lincoln, nebraska vol. 105, no. 55
friday, november 7, 19R0
Legal Services director accepts Houston post
By Sue Sayed
Robert Hardt, director of Student Legal Services for
ASUN, will resign Nov. 14 and move to Houston, Texas.
Hardt, who will do legal work and purchasing for an oil
company in Houston, said that the new position was an
opportunity that he couldn't refuse.
"The pay I will receive is more than double (what he
receives at UNL). I couldn't afford to pass up the offer,"
Hardt said.
Hardt, whose main responsibility was to provide legal
advice and counsel to UNL students, said he enjoyed
working with the students and that his resignation has
nothing to do with feelings toward students or his job.
"It is a worthwhile position," he said. "The office is
used regularly."
Steve McMahon, chairman of the ASUN search com
mittee for finding a new lawyer, said that resumes will be
accepted by law school graduates until Nov. 1 4.
"We hope to have the position filled by the 14th or
shortly thereafter," McMahon said. Interviews will start
next week, he added.
McMahon said that although he expects a lot of appli
cations, he said he assumes the committee will have to
lure a young, inexperienced lawyer.
"The office doesn't appear to provide incentive for
lawyers to stay on the job for a long period of tune,"
McMahon said.
He blamed a comparatively low salary and job frustra
tion as two of the major reasons for the large turnover of
lawyers in the position.
"The lawyer is only authorized to provide legal
advice," he said. "They are not allowed to represent any
one in court."
McMahon said the lawyer handled about 300 cases a
month and would not have time to appear in court. How
ever, he said that ASUN hopes to change the job guide
lines in the future so that a lawyer will have more respon
sibilities and opportunities for advancement.
However, the position, which is financed by ASUN
student fees, probably would have to be self-supporting
before new guidelines could be enforced, McMahon said.
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Rising pornography traced
Photo by Mark Billingsley
UNL student Mary Jane Dunn took advantage of a perfect afternoon Thurs
day to just sit down and relax in the warm sunshine. Her dog, Eilie May, scans
the campus surrounding Love Library for likely prospects, while her other dog,
Jon Ivan Rowdavitch, is content to just be held on such a nice day.
By Ward Wright Triplett III
Although they do not expect things to
change in any hurry, the Women's Resource
Center's Feminist Forum Thursday night
discussed the widespread use of porno
graphy and violence against women and
what can be done about it.
Guest speaker Julia Penelope, a lin
guistics and associate English professor,
traced the rise in X-rated movies, horror
movies that displayed mutilated women
and magazine forms of pornography to
the rising Feminist movement making
men feel threatened, and thus feeling the
need to supress women in any way. Vio
lence, she said, has long been an outlet
for that.
"Have you ever noticed the number of
porn movies about college girls? They are
usually the prime targets since they are
already threatening the system by getting
better education, challenging for the
better job. Men have to degrade this
somehow," she said.
Before acting as moderator for a forum
among the small, mostly female audience,
Penelope showed slides prepared by the
National Women Against Pornography
movement. The 30 slides included the
Hustler magazine photograph of a woman's
legs sticking out of a meat grinder, various
album covers and billboards that gave
subtle sadomasochistic messages and
various pictures from hardcore magazines
that reflected themes of submissiveness
and racism.
"As long as a woman is an object,
the men can feel less pressure," Penelope
said. "That is why this sort of thing is
done."
Penelope said she felt that pornography
itself did not inspire violence, but perpet
uated it from inbred feelings of violence
and the position of women in society.
She did say, however, that a Minnesota
University study had made a clear connec
tion between the two.
To combat this, Penelope said she feels
women needed to raise their level of
consciousness, be aware of what is going
on, and, become more activist about the
situation.
"We have failed to imagine an alterna
tive to the society we live in. We should be
trying to change the way that we think,"
she said.
"We need to identify the enemy. I
think we have been reluctant to do that
because of the omnipresence of men. They
do have the power."
Penelope connected the subjects of wife
beating, child abuse, rape, sexual harass
ment on the job, street harassment and
lesbian S&M in her topics.
For all these, Penelope said, "There
are no satisfactory answers. You have to
decide what you personally can do. It's
going to demand energy, it's going to de
pend on who you're willing to talk to.
You could spend the rest of your -lives
protesting the funnies that degrade women.
It's not my way but that's one thing you
can do.
Penelope stressed the wrong in allowing
children to grow up with the images of
violence. During her presentation, a child
wandered into the Harvest Room. She
quickly clicked off the slide projector.
"We grew up with it. There's no reason
for anybody else to."
UNL police consider adding emergency phones
By Ward W. Triplett III
Let's say you're walking towards your residence hall
one night, just after getting out of night class. As far as
you can see there is no one else in sight, and no cars ap
pear to be heading in your direction. You keep walking
and reach 16th and Vine Streets, and suddenly, someone
steps out in front of you and says, "Alright, let's have
your cash, right now." Now, given that situation, what are
you going to do? What choices do you have?
If present plans continue to fall into place, the UNL
Police Department will increase the alternatives by instal
ling emergency phones at locations where such an incident
most likely might occur.
The idea of the phones has been talked about for a few
years, according to Law Enforcement Director Gail Gade.
"The University of Houston, Purdue, Colgate, and
others already have them working. WcVe been pushing for
it on this camous, but up until now, no one has really got
ten going on it and I can't say why," Gade said.
The phone system will provide the extra help and sec
urity which a lone person might need. In the above ex
ample given by Investigator Bob Fey, if an emergency
phone was nearby, a person could reach it, and have con
tact with police instantly.
"If you just gave tfie person your money, you could
get to the phone right there and give us the direction
the person went, and we could go out and get to work on
it right away," Fey said. On the other hand, a contact
could be made wlule the crime was still in process.
Dialing unnecessary
The phone system will make dialing unnecessary. Fey
said.
"We haven't really decided which plan to follow yet.
We're still looking at different styles, between a button, a
hook, or a few others," Fey stated.
"But whatever, all you will have to do is pick it up.
That will activate a gadget down at dispatch, that will tell
us where you are. Conceivably, you won't even have to
speak into it.
"This is to help people in anything they consider an
emergency, whether it is a girl who feels she is being fol
lowed, or a motorist with a flat tire," Gade said.
There are still many questions about the phones, but
Fey and Gade said getting approval for two test phones
is a step in the right direction.
To help with part of the decision, the department con
tacted Dee Aimpson-Kirkland, of the Multi-Cultural Af
fairs office, to get an idea on where the best location for
the phones.
Kirkland is in the process of getting feedback from
ASUN, RHA and the Greek system to see if the phones
will be in demand.
Eventually, twelve phones should be in service, but
when the first two wUl be constructed is hard to say, Fey
said.
'There's a lot that still has to be done. We have to get
trenches built in for one thing, so I Imagine that if we
don't find out where they are going to be pretty soon, the
ground will be frozen. It wouldbe nice to get it done be
fore Christmas, but it's still hard to say," he added.
Well worth it
Whatever the cost in equipment or manpower, Gade
said he felt the project would be well worth it, even
though only 10 percent of the 2,000 complaints the de
partment handles can be considered major crimes.
"It increases the chance of our apprehending an indi
vidual if a call comes in quick," Gade said. "But it's been
studied and determined in other college campuses that
even having the phones available decreases the chance for
a crime to be committed, so that's something else to look
at," Gade said.
So far this year, campus police have had to handle
more than 100 personal crimes, more than 40 crimes
that resulted in a loss to the university, and 19 traffic
accidents.
The force has handled arson, forgery, and bomb
threats, but tlus year there have been no first degree sex
ual assaults.
The phone system should help keep it that way, Gade
said.
When the phones are installed, the department expects
it to be an added target for pranksters as well as citizens
in need of help.
"Witn this many people , you're going to have some who
will do that sort ot thing. We expect to have some false
alarms, and people calling in with so called 'Mickey
Mouse' problems. Another part of this test is to see if they
are abused or not," Gade said.
"But I feel that if we can save one life, or keep some
crime from being committed, or somebody from being
hurt, then it will be worth the effort."
