1993_02 The Daily Collegian February 1993

              4 — News
The Daily Collegian
Tueaday, Feb. 2,1993
Student firefighters learn to survive
Yellow Sprints, Ohio (CPS)
— Colin Altman's social life at
Antioch University re*bjves
around four women and six other
men, a tire truck and an ambu¬
lance.
Altman and his fellow students
are all firefighters and work in
what is thought to be the only stu¬
dent-operated campus fire depart¬
ment in the United States.
The history of the fire depart¬
ment goes back to the late 1800s.
when a student bucket brigade put
out a fire at a women's dormitory.
The student fire department was
officially organized in 1936 and
| served as the only fire department
in Yellow Springs until 1946.
Altman, a psychology major, is
an assistant fire chief and has medi¬
cal technician training.
All the students are state-certi¬
fied firefighters; additionally, two
are paramedics, three are advanced
EMTs and two are basic EMTs.
They receive their tree training
at local community colleges, vo¬
cational centers and the Yellow
Springs Fire Department.
All of the student firefighters
must pass a physical examination,
take a 36-hour firefighting class
and pass state-administered writ¬
ten and practical tests. *
"We're pretty much self-run.
The chief totally controls the bud¬
get," he said.The students get no
special breaks from the adminis¬
tration for free room or board, nor
Houston school bans
rival college's colors *
f Houston (CPS)—Student lead¬
ers, in an attempt to boost school
spirit at the University of Houston,
wrote a resolution banning stu¬
dents from wearing rival Soutwest
Conference colors: It wasn' t a seri -
ous proposal, but the reaction from
some of the students was real
enough.
The proposal, introduced in De¬
cember by Student Association
members Michelle Palmer and Jeff
Fuller, said students caught wear¬
ing "paraphernalia" from any other
Southwest Conference school
would be issued a violation and
would have tc^do five hours of
community service on campus and
write a two-page report to give to
ihe dean^of students on the history
and traditons of the university.
'Teople are taking it way too se¬
riously." Palmer told The Daily
Cougar, the campus newspaper.
"If it takes meVriting this legisla¬
tion to get some response, it shows
peopledon'tccare about anything."
The Student Association did not
take any action on the proposal,
but its introduction caused a minor
uproar.
"AUTHENTIC.
inspired:
"aw answer.
Alive. Grand.
The intentions are superb!'
ri#
.CENTRAL!
m|l February 3
™      6:30 p.m.
Satellite Student Union
FREE ADMISSION
are they paid
for their ser¬
vices.
"Beyond
satisfaction,      _^^__^^_
that's all we
get," Altman
said. "We have had arguments with
the college for at least free room."
The firefighters are required to
tell their professors at the begin¬
ning of each term that they may
have to leave class suddenly to go
on a call.
They all carry pagers or scan¬
ners with them, and while most
teachers are cooperative, "some
professors think it'sadisturbance."
he said.
The department averages about
300 calls a year on campus, and the
firefighters go to all townshipcalls.
Altman said most of the calls turn
out to be false alarms and about 60
percent of the cal Is are for the am-
"We do see a range of things you wouldn't
normally see if you're just a student."
— Colin Altman
bulance for events ranging from
serious car accidents to a drunken
student falling down the stairs.
"We do see a range of things you
wouldn't deal with if you're just a
student," he said.
Altman said the firefighters tend
to lead separate li ves from the other
Antioch students.
They all live, together in a dorm
that is outfitted with a firefighter's
Duty time for
the three crews
is 24 hours and
48 hours off. "I
_^_^_^      basicallyjoined
when        my
friends did," he
said. "I wanted to be an EMT. but
convened to a fireman."
While most fire department
alumni go on to other careers", some
have remained firefighters. The
most notable, according to school
officials, is Terry Florens, who in
1075 became Ohio's first full-time,
paid female firefighter. The cur¬
rent department has students ma¬
joring in psychology, biology, en-
t    \
y.
pole and houses the fire truck aid    vironmental studies and education
ambulance.
"Since we all live in the same
building, and have to be together
so much, it affects our ability to
have friends outside the depart¬
ment," Altman said.
"Everyone has different ideas
with what they want to do after ■
they graduate," Altman said. "No
matter what they do, I'm sure most
want to be volunteers in a fire de¬
partment"
Tickets,
From page 1
spring. We're sitting back on the
edge of our chair and hoping we do
well in baseball," he said. •
Snyder oversees an operating
budget of SI I million a year to pay
for site operating expenses, coach¬
ing and administrative positions.
Of the $11 million, roughly $1.5
million comes from the $26 mil¬
lion the campus received this year
from the"state. Another $ 1.5 mil¬
lion was raised by donations from
the Bulldog Foundation.
According to Snyder, the rest is/
raised by ticket revenues and~a<£
vertising. Snyder said one of the
primary reasons basketball ticket
prices are so high/!s because the
CSUF Instructional Related Ac¬
tivities department (IRA) has de¬
creased funding to the CSUF ath¬
letic corporation for the 1992-93
school year to $105,000, a
$ 100,000 decrease from the previ¬
ous year.
"We started our year $75,000 in
the hole," Snyder said. "We're
very, very fortunate we went to the
Freedom Bowl."
Snyder said that the corporation
is not losing money on this year's
basketball team because the vast
majority of revenue has been gen¬
erated through season-ticket sales.
' Season tickets for CSUF stu¬
dents are $95, a considerable sav¬
ings from the $168 the general
public must pay, but Snyder con¬
cedes that the $95 is a burden for
the average student.
"We're down to less than 300
student season tickets for basket;
PUT YOUR VALUABLES
IN A SAFE PUCE.
mrmemi tmri muim
ILL i im<c o Uirii
Music & Dancing till dosef
Shaw & Cedar 226-1984
ball. We don't have that much in¬
terest in getting people down to
b.uy single tickets (either). The
(Selland Arena) parking is terrible.
It's a long way down there for
students," Snyder said.
Snyder noted that in 1989, the
Associated Students, Incorporated
bought9,000men'sbasketball tick¬
ets, about 250 per game; at the
_ student season-ticket rate and tried
to sell single-game tickets to stu¬
dents at $5 each. The ASI was able
tosell only a fraction of what they
had purchased.
"They just ate it," Snyder said.
Student Senate member Melissa
Delmmanuel said that the Associ¬
ated Students have no plans to of¬
fer basketball tickets this season to
students at a reduced rate.
"I'm really not sure that that's
whaywe're supposed to be doing,"
Delmmanuel said.
For Terry Johnson, CSUF ath¬
letic ticket manager, the same bud¬
get crisis that has hit other campus
departments affects CSUF ticket
prices, specifically the loss of IRA
fees.
"(There is) no discount on indi¬
vidual tickets," Johnson said. "We
have been in a sell-out in the past
and that's why we don't do it now.
I don't see a change in the policy
soon."
Snyder is aware that basketball
ticket policies were set 10 years
ago in CSUFs basketball glory
years, but believes that to reinstate
a student rate in toughs economic
times amid student apathy would
be financial suicide.,
. "For us to finance the students
by holding out the student ticket; .
we can't do (it). 1 wish that we
could lower the price," Snyder said.
"We really t hi nk that students ought
to be able to come to the games.
Students are enthusiastic; they put
the hype into the game. (But)Iam
sure that if you polled (students),
75 percent couldn't tell you what
the price is for men's basketball
tickets."
•