoke to the noise
of breaking glass and crackling
wood overhead. They escaped by
smashing a window and climbing
out.
other residents of the frame
dwelling included Mr. and Mrs.
Thom Shih, Mr. and Mrs. Peter
Pratt and Mr. and Mrs. Emilios
Antonaides.
By the time firemen arrived,
most of the residents were already
out of the blazing structure, hav-
ing been assisted in their escape by
students. Two people were helped
from the building by firemen and
police, who arrived on the scene
about the same time.
20-Feet High Flames
With three fire trucks and 20
firemen along with six to eight
volunteer firemen working fever-
ishly, it took firemen about three
hours to finally extinguish the
conflagration. Flames were leap-
ing 20 feet above the roof when
they arrived on the scene.
This was the first fatal fire here
in five years, the fire department
reported.
Funeral services for Miss Van-
degrift, who was on a year's leave
of absence from Muskegon High
School to study for a doctorate in
zoology, will be held at 2 p.m. to-
morrow at the St. Paul Episcopal
Church in Muskegon. Requiem
will be said at the St. Andrews
Episcopal Church here at 9 a.m.
tomorrow.
Funeral services for Mrs. Hen-
driksen will be at 2:30 p.m. to-
morrow in Eaton Rapids.
'1
I
y 4Atthor of "Bare foot Bow With cheek"' e-I.
HOME, SWEET HOMECOMING
A great number of people have been asking me lately, "What is
Homecoming?" Yesterday, for example, as I walked from my house
to the establishment of Mr. Sigafoos, the local lepidopterist where
I had left a half dozen luna moths to be mounted - a distance of no
more thanthree blocks - i'll wager that well over a thousand people
stopped me and said, "What is Homecoming?"
Well, what with company coming for dinner and the cook down
with a recurrence of breakbone fever, I could not tarry to answer
their questions. "Read my column next week," I cried to them.
"I'll tell all about Homecoming." With that I brushed past and
raced home to baste the mallard and apply poultices to the cook,
who, despite my unending ministrations, expired quietly during the
night, a woman in her prime, scarcely 108 years old. Though her
passing grieved me, it was some satisfaction to be able to grant her
last wish - to be buried at sea - which is no small task when you
live in Pierre, South Dakota.
With the dinner guests fed and the cook laid to her watery rest,
I put out the cat and turned to the problem of Homecoming.
First of all, let us define Homecoming. Homecoming is a weekend
when old graduates return to their alma maters to see a football
game, ingest great quantities of food and drink, and inspect each
other's bald spots.
This occasion is marked by the singing of old songs, the slapping
of old backs, and the frequent utterance of such outcries as "Harry,
you old polecat!" or "Harry, you old rooster!" or "Harry, you old
wombat!" or "Harry, you old mandrill!" All old grads are named
Harry.
During Homecoming the members of the faculty behave with
unaccustomed animation. They laugh and smile and pound backs
and keep shouting, "Harry, you old retriever!" These unscholarly
actions are performed in the hope that the old grads, in a transport
of bonhomie, will endow a new geology building.
The old grads, however, are seldom seduced. By game time on
Saturday, their backs are so sore, their eyes so bleary, and their
livers so sluggish that it is impossible to get a kind word out of
them, much less a new geology building. "Hmphh!" they snort as
the home team completes a 101 yard march to a touchdown. "Call
that football? Why, back -in my day they'd have been over on the
first down. By George, football was football back in those days
not this namby pamby girls game that passes for football today.
Why, look at that bench. Fifty substitutes sitting there! Why, in
my day, there were eleven men on a team and that was it. When you
broke a leg, you got taped up and went right back in. Why, I remem-
ber the big game against State. Harry Wallaby, our star quarter-
back, was killed in the third quarter. I mean he was pronounced dead.
Rut did that stop old Harry? Not on your tintype! Back in he went
and kicked the winning drop-kick in the last four seconds of play,
dead as he was. Back in my day, they played football, by George!"
Everything, say the old grads, was better back in their day -
everything except one. Even the most unreconstructed of the old
grads has to admit that back in his day they never had a smoke like
today's vintage Philip Morris - never anything so mild and pleasing,
day in day out, at study or at play, in sunshine or in shower, on
grassy bank or musty taproom, afoot or ahorse, at home or abroad,
any time, any weather, anywhere.
I take up next another important aspect of Homecoming - the
decorations in front of the fraternity house. Well do I remember
one Homecoming of my undergraduate days. The game was against
Princeton. The Homecoming slogan was "Hold That Tiger!" Each
fraternity house built a decoration to reflect that slogan, and on
the morning of the game a group of dignitaries toured Fraternity
Row to inspect the decorations and award a prize for the best.
The decoration chairman at our house was an enterprising young
man named Rex Sigafoos, nephew of the famous lepidopterist. Rex
surveyed Fraternity Row; came back to our house and said, "All
the other houses are building cardboard cages with cardboard tigers
inside -of them. We need to do something different - and I've got it.
We're going to have a real cage with a real tiger inside of it - a
snarling, clawing, slashing, real live tiger!"
"Crikey!" we breathed. "But where will you get him?"
"I'll borrow him from the zoo," said Rex, and sure enough, he did.
Well sir, you can imagine what a sensation it was on Home-
coming -morning. The judges drove along nodding politely at card-
board tigers in cardboard cages and suddenly they came to our house.
SALVAGED BOOKS, REMINDER OF A GRIM FIRE, WERE STILL ON THE GROUND AFTER
DAYLIGHT
-1
CURB SERVICE
Hot Dogs 10c
2045 Packard Rd. FRo-Slt. AM-12 P.M.
eri.-Sat-.12 A.M. - 1 A.M.
Expensive looking! Value-priced!
$79 '
$ 95 .w ;
TWO FIREMEN TAKE HIGH-PRESSURE "FOG" LINE INTO
THIRD FLOOR ROOM
WATER GUSHES OUT OF HOUSE OVER GUTTED PORCH'S
FLOOR
, . .: ..