A student from Oregon State University died last week after hefell from a fraternity house fire escape.

Spencer Haugh, 20, was taken off life support Wednesday, havingremained in critical condition at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portlandsince his fall.

The student suffered severe head and spinal injuries after he fellfrom a second-floor fire escape at Kappa Sigma fraternity.

According to Capt. Bob Deutsch of the Corvallis Police Department,Spencer had been rocking back and forth on the thin, metal railing ofthe fire escape when he fell three stories to a basement-levelconcrete patio.

His blood-alcohol level at the time was at least .20 — more thantwice the level at which drivers are considered drunk in Oregon.

Spencer was not a member of the fraternity.

UCONN fined $129,500 for animalabuse

The University of Connecticut has agreed to pay $129,500 infederal fines after admitting to allegations by the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture that it abused research animals.

The USDA gives evidence of 99 separate violations of the AnimalWelfare Act since 1998 in its formal complaint against the school.

Some of the complaints include the death of 22 naked mole ratsafter days of neglect because the caretaker was on vacation and thesubstitute was not contacted, failure to provide veterinary medicalcare to at least nine rabbits and having no records of use ofpainkillers when performing painful procedures on animals, includinga spinal hemisection which involves severing the spinal cord.

— Compiled from wire services.