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monday, march 19, 1979
llncoln, nebraska vol. 102 no. 97
Policy tries to avoid repeat of campus disturbances
By Val Swinton
Student leaders, police and university
officials are emphasizing cooperation in re
sponding to disturbances such as the ones
that happened before the Oklahom
Nebraska football game last November.
There is encouragement, but no one can
guarantee that they won't happen again.
Representatives from the groups met
Wednesday to discuss a policy that has
been in effect for about a year and deals
with campus disturbances.
According to David DeCoster, dean of
students, the meeting was called to "re
affirm and approve the existing policy."
The policy established who is in charge
of and responsible for handling
disturbances on or near the UNL campus.
University Police Director Gail Cade
praised the policy, saying "I think it's
workable. It shows i definite interest be
between our department, Lincoln police and
the students."
Need for specifity
ASUN President Ken Marienau was not
quite so enthusiastic about the policy,
noting that it could have been more
specific.
"The vagueness of the policy would
allow harsh action to be taken such as last
fall," Marienau said. He was referring to
complaints of police brutality after 17 stu
dents were arrested the day before the
Oklahoma game.
However, none of the students ever filed
charges against the police and most of the
formal charges filed against the students
were dropped.
Although he criticized the policy, Marie
nau expressed confidence that such actions
by - the police would not happen again;
After evaluating the actions, he said,
they 4were found to be more harmful than
good."
The policy states that both university
and Lincoln police departments will utilize
an "order maintenance" approach.
"We've agreed to try and contain the in
cident," explained DeCoster. "We're not
saying order maintenance is just toping off
the street and letting the thing go. If there
is a crime being committed, those folks will
probably be confronted and apprehended."
Avoid confrontations
DeCoster said policy and university of
ficials hope to avoid confrontations
between police and those involved in the
disturbance.
The policy also stresses the involvement
of student leaders, stating that they, along
with all institutional personnel, "are ex
pected to appear on the scene of the distur
bance to assist with supervision and early
dispersal of participants."
However, both Gade and Marienau said
student leaders will not be expected to
stop the violence.
'To say that they are going in and quell
the disturbance is asking too much " Gade
said. Gatherings such as bonfires normally
are known a few hours in advance, and it
would be the job of the student leaders to
circulate and discourage any unlawful
activities, he added.
Marienau agreed, "The role of student
leaders is to sort of keep things In line, but
it's pretty limited as to what we can do."
He added that there were officers from
the fraternitiestnvolved in the November
disturbances "asking people to stay cool ,
and cooperate.
Communication line
The, poUcyl establishes a line of
communication for informing officials that
a disturbance is taking place, indicating
that all such reports should be directed to
the UNL police, who will then inform Lin
coln police. They will also decide Whether
campus administrators should be immedi
ately told, v- ' '
Gade emphasized that his department
w21 not assume full control of the situa
tion. Tt1 1 matter of the two departments
working. together," he said. "If it happens
after six o'clock at niit, well be lucky if
we can furnish three officers.
' Gade said if a disturbance should occur
in front of the fraternities and sororities on
16th street, it's actually within the jurisdic
tion of the Lincoln police.
"So consequently, we're really assisting
them because it's a city street, he said.
Decision making
DeCoster also cited the advantages of
having more than one department assist in
decision-making when handling disturban
ces. "I would not want major decisions made
independently ," he said .
DeCoster said the fall incidents helped
create the need for last Wednesday's
meeting.
"Our concern for those kinds of things
was intensified by the fall get-together," he
said. "Those kinds of things are exactly
what we were talking about." He said there
were a lot of hard feelings following the in
cident and the meeting was held to "shore
up relations."
"The important thing is that not only
student leaders, but students, knew our
concerns over those types of things. We
don't want to appear not to be fun-loving
and understanding, but our concern was
over personal injury and property damage."
. No disciplinary action
No disciplinary action was taken by uni
versity officials against the students ar
rested during the disturbance.
DeCoster said "I reviewed all the arrest
statements and knew of the final determin
ation of the court cases," he said, adding
that because the charges against most of
the students were dropped no disciplinary
action was taken.
DeCoster said, however, that actions in
volving illegal acts by students during dis
turbances will not be tolerated by uni
versity officials.
This attitude could be bad news for
some future university students if Marie
nau s prediction comes true.
"I'm sure everyone was affected dif
ferently," he said. "But I dont think the
actions by police (last November) will pre
vent this sort of thing from happening
again."
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date large and hairy passengers.
RHA.AS
UN elections to share polls
By Betsie Amnions
Aaociat iMwstditor
In ah attempt to promote interest in
both elections, this year's Residence Hall
Association balloting will be held in con
junction with the ASUN election Wednes
day, according to RHA President Bill
"Skoneki.
Three candidates will vie for the RHA
presidency, two representing parties and
one independent candidate. Jay Curtiss
from Sidney is running with the FIRE
party (First in Residential Excellence) and
Harlan Milder of Omaha is the OSL party
(Organization for Student Life) candidate.
Omaha Jerrie Muir is running independent
ly. Skoenki said RHA polling places will be
located at all residence halls and the Nebra
ska East Union'and will be open during the
lunch and dinner hours. , -
In Abel-Sandoz and Haiper-Schramm-Smith,
the balloting will be done with the
ASUN elections, but will be independent in
(he other complexes. .
.Validine required
A Validine card is required to vote in
RHA elections. Skcneki said, but persons
who wish to vote for ASUN candidates also
must have a UNL student identification
card.
Although Skoneki said he thinks this
will promote interest in both elections, he
added that it may deter people from voting
for RHA because the ASUN booths are
"more imposing."
Seventeen percent of those who live in
residence halls voted in last year's election,
he said.
. As in past years, campaign issues seemed
to center around communication between
students and the housing office.
Curtiss, a junior who lives in Neihardt
Residence Center, said he thinks this year's
issues are those that are "always there."
Curtiss encourages student input into
housing rates, and said a rate study will be
priority if she is elected.
Election issues
.This year, he said, rate study results
were released by the UNL Office of
Housing right before Christmas break.
. Curtiss said this did not give many students
the opportunity to review them and that
he would work to get results released earli
er in the school year.
Other- issues Curtiss said he would
address are the housing search and seizure
and riht to privacy policy, residence hall
food services, improvement and increasing
RHA validity.
, But the UNL sophomore said his central
purpose would be assuring that communi
cation is present between the student and
the housing officials.
"That is 99 percent of the battle," he
said.
Curtiss said he has served as the elected
Neihardt RHA representative to RHA and
helped revise the solicitation policy in the
residence halls. He said he also has worked
on the residence hall information booklet,
"The Good life" and participated in the
RHA protest of UNL stadium expansion.
Major concerns
Other FIRE candidates include Karen
Schrader, a Smith resident running for vice
president, Nancy Kenyon, a Neihardt resi
dent running for secretary, and Harper resi
dent Glen Thomas, running for treasurer.
Continued on pae 6
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