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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1987)
I WEATHER: Tuesday, partly cloudy and mild with a high in the 70s. Tuesday night, partly cloudy and cooler with possible sprinkles. Low 45 to 50. Wednesday, partly cloudy and cooler. High in the lower to mid 60s. November 3,1987 Nebraskan University of Nebraska-Lincoln I Inside: News Digest.Page 2 Editorial.Page 4 Sports.Page 6 Entertainment.Page 5 Classified.Page 7 Vol. 87 No. 49 Athletic officials didn't know of investigation Osborne says no rules violated by UNL athletes in summer classes By Mary Nell Westbrook Staff Reporter Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Monday that he wasn’t told of an investigation into football players taking summer classes to maintain their eligibility. “I was really upset,” Osborne said. “I wasn’t aware they were studying football players.” Osborne said other Nebraska ath letic department officials were not aware of the investigation either. He said the media has overreacted to the investigation, which is being conducted by the Intercollegiate Ath letic Committee, a subcommittee of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faculty Senate. Roger Grooters, director of aca demic programs for the athletic de partment, said certain classes were directed toward athletes. The courses — Healthy Lifestyles and an inde pendent-study course dealing with sports psychology — missed the dead line for the summer school schedule Student reports assault Woman allegedly attacked at frat Halloween party By Amy Edwards Senior Reporter A University of Ncbraska Lincoln student filed a com plaint Sunday claiming she was assaulted at a Halloween party Saturday night at the Theta Chi fraternity, 626 N. 16th St. Lt. Lee Wagner of the Lin coln Police Department said the 18-ycar-old woman reported she was assaulted by a man in a third-floor room of the frater nity house. The woman said she was locked in the room and not al lowed to leave until after she was sexually assaulted. Wagner said it is not unusual for an assault victim to wail before filing a complaint. Police do not know if the man is a member of the frater nity, Wagner said. They are still investigating the incident. Wagner would not say if the department had a suspect in the case. Eric Raasch, president of ThetaChi fraternity,said frater nity members are confused about what really happened. “As far as we can tell, it is not a member of our fraternity,” Raasch said. “It is still under investigation. We want to let the police sort the information out before we make any decisions.” Rick Gestring, Intcrfrater nity Council president, said that if the man is a member of the Theta Chi fraternity house, the incident will be brought before the Greek Judicial Board. Gestring said the judicial board will not take any action if the man is not a member of the fraternity. and had to be added later as an insert, Grooters said. Pankaj Shah, who schedules classes, said when a class doesn’t get the same “advertising” as a class that was published in the schedule, “it is up to the instructors and department to let the students know about the class.” Osborne said this process was fol lowed in dealing with the health and psychology classes in question. “The athletic department didn’t go to the instructors,” Osborne said. “The instructors came to the athletic depart ment. “There is absolutely no violation of any rules, NCAA, Big Eight, univer sity or otherwise,” Osborne said. He said he was upset with the way the story has been handled and the innuendo that it has created. Ken Orton, acting director of aca demic programs for athletes last May, said he approved the class and recom mended that the athletes take it. Osborne said he didn’t think the courses were out of line with the ath < ' ' ' — . letes’ needs or interests. Osborne received a report with the grades of all the players in the summer classes. The names were blocked out, he said. Osborne met with the athletic committee, at his request, and told the committee he thought publishing the athletes’ grades was a “breach of con fidence.” Mike Steinman, chairman of the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee, saidthecommittce hasn’t investigated an issue like this before. The committee began investigating the possible problems last summer. The investigation is complete, and the committee will report to the Faculty Senate at its Dec. 8 meeting, Steinman said. Jim Lewis, Faculty Senate presi dent, said the intent of the committee is to make sure that any subgroup of students is not getting special treat ment. The committee has to make sure no academic fraud is going on, he said. The committee may decide to monitor the classes going into the schedule more closely, reinforce the NCAA’s “satisfactory progress” rule, submit a recommendation to the ath letic department or do nothing, Lewis said. Orton said many football players take summer courses to make up for the light load they take during football season. The NCAA requires athletes to be registered for 12 credit hours during fall and spring semesters, and pass 24 credit hours each year with a grade point average of 2.0 or C. The NCAA’s satisfactory progress rule requires athletes to take classes that contribute toward their major after their fifth semester. This supposedly protects students from taking only freshman-level classes. But neither of the two courses in question are freshman-level. “Healthy Lifestyles” is a sophomore-level course and the independent-study psychology course is senior-level, Grooters said. The allegation that the classes were 90 percent football players is only obvious, Grooters said: “Who else is going to take this type of class?” “The classes were very good expe rience for the players,” Grooters said, “I think anybody would have been proud of their performance, not criti cal. “With the football team at the level they’re at, people will take a shot at them even when there’s nothing there. This is one of those cases.” Osborne said the students could not miss the classes this summer. They were required to attend study halls before and after their classes. The class average was a B and one student failed, he said. Each of the classes was relevant to the football players, Osborne said. The Healthy Lifestyles course dealt with nutrition, which a football player will need to know when he is done playing football. Osborne said the psychology course teaches the players how to deal with stress and stress reduction. m i Butch Ireland/Daily Nebraskan Raising the roof Hampton Enterprises workers show Husker spirit by arranging shingle stacks in the cheer "Go Big Red." The shingles lie on the roof of an apartment building Hampton is building at 84th and 0 streets. UNO official Zarr resigns after audit By Dorothy Pritchard Senior Reporter_ The manager of ihc University of Nebraska at Omaha Student Activi ties Office resigned after an internal audit found “mismanagement and poor judgment” in the use of office funds. Louis Cartier Jr., director of uni versity relations at UNO, said office manager Joel Zarr and another office employee, whom he declined to name, resigned Thursday. Zarr had been manager of the of fice since July 1981. After speculations from the univer sity community that funds were miss ing from the Student Activities office, the UNO Business Office conducted an audit, Cartier said. “We have found that there arc no state funds missing, no evidence of money lost to the university ... there is no smoking gun,” Cartier said. Cartier said there were also allega tions that money from the office was going to an unauthorized activity. He said the university is satisfied with the results of the audit, showing that no funds arc missing from the Student Activities Office. However, he said, the audit did uncover “ade quate evidence of mismanagement of funds” Cartier declined to give examples of mismanagement. The results of the audit were shared with the Educational and Student Services Office at U NO, which super vises the Student Activities Office. Richard Hoover, vice chancellor of that office, was unavailable for com ment Monday. Cartier said Student Activities procedures are being reviewed “to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Attempts to reach Zarr at his home Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.