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by mi PEDERSEN
Staff Writer
The involvement of the
Legislature in the Rozman
affair may not be over yet.
The Legislature approved a
resolution last Friday 29-8
supporting the Board of
Regents in their decision not to
rehire Stephen Rozman,
assistant professor of political
science, for his actions during
last May's strike.
Sen. Ernest Chambers of
Omaha said Thursday he is
attempting to gather support
for a move to allow Rozman to
address the Legislature.
"I AM TALKING with
some of the more reasonable
senators to arrive at the best
possible procedure to present
this motion," he said.
Chambers said he has asked
Rozman if he would speak to
the Legislature and Rozman
said he would.
"I think the Legislature's
resolution on Rozman was
particularly bad because it
went beyond accusation to
condemnation," he added. "In
a democracy where much is
made of free speech, if an
allegedly democratic body like
the Unicameral denies a man a
chance to speak, it is
perpetrating a mockery of
democracy."
C HAMBERS WAS
PROMPTED to approach
Rozman after he sought a legal
opinion on the Legislature's
resolution from Attorney
General Clarence Meyer.
Meyer wrote Chambers a
letter in which he indicated the
only infringement . by the
Legislature on judicial
prerogative "might be" in the
area of separation of powers.
Meyer quoted the Nebraska
State Constitution which states
the powers of the executive,
Legislature and judiciary must
be clearly separate. He went on
to say:
"THUS THE QUESTION in
the present situation is whether
the Legislature by adopting the
resolution was exercising
power belonging to it or
whether it was attempting to
exercise a power property
belonging to the judiciary.
"Each of us could argue
long and hard on either side of
the question. If it was an
interference with a power
belonging to the judiciary, we
believe the...courts are able to
take care of themselves."
Meyer did not offer an
opinion as to whether the
Legislature's action might have
a prejudicial effect on the
outcome of Roman's suit
against the Regents.
CHAMBERS SAID he feels
more "strongly now after
receiving Meyer's letter that
the Legislature should not have
passed the resolution.
"If I might paraphrase the
New Testament, it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than it is for a
Nebraska Legislator to get an
unequivocal legal opinion from
the attorney general when that
opinion might conflict with
past action by the Legislature.
Chambers said the action by
the Legislature on the Rozman
case, because of its legal
ramifications, is casting the
role of the"body as
lawbreakers instead of
lawmakers."
He added that he hopes to
get Rozman's permission to
talk about five minutes.
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Leaves of snow
Campus unrest prompts laws in 12 states
by CAROL GOETSCHIUS
Staff Writer
If last year is any indication of the future trend most of the
nation's state legislatures will adopt a hands-off attitude
toward campus unrest.
Only 1 2 states passed laws relating to campus disturbances
last year, according to a newsletter from the Office of
Institutional Research (OIR) of the National Association of
State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Legislation
amounted to 17 laws, compared to 64 passed in 1969.
In the OIR report, the most detailed legislation on campus
disturbance came from Ohio, where four students were killed
last spring at Kent State.
Four specific acts involving disruption of activities in public
or private colleges and universities were added to the Ohio
criminal code as misdemeanors.
UNDER PRESENT LAW, the president or board of trustees
of an institution of higher learning can declare a state of
emergency when "there is a clear and present danager of
disruption of orderly conductthrough riot, mob action or
other substantial disorder." The law describes specific acts the
administration can take to maintain order during this period.
In the new bill, faculty and students can be suspended or
dismissed for any one of 20 charges ranging from disfiguring a
person to campus disruption.
The law sets up a procedure whereby a person arrested on
one of the charges is granted a hearing within five days. A
referee-attorney appointed by the board of regents determines
if the accused is to be suspended until his trial.
IF CONVICTED of the charge in criminal court, the law
requires that the person must be dismissed from the
institution.
In Michigan and New Mexico, legislation makes trespassing
in a campus building or interference with normal campus
operations a misdemeanor.
A building sit-in which develops into a building seizure was
added to the definition of campus misconduct by the
Wisconsin legislature. A Maryland bill prohibits any
"disturbance or interference with the orderly conduct" cf the
institution's activities.
FIVE OF THE STATE legislatures passed laws penalizing
students where it hurts the most-in the pocketbook.
Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin
brought to 1 1 the number of states which curtail financial aid
to students convicted of disrupting campus activities.
The selling of illegal drugs and "such activities as rioting"
are cause for terminating state and federal aid to students in
Oklahoma.
A student in Tennessee convicted of any criminal offense
due to a campus disturbance or riot will lose his
state-supported loan. Two students were killed during a
campus disturbance at Jackson State last spring.
MICHIGAN PROHIBITS the use of state funds for the
education of students convicted of interfering with the
"normal activities of any public institution of higher learning"
or possessing firearms unregistered with the institution.
Any student who "causes willful damage to public property
on a campus" will be expelled, under Michigan law.
A student convicted of campus disruption can lose state aid
for from ess semester to two years in ViconuA,
' Faculty members and other university employes, as well as
students, who are convicted of interfering with the
institution's activities are denied payment under Illinois new
law.
THE PERSON MUST BE specifically charged with
interference with a public institution of higher learning, so a
student charged simply with disorderly conduct isnt subject
to this law.
The seven additional laws passed last year vary from
establishing a code of conduct to procedures for calling in civil
authorities during a disturbance.
Through Arizona law, a Code of Conduct for students and
faculty at the state's three universities became effective Feb. 1.
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN the public, legislature and
universities was established in New Mexico by a legislative
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