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monday, October 20, 1980
lincoln, nebraska vol. 105, no. 41
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Forger extraordinaire puts skills to 'good' use
By Betsy MUler
At the age of 16 he began a career of forgery and im
personation that prompted the New York Times to start
a column about him. The television series "It Takes A
Thief," was based on his life. Now there is a movie,
"Catch Me If You Can," about his exploits.
Frank Abagnale, 32, told a crowd of approximately
150 UNL students in the Nebraska Union Sunday night
about adventures that included posing as an airline pilot, a
doctor, a lawyer and a college professor at Brigham
Young University.
Abagnale was a 16-year-old from a wealthy family,
educated in Europe, and possessing an I.Q. of 140 when
he decided to run away from his home in upstate New
York.
At 16, Abagnale was six-feet-tall and graying at the
temples; this led to little questioning when he cashed
checks.
At first, Abagnale had a modest account which he
wrote legitimate checks from, but he decided that he
could easily make a career of writing bad checks.
Airline pilots were well-respected people and Abagnale
decided that posing as one, he would have little trouble
cashing phoney checks.
He had his own uniform tailor-made and pasted decals
from a model plane kit of a Pan-American Airlines plane
to an I.D. card he had with his picture and fake name to
begin his career as a pilot.
Abagnale said that since all airlines will cash checks
from other airline employees, he would go from counter
Increase approved despite opposition
to counter of different airlines cashing bad checks.
After Pan-Am became suspicious, he moved to Atlanta,
Ga., where he told his apartment manager he was a pedia
trician. He became chummv with another doctor in the com
plex who eventually landed Abagnale (alias Frank Williams
in Atlanta) a position as a high-ranking doctor on a local
hospital staff.
To become a lawyer, Abagnale studied the Louisiana
Napoleanic law codes and took the bar examination. He
passed the bar on his third try and got a job with the state
attorney general's office.
After Louisiana, Abagnale was a professor of sociology
at BYU for two years and simply kept one chapter ahead
of his students to know what was going on.
"The Mormons never quite got over it," Abagnale said
about the reaction when FBI officials told them who Ab
agnale really was.
After five years in prison he was given a new start in
Houston, started the firm of Frank W. Abagnale and
Associates, an educational and consulting firm which ad
vises businesses on avoiding check frauds and white
collar crime.
Despite his fame and money, Abagnale said he would
n't do it over again.
"I missed my entire youth and cheated myself out of
a great deal," he said.
i would give a leg or an arm or an eye to wake up and
be 16 again," he added.
"What you have is a great deal more than what I have."
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Daily Nebraskan photo
Frank Abagnale
Regents approve increase in graduate tuition
By Jim Faddis
An increase in graduate student tuition was approved
Friday by the NU Board of Regents. .
The increase is not to exceed $2 per credit hour for the
1981-82 academic year. A $2 increase would make gradu
ate tuition next year $31 .25 per credit hour, while tuition
for undergraduate will be $29.25.
Besides the tuition increase, the regents also adopted
an NU Executive Graduate Council resolution that says
after the first year of the tuition difference, the council
will study the effect of the tuition increase on graduate
enrollment. Any additional phases of the increase will be
based on the results of this study.
The resolution also says the increased income from the
tuition difference should go to improve graduate educa
tion and research.
The Executive Graduate Council resolution was adopt
ed in place of a proposal from NU President Ronald
Roskens stating that graduate tuition be increased during
the next four years to 25 percent more than that charged
undergraduates.
The graduate tuition increase was approved, after the
regents heard five people speak against the increase.
Regent Ed Schwartzkopf of Lincoln and Robert Prokop
of Wilber voted against the increase.
NU President Ronald Roskens said the move was
"practical because graduate instruction is known to be
more expensive" than undergraduate.
He said most land-grant colleges have a differential rate
ranging from 25 to 100 percent.
The increase is "equitable, reasonable, but not widely
supported," Roskens said.
Because of this lack of support, Schwartzkopf said he
opposed the increase. He said he was originally for it, but
after hearing that student, faculty and teacher groups
opposed it, he said, "There just isn't enough support for
it."
Val Pullen, president of the Nebraska State Education
Association, told the board that many teachers who are
required to take graduate courses will be hurt by the high
er tuition and will be forced to ask for higher teaching
salaries.
Many teachers will be driven away from the university
to other colleges, said Erwin Goldenstein, director of
doctural studies in the UNL Teachers College.
Goldenstein said if graduate students are charged more
because of higher instruction costs, then all students in
fields that cost more to teach should be charged more.
Graduate student enrollment will decrease because of
the tuition hike, offsetting any expected university in
come gain, UNL Student Regent Renee Wessels said.
But Roskens said that while undergraduate tuition has
gone up in the past five years, enrollment also has increas
ed, indicating that tuition increases seemingly don't affect
enrollment.
Regent Kermit Hansen of Omaha asked where the
money will come from to pay for graduate programs if
the tuition rate isn't increased.
Hansen said that either all tuition would have to be in
creased 5 percent, or the university would have to increase
its request for state support from 18 to 19 percent.
"There is nothing illogical about asking people to bear
part of the cost of their education," Hansen said.
In other action, a proposal by Prokop to separate the
Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources from UNL
and rename it the University of Nebraska-Agriculture, Ex
tension and Natural Resources was defeated because of
the lack of a second.
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Ticket transfer motion defeated
Photo by Mark Billingsley
Regent Kermit Hansen of Omaha listens to debate at the NU Board of Regents' meet
ing last Friday.
By Jim Faddis
Although the entire NU Board of
Regents agreed that student and faculty
football tickets should be transferable, it
appears that students and faculty will have
to wait until next year before they can
legally let someone use their football
ticket.
A motion to make the tickets trans
ferable immediately was defeated Friday
on a 44 vote because four regents said
more time should be spent forming a new
policy.
Although the motion failed, Board
Chairman Robert Raun of Minden did
direct NU President Ronald Roskens to
develop a new ticket policy to be presented
to the board in December.
Regent Robert Prokop of Wilbur made
the ticket proposal because he said the pre
sent ticket policy is unenforceable.
"Why have a policy that is unenforce
able?" he asked.
Regent Ed Schwartzkopf of Lincoln
said mere is nothing wrong with letting
another member of a student's family use
the student's ticket. Schwartzkopf said
reports that a large number of students sell
their tickets at outlandish prices are ex
aggerated. The problem with making football
tickets transferable is that students get the
tickets at a discount price, Raun said. Stu
dent tickets are $5 a game, faculty tickets
are $7.50 and general admission is $10.25.
Raun said if students and faculty were
charged the general admission price, "there
would be no problem with letting them do
whatever they want with their ticket."
The university would gain an additional
$91,465 from each game if it charged
$10.25 for each student or faculty ticket,
said UNL Athletic Director Bob Devaney.
But UNL Student Regent Renee Wessels
said that higher ticket prices would create a
financial hardships on some students.
If the ticket prices aren't increased in a
few years, though, the university will have
to start charging student fees for athletics,
Regent Kermit Hansen of Omaha said.
UNL is the only Big Eight school without a
student athletic fee.
"That is a decision you (the regents)
have to make," Devaney said.
Committee formed: The NU Board of
Regents has formed a committee to
amend the student press
guidelines Page 2
Huskers shine: Nebraska uses strong second
half to roll over Oklahoma State,
48-7 Page 8
Van Halen rocks: Heavy metal kings re
turn to lincoln and the crowd goes
wild Page 10
