RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Carol Anne]

While the situation at UConn is a drop in the bucket compared to Hurrican Katrina's devastation, human fallibility played a great part in both disasters.

STORRS, Conn. -September 4, 2005 (AP) - Buoyed by a national women's basketball championship, state lawmakers first began doling out $2.3 billion to the University of Connecticut 10 years ago. They wanted to transform the 124-year-old, one-time agricultural school into a nationally recognized, first-class institution....

But while UConn's historic overhaul is considered a success in many ways - admission applications have nearly doubled in 10 years and incoming students' average SAT scores are climbing - the project has been plagued by multimillion dollar cost overruns, fire and safety code violations, shoddy construction and financial mismanagement.

At one student housing complex that cost about $40 million to build, firefighters are on patrol around the clock until additional sprinklers are installed....

Instead of turning to outside inspectors, the university relied on the architects to design the buildings to code and then the contractors to build them to code.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-04120807.apds.m0616.bc-ct--uconsep04,0,2399492.story?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire

On a lighter note, I've never before seen a women's basketball team credited with so much influence! Something tells me that the current team lives in code-approved lodgings.

[link via Women's Basketball On-line]