ndaily n
friday, april 21, 1978 lincoln, nebraska vol. 101 no. 103
Veto override clears path to state college coordination
By Rex Henderson
The State of Nebraska Wednesday began
a new, unique and often delayed attempt
to coordinate, public higher education.
The Legislature overrode Gov. J. James
Exon's veto of LB756, a bill that legislators
hope will end the duplication of services
between the University of Nebraska, the
four state colleges and the vocational
technical community colleges.
Efforts to coordinate higher education
date to 1942, when the first legislative
study of the problem began.
The bill, a result of four years of
hearings takes the unprecedented step of
assigning the roles of each of the institu
tions and the priorities within them.
According to a prime mover behind the
bill, Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly, the
intent of the legislation is to "provide
adequate educational opportunities and
accessibility at an affordable price, for
both students and taxpayers."
What they do in practice, Warner said, is
threefold.
-They provide a policy guideline for
the Legislature;
-They place limitations and authoriza
tions on funds allocated by the state to
higher education;
-They establish priorities for each of
the three college systems.
Under the provisions of LB756 the Uni
versity of Nebraska gets sole responsibility
for doctoral, first professional cooperative
agriculture extension programs, statewide
responsibility for continuing education ser
vices and sole responsibility for all gra
duate programs at the specialist and mas
ter's degree level. The only graduate pro
grams allowed at the other institutions
are in education.
The most severe limitations are on the
state and community colleges.
The NU limitations include a ban on
associate degrees except in agriculture,
radiology, radiation therapy, nuclear
medicine technology and engineering tech
nology. Programs leading to an associate degree
in general studies at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha and secretarial science
programs at Lincoln and Omaha, will be
discontinued.
Through the ten drafts of the bill most
of the language objected to by the NU
Board of Regents was changed.
But even after adopting the university's
suggested amendments, some still question
the bill.
James Lake, president of the UNL Fac
ulty Senate, said the faculty "is skeptical
about the wisdom of the Legislature
attempting to assign priorities in mission
and role." The faculty believes that the
regents should make those decisions, he
said.
In his veto message, Exon said
it represents an unconstitutional "continu
ing attempt at overregulation of the (NU)
Board of Regents, the (state college)
Board of Trustees and technical com-
000 '"""'" '
Photo dv Mark Biflingsley
Ron Terry, an employee of Nebraska Neon and Plastic Sign Co., inspects the lighting
on the Radisson Cornhusker Hotel.
munity college area governing boards by
the Legislature."
The constitutionality question has
arisen since the Nebraska Supreme Court
ruled last year that the regents hold the
power to govern NU. By implication
the decision also gives the Board of
Trustees ultimate power over the state
colleges.
Warner argues that the decision applies
only to funds generated by the institutions
through tuition, federal grants and private
donations. Responsibility for the expendi
ture of state general funds resides in the
Legislature, he said.
The bill applies only to the expenditure
of state general funds, Warner said, and
therefore is constitutional.
But because it applies only to general
funds, there is a loophole for NU and the
colleges to slip through. They can legally
develop programs not in compliance with
the bill, as long as they don't use state
money.
Warner discounts the probability of that
happening.
"Such actions would damage the credi
bility of those institutions," Warner said.
The Legislature might be inclined to cut
the allocation to any institution that re
peatedly defied the bill, he said.
The bill, which effectively makes the
Legislature the coordinating commission
for higher education in the state has been
criticized for exposing the institutions to
increased political pressure.
Warner contends that political pressure
will not increase, but may even decrease.
It is better to keep the "politicization"
of the colleges on the floor of the Legisla
ture, where it is visible, he said.
Y AF state chairman protests ASUN student court suit
By Kris Hansen
The president of the Nebraska Young
Americans for Freedom, Terry Cannon,
claims ASUN's planned suit against YAF
is an attempt to stifle opposition to ASUN.
ASUN President Ken Marienau said he
will file a petition with the Student Court
today bringing charges against the Young
Americans for Freedom.
Three basic charges constitute the case
against YAF: failure to have an active bank
account in the Student Activities fund, the
presence of "non -students" in the organiza
tion, and "unethical" actions taken against
Nebraska University Public Interest Re
search Group in a letter-writing campaign.
"The whole thing is an attempt to stifle
any opposition to them (ASUN)," Cannon
said . "The state YAF has soundly trounced
the poor children in student government
before the NU Board of Regents, so they're
retaliating against the UNL chapter."
ASUN charges that YAF has had "no
activity" in its bank account with Student
Activities for over a year. All student or
ganizations must route all monies through
Student Activities, according to university
by-laws. However, YAF has participated in
several mailings this year which were not
handled through its fund.
"We just haven't had any transactions of
large enough consequence that needed to
be handled there," said Jeff Chizek, presi
dent of the campus YAF chapter. "There
are probably other groups on this campus
that don't have active accounts, either.
They're trying to tag us with the letters,
but that was done at the state level, even if
it had the campus chapter's name on it."
ASUN also cites references to "non-students"
in YAF's constitution as against
model constitutional rules, which specify
that members of student organizations
must be members of the university.
Chizek said they did have two members
currently who were not UNL students. One
is their adviser and one is the spouse of a
member.
However, Chizek said, "ASUN reviews
our constitution, like all others, yearly.
There was no problem before, and non-students
was directly worded. Now it's a
problem, an J we'll be hung. They should
have said something then."
Chizek discounted the ethics charge by
claiming there were no untruths in the let
ter. Cannon added, "The whole ethical
thing is based on their analysis - if you fol
low their logic far enough, it says it's un
ethical to disagree with the regents. Even
the play -pen politicians can't say that."
Cannon claimed that YAF never asked
for an investigation of NUPIRG's constitu
tion, "especially since ASUN wouldn't be
fair."
"What we wanted to do was expose NU
PIRG as a politically biased organization
and remove their support from mandatory
student fees. This whole thing is a straw
Nicodemus suing UNL
Five NU Regents and three UNL
administrators have been named in a
$329,500 damage suit filed by former
UNL women's basketball coach George
Nicodemus stemming from his dismissal
last June.
The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S.
District Court, is based on Nicodemus'
claim that he did not receive due
process when he was fired last year and
that he was unable to apply for posi
tions at other universities due to how
late he was fired.
Nicodemus was formally fired last
June by UNL athletic director Bob
Devaney. He was notified of the ter
mination by Women's Athletic Director
June Davis last May.
Davis and Devaney are named as
co-defendants in Nicodemus' suit along
with the five regents who voted against
rehiring Nicodemus in March.
The five regents named as co-defendants
in the suit are: Robert Koe
foot of Grand Island, Robert Raun of
Minden, Edward Schwartzkopf of Lin
coln, Kermit Hansen of Omaha, and
Robert Simmons of Scottsbluff .
Also named as co-defendant is Ned
Hedges, UNL vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs.
Nicodemus served as coach for two
years, one year without pay.
He was paid $12,000 for coaching in
the 1976-77 school year.
Nicodemus now is head coach of the
Des Moines based Iowa Cornets, in the
new women's professional basketball
league.
Contacted in Des Moines, Nicodemus
would not comment on the suit on the
advice of his attorney.
c? f -rf. ,;
If . s-
Photo by tod Ktrk
George Nicodemus, former UNL wo
men's basketball coach.
man to divert people's attention from the
real issue," Cannon stated.
"ASUN doesn't want anyone with a dif
ferent view around or anyone to question
their orthodoxy. It deprives them of
resume stuffers," Cannon added.
Cannon complained about ASUN
"keeping everything hidden." He explain
ed, "We were never confronted with the
charges, we were denied a public hearing -there's
a whole list of things."
Chizek agreed that "a lot was going on
behind our back. I'd like to see formal
charges, I'd like to see Don Macke's (NU
PIRG) accusations, and I'd like to know
what has gone on in ASUN's closed meet
ings." Chizek said he felt fairly sure about the
student court case. "I'm not going to lose
any sleep over it," he said. "We feel pre
pared to explain everything."
According to Marienau, ASUN may re
commend anything from no action to re
voking YAF's constitution to Student
Court, which makes the final decision. At
the Wednesday Senate meeting. Marienau
said he would prefer not to recommend re
voking the constitution, since it would
only drive the group off campus.
jt . iinsioe
YflOCHJ
Legislature passes pot: Bill decrim
inalizing marijuana possession on
first offense gets senators'
OK page 2
Stroke, stroke, stroke, breathe: New
UNL men's swimming coach
hopes to revive floundering team. .
page 10
Union renovations may proceed:
Union director says he will take
action if the Union Board does
not page 6