Campus News Editor
AMES, Iowa - A chemistry graduate student at Iowa State University found fire the best way to dispose of unwanted papers.
Xiandan Lu reportedly took a number of confidential documents to a basement hallway in an ISU office building, where she set fire to them.
Custodian Richard J. Patterson said he walked up and saw "a grad student standing over papers that were burning."
Patterson told Lu he would put the fire out, but she said it was under control.
He then extinguished the blaze using glass cleaner.
Lu's actions were reported to her professor, and Patterson said she would be required to pay for damage to the floor, which was estimated at $100.
Two UCLA students hospitalized after possible fraternity hazing
LOS ANGELES - Two students were in critical condition Monday after a possible hazing police suspect occurred the Friday before Spring Break.
Marshall Lai was being treated for kidney failure while Derrick Ku was also hospitalized with similar symptoms. A third student was released April 2.
The three were pledges with the Omega Sigma Tau fraternity at UCLA.
Robert Naples, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life at UCLA, said the pledges underwent a "boot-camp experience." They had to go through hours of push-ups, sit-ups, running and other strenuous activities.
As of Monday, there was no evidence of alcohol or drug use.
Omega Sigma Tau does not own a house or maintain an on-campus office. Monday, the 26 pledges had not yet supplied authorities with further information.
Rowdy crowd blocks street in daylight-saving time incident
ATHENS, Ohio - About 2,000 revelers, mostly students from Ohio University, blocked an Athens street for about 30 minutes to celebrate the stitch to daylight-saving time early Sunday morning.
The mayor of Athens, the city where OU is located, declared an emergency, and about 27 members of the crowd were arrested, police said.
A similar occurrence during the time change in 1997 caused 47 people to be arrested.
"It's a year after the big riot, and people probably will celebrate this every year," OU sophomore Chris Shewring said.
"We came down because we knew the cops would be here overreacting as usual if something did happen. It's been great to watch."
Police, who blamed the event in part on media coverage of the 1997 disturbance, said most of the arrests this year were given for "failure to disperse" and "persistent disorderly conduct."
The crowd also lit small fires in trash cans and threw bottles, asphalt and a brick into the crowd and at police officers.
One officer was hit in the head by a bottle dropped from a window, and another was struck in the neck with a flying brick.
When the mayor declared an emergency at 1:41 a.m., about 50 riot police moved through the crowd, firing foam and wooden bullets trying to disperse the crowd.
"That hurt like shit," freshman Jason Fondran said of the wooden pellets.
"All I wanted was to go and get some pizza."
The OU dean of students office said videotapes of the crowd will be studied.
Dean of Students Joel Rudy said he was disappointed in students and university and city officials for failing to prevent the incident.
"This is the second year in a row, and we risk establishing a pattern which exacerbates the relationship between the police and students," he said.
"I'm not finger-pointing, just disappointed by the police and by the students who shouldn't have been in the street."