Students vote to make Loyola College dormitories smoke-free

BALTIMORE ÷ All on-campus housing will now be smoke-free, as decided by a very close vote of all students living in upperclassmen housing last week.

A new non-smoking policy was announced by the Resident Affairs Council last year. The policy stated that smoking would be prohibited in Newman Towers, Campion Tower, Aquinas Hall and all freshman dorms.

For any other building to allow smoking, it was necessary to have an 80 percent vote in favor of smoking. The eventual plan was to have the entire campus smoke-free by the fall of 2003.

In accordance with the new policy, the RAC polled students on whether they would rather pass a general no-smoking policy in all dorms, which would become effective immediately, or continue to allow smoking in residence halls that are not already smoke-free.

According to the RAC, the policy originated because of the threat of potential fires, particularly in the larger residence halls.

Though the RAC declined to release full results of voting, the margin of passage in some residence halls was under 10 percent.

Alcohol played role in fatal falls from U. Kentucky dorms

LEXINGTON, Ky. ÷ The two men who fell to their death from the third floor of Kirwan Tower at the University of Kentucky last May were intoxicated, the Fayette County Coroner's report says.

The incident, which happened the morning of May 3, prompted UK officials to evaluate the safety of the windows. Jeffrey Pfetzer, a 19-year-old UK freshman, and Mathew Rzepka, a 22-year-old from Bowling Green who had a brother in the dorm, had more than two times the legal limit of .08 blood-alcohol level, said Miles C. White II, the chief deputy coroner. The two fell through a window at about 2:30 a.m. They had been drinking and wrestling around, and when they hit the glass, it broke, UK officials said.

Alcohol was found at the scene, but at the time there was no way to tell if the boys had been drunk. Pfetzer, from Villa Hills and a Kappa Sigma member, had a .198 blood-alcohol level; Rzepka, a former UK student who transferred to Western Kentucky University, had a .225 level.

"It probably impaired their judgment," White said. "I wouldn't say it was a total cause of accident, but it was a contributing factor."

Intruders break into U. Virginia building, computers missing

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ÷ A break-in on the fourth and fifth floors of the University of Virginia's Cabell Hall over the weekend forced police officers to close the top two floors of the building on Monday morning while they investigated the damages.

According to College Chief Technology Officer Charles Grisham, who has an office in 444 Cabell, at least seven computers were stolen, including a laptop belonging to College Dean Edward L. Ayers.

The robbery "must have been some time over the weekend," Grisham said. "I think (the burglars) must have been after hardware."

University Police Sgt. Tom Durrer said an investigation into the events currently is ongoing.

Grisham said he did not think Ayers' laptop contained sensitive information that could be accessed by the intruder.