Weather: Friday, mostly sunny, very
cold, high of 5-10 above. Friday night,
mostly clear, 5-10 below. Saturday,
mostly sunny, not as cold, high 10-15
above.
A&E: Cleaning up the
Temple. —Page 6.
Sports: Nebraska men’s
gymnastics coach Francis
Allen is prepared for twj
crucial meets. —Page 8.
Foundation gets $10 million endowment
By Anne Mohri
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska Foundation officials
announced Thursday that they received a S10
million endowment from the late Richard Lar
son of Lincoln.
The endowment is the largest direct bequest
received by the foundation in its 52-ycar his
tory, a press release stated.
Larson, former state railway commissioner,
died Dec. 25, 1987, at the age of 92.
Terry Fairfield, foundation president, said
the money will be divided equally among four
different areas of the university:
• University of Nebraska Medical Center at
Omaha.
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of
Law.
• UNL intercollegiate athletic department.
• graduate and undergraduate scholarships at
UNL.
Each area will be given about $2.5 million to
invest.
The money donated to UNMC will be used
to research emphysema. Larson established the
Margret Larson Distinguished Professorship
in 1972 in memory of his late wife, according
to a university press release.
Larson donated money to the UNL College
of Law to add to support of the faculty members
and any other needs of the college.
The money to he donated to the UNL Inter
collegiate Athletic Department will be used for
athletic scholarships.
The rest of the money will be used for
graduate and undergraduate scholarships as the
foundation sees fit, Fairfield said.
Larson’s will was drawn up in 1973 and it
said the various areas of UNL were to receive
in excess of SI 2 million after money had been
donated to other staled charities and individu
als, the release said.
Fairfield said Larson had a strong feeling for
the university. In the past, Larson established
professorships for pulmonary research and for
the music school and was interested in the
College of Law. Larson also had a large interest
in water research and quality, and Big Red
Boosters, Fairfield said.
Before Larson’s death, he had given the
university more than S75(),0()() in donations, he
said.
Larson did not donate money to any of
Nebraska’s other post-secondary educational
institutions.
“His main loyally was to the university,”
Fairfield said.
Fairfield said Larson adopted the university
because he was concerned with Nebraska’s
national image.
■IBM_I
Dave Hansen/Daily Nebraskan
Torah scribe Eric Ray repairs Hebrew letters.
Scribe fixes God’s words
By Natalie Weinstein
Staff Reporter
“Lamed,” he sings, then writes
the Hebrew letter. “Hay,” he sings,
then writes that letter.
To ensure he doesn’t make mis
takes, he checks each word and
letter in a book called the Tikkun.
Then he sings each word and letter
before he repairs or rewrites it.
For almost 25 years, Eric Ray, a
scribe, has been writing and repair
ing Torahs. The Torah consists of
the first five bix>ks of Moses in the
Old Testament.
Singing serves as a “memory
guide” and is a requirement, he
said.
The 61-year-old Englishman is
repairing two of three Torahs at
B’nai Jeshurun, one of Lincoln’ s
two Jewish congregations. He is
repairing one of them here for a
week, and will take the other back to
England.
He will have tp work on that
Torah for three to six months, he
said.
There arc fewer than 100 scribes
in the world, Ray said. About 20 of
them arc called Master Scribes. Ray
is one of them.
He can write about 2,000 differ
ent scripts. He has repaired or writ
ten hundreds of Torahs, he said,
including the first Torah released
from Russia about 10 years ago.
Ray loves his work.
“Scribing is the oldest and great
est art of the Jewish people,” Ray
said. Moses was the first scribe.
“It’s a great privilege to work on
the words of God,” he said.
Ray said he never expected to
I>ecomc a scribe. He began his ca
reer as an artist. During World War
II, he became a guard at Bucking
ham Palace in London and later
joined the navy.
After the war ended he joined the
Aliyah Bet, a volunteer group that
illegally helped Jews leave Nazi
concentration camps.
See SCRIBE on 3
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Low attendance at GLC lunches
4Apathy’ mars senators’ visits
By Lee Rood
Staff Reporter
Student apathy at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln may be hurling
efforts to increase faculty salaries,
Jeff Petersen, president of the Gov
ernment Liaison Committee, said
Thursday.
Petersen said that through the
Senators on Campus program, GLC
members have been trying to show
senators positive aspects of the uni
versity without confronting them
about money.
Since the program started 1 1/2
weeks ago, 12 senators have come to
eat lunch, tour both campusesand talk
about university issues. But Petersen
estimated only 25 students, mostly
GLC members, have attended the
lunches.
Petersen said the turnout is espe
cially disappointing because UNL
students, faculty members and ad
ministrators have been working hard
all year to convince senators that
faculty salaries need to be raised.
Because the Legislature is ex
pected to vote on the faculty salary
issue before the end of the month, the
Senators on Campus program is the
best way for students to do some quick
and easy lobbying for faculty salaries,
he said.
Petersen said when senators and
students get together, students usu
ally lobby for money.
Senators on Campus is a way to let
senators see for themselves good
things about the university, things
that need improvements and pro
grams the university risks losing
without proper financing, Petersen
said.
When the program started, GLC
members started calling constituents
of the 35 senators who agreed to par
ticipate in the program, he said.
Petersen said hundreds of students
were called and told their senator
would be on campus. When students
don’t show up to tell senators their
concerns about the university, Pe
•
‘But the whole
university is in my
district, so I wasn't
too disappointed. ’
—Landis
tcrscn said, he worries dial the pro
gram could do more harm than good.
For years senators have had ihc
impression that students are apa
thetic, and GLC has been working all
year to change that, Petersen said.
Because students aren’t coming to
meet their senators, it may give sena
tors the impression that students don’t
care, he said.
Petersen said senators have said
positive things about the program.
But because they are politicians, he
said, he doubted if senators would
admit if it was a waste of time.
Sen. Chris Abboud of Ralston,
who serves on the Legislature’s Ap
propriations Committee, said he was
not disappointed with the number of
students who met him this week dur
ing the program.
Abboud estimated about five of his
constituents from District 12, as well
as GLC members and faculty mem
bers, attended the program.
But because the meeting only
lasted an hour, Abboud said, he
couldn’t have talked to too many
students and faculty members.
Abboud said that from his conver
sation w ith students, he could tell they
were worried about increasing the
caliber of UNL.
Students and faculty members said
the main w ay to do that is by increas
ing research money and faculty sala
ries, he said.
Sen. Dave Landis of Lincoln said
he enjoyed coming to campus Wed
nesday.
‘‘I enjoyed the experience and
found it educational,” he said.
Landis said that while GLC
members toured the campus with
him, no other students from his dis
trict were present.
“But the whole university is in my
district, so I wasn’t loo disappointed,”
he said.
Faculty salaries did not come up at
the meeting, Landis said, but the stu
dents did discuss other issues.
Rights violation alleged
UNL police sergeant
files suit against chief
Lincoln (AP) — A University of
Nebraska-Lincoln police sergeant
has sued UNL Police Director Gail
Gadc and other officers, alleging that
the sergeant’s civil rights were vio
lated in an incident that led to his
suspension without pay last fall.
Sgt. John Lustrea filed a S2(X),000
lawsuit in U.S. District Court allcg
that Gadc and Lustrea’s supervisors,
Lt. Ken Caublc and Lt. John Burke,
denied him due process of law by
suspending him and forcing him to
take a lie detector test without cause.
Lustrea was suspended after a
banner disappeared from an ESPN
TV truck he was assigned to watch on
Sept. 11-12. He was reinstated after
passing a polygraph examination he
took under protest.
During the examination, he de
nied taking the banner or knowing
who might have taken it.
Lustrea was awarded back pay
through internal grievance proce
dures at UNL butcontinues to seek an
apology and attorney’s fees through
iheChanccllor’sGrievanceCommit
tee. His attorney Thom Cope of Lin
coln, said the grievance procedure
has not compensated Lustrea for the
damage to his reputation or for civil
rights violations.
ESPN hired Lustrea as a private
security guard during his off-duty
hours to watch network trucks and
equipment brought to the campus to
televise the Sept. 12 Nebraska
UCLA football game.
When Lustrea checked the trucks
at 2:40 a.m. on Sept. 12, he noticed
nothing unusual, he said in his federal
court suit. His replacement, who
came on duty at 3 a.m., discovered
the banner missing.
Lustrea, who was suspended with
out pay after questioning by Burke,
says he was not informed of his rights
before being questioned.
In Sept. 17 and Oct. 2 letters, Gade
ordered Lustrea to take the polygraph
test or be dismissed, the suit alleges.
