T he O bserver VOL. XXIII NO. 54 FRIDAY , NOVEMBER 17, 1989 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME AND SAINT MARY'S Cause of laundry fire still unknown The Fall of St. Michael’s Eyewitness account of the fire. By JOHN O’BRIEN out and responsibilities as­ News Writer ■ Lewis reacts / page 6 signed,” he said. The Earth Science portion of Lewis Hall ■ Reimbursements/ page 6 Dry-cleaning - University officials and fire Brownson Hall sustained minor department investigators spent the Laundry and the dry clean- damage, including broken win­ much of Thursday assessing ing “escaped in relatively fair dows and some “water damage "1934 Section"- the damage and preparing a shape. All our records and our to their computer room but as Heart of the laundry response to the fire which gut­ computer in the office appear far as we know it was not ex­ operation; sustained ted St. Michael’s Laundry early to be, at this time, salvage­ tensive,” Mason said. the worst damage Thursday morning. able.” “With the way the wind was Vice President for Business blowing, we could have lost a The laundry is one of the few ceiling collapse Affairs Thomas Mason said buildings on the Notre Dame number of buildings,” Mason that it would be some time until campus that did not have a fire said. the cause of the fire could be alarm , said Rex Rakow, direc­ Malloy praised the work of determined. tor of Security, in an interview firefighters who battled the Offices, records “ We have to get the roof out with the South Bend Tribune. blaze. “There was a time where & computers of there before the investiga­ University President Father we were at serious risk of los­ salvageable tors can go in,” Mason said. Edward Malloy, who cancelled ing a couple of other buildings. While there is no damage es­ a speaking engagement at the They did a great job of contain­ St. Michael's timate yet. Mason said that the Air Force Academy, said “We ing it and controlling it.” Laundry middle portion of the building, are so happy that there was no “The loss of the Laundry is a called the “1934 section,” is injury or loss of life.” bad situation, but when you “gone.” The roof to this section Malloy met on Thursday look at the potential of what collapsed in a rush of flames at afternoon with the officers of could have happened, we have a 3 a.m. Thursday morning. the University and administra­ lot to be thankful for,” Mason Mason said, however, that the tors whose departments were said. end sections of the building, involved in the fire. “All of the Source: Thomas Mason, vice president for Business Affairs The Observer / Sean Donnelly which contained the offices of immediate steps have been laid see FIRE / page 5 ND computing launches major networking program By SARAH VOIGT News Writer University The Office of University Com­ Computing puting has just launched some Improvement Project of its most exciting and inno­ vative projects as the University progresses into a more ad­ linked them into the National vanced phase of its campaign Science Foundation [NSF] net­ to improve the computing sys­ w ork,” he said. tem on campus. Wruck explained that this de­ For example, by the middle of velopment allowed researchers next semester the Office of Uni­ to gain access to the large versity Computing will have ex­ store of information in the NSF tended a fiber backbone net­ supercomputer. work to link all the principle This summer a fiber-based academic and administrative network was put in place that buildings on campus. linked together computers in James Wruck, director of the Administration Building, systems and networking ser­ the Hesburgh Library and vices, coordinates the network­ Nieuwland Science Hall, said ing project. “About a year and Wruck. a half to two years ago we put This expanded networking in a backbone network that system has allowed the Univer- linked the engineering, science and biology buildings and also see COMPUTE / page 7 Six Jesuit priests killed in San Salvador SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador America. “ For example, they (AP) — Armed men killed and (the troops) took out their mutilated six Jesuit priests, brains.” their housekeeper and her Roman Catholic Archbishop daughter Thursday after Arturo Rivera Damas com­ bursting into their house at a pared the killings to the slaying leading university. A priest of his predecessor, Oscar Ar- quoted witnesses as saying nulfo Romero. That 1980 as­ government forces were in­ sassination marked the begin­ volved. ning of years of killings and The government denied re­ kidnappings by right-wing sponsibility, condemned the death squads. slayings as “ savage and irra­ “ If this spiral of violence con­ tional” and said an investiga­ tinues, death and destruction tion was under way. will sweep away many, espe­ The U.S. National Council of cially those who are of most Churches also denounced the use to our people,” said Rivera slayings, and the U.S. ambas­ Damas after leading a prayer sador said the slayings would over the mutilated bodies. have a “ negative impact” on The slayings came on the President Alfredo Cristiani’s sixth day of fierce combat rightist government. around this capital following Two witnesses said about 30 an attack by leftist Farabundo uniformed police or army sol­ Marti National Liberation The Observer/Kevin Weise diers entered the campus be­ Front (FMLN) guerrillas. A farewell to fall fore dawn and killed the eight The dead included Ignacio “ with lavish barbarity,” said Ellacuria, rector of Jose The Grotto, in the final days of fall, awaits the blanket of snow that would hit Thursday. The South Bend the Rev. Jose Maria Tojeira, the area received five to seven inches of snow in the storm. Jesuit order leader for Central see SLAYINGS / page 7 page 2 The Observer Friday, November 17, 1989 I n s id e C o l u m n W e a t h e r Don’t abandon Forecast for noon, Friday, November 17. Lines show high temperatures. problems after the hype ends I pass that table on the way out of the Yesterday's high: 30 dining hall everyday. Christine Gill Yesterday’s low: 28 Often there are people Nation's high: 92 Saint Mary’s Editor there; they are selling (McAllen, Texas and things or trying to Fallsbrook, Calif.) sign you up for Nation’s low: -6 something; T-shirts, (Bismarck, N.D.) blood drive, Chicago trip, “Fast for a Forecast: World Harvest.” Cloudy and colder today I w alk past w ith a ------------------------------- with a 60 percent chance g lance and continue of afternoon snow. Highs on with my day. Wait from the middle to upper a minute. Fast — what is this? Actually, 20s. Cloudy and contin­ what was this. ued cold tonight with a 60 Yesterday, the Saint Mary’s community percent chance of light participated in Oxfam’s “Fast for a World ©1989 Accu-Weather, Inc. snow ending around Harvest.” This is a nationwide day of fast, Pressure midnight. Lows in the to show support and raise money and lower 20s. Partly sunny ® ( D E g ( v q r - 1 r ^ \ awareness for people who have little or no HIGH LOW SHOWERS RAIN T-STORMS FLURRIES SNOW ICE SUNNY PT. CLOUDY CLOUDY and cold Saturday. Highs food. in the upper 20s. How did I walk past with hardly a glance all those days? I paid attention four years ago when Bob W o r l d Geldof brought “Live-Aid” to the forefront Deborah Fahrend, an American A Siberian gas pipeline explosion caused by a of the hunger fighting campaign. journalist, and two West German sharp drop in temperature destroyed 2 1/2 miles of pipe, I was one of the many people who gave up friends were reported safe Thursday, the Tass news agency said Thursday. There were no in­ a day for “Hands Across America.” the day after a previously unknown juries in the blast, which occurred Tuesday night near the What has happened to my humanitarian group claimed to have kidnapped them Siberian city of Norilsk, 1,600 miles northeast of Moscow, spirit? in Beirut. Police said they had not been Tass said. Repair teams have been flown to the blast site, Trying to figure out what happened, I abducted. A statement Wednesday but cold weather was hampering efforts to fix the came to the conclusion that the American claimed a group called The Organiza­ pipeline, Tass said. In June, a gas pipeline leaked and ex­ public has been under a barrage of “causes” tion of Just Revenge kidnapped the ploded in the Ural Mountains as two passenger trains in the last few years. three “ because of their activities in were passing. More than 600 people were killed. First, there was the famine in Ethiopia. Lebanon.” A police spokesman said Then, human rights and homelessness. the case “ involved a robbery report.” Now, we have the Amazon rain forests and environmental destruction. I do not mean to say that there is anything N a t io n a l wrong with the efforts different or­ Thousands of residents strolled along the newly The notion that teenagers who read or hear ganizations have made on behalf of various intact San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Thursday, about teen suicides will be more likely to kill themselves causes. saluting the workers who got it back in shape just a appears to be untrue, says a study published in today’s The American public has been made month after the earthquake. Repaired at a cost of about Journal of the American Medical Association.