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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1987)
I WEATHER: Wednesday, sunny with highs in the middle 50s east. Wednesday night, mostly clear. Low in the middle 20s to lower 30s Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 50s to lower 60s November 11,1987 I Inside: News Digest.Page 2 Editorial.Page 4 Sports.Page 6 Entertainment.Page 8 Classified.Page 10 Vol. 87 No. 55 » Car, home markets stable despite crash By Lee Rood Senior Reporter Despite a continuing drop in the stock mar ket, area realtors and car dealers say Nebras kans haven’t been afraid to invest the big bucks it takes to buy a car or home. Even though the Dow Jones fell 58.85 points on Monday and another 22.05 Tuesday, busi ness is relatively stable in the car/house market because few Lincolnites are involved with the stock market, realtors and car dealers said. Interest rates for home loans increased for a short time, but bounced back quickly, said Evelyn McFarland, broker for Gateway Realty. Because most people in the Lincoln market are “First-time” buyers and more interested in price instead of interest rates, they are uncon cerned with the stock market right now, McFar land said. “Our market is very stable here in Lincoln,” she said. “It always has been.” Doug Mathews, sales manager for William son Honda in Lincoln, said he knows people have lost money in the market, but business in the area continues to be pretty strong. Mathews attributes the strength to aggres sive sales behavior and the fact that the crash has had little effect on consumers’ borrowing power. There has been a pinch in the expensive car market, said Larry Storjohann, general sales manager for Misle Chevrolet/Imports. Storjohann said Jaguar and Mazda sales are down locally and nationally, but BMW sales are up. The BMW’s success lies partly in the company’s recent factory incentives such as financing, he said. Storjohann said some customers who have been interested in buying expensive cars are holding off to see what the market does. While national import sales are down, Storjohann said he isn’tnervous. But if interest rates begin to fall, that would “kill” their busi ness, he said. Wallace Peterson, a George Holmes profes sor of economics at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, said the Dow Jones fall won’t neces sarily have an immediate effect on the econ omy, but watching car and home sales is a good way to determine slow changes. Peterson said it’s important to remember the Great Depression didn’t happen overnight. To say that falling stocks have not had much of an effect on Nebraskans would be “prema ture,” Peterson said. “I think it’s important to remember that whatever happens with the economy will be slow-moving,” he said. Ken Hake, chairman of the board and chief executive of State Security Savings, said if anything, the stock market fall may help some consumers. The major impact of it all has been the lowering of interest rates, and for people who don’t own stocks, that’s good, Hake said. People may be inspired to take out loans because of the better interest rates now, he said. The one good thing that may come from the crash, Hake said, is that congressmen will finally start realizing the seriousness of the deficit. Hake called the stock market fall a “warn ing signal” to Congress to deal with the deficit and to “do a better job in running the country.” faculty Senate recognizes student effort to increase pay By Amy Edwards Senior Reporter A member of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska told the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faculty Senate Tuesday that students want to work with faculty mem bers to increase salaries. “We do appreciate you and realize this university is strong because of you,” ASUN Sen. Rob Abel said. Tuition increases are the last thing students want, but faculty salaries are important to keep a strong university, he said. Faculty Senate member Donald Jensen said students should encourage their parents to in fluence legislators to support an increase in faculty salaries. “The best crowbar you have is in your home town and in your relatives," Jensen said. The Faculty Senate passed a resolution thanking ASUN for its support of faculty sala ries. Teacher salaries come up every semester, said Donald Gregory, a Faculty Senate mem ber. “Every six months we do a dance of death in terms of salaries,” he said. Gregory said that if UNL is going to be a good university with good research it is impor tant to have good researchers. Faculty Senate member Jim McShane said faculty salaries are “not simply a self-serving matter.” McShane said it is essential for the univer sity to have a faculty that can support research initiatives. To keep the faculty for this, McShane said, the university must protect the faculty by raising their salaries. “Without protection we might well dis solve,” McShane said. “I don’t know what we can do. We certainly can ’ t protect it ourselves." Because of problems with low faculty sala ries and faculty members leaving the univer sity, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution Tuesday that: • urges the NU Board of Regents to exercise its statutory power to ensure that a substantial portion of new funds available to UNL be used to enhance faculty salaries at UNL. • urges the responsible leaders of all units of the university and the state government to work aggressively to obtain a 15 percent average increase in faculty salaries this year. • expresses disapproval of any budget plan that would give first priority to university in volvement in research initiatives while post poning the effort to achieve the competitive salary structure necessary for their success. In other business, the Faculty Senate Com mittee on Committees specified that every committee should make its own policies on attendance for meetings. The Committee on Committees also asked the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee to an swer questions concerning their investigation into the athletic department’s academic pro grams at the senate’s Dec. 8 meeting. Gruhl Welch U.S. high court applies study by NU professors in decision By Amy Edwards Senior Reporter Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln professors and one University of Nebraska at Omaha professor have put their footnote in the pages of Supreme Court history. The U.S. Supreme Court used a study compiled by the three professors in a major civil rights decision, McCleskey v. Kemp, this year. Political science professor Susan Welch, associate professor John Gruhl of UNL, and UNO criminal justice professor Cassia Spohn found out last week that the Supreme Court used a study they completed six years ago. Spohn told Gruhl that someone was reading the high court’s decision and saw their names. Gruhl said he had already read the decision but didn’t even notice their study had been used. The Supreme Court used the study’s statistics, taken from Philadelphia courts that looked into how sentencing in felony cases is affected by racial discrimination, Gruhl said. The study showed that in felony cases, a black defendant was more likely to receive the death penalty than a white defendant, he said. In the Supreme Court’s case, McCleskey, a black man from Georgia, had killed a white police officer. The Georgia Supreme Court gave McCleskcy the death penalty. McCleskcy’s attorney argued his death sentence was invalid because of racial discrimination, Gruhl said. But the argument for racial discrimina tion was different this time. Instead of being discriminated against because McCleskey was black, the attorney argued that killers of whites are more likely to get the death penalty than killers of blacks. This implies that white lives arc more valuable and is therefore an indirect form of discrimina tion, he said. So the race of the victim, not the defendant, was the basis for discrimina tion, Gruhl said. Gruhl said the case showed that in simi lar felony cases, when the judge has achoice between probation and a jail sentence, a black defendant is more likely to be sent to jail than a white defendant. Gruhl said their study was used to ex plain that if the sentence was invalid for (he case because of racial discrimination, die court would have to look at this kind of discrimination in even more cases. This would mean every case could be opened up to racial discrimination. “They used our study to say that they didn’t want to open a Pandora’s box,”Gruhl said. Gruhl said it was exciting to have the study used in a Supreme Court ruling, but it was disappointing to have the study used in support of the death penalty. Welch said the Supreme Court cites a lot of cases in each ruling, but rarely cites a * social science study. Welch said she would have liked the1 study to have been used in a different way, but it was an honor to have the solid evi dence used in a court case. “It’s nice to be able to show that research you do has an impact on important issues,” Welch said. This study is an example of how re search, other than applied and engineering, can be of practical value, she said. “UNL has research purposes that go beyond the immediate needs of business and industry,” Welch said. Gruhl said he was surprised that the Supreme Court picked their study out of a whole group of similar studies. “Most people consider it a feather in their cap to ever have the Supreme Court use a study they have done,” Gruhl said. Restaurant extends study hours By Bob Nelson Staff Reporter Student response to extended study hours in the Nebraska Union Harvest Room was mini mal during the first week, said Union Board member Nancy Trumble, but use is expected to rise once students are aware of the extended hours. The Harvest Room is now open for studying between 5 and 10 p.m. Monday through Thurs day, Trumble said. While students begin studying in the Har vest Room, board members are studying ways to increase the restaurant’s business. A survey is being conducted to evaluate what improvements will encourage students and faculty members to use the Harvest Room. Union Board member Susan Potter said at Tuesday night’s meeting that the survey, being conducted in the union, will be completed before Thanksgiving. Cal Garbin, associate psychology professor and Union Board member, said the survey will find out student and faculty member awareness of the Harvest Room and what those surveyed believe can be done to change the restaurant. Garbin said the survey findings will be implemented in the spring. The survey was sparked by poor sales in the Harvest Room. The restaurant lost $112,(XX) during the 1986-87 fiscal year. Two hundred sixty students and faculty members will be questioned in the survey. The target population includes 150 students who very rarely or never solicit the Harvest Room and 50 students who solicit the restaurant regu- , larly. Thirty faculty members who use the restaurant regularly and 30 faculty members who do not use the restaurant regularly or have never used it will also be surveyed. In other business, members tabled a pro posal to charge $25 for union booth rental for commercial co-sponsorships with student or ganizations.