Mayor works to save redevelopment grant
By Anne Mohri
Senior Reporter
Lincoln Mayor Bill Harris will leave for
Washington today to try to secure a $12 million
Urban Development Action Grant for down
town redevelopment.
“In order to secure UDAG grant we have to
have a major project,” he said.
Harris said he will get suggestions and opin
ions from Washington officials on the down
town redevelopment project.
Also, Harris said, he wants officials to sug
gest a timetable for the project.
Harris said he wants to show federal officials
Lincoln is interested in retaining the grant by
presenting the submitted proposals. Only the
federal government can reaffirm the grant, he
said.
“It is our job to show how important it is,” he
said.
Harris in Washington today to talk with officials
March 9 is the deadline for the grant. Harris
said a 30-day grace period goes into effect after
he is notified that the deadline has passed.
'We should consider
local people with
smaller projects. ’
— Harris
With the 30-day grace period, there will be
enough time to decide on a proposal and organ
ize the development.
Harris said he is scheduled to meet with Rep.
Doug Bereuter; Janis Golec, deputy assistant
secretary of housing and urban development;
Stanley Newman, director of UDAG; Sen.
David Karnes; and Sen. J.J. Exon.
Harris said he will attend a Nebraska Society
Reception after the meetings.
Harris said he appointed “very qualified
people” to a selection committee that will begin
reviewing the 13 proposals while he is in
Washington. But Harris is responsible for the
final decision.
The committee is expected to finish review
ing the proposals around next Wednesday,
Harris said. This date needs to be flexible in
case the committee has to get additional infor
mation.
Harris said developers were given only a few
weeks to come up with their proposals and they
may not have provided all the necessary infor
mation.
After the committee has reviewed the pro
posals, a redevelopment packet will be sent to
Lincoln City Council members to reaffirm the
importance of downtown redevelopment, he
said.
“We want all of the developers to know we
have that commitment to the downtown re
gional growth area,” Harris said.
,
In order to secure
UDAG grant we have to
have a major project. ’
— Harris
Lincoln citizens are encouraged to submit
their individual projects, he said.
“We should consider local people with
smaller projects,” he said.
Butch I reland/Daily Nebraskan
Dan Wolf, chairman of the Committee for Fees Allocation, responds to a question during
Wednesday night’s ASUN meeting.
Fee hike approved
ASUN ups Fund B student fees
By Lee Rood
Senior Reporter
The Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska ap
proved a S3.26 per student per
semester increase in student fees
Wednesday night for Fund B por
tions of the University Programs
and Facilities Fees requests.
Combined with the 79-cent Fund
A fee increase approved by ASUN
two weeks ago, student fees will
increase $4.05 per student per se
mester for the 1988-89 academic
year.
Student fees will increase from
$111 this year to $115.05 per stu
dent each semester next year. If the
Legislature increases university
employee salaries, student fees
could increase to $121.83.
Two of the Fund B fee users, the
University Health Center and the
Nebraska Unions, lowered their
student fee requests. The Office of
Campus Recreation received about
a 50 percent budget increase.
Stan Campbell, director of cam
pus recreation, said the majority of
the $249,503 increase
grams and facilities bud„
used to finance the Cook Pavillion,
improvements in the NU
Coliseum’s swimming pool and
lighting for recreational fields.
A one dollar per student per
semester increase will be used to
increase wages of instructors of the
recreation department’s outdoor
adventures trip program, he said.
Participation in that program
rose 39 percent, he said.
Campbell said he was pleased
with the fee increase, especially
since campus recreation’s facilities
budget hadn’t increased in 21 years.
That money will help the depart
ment make improvements on cam
pus, he said, but it does not make up
for inflation.
While the 79-cent Fund A fee
increase two weeks ago took more
than four hours for ASUN senators
to approve, the Fund B requests
were approved in about 15 minutes.
Two ASUN senators voiced
opposition to the Fund B increase,
saying $115.05 is too much for indi
vidual students to pay in student
fees.
Sens. Linda Heng and Steve
Henning said they disapproved
because federal aid to UNL students
is declining and tuition will most
likely increase next year.
Dan Wolf, chairman of ASUN’s.
Committee for Fees Allocation, said
there wasn’t much room for debate
on the budget because only one
Fund B fee users’ budget increased.
None of the Fund B users’ appealed
CFA’s fee recommendations at the
meeting, he said.
Two of the Fund B fee users had
decreased requests mainly because
of reductions in operating costs, he
said.
Wolf said increases for the rec
reation department's fees were jus
tified.
James Griesen, vice chancellor
for student affairs, can recommend
changes in ASUN’s Fund A and B
recommendations.
He said now that Fund B is ap
proved, he will be looking at both
funds in the next two weeks.
Judge: Changes in society
causes courtroom changes
By Mary Nell Westbrook
Senior Reporter
Courts are hearing issues that
were never heard 40 years ago when
James Oakes began working as a law
clerk for the U.S.2ndCircuitCourt of
Appeals.
Oakes, now a judge on the same
court, told law students and faculty
members Wednesday at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln College of
Law auditorium that social changes
have altered the role of courts.
Oakes.appointed by former Presi
dent Richard Nixon in 1971, is the
first Cline Williams Distinguished
Jurist-in-Residcncc at the College of
Law.
Changes in technology, demo
graphics and individual rights have
all contributed to a changing role of
the courts, he said.
There has been a shift to protect
ing the rights of individuals and spe
cial interest groups, he said.
Environmental issues have
brought about an entire series of
complex laws that never existed be
fore, he said. The American Bar
Association has even added a envi
ronmental law section to its entrance
test
Oakes, a Harvard University Law
School graduate, said his circuit has
heard cases on super highways that
cost millions of dollars and atomic
energy cases.
Oakes said there also have been
substantive changes in the areas of
civil, criminal and constitutional
law.
Criminal law has undergone a
shift in focus to the rights of the
accused.
Cases challenging constitutional
ity used to be “few and far between,”
Oakes said. But after Chief Justice
Earl Warren’s U.S. Supreme Court
era, religious cases and cases con
cerning the right to assemble in pro
test have flooded the courts.
He said certain cases would shock
judges who served 40 years ago.
Oakes said his circuit court is cur
rently handling cases involving
phone sex.
“Cases such as these have tested
the tolerance of free society,” he said.
Court administrators and staff
members have increased in the last
40 years, he said. This bureaucracy
has helped relieve case loads courts
carry, he said, but has lessened
courts’ control over cases.
Oakes’ circuit court handled The
Pentagon Papers case. That case
underwent en banc hearings, which
call on all judges in a circuit to hear
a case on appeal.
Oakes said he doesn’t think en
banc hearings solve any problems.
He said he has seen other courts
become “polarized” by en banc hear
ings and wouldn’t want tliis to hap
pen to his court.
Killed wage bill unattested
By Victoria Ayotte
Staff Reporter
Two University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln officials had little reaction
Wednesday to the killing of a sub
minimum wage bill.
Daryl Swanson, Nebraska unions
director, and Doug Zatcchka, Hous
ing Office director, said they weren’t
sure how the bill, LB 1096, would
have affected UNL student-em
ployee wages.
The Nebraska Legislature’s Busi
ness and Labor Committee voted 5-0
Monday to kill the bill.
Sen. Howard Lamb of Ansclmo
sponsored the bill, which would have
allowed high school or college stu
dents working in retail or service to be
paid at 85 percent of the state mini
mum wage.
Swanson said he wasn’t concerned
about the bill because he didn’t think
the union would have to pay students
a subminimum wage even if the bill
had passed.
Zatechka said he didn’t know
whether the federal or the state
government’s minimum wage would
have applied to the housing
department’s employees.
“I don’t understand enough about
the impact it would have,” Zatechka
said.
Swanson and Zatechka said that if
the bi 11 had passed, i t would ha ve been
hard to hire enough students to fill
positions in housing and at the union.
“We’re having trouble hiring
enough students right now,” Zat
echka said.
Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha said the
bill might be amended and advanced
from committee, but he didn’t expect
the Legislature to act on it this year,
according to Wednesday’s Lincoln
Journal.
