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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1988)
m T i Daily ■* B £ SO cooler, high 40-45, NW winds at 10- reviews—PageS. 9 3 ^ai—H y* 20 mph. Tuesday night, cloudy and S I JO 1|0 JO 1 m Wgr cold, low around 20. Wednesday, Sports: Spring football HP""** I H S lllk fiLflk ,-^B H HB sunny and warmer, high 50-55. practice begins with some 1 ^Cl/ldjlVtll I 1 1 Grievance against UNMC officials filed for mishandling investigation Alleged harassment charged by employee By Ryan Steeves Staff Reporter _ An official at the University of Nebraska Medical Center has filed a grievance with the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission alleging that UNMC officials have mis handled an investigation. Gregg Davenport, director of minority student affairs at UNMC, said officials have falsified and possi bly withheld information in an inves tigation that charges Davenport with harassing a secretary. Davenport said he filed the com plaint Friday with the commission to uncover any information that univer sity officials might be withholding. Davenport filed a grievance on Jan. 8,1988, asking UNMC officials to remove harassment charges that were filed against him by Jennifer Hayes, his former secretary. Hayes filed a grievance against Davenport on Dec. 8, 1987, for har assment. In a letter circulated by Bruce Currin, personnel director at the University of Nebraska, Hayes testified that Davenport made her type personal resumes on university time. Hayes testified that the resumes interfered with her regular duties. Davenport said typing resumes is part of a secretary’s job. In late November, Hayes ap proached Davenport and said she would not type any more personal resumes, she testified. After that, Hayes testified, Daven port increased her workload and fre quently visited her at her desk, dis rupting her work. Davenport denies this. On Dec. 7, 1987, the situation became critical when Hayes con fronted Davenport about a calendar he took from her desk. Davenport said Hayes unlocked the door of his office and started yelling at him for taking the calendar. Davenport said that when he tried to leave, Hayes blocked the doorway. Hayes could not be reached for comment, but she testified that the calendar was personal. Davenport sa'd it was part of the office system. The calendar contained informa tion about the amount of time Hayes took for sick leave. With the calendar Davenport said he proved that Hayes had cheated and taken too much sick leave. Currin, who is acting as desig nated hearing officer in the Hayes Davenport grievances, stated in his decision letter that Hayes had erred in marking her vacation records. The day after the argument, Hayes filed her grievance. On Jan. 6, 1988, UNMC officials put Davenport on six-months probation. Currin’s letter said Davenport was put on probation because his “management of secre tary working relationships is unsatis factory as exemplified in October Novcmbcr, 1987 with respect to Ms. Jennifer Hayes.” Two days later, Davenport filed his grievance to get the probation re scinded. Davenport has also sent a letter to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents asking to speak to them. Davenport said he has called in the EOC to uncover information and to dispell lies made by UNMC officials. “They constantly fabricate new information,” Davenport said. One such matter Davenport wants cleared up is an alleged order made by four UNMC officials. Currin’s letter said four UNMC officials told Daven port not to take any action against Hayes after they discovered mistakes in her vacation time. Davenport said no official ever told him not to pursue. As a result, Davenport confiscated the calendar, resulting in the onslaught of griev ances. Davenport criticized the investi gation for not questioning his assis tant Jose Vergara and secretary Mar garet McLaughlin about his alleged harassment. Davenport said the two work in the office and could say whether he harassed Hayes. Officials did interview Vivyonne Ewing, another secretary in the of fice, who supported Hayes’ state ments about Davenport’s mistreat ment. Davenport said Ewing lied. He did not say specifically why he thinks she lied, but said it concerns money. He said a three-member university committee will decide his grievance soon. Currin recommended that Davenport’s grievance be denied “with no exceptions or conditions.” Legislature votes to advance Curtis bill By Victoria Ayotte Staff Reporter Nebraska legislators voted 28 -13 Monday to advance LB 1042, which provides for the continuation of the Nebraska College of Technical Agri culture at Curtis. Seven senators spoke in favor of the bill, and one spoke in opposition. The bill needs to win two more floor votes before the Legislature adjourns April 8 if Curtis is to remain open after May. If passed, the bill would appropri ate $1.4 million from July 1988 to June 1989. Sen. Owen Elmer of 1 ndianoia said the bill should be advanced for four reasons: Curtis’ students come from all across Nebraska, Curtis’ programs are unique, students who graduate from Curtis stay in Nebraska, and each student graduating has four job offers. Elmer said Curtis is in trouble because of budget cuts at the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Legislature, not because of its own faults. “Curtis has been a political foot ball for too long,” Elmer said. Sen. Loran Schmit of Bellwood also urged senators to advance the bill. “Curtis needs to exist as a symbol of past accomplishments and a sym bol of what we hope to accomplish in the future,” Schmit said. Sen. Rod Johnson of Sutton agreed with Schmit “We’re at the end of the game playing relative to Curtis,” he said. Sen. Scott Moore of Stromsburg opposed the bill, saying Curtis is not the Legislature’s problem. The Leg islature should keep Curtis open be cause it’s a good educational pro gram, not because it’s an agricultural symbol for Nebraska, he said. The bill was advanced from gen eral to select file with two amend ments. Elmer proposed an amendment reappropriating the balance existing in Curtis’ scholarship fund. The amendment passed 25-0. Sen. Roger Wehrbein of Plattsmouth proposed an amendment for an additional $700,000 for Curtis to finish out the current year. The original bill proposed an additional $350,000 for the current year. Wehrbein’s amendment passed 30-0. Moore also proposed an amend ment that Curtis should not offer tech nical agriculture classes that are du plicated in other Nebraska colleges. Moore said Nebraska cannot af ford duplication in programs, and the only Curtis program not offered at other Nebraska colleges is the veteri nary technology program. Several senators opposed Moore’s amendment, causing him to withdraw the amendment. Johnson said Moore was trying to pit Curtis against Nebraska’s techni - cal community colleges. “We forget about the human toll we are taking on a community in southwest Nebraska,” Johnson said. Ward Willtams Daily Nebraskan Building a bull-boat for his primitive technology class, Paul Stormberg scrapes the remains off a cow hide that will be stretched over a wooden frame. I Bull-boat construction begins upon spring-break return By William Lauer Staff Reporter Getting back into the study mode after spring break is a task that some students might call grisly, but for Paul Stormberg it had an even more gruesome aspect. Stormberg spent Monday after noon outside Bessey Hall scraping the fat from the blood-stained hide of a freshly slaughtered cow. He was building a bull-boat. Stormberg is building the boatas a project for his anthropology primitive technologies class. The class deals with primitive technologies of the world. Projects for the class are 50 percent of the students’ grades. A bull-boat was used by the Hidatsa, Mandan, Omaha and other Plains Indian tribes to ferry belong ings over water, Stormberg said. Stormberg is trying to make his boat identical to the boats used by the Hidatsa tribe. His design is based on a description given by anthropologist GilbertWilson, who worked closely with Plains Indian tribes before World War I. The boat has a circular frame made of willow branches about 5 feet across and 2 feet deep. The •rame will be covered with the cow skin once it is cleaned. The Hidatsa used buffalo skins. “They could carry a lot of stuff because of the high draft of the boat,” he said. “It’s very hard to sink.” Stormberg will make one vari ation on his boat. He said on most boats made by the Plains Indians the fur was on the inside or was shaved off. See BOAT on 3 Campus purse thefts escalate; caution can curb problem By David Holloway Staff Reporter The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus has been the scene of many purse thefts since November. UNL police officerCarl Oestmann, who was assigned to the case in January, said 95 percent of the cases reported involve East Campus faculty members. “The purses will be reported stolen, and when found, money is the only item missing,” Oestmann said. Helen Overstreet, a secretary at H.C. Fillcy Hall on East Campus, reported her purse was stolen between 10:30 and 11:55 last Thursday morning. She discovered her purse was missing from under her desk when she was leaving for lunch. It was found later that day by a student on the steps of the C.Y. Thompson Library with only money missing. Oestmann said faculty members could deter these crimes by not leaving valuables out in the open. •‘Almost all the thefts have taken place during the employees’ lunch breaks,” Oest mann said. ‘‘Purses that are left on top of or under desks are usually the first places that the thieves check.” So far Oestmann has found no correlation between City Campus and East Campus thefts, but most of the thefts have occurred at East Campus. ‘‘East Campus has been hit really hard lately,” Oestmann said. Close to 30 thefts have been reported since January, he said. No arrests have been made yet, but Ocst rnann said campus police have a few suspects. “We believe that there is more than one person involved in the crimes,” Oestmann said. “So far we have two or three guys under inves tigation. “The only advice I can give to employees is that if they see anyone suspicious around the office, take down their identification and call the police.”
