The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 13, 1972, Image 1
T V W '4 w 4 OQIIU 4 friday, October 13, 1 972 lincoln, nebraska vol. 96, no. 24 r 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 IF YOU BN-COTJKTTS'R THIf SiruATiai)! - ' HAVE VSHB MAIV AJRRSSTSD b- N ggr 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. -T 4 rf J , , s