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Show Monday, March 23,2009 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE www.dailyutahchronide.com The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice Since 1890 Vol.118 No. 114 ©2009 Medical school seeks funding to construct safer building Lana Groves ASST. NEWS EDITOR COURTESY ASSOCIATED PRESS Halie Sawyer congratulates Kalee Whipple and other teammates during their NCAA Tournament game against Villanova. Utah started the game with a 10point lead and never looked back, winning 60-30. Mixed results The No. 9 seeded women advance, but the No. 5 Runnin' Utes are knocked out in the first round of their first NCAA appearance in four years. See Page J COURTESY ASSOCIATED PRESS Utah's bench looks up at the Scoreboard during the final minutes of its 84-71 upset loss to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournment. Bands experience March Madness Katie Valentine STAFF WRITER The U marching and pep bands have never had so many opportunities in one semester. Eric Beckstrand, a trumpeter and sophomore in business, said the bands have had several "once-in-a-Iifetime opportunities" in 2009, noting the Marching Utes' experience playing at the Sugar Bowl for the only undefeated football team in the country and their opportunity to raise funds for a by-invitation-only trip to play in President Barack Obama's inaugural parade. Most recently, the Utah Pep Bands spent part of Spring Break traveling with the Utah men's and women's basketball teams for the first round of the NCAA college basketball playoffs. The men's basketball team hasn't been to the March Madness tournament in four years. Both teams hold this year's championship conference titles, but the men's team lost in its first game against the University of Arizona on Friday night. Members of the Pep Bands, which play at the basketball and gymnastics events, are also members of the marching band, which plays and performs at football games. "I'm so lucky to be able to travel and play for tHese moments," feeckstfand said. ^It's_great to represent the school doing something that I love." There was a lot of excitement shared between the band and the men's team in Miami while they rehearsed and prepared for the first round game March 20, said Audrey Fairbanks, a b .nd member and undecided junior. ^ The band arrived in Miaiai on March 17 and spent the days leading up to the game rehearsing and hanging out at the beach, Fairbanks said. That same excitement was felt in Maryland with the other half of the band who were with the women's basketball team, Beckstrand said. The Pep Band split into two groups to accommodate performing in the men's and women's games. Each band has See BAND Page 3 If an earthquake were to strike the Wasatch fault line, the U School of Medicine—an outpatient care center and teaching facility—would be in trouble. The building, which was constructed in 1961 as the University Hospital, meets the 1959 seismic code but is now outdated. "It's really a very large, ambitious project that will take several years of planning," said Steve Panish, assistant vice president of health sciences. Panish said they are now unloading the current medical school. The opening of the west pavilion will migrate beds out of the medical school and replace all outpatient clinics. Although construction projects and forklifts are scattered around the U Hospital, the medical school has been waiting for funding to rebuild since 2000 when a seismic study first analyzed the aging and health-hazardous building design. The School of Medicine building is "seismically deficient" based on recent building codes and is a "severe life-safety hazard to occupants," according to a Strategic Facilities Planning study completed in 2000. According to the study, the medical building is in the highest level of seismicity in the Wasatch Front and is not designed to withstand anything more than wind forces. If an earthquake of magnitude five or higher were to strike, the building would likely fall to the side or collapse on itself, said Bryan Romney, a building constructor at the U. "We've done various studies on how to replace this system," Romney said. "We're dealing with 650,000 square feet—it's either rebuild or reconfigure." Romney said they've already engaged architects and engineers to study cost and how to phase out the building. The planning study gave the U four scenarios: upgrade the building for all functions; upgrade only for research laboratories, offices and classrooms; upgrade only offices and classrooms; or demolish and replace the entire building. The evaluation crew who completed the study decided that the option to demolish the building would be the best choice. Besides structural problems, the study also revealed problems with the electrical system and found the emergency power system is "inadequate for health care and laboratories." "The air distribution^ not sufficient," said Don Thompson, director of facilities and engineering for health sciences. "We don't have sufficient capacity for heating and cooling. In i960, nobody had a computer and now everybody does." Thompson said any time the U wants to renovate the space to construct a new laboratory, they have to complete extensive ventilation work, which costs a "significant amount of See SEISMIC Page 3 Options for School of Medicine The 40-year-old School of Medicine is "seismically deficient" basedon the 1997 uniform building, code. The school plans to construct another building when it can generate enough funds. It is looking at four possible options. ERIK DAENWl/ThtDait-/Utah Chronicle Members of the U pep band play during the Utes'win over Wyoming in the second round of the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas. Band members added to the list of places they played this year when they traveled to the men's and women's NCAA tournament. Action Estimated Cost •Upgrade the building for patient care, research space and offices for teaching •Upgrade the building just for research space and offices for teaching •Upgrade the building just for offices for teaching •Demolish the original building and replace it with a new structure. $190 million $175million T *• $140 million $180 million " ' Source: Strategic Facilities Planning Study for Building 52 1. Completed in 2000. New ASUU leaders get to work Jeremy Thompson STAFF WRITER Although many students used Spring Break as a time to relax, some newly elected ASUU officials used the week as an opportunity to get to workThe recently elected Associated Students of the University of Utah leadership has started to address a variety of issues, the most pressing being to unite members of the GO and Revolution parties within the new student government, said Tayler Clough, ASUU president-elect. "We are working together with members of the both the GO and Revolution parties to help accomplish our goals," Clough said. "We want both parties to be a part of everything we do. It is always good to have a variety of perspectives in any decision that is made." Clough said the issue takes on added significance because, though the Revolution Party won the presidential race, Senior Class President-elect Erica Andersen was a, member of the GO Party. Also, both the General Assembly and Senate are split down the middle between the two parties. See ASUU Page 4 Marriott Library home to rare papyri collection Blair Dee Hodges RICHARD PAYSON/Thr Deity IflahChmnk Rachel Rizzo and Tayler Clough hug as other Revolution Party members celebrate after the announcement that Clough and Rizzo won the election by 171 votes. The new leadership of ASUU spent Spring Break working on uniting the winning candidates from Revolution and GO parties. the collection was gathered relatively late in the '60s, very STAFF WRITER few people know about it or A collection of ancient Ara- have begun working on them, bic papyri at the Marriott Li- so it's still a matter for much brary has been named among exploration." eight world-class archival Von Sivers said the papyrus treasures. collection is especially interThe collection of papyri, pa- esting. About 770 pieces dated per and parchment housed in between 700 and 1000 C.E. the Rare Books section of Spe- hold significance for scholars cial Collections is the largest studying the origins of Islamic of its kind in North America, civilization. The collection said Peter von Sivers, a his- includes personal letters, potory professor. It was recog- etry, tax documents, receipts nized in the March issue of and other non-public records Smithsonian magazine among from the first two centuries of other world-renowned library Islamic rule in Egypt. collections. "In most other parts of the "It's a glorious thing to have world like India, China, Europe, here," von Sivers said. "Of for this time period we don't course, it doesn't compare to have much in terms of unofficial the size of some collections in Europe. Nevertheless, since See PAPYRI Page 4 |