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friday, October 13, 1 972
lincoln, nebraska vol. 96, no. 24
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Fees
task
forces
lack
students
Three of the four task forces to study management and use
of student fees at UNL still are lacking appointees, but charges
for them have been set. The fourth, the Student Health task
force, is in operation and is scheduled to deliver a report to
Chancellor James Zumberge next month.
Ken Bader, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said
Thursday the three forces have not gone into action yet
because members have not been chosen. Several individuals
have declined appointments to the task forces, causing the
delay.
However, Bader said charges have been drawn for the task
forces. The three will study the programming financed with
fees, fee-financed facilities and the administration of student
fees.
The programming task force will undertake a
comprehensive study of student fee-supported programs and
recommend policies and procedures for balanced programs.
It will be chaired by a student, and the membership will
include two students recommended by ASUN and two
students recommended by the Union Board. In addition, two
faculty, two staff and one community member will serve on
the nine-member force.
The facilities task force will "study and determine the need
for additional facilities, recreational opportunities, special
programs and other projects." In addition, it will "study and
recommend the possible utilization of reserve funds."
The eight-member force also will include two students each
recommended by ASUN and the Union Board. Two faculty
and two staff members will also serve.
The administration task force will study and make
recommendations "regarding procedures by which the budget
and program requests will be considered by the Board of
Regents." The force also will recommend procedures by which
"subsequent administration of approved programs can be
achieved."
The eight-member force also will include four students; two
recommended by ASUN and one each by the Union Board and
the Council on Student Life. Two faculty and two staff
members will make up the balance of the force.
At Tuesday's faculty senate meeting, Chancellor Zumberge
said the task forces were being established because student tees
"have not been allocated properly. The time has come to put
distribution and allocation on a different basis," he said.
Sunday laws: no barbering, baseball, brawling
by Debby Fairley
Sunday barbering. Seducing a female under
promise of marriage. Walkathons. Baseball on
Memorial Day. Using obscene language in the
presence of a female.
All are crimes against the public morals, according
to Nebraska law. But most aren't enforced, and a few
probably are unconstitutional.
Sunday laws, for example.
There's a 1913 law that prohibits rioting,
quarreling and public dancing on Sundays. The fine
runs up to $20 or 20 djys in the county jail, or both.
Another clause in the same law outlaws "common
labor" by anyone more than 14 years of age on
Sundays. Thirteen-year-olds apparently are safe.
- There are exceptions , for .works of. necessity, or
charity though. Emigrating families may travel,
ferrymen may land passengers and railroads may
operate necessary trains. The fine for other
"non-necessary," common labor is one to five dollars.
But woe to the practitioner of Sunday barbering.
He's liable for a $10 fine on first offense, and $15 to
$50, or 30 days in .the county jail, for repeated
offenses.
And unless authorized by the county board or a
special vote during an election, it also is illegal for
anyone more than 14 years of age to play baseball on
Sunday.
"Everybody considers them flatly
unconstitutional, I think," said Robert R. Gibson,
deputy county attorney. "You cannot regulate
people's activities like that. It violates the first
amendment."
If asked by citizens to prosecute Sunday law
violations, Gibson said, "we tell them we think the
law is unenforceable and probably unconstitutional.
We don't file charges."
Then there's the statute that outlaws playing
baseball or racing horses before noon on Decoration
(Memorial) Day. This law, Gibson said, might be
enforceable but authorities are not likely to try.
. Other laws, also dating from the early 1900's, are
not so much unconstitutional as outdated.
One prohibits any "marathon dance, walkathon,
skatahon.bikathon or any other mental or physical
endurance contest, exhibition, performance or
show . . . whether or not an admission is charged or a
prize is awarded."
County authorities said no action would be taken
on current charity-sponsored walkathons and
bikathons "because they're not really contests of
endurance. Now, something like the people who tread
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water in swimming pools trying to make the Guinness
Book of World Records, that might apply."
Even then, chances of prosecution would be
"practically zero," he said.
Another law provides that anyone over 14 years of
age who "profanely curses or damns, or profanely
swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy
Ghost" may be fined all of 25 cents to a dollar for
each offense.
But it's worth up to $100 or 90 days in the county
jail to utter "obscene or lascivious language" within
the hearing of a female.
That's a $99 difference.
Similarly, an average, ordinary incest charge is
punishable by 5 to 15 years in the Nebraska Penal
Complex. But the following statute goes one step
further: a father found guilty of cohabitating with his
daughter will be sentenced to not less than 20 years
in the penitentiary.
So the minimum sentence for a mother-son
relationship is 5 years; for a father-daughter
relationship, 20 years.
Panderers-those who "inveigle, entice, persuade,
encourage or procure any female person" to become
a prostitute-are listed as criminals against public
morals. "Houses of ill fame and bad repute" are also
public morals offenses.
But the prostitutes themselves are termed vagrants
and do not break public morals laws; they break
police regulations.
Just as there is no specific statute concerning
prostitutes, there is none defining homosexuality.
That fits under sodomy ("crimes against nature").
But not very clearly. Some homosexuals are
charged with sodomy, some with disorderly conduct.
The difference apparently is visibility.
Statistical evidence on morals crimes apparently is
hard to come by.
"Statistics don't reflect the real situation,"
according to Lincoln Police Inspector Robert
Sawdon. "It's common for an initial charge of incest
to be reduced to statutory rape and then to fondling
a minor.
"When you get to the end of a case, you often
can't tell what the original crime was," Sawdon said.
Another example is indecent exposure charges, he
said. "There's a difference between the guy riding
around undressed in his car and asking little girls to
come over and give him directions and the guy who's
just had too much to drink and relieves himself in the
street."
Because of the stigma attached to "indecent
exposure," the drunk probably would be charged
with disorderly conduct, Sawdon said.
"It's up to the city prosecutor or county attorney
what to charge them with. We (the police) just make
the arrests."
Charges for some morals offenses are filed often.
Others largely are forgotten.
"In my 25 years here, I can't ever remember
anyone being charged for playing baseball on Sunday
or being in endurance contests or swearing in front of
i woman," Sawdon says.
But the laws are still on the books.
They're there, said Assistant State Revisor of
Statutes Bruce Cutshall, because for a law to be
repealed, a state senator must request his office to
draft a bill repealing the law in question. The
Legislature then must vote on the issue.
And although 150 laws were repealed during the
last session of the Legislature, evidently no one is
very much interested in Sunday barbering or baseball
on Decoration Day.
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