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daily nebraskan vol. 103 no. 72
Wednesday, december 12, 1979
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Faculty Senate resolution:
NU can't afford two administrative levels'
By Mike Sweeney
The UNL Faculty Senate Tuesday unanimously accept
ed a resolution arguing that NU cannot afford two levels
of administration and asking the NU Board of Regents to
consider eliminating some central' administration offices.
The resolution asks the regents to "critically examine
the need for administrative structure in the NU systems
office which duplicates similar structure on each of the
campuses."
It particularly questions the need for the vice presi
dent for academic affairs, vice president for administra
tion and their staffs. .
Meanwhile, faculty members of the College of'Business
Administration passed a resolution supporting the regents'
request for a 15 percent increase in state support for the
NU budget. The resolution also requests a special line item
for utilities in the NU budget to prevent the erosion of
budgets for education.
Senate president William Campbell, an associate pro
fessor of physics who helped draft, the resolution, said he
was surprised by the short debate,
THE RESOLUTION will be sent to the regents with
in the next few weeks, Campbell said.
He said he expects the board to support the central
administration as it has in the past, but said he hoped the
resolution at least would prompt the regents to thorough,
ly examine the administration . structure .
"I think it's important for them (the regents) to under-,
stand the feelings of the faculty," Campbell said,
The resolution says the university is facing a financial
crisis which threatens to seriously damage its academic
programs.
One way to ensure support for teaching, research and
service programs at the university is to trim the
administration budget, according to the resolution,
"The current two-level administration organization at
NU is inefficient and cannot be afforded with the pre
sent and projected funding relative to the university," it
states. : - " -' ;:' '
In the limited debate which followed presentation of
the resolution, associate professor of classics Thomas Win
ter said Michigan State University has a multi-campus
system similar to NU, but operates efficiently without a
central administration. .
'THERE IS absolutely nobody at the top of the
pyramid, and the state of Michigan saw no need to spend
a penny to have someone astride the colossus from the
top," Winter said.
He said state funds allocated to the NU central
administration "don't teach a single student,"
: In other actions, the faculty Senate recommended that
only tenured members of the UNL faculty vote on tenure
recommendations.
The senate also recommended that anyone considered
for tenure and promotion should be informed promptly
of decisions made at each level of the evaluation process,
and recommended that all faculty members on appoint
ments for a specific term be evaluated thoroughly by their
fifth year and informed of the results.
. . In addition, the Faculty .Senate Executive Committee
was directed to work with the administratrion to ensure
faculty members do not suffer retaliation for criticizing
the administration. -
HOWEVER, THE senate balked at allowing the
Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee to consider
complaints of due process violations in tenure decisions.
That responsibility remains with the Grievance
Committee.
- Campbell, who cast the tiebreaking vote, said the
informally -structured Grievance Committee is better able
to handle due process complaints than the freedom and
tenure committee, where professors require the services of
a lawyer.
The College of Business Administration's resolution
calling for a IS percent budget increase joins similar bud
get resolutions supported by the College of Arts and
Sciences and Teachers College faculty.
More than 1 ,500 student requests for spring semester
business classes were denied because of an inadequate
budget, according to the resolution.
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Go bananas . . .
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Daily Nebraskan Photo
Hello. My name is Go N. Ape, but my friends call me
Harry. I'm going bananas worrying about finals. I
guess I've just been monkeying around too long. You
know, hanging out at The Zoo Bar or at some other
swinging place. But it's time to settle down and start
using my brain instead of sitting on it. There's just
got to be an easier way to make a living.
Plea bargaining study shows possible flaws
By Lucy Bighia
A study of 358 felony cases has revealed apparent in
consistencies in the way Lancaster County authorities
strike pica bargains.
The inconsistencies relate to race, sex, past criminal
record and who the attorney is.
That's according to an extensive study of Lancaster
County plea bargaining: the county attorney's practice of
reducing or dismissing criminal' charges if the defendant
agrees to plead guilty.
A study of felony charges filed in Lancaster County
during the first six months of 4)78 showed certain
defendants received better bargains than others.
15'
n ii
First request: Proposed regional veterinary college is in.,
eluded for the first lime in the 1980 NU budget
request Page 8.
Tp 15 Movies: Reviewer takes a look at the best movies
of the past decade Page 4.
Coming home: UNL gymnast Jim Naming returns from
the World Gymnastics Competition in Fori Worth,
Texas Page 16.
The study revealed that:
-Black defendants plea bargained 58 percent. of the
time, while white defendants bargained 43 percent of the
time.
-Men bargained 48 percent of the time, and women
bargained 26 percent of the time.
-Convicted felons plea bargained 52 percent of the
time, while first offenders bargained 3 1 percent of the
time. '
-public defenders bargained slightly more than private
attorneys.
DEPUTY COUNTY ATTORNEY Terry Dougherty
bargained 62 percent of the time, while Deputy County
Attorneys Gary Lacey and Jim Luers bargained 41
percent of the time and 35 percent of the time
respectively.
Despite such statistics, plea bargaining is widely sup.
ported by Lancaster County attorneys and judges.
According to Dougherty, there is nothing "under
handed or shady about it."
"Nothing goes on in a plea bargain that I wouldn't he
more than happy for everyone jn the world to find out
about," Dougherty said.
Deputy Public Defender Tom llagcl called plea bargain
ing "simply a matter of hedging your bet."
Depending on the circumstances, most defendants
faced with the choice of going to trial on a felony charge
or pleading guilty lo a misdemeanor would rather take
the bargain and plead guilty, llagcl said.
County Judge Jeffre Chcuvront said that although
many people think there's something underhanded about
the plea bargaining process, it's largely a matter of public
record.
BEFORE ACCEPTING the plea, he said, the judge
asks the defendant what bargain, if any, has been made.
"There couldn't be anything more public," Chcuvront
said.
Some of the inconsistencies discovered by the study
surprised many of the attorneys, questioned. But they
insisted there arc easy explanations.
According-to Ron Lahncrs, county attorney for five
years, blacks receive more plea bargains because it is
harder to convict a black defendant.
"Blacks commit crimes against blacks." Lahneis said.
"And we have more difficulty in getting cooperation from
a black witness where a black defendant is concerned."
- Lahncrs said a black woman, for example, is much less
likely lo testify in a rape case against a black defendant
than a white woman would be.
The other reason blacks gct more deals is that, in a pre
dominantly white community like Lincoln, there's an
identification problem where black defendants are con
cerned. he,said.
To a white witness, many blacks often look alike.
Lahncrs said.
But Chcuvront said he thought the difference in plea
bargaining stems from the fact that blacks lend to commit
crimes of a more serious nature than those committed by
whites. .
Continued on Page 10