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Inmate’s freedom lighter applies at UNL
By Mary Nell Westbrook
Senior Reporter
A Boise, Idaho, woman who has
led a cult-like following for a Ne
braska Slate Penitentiary inmate
convicted of voluntary manslaughter
recently interviewed for a graduate
assistant position at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Laura Miller, 36, has raised about
$21,000 in order to overturn the 1983
conviction of Claude L. Dallas, Jr.
Miller has applied and interviewed
for a graduate assistantship with the
Department of Theater, Arts and
Dance, according to department
chairman Tice Miller.
Tice Miller said a graduate assis
tant would be hired within a month.
Dallas was transferred from the
Idaho State Penitentiary to the Ne
braska State Penitentiary in mid
September.
Laura Miller is now on the ap
proved visitor list for the maximum
security unit, where Dallas now lives,
according to Nebraska State Peniten
tiary officials. Her phone in Boise has
been disconnected and she couldn’t
be reached for comment.
Dallas escaped from the Idaho
prison in March 1986, eluded the FBI
for a year and was named to the FBI’s
10 Most Wanted List. He was acquit
ted by an Ada County jury on the
escape charge.
Laura Miller, who visited Dallas
in Idaho on a regular basis, told the
Idaho Statesman she thought Dallas
was being mistreated. She said she
‘It’s a romantic
notion that people
buy.’
—Essex
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thought he would be safer in Ne
braska. During the three-day escape
trial, Dallas and other inmates testi
fied that Dallas’s life had been threat
ened by guards at the prison.
Dallas became a cu It hero in Idaho
before, during and after his trial in
1982. Wheh he was sent to the Idaho
prison, his followers claimed he was
innocent.
Randy Essex, a Statesman re
porter, said Dallas became a folk hero
to some after he claimed he killed two
game wardens in self-defense. Dallas
said the wardens accused him of
poaching, and one warden pulled a
gun on him first.
The judge in the case ruled that
“the issue of self-defense did not
arise,” Essex said. Dallas received a
30-year sentence.
Media romanticized him, Essex
said, and some people thought Dal
las’ actions were justified. Essex said
these people, like Dallas, believed
they have therightto liveoff the land.
They tend to resist government au
thority, Essex said.
“It’s a romantic notion that
people buy,’’ Essex said.
A group of women who waited
outside the doors of the courtroom
each day were known as the “Dallas
cheerleaders,” the Statesman re
ported.
Laura Miller, a freelance theater
director, contributed about $5,400 of
her own money to the $21,000 legal
defense fund for Dallas.
The graduate assistant position
pays about $4,000 a year.
Room with a view
University of Nebraska-Lincoln maintenance workers
install a telescope In a window of the Minnick Astron
omy Resource Center in Ferguson Hall 216 A. The 6-inch
refractor telescope can make objects appear 300 times
closer than the naked eye. Charles B. Minnick donated
$10,000to build and install the telescope, which will be
dedicated formally sometime in the next two months.
Roskens: Reduce trade measures
Boosting China’s economy could prove beneficial to the U.S.
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
Reducing protectionist trade
measures against the People’s Re
public of China would further im
prove relations between China and
the United States, University of
Nebraska President Ronald Roskcns
said Thursday in the Nebraska Un
ion.
Roskcns, the luncheon speaker at
the Montgomery Symposium on
Marxism and capitalism in mainland
China, said improving trade would
boost China’s economy. This would
allow China to buy more products
from the United States, he said.
Roskens, who has visited China
eight times and plans two more trips
this year, lauded improved relations
between China and the United Slates.
Last year was the 15th anniversary
of a Sino-U.S. agreement that “de
cided to defreeze some very icy rela
tions,” Roskens said.
Improved relations contributed to
peace and stability in Asia and the
world, he said, and tremendous
changes have taken place.
“From confrontation to relaxa
tion,” improved relations have led to
more contacts between the two coun
tries, Roskens said.
Two-way trade between China
and the United Stales has increased
from nothing to $73 billion per year,
he said, and the United States is now
China’s third-largest trade partner.
But cultural barriers still exist
between the two countries, Roskens
said, which can be a problem for
business people.
He said Americans need to view
Chinese culture from the inside in
stead of pretending to be experts on
the basis of a few books.
Cultural, economic, technologi
cal, military and educational ties
have improved in a relatively short
time, he said.
In the past 10 years, he said,
25,000 Chinese students have stud
ied in the United States.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln has made 16 faculty exchange
agreements with Chinese universi
ties, he said. Members of UNL’s
faculty, especially physical science
and agriculture professors, visit
China for one month to two years, he
said.
“Basically, (the agreements are)
an indication that we respect each
other, sec value in face-to-face ex
changes,” Roskcns said.
Progress of Curtis bill slowed
By Lee Rood
Senior Reporter
Proponents of a bill that would
provide SI.4 million to finance the
Nebraska College of Technical Agri
culture at Curtis suffered another
setback Thursday when senators in
the Legislature’s Appropriations
Committee made no motion to ad
vance the bill.
Sen. Jerome Warner, Appropria
tions Committee chairman, said the
committee didn’t advance the bill
because the role and mission of the
Curtis school has changed, and the
proposed $1.4 million would not be
enough money to finance the
changed college.
Warner, of Wavcrly, said the
school’s program has been expanded
as well as its cost.
LB 1042 docs not give a real defi
nition of what the new program
would be like, Warner said.
Members of the committee voted
5-4 Tuesday not to advance the bill.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Owen Elmer
of Indianola, said he had expected the
vote to change on Thursday.
Elmer said the bill hit a roadblock
Thursday, but he and Sen. William
Barrett of Lexington moved to have
LB 1042 put in the general file next
week.
Elmer said he received commit
ments from senators that there would
be enough discussion on the bill to
have it brought up on the legislative
floor next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Sen. Scott Moore of Stromsburg,
Appropriations Committee member,
said he never intended to vote to
advance the bill.
Moore said Gov. Kay Orr tried to
change his mind Tuesday after the
committee didn’t advance the bill,
but “her hammer didn’t come down
hard enough to do it.”
ASUN candidates want equality in ranks
By William Lauer
Staff Reporter
ACTION and VOICE candidates said
Thursday equal representation of all University
of Nebraska-Lincoln students is a key issue in
the Association of Students of the University of
Nebraska elections.
The candidates debated in the East Union.
The debate was sponsored by the University
Programs Council and the Agriculture Advi
sory Board.
Christopher Stream, VOICE presidential
candidate, said increased student representa
tion throughout UNL is the key to effective
student government.
“When we ave an effective representa
tional goverr lent between non-Greeks,
people on Eas Campus, and people on City
Campus, that is how you get effective, strong
government,” Stream said.
Jeff Petersen, ACTION presidential candi
date, said ASUN is not set up on the basis of
living units, but colleges.
“We feel that our senator constituency rep
resents all those students,” he said.
Nate Gciscrt, ACTION first vice presiden
tial candidate, said ACTION party candidates
offer better representation.
“We are theonly party to run a dental student
to represent us in senate,” he said. “We need the
representation from all the colleges.”
Stream said the VOICE parly has more off
campus students running for office. VOICE
would gel off-campus students involved in the
appointment system.
“We need to have a campus commission that
has members from each of the residence halls,
the different Greek houses, from each of the
minority organizations, and the off-campus
leaders,” he said.
Candidates were also questioned about is
sues they thought were important to East
Campus students.
Bryan Klicwcr, VOICE agriculture senator
candidate, said agriculture recruitment needs
to be improved.
Kliewer said the university needs to actively
recruit prospective students.
“We must be willing to work with campus
organizations and we must seek willing agri
culture volunteers to promote the college,”
Kliewer said.
Geisert said the quality of education in the
College of Agriculture is die most important
issue on East Campus.
The university needs to make sure it has
money to hire and replace quality faculty
members, he said.
“Our main purpose at the university is to
give a good, quality education,” he said. “Once
we have that, the recruitment will come our
way.”