doilu mhm
rnonday, march 13, 1972
lincoln. nebraska vol. 95, no. 84
Regents adjourn
after disruption
by Randy Beam
OMAHA A subdued, predominantly black group
of 1 3 crowded around a small wooden table at the
Council for Black Community Justice headquarters
near downtown Omaha Saturday afternoon.
They talked quietly now. They took turns.
The atmosphere there was markedly different
from that which had surrounded this same group an
hour before. The renegade People's Board of Regents
was holding its first meeting.
Formed hurriedly at Saturday's Board of Regents
meeting at the Medical Center here, the People's
Board was a response to the "inequality and
insensitivity" NU regents had shown for the concerns
of blacks and the larger student body at UNO,
according to people's board member David Taylor.
The NU board Saturday postponed the
reappointment of Milton White, interim chairman of
the Black Studies Program at UNO, pending an
investigation of both White's program and the Office
of the Dean of Academic Affairs at UNO.
At the same time, the NU regents approved the
appointment of White's rumored successor, Hurbert
Locke of Wayne State University in Michigan, as an
assistant to UNO Chancellor John Blackwell.
White pressed the NU board to hold up Locke's
appointment until the investigation was complete.
White alleged there were "all kinds" of
administrative irregularities at UNO. For example, the
Law Enforcement and Corrections staff fixes parking
tickets for "their own people," he said.
The NU board. White said after the meeting, wants
him out of the black studies post because he said he ;
"points out things that are wrong, that can't stand
public exposure."
Other blacks complained that their community
had not been drawn into the anticipated selection of
a new head for the Black Studies Program.
'This is why this institution," White told the NU
board, "by virtue of its inclination to hire house
- niggers emeritus, is in a position that puts it No. 50 in
its commitment to black students."
When the NU board plunged ahead with Locke's
appointment. White said 'This necessitates another
regent's board. 1 move the People's Regents be
established. Will the People's Regents convene in the
first two rows."
An estimated 100 of White's supporters, clutching
signs that read "Equalling the death chambers of Nazi
Germany are the Regents" and "Let's fight for Milton
White", pulled their chairs into a circle at the Medical
Center cafeteria, even as the NU board tried to
complete its agenda.
But noise from the crowd forced the NU regents
into adjournment.
White read a short statement: "We hereby object
to the authority of the Board of Regents to take any
action as the Governing body of the University of
Nebraska for the regents' district boundaries are not
drawn as required by . . . the constitution of the State
of Nebraska, and accordingly the sections by which
the Regents are elected, are null and void as acted by
these people."
White called for nominations to the People's
Regents board. Thirteen names were tossed up from
the audience, and all were elected unanimously. A
UNO student. Ken Secret, was picked to head the
new organization.
The group dispersed, but the newly elected board
beaded to justice headquarters for their meeting.
Secret said in an interview at the Medical Center
that White was being railroaded.
"I think that Milton White's record in the
community has proven to us that he is definitely
qualified for the position he carries," Secret said.
Any attempt to bring someone in who doesn't
have the community's interest at heart would be
rejected by the blacks, he added.
White, also contacted at the Medical Center, said
holding up his appointment pending the outcome of
the investigation was the right thing for the regents to
do.
During the meeting, White told the NU board that
Blackwell had indicated to him that Locke was under
consideration for the black studies post. President
D.B. Varner confirmed this at Saturday's meeting.
At justice headquarters, Secret and other board
members said the people's regents would attempt to
break down the conflict that now exists among
members of the community, students and the
administration in - general, but more specifically,
between the administration and UNO black students.
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Regents. . . forced to adjourn Saturday meeting because of disruptions.
Taxpayer
blasts
regents7
visitation
decision
OMAHA- Despite a verbal lashing by a taxpayer-parent at
its meeting Saturday, the Board of Regents adopted a change
loosening coed visitation rules for UNL dormitories.
Residence hall officers, on a 6-2 vote, were made eligible to
sponsor visitation hours. Previously either faculty, staff or
parents had to be present during visitation hours.
Regents James Moylan of Omaha and Robert Prokop of
Papillion voted against the change.
Approval followed comments by Donald H. Lienemann of
Papillion.
Lienemann, who said he had both a son and daughter at the
University, accused the board of abdicating its responsibility to
the citizens of the state on the coed visitation issue.
Lienemann said he could not understand the board's logic
in opening up dormitories for "sexual activity."
"Your maladministration has compromised the souls and
consciences of the citizens of this state. By your failure to act
decisively you are siding and abetting the destruction of all
those priceless virtues that we hold dear," he said.
If allowing students to go to rooms of members of the
opposite sex is good, he said he apparently didn't understand
human nature.
Regent Kermit Hansen of Omaha said Lienemann's
interpretation of the rule change was not quite accurate. It is
unfortunate, Hansen said, that other parents also think the
regents reversed themselves and acted contrary to the opinions
parents expressed in a coed visitation survey conducted in
January.
At that time, parents voiced strong objections to
liberalizing the visitation policy. Students ire currently
allowed to visit rooms of members of the opposite sex for not
more than six hours in one day. Doors must be open, and
visitation hours must be set up in advance.
Lienemann said he was horrified at what he saw going on in
dormitory lounges. When asked later what he meant,
Lienemann said he observed sexual intercourse taking place.
The Papillion life insurance salesman also blasted the board
for allowing the World in Revolution Conference on Jusice in
America to bring Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Yippie Party
to campus. . . .
"It makes me sick at heart to think that such a thing could
ever take place in this state," he told the board.
He said he objected, as a taxpayer, to having to pay for the
heat, lights and podium that Rubin used during his speech at
.the East Campus Union.
Lienemann said the board should have banned Rubin. In an
interview after the meeting, he said he couldn't say if the
conference, on the whole, was balanced.
Board Chairman Ed Schwartzkopf of Lincoln told
Lienemann th8t if one carried his reasoning to a logical
conclusion, then Rubin should not be allowed to travel on
public highways or use any tax-supported facilties.
Moylan said it was disheartening that conference planners
were using fees from 100 per cent of the student body for the
less than one per cent who were attending.
"It appears to me that the planners are not in tune with the
feelings of the majority of students on campus," he said.
In another presentation to the board, UNL student Thomas
Headly presented Prokop with a red "F" which he said was
symbolic of the grade he would receive for plagiarizing a term
paper.
Headley's action was in reference to a recent editorial on
homosexuality which Prokop authored. It was originally
intended for publication in the Daily Nebraskan, but ended up
being printed in the Douglas County Gazette.
The article contained statements similar to those appearing
in a book by Dr. Edmund Bergler, Homosexuality: Disease or
Way of Life
Prokop said after Headley's presentation that if anyone had
bothered to check closely with the Douglas County Gazette he
would have discovered that a list of references were submitted
with his article.
Publisher Anne Batchelder contacted Sunday said
Prokop had submitted a list of references, but that they were
not printed with the article. She said she eould not recall
whether the list was turned in before or after the column was
printed.
The list of books was extensive, she said.