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thursday, cpril 1, 1976 vol. CD no. 103 lincofn, nchre&a
rsnJn n
Inside C2c")
It's Greek to. . .: The fourth annual
Greek Week starts April 4, complete
with speakers, exchange dinners and
Trivia Bowl finals .......
Hot Days and Studying: Registration
deadline for priority for summer
school courses is Friday
. . p.2
. . p.7
ID
O n, O
By Bryant Brooks and George Miller
Copyright 1378, The Daily Ucbrt&an.
Petitions will start circulating today calling for a refer
endum to transfer all of ASUN Senate's power to a new
student governing body.
The action comes after the Senate Wednesday night re
jected an Organic Act asking it to call a referendum.
The referendum is a student vote and passage would re
quire approval by a majority of students voting in a
general election.
The Senate took three votes on the issue but failed
each .time to get the necessary two-thirds majority ap
proval to call the referendum. Twenty-six senators were
needed to vote for the act for it to pass.
The second vote fell one slurt of approval. However,,
on the final reconsideration, with two more senators pres
ent, the act failed 19-5-3. The original vote had been
18-7-0.
The act, introduced from the audience by former Sen.
John Dobitz and first moved by Professional College Sen.
Fritz Stehlik, calls for a referendum to decide if students
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want to replace ASUN with a Coalition for University Re
form. The Coalition "would assume all responsibilities,
contractual agreements, rights, powers, duties and official
functions of ASUN" and would transfer all ASUN Senate
money to the "respective student activities accounts of
the Coalition."
Under Part A, Section 4, Article 7 of the ASUN Con
stitution, a petition signed by three per cent of the stu
dent body forces the Senate to call for a referendum. If
the Senate takes no action on the matter within 15 days,
a petition signed by five per cent of the student body re
quires the ASUN Electoral Commission to schedule a vote
within eight days after the Senate is given the petition.
Approval of the referendum requires the ASUN presi
dent to enact it by decree. .
The Coalition's organizers began circulating an initia
tive petition Monday to be presented as part of the Or
ganic Act to ASUN. ,1
An organic act stipulates a change in ASUN's struc
ture or procedures.
The group passed the required three per cent mark
8 (a m. :&arr
ASUN Arts and Sciences Sen. Scott Cook, one cf thos
power transfer from the ASUN Senate to the Coalition
. Wednesday rent's ASUN meetfe ':: V;.'y r '
Gansebom
Photo by Tarry Gansefc
one cf those defeated in a bii for a student referendum to vote on a
the Coalition of University Reform, tried explaining his viewpoint during
when they accumulated 764 signatures by meeting time
Wednesday. -
Arts and Sciences Sen. Scott Cook said UNL students
will have the final say whether ASUN power is trans
ferred to the Coalition.
Cook, University Student Awareness (USA) candidate
defeated in the March 17 ASUN presidential election, said
if students approve the transfer of power, they would
then vote on representatives and officers for the Coalition..
The president of the Coalition then would be student
body president and serve as a nonvoting member of the
NU Board of Regents.
Graduate College Sen. Steve Goldberg opposed the ref
erendum saying he did not have enough time to study the
constitution of the Coalition. He proposed that the
motion be tabled for a week to give senators time to study
the constitution.
, "I don't have anything against a referendum," Gold
berg said, "but I don't like the present Senate going on
" record for some coup d'etat. My moral code is upset by
doing it this way."
Business Sen. Jim Buckley accused persons favoring the
referendum of being "very crafty" about "shoving ft
through as fast as possible.", '
"If we vote against it, it will give it (the referendum)
more time to be studied and more students will be able to
vote for it," Buckley said.
However, Buckley agreed that the Coalition was a
better system than ASUN Senate.
Graduate College Sen. Marie Engelke said the petitions
before the Senate forced senators to approve the
referendum.
"ASUN runs by a set of rules," Engelke said. "We are
legally held to do something about it. That means legally
we have to say yes."
Architectural College Sen. Joe Stavas complained that
the petitions were circulated "unprofessionally" and said
those circulating the petitions and those signing them did
not really know what they were doing.
He said that persons wanting the Coalition should "go
out and get the additional signatures" to prove that stu
dents really do want to vote on the change.
Stehlik argued that the Senate should approve the
referendum so students would not have to wait until
another petition drive got signatures from five per cent of
the students. He said if students are required to vote on
the referendum and then vote for persons to sit on the
Coalition, they would need all the time they could get to
learn about the Coalition and decide which candidates to
vote for.
ASUN President Jim Say later said ASUN Electoral
Commissioner Ray Walden resigned Wednesday night, ef-
fective Friday and a new electoral commissioner is what
he called badly needed. He asked anyone interested to ap
ply at the ASUN office. Continued on p.6
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Senators opproveMU construction
that by Rwia iVsrt
Qzitz n. Jd Esstsdi, sr cf tie Ncbras '
ka Le!isre, wrsps cp a crcer tz a strte
By DlckPrssI
State senators, crowding more work into a single day
than at any other time in this session, gave final approval
Wednesday to several measures, including capita! con
struction projects, medical malpractice legislation, the
major state government appropriations bill and a gasoline
tax increase. Y
The 1976 session is now finished, but senators will
meet April 7 to vote on remaining bills on final reading
and to consider overriding any gubernatorial vetoes.
Among the capital construction projects approved for
NU were fire safety renovation, $23 million of a $10
million total for a plant sciences building, renovation for
the Coliseum and development plans for a cardiovascular
unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Those projects were included in Gov. J. James Exon's
construction recommendations, along with funds to initi
ate construction of medium-ininimum security corrections
projects in Lincoln and Omaha. Several state recreation
improvements and smaller construction projects for other
state agencies also were included. ,
Senators also approved LB 1006 by a narrow margin,
financing a combined state office building and continuing
education center for the University of Nebraska at Omaha
(UNO) and Metro Tech. Omaha Sen. Ernest Chambers,
who attempted to kill the measure, ssid the building
would not improve education in Oniha and was an "il
legitimate hybrid", spawned by 0 business interests
to save what he called a dying downtown area.
The bu2wr!g would be financed by $9 rr 'a ion from the
state cigarette tax fund and $5 million from private dona
tions, most cf which will come from Peter Kfcwit, pub
lisher cf the Omaha World-Hsrsld.
The bill passd final reading 31-14.
The appropriations bUl for most stats rstneas' opera
ting costs in the next fixd year, LE691 , tho was passed.
It contained a $15 million increase in state aid to schools
and is said to be a sure target for Exon's line-item veto.
Exceed Excn's recommendation
With final round passage of LBs690 (state aid to
higher education) and 691, the two most important
appropriations bills, the Legislature exceeded Exon's
"checkpoint prudence" state tax spending goal of $364
million by more than $20 million. Those figures exclude
capital construction.
Senators also voted, 26-17, to raise the state gasoline
tax one cent, from 8.5 cents a gallon to 9J5 cents, ef
fective Aiigust 1
Two bills concerning medical malpractice insurance
also were passed, as Chambers failed in his efforts to kill
bothbSs.
LB434 provides for a $500,000 limit on a "health
care provider's" lability, and a $100,000 limit on an
insurer's liability. Any claim awarded beyond $100,000
would come from an excess liability fund.
. Insurance fend
That bill also provides malpractice insurance from the
fund for doctors if they are refused by at least two com-i-5?rcial
insurers.
LB917 provides a contingency insurance plan, allowing
the State Department of Insurance to assess up to two
per cent of a health care provider's gross income for mal
practice insurance if that provider is not covered by a
commercial insurer.
In other action, senatorsr-approved a study and
analysis of the state's rural, urban and reservation Ameri
can Indians.
approved a resolution supporting issuance of a com
mcmorative stamp depicting the late John G. Neihardt
and Black Elk, the subject cf Neihardt's most famous
bock.
rejected a resolution endorsing a plan to give the NU
Board of Regents perndon to give vacated Ftrchirj
College in Beatrice, now owned by the NU Foundation,
to Sout2ieast Tcennicsl Ccsaaiaaty CcZ