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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.”
