page 14 daiy nebraskan friday, October 31, 1980
Student Court decision on Watters' suit delayed
By Mary Kempkes
The UNL Student Court, a judicial arm of ASUN,
Thursday delayed action on a decision concerning their
jurisdiction in a suit filed by Willie Watters against Daily
Nebraskan Editor in Chief Randy Essex.
Scott Cook, chief justice of the court, announced at
7:30 pjn. that court members had not made up their
minds. The members would remain in the Student Union
where the hearing was held until a decision was reached,
he said, but would not announce it until 9 a.m. Tuesday
in the ASUN office.
Watters filed suit in the court against Essex, charging
defamation of his character and a denial of his First
Amendment rights because Essex had refused to print
a letter he had written. Essex filed a movement asking
for dismissal because he said the court lacked jurisdiction
in the case.
Jurisdiction arguments centered on the newspaper's
acceptance of student fees, the ASUN constitution and
a state Supreme Court case.
Todd Adams, Watter's lawyer, said the court had
jurisdiction by virtue of section three of the ASUN
constitution which states the court can hear cases per
taining to organizations within the university community.
The Daily Nebraskan is a student organization, he said,
because it receives funds from UNL.
Essex pointed out that only 7 percent of the news
paper's funds come from voluntary student Fund A fees.
Adams also referred to a Nebraska Supreme Court
decision in which the court mentioned that university
officials should have limited supervision over the student
newspaper to ensure "reasonable representation of
student complaints and opinions."
The Daily Nebraskan is not a private newspaper,
Adams said, and it is wrong to keep students from pub
lishing letters just because they are critical of the staff.
Essex said the university does have a regulatory body
over the newspaper, the Publications Board. The board
has met and discussed the issue, Essex said, but no action
was taken.
The ASUN constitution has a clause that prohibits
action in conflict with university rules and regulations,
including those of the regents, Essex said.
"My basic point is that the Board of Regents in the
1918 guidelines for student press states the editorial
policy of the Daily Nebraskan is solely in the hands of
the editors," he said.
The guidelines also state that editors should not be
fired because of student protest regarding editorial policy.
Watters has asked the board to consider impeachment
proceedings against Essex. Essex maintained that since
he was not selected or approved by ASUN for his
position, they have no impeachment jurisdiction.
RH A approves visitation hour modification plan
By Betsy Miller
A proposal to modify the procedures
used to change visitation hours in
halls was approved by the UNL Residence
Hall Association at their Thursday night
meeting in Selleck Quadrangle.
The plan, proposed by Harper Rep
resentative John Folda, will now be sub
mitted for admittance on the Board of
Regents' agenda. The regents have final
approval on the proposal.
Currently, to change floor hours in re
sidence halls from eight to 14 hours, there
must be unanimousfloor approval and
parents of all minots on the floor must
express their consent, according to Folda.
The new plan calls for 90 percent floor
approval, and all students who are opposed
to the change can be moved to other
eight hour visitation floors in campus halls
when spots become available, Folda said.
Also, although parents of floor members
will be sent notices by UNL housing of
ficials that hours may be changed, replies
are not needed. However, more than four
negative responses from parents would
halt the change process, he said.
RHA Advisor Richard McKinnon said
that RHA could have the issue on the
regents' December agenda if they sent it
to the regents' secretary soon.
Also at the meeting. Smith Represen
tative Ane Jensen presented the by-laws for
the RHA Judiciary Board to the
association. Jensen served on the commit
tee which deals with RHA's J-Board.
According to the by-laws, the board
will consist of no more than 26 members.
Student members will account for 23
of the board positions, while the remaining
three spots will consist of the board's
chairperson, one residence director and
one student assistant.
The student members will be nominated
by their residence hall and appointed by
RHA, according to the by-laws.
Fcddc, Burr Men, Burr Women, In
ternational House and Love Hall shall
contribute one student member, while
all other halls will send two to the
board, the by-laws state.
Board chairperson will be chosen by
the RHA president with RHA's advice and
consent. The student assistant staff
member will be drawn from a pool of 1 1
S.A.'s nominated by residence directors.
The residence director will be selected
from the pool of 1 1 R.D.s, according to
the by-laws.
In other action, a standing rule
proposed as an addition to RHA by-laws
by Abel Representative Dave Edwards was
defeated.
The rule would have limited all RHA
meetings to 90 minutes, and all business
the association did not finish would be
deferred to the next meeting.
Parliamentarian Scott Driml explained
that under current parliamentary
procedure, a motion to adjourn can be
given at any time during a meeting.
The standing rule could not be binding
like other laws and could be ignored if
the meeting was lasting longer than 90
minutes, Driml said.
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Saturday
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ETV to feature
'great teachers'
Great teachers from all
campuses of the NU system
will be featured Nov. 7 at
9 p.m. on "What's NU?"
broadcast over all stations
of the Nebraska Lduca
tional Television Network.
The 30-minute program
will center on NU faculty
members discussing what it
takes to be a "great teacher."
Members of the
discussion will include John
Janovy, professor and dir
ector of UNL's Biological
Field Station in the School
of Life Sciences, David R.
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agronomy and assistant to
the vice chancellor of the
UNL Institute of
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"What's NU?" is a
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how NU touches the lives
of Nebraskans.
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