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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1988)
It-x *| . ■ g^MA. MM gMf I W gf^V I I ’Ik/ $^L W T| .JSL^ IWl JL JL 1' ^B Weather: Thursday, increasing cloudi- A&E: pitcher this — ■ H / H ness, 20 percent chance of afternoon thun- page7. 1 £** 1 Sports: Husker kickers St ' 9 9 w ^fHn 9C 9 9 i *round 50 Friday- mostiy ci°udymd Sg^ir8 d baltle 2 m M m I J ■ TM ■ M M ■ M cooler with a 40 percent chance of show- B ^ JBL. HL | ers, high in the low 60s._ Administrators, student criticize ioke issue By Victoria Ayotte Senior Reporter An April Fool's Day Daily Ne braskan joke issue has sparked con cerns from several University of Nebraska-Lincoln administrators and one student, but DN editors said the criticism won’t affect the newspaper. The annual joke issue caused three state senators to write letters com plaining about the issue. Doug Engh, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student, said he had thought of starting a petition to get the DN kicked out of the Nebraska Union. But instead, Engh said he has talked to several UNL administrators about his concerns,The DN should be kicked out of the union because it is not serving the university community in a responsible way, he said. “The Nebraska Union is a real perk for you guys. It keeps you on campus Student considers petition to move DN offices in a good location,” he said. Engh said he has read the joke issue since 1975, and this year’s was the worst. “It’s just not funny anymore,” he said. “The joke issue has outlived its time.” John Peters, associate to the chan cellor, said UNL Chancellor Martin Massengale has expressed concern about the propriety of the joke issue. The chancellor’s office has received 15 to 20 complaints regarding the issue, he said. Peters said the DN Publications Board should have a public hearing on the issue. DN Editor Mike Reilley said the Board of Regents, UNL administra tors and the Publications Board have no control over the paper’s content. Student editors are in full control, he said. “They cannot regulate the edito rial content of our paper,” Reilley said. “If they do, they’ll wind up in court. ‘The bottom line is that 23,000 stu dents loved it.’ —Green “There are no strings attached to my wrists. 1 am no puppet.” Joke issue editor Chuck Green said he expected the issue to cause some problems, but too much has been made of it. “The bottom line is that 23,000 students loved it,” he said. Janies Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs, said his office has also received complaints about the issue. Griesen said he plans to talk to DN adviser Don Walton about the issue and wants to gain a better understand ing of the Publications Board’s role in respect to the DN. Walton said he is meeting with Griesen in his role as liaison for the DN with the chancellor’s office and will report Griesen’s thoughts to Reilley. Union director Daryl Swanson said he didn’t see the relationship between criticism of the joke issue and having the DN’s office in the union. “The Daily Nebraskan qualifies for use of the union in the fact that it is the student-fee-funded newspaper of this university. They have as much sanction as any other student organi zation on campus,” he said. “I perwnally disagree that the space the Daily Nebraskan occupies should in any way be held in ransom for the editorial policy of the Daily Nebraskan,” Swanson said. Next year’s DN editor, Curt Wag ner, said he plans to publish a joke issue no matter how much pressure is brought on him. “I’m already starting to save things for next year’s joke issue,” he said. UNMC official suspended; disruptive behavior charged By Ryan Steeves Staff Reporter Gregg Davenport, director of Minority Student Affairs at the Uni versity of Nebraska Medical Center, filed a second complaint with the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Com mission Wednesday after he was sus pended from his job. Davenport read a letter he received Wednesday from Arnold Menning, director of Student Services, staling that Davenport was suspended be cause of his disruptive behavior on Tuesday. The brief letter that Daven port read gave no mention of the specific behavior that resulted in his suspension. Davenport said he has no idea what behavior got him suspended. “Really, 1 can’t explain what I did that’s so disruptive,” he said. Menning; Martin Callaghan, in terim director of Human Resources at UNMC; and Charles Andrews, Chan cellor of UNMC, would not comment on the suspension. On Jan. 6, UNMC officials found Davenport guilty of harassing his secretary, Jennifer Hayes. Hayes al leged that Davenport overworked her after she told Davenport that she would no longer type his resumes. Davenport filed a grievance on Jan. 8, 1988, to get harassment charges against him dropped. Since then, Davenport alleges that UNMC officials have falsified information pertaining to the grievance. UNMC officials lack information to build a case, Davenport said. As a result, he said, they have to fabricate it. Davenport said a harassment complaint made last week by Vivyonnc Ewing, coordinator of stu dent activities within Minority Af fairs, and recently fabricated student complaints are two attempts to build a case against him. Davenport said he thinks he was suspended to provide UNMC with a stronger case. “It doesn’t surprise me,” Daven port said about the suspension. “If I walk in a room I’m disruptive. They’ll pick anything.” Davenport said he filed the com plaint with the EOC because he was not informed of specific disruptive behavior that resulted in the suspen sion and because of a recent low evaluation of his work. Davenport said he received an evaluation of his work Tuesday that was considerably lower than his pre vious evaluation. He said the low evaluation was unwarranted because his work has been satisfactory. Fred Franklin, Davenport’s attor ney, said he and Davenport will pro ceed with the next step of the griev ance process rather than take the case to court. He said the suspension, like the previous charges, lacks founda tion. “There are no facts made known to me that would justify the suspen sion,” Franklin said. Bob NiHoft/Oiiy Werwlfw Car strikes grad student Paramedics secure Bhola Nath Ob, aoraduste student In physics, on a stretcher Thursday morning. Bhola was struck by a 1978 Ford Thundertlrd while attempting to cross 18tn and Vine streets. Bhols Is listed In fair condition with back Injuries and multiple abraslono at Lincoln General Hospital. Jons Notes receives criticism for poor quality By Anne Mohri Senior Reporter Jon’s Notes needs more quality control and the typists need more supervision, said Bob Hitchcock, visiting assistant professor of an thropology at the University of Nebraska-Lin coln. Although the qual ity of the notes depends on the note-takers, Hitchcock said, part of it also depends on the typists. There have been com plaints of misspellings, incorrect information and disorganized notes. Jon Donlan, owner and founder of the note taking service, said he is confident in his note takers. He said his note-takers have taken the classes they are taking notes for, and they know what material is important. Margie Osborne, anthropology graduate student and note-taker for Anthropology 110, said students pay for Jon’s Notes and they should get quality and accuracy. “They’re getting neither,” she said. “Not consistently.” The typists do not always organize the notes correctly, she said, making the notesconfusing. Osborne said she underlines words when the professor does and often they are not under lined in the Jon’s Notes. Sometimes there are blank spaces in notes where diagrams were supposed to be, she said. And when diagrams are included in the notes, they are sloppy, Osborne said. Last semester, she said, important material was randomly left out of the notes so additional pages would not be needed. “That sort of pissed us off,” she said. Osborne said she had a long talk with Donlan and told him she was not happy with the quality of the notes sold to students. The poor quality, Osborne said, makes her look like a fool and it doesn’t make the profes sor look good either. “It reflects back on us like we’re bad note takers,” she said. Donlan said there are errors in Jon’s Notes just as there are errors in newspapers. “It is virtually impossible to be error-free all of the time,’’ he said. “We cannot guarantee 100 percent accuracy all of the time, but for the most part these are quality notes.” There were two instances where the notes were incorrect, he said. He said the notes were retyped and distributed to the students free. Mistakes are going to occur, Donlan said, but he has received very few complaints. “We haven’t had any complaints from any students,” he said. For some students, Donlan said, Jon’s Notes are better than their own notes. Osborne said Donlan has made an attempt to make the quality better by hanging signs in the office telling typists to be more careful. But nothing has changed, she said. Osborne said when the note-takers give their notes to Donlan, they lose all rights to them. That they have lost rights to the notes does not give Donlan the right to leave information out, she said. Osborne said she spent four hours rewriting some anthropology notes she had taken in class because they were messy. The retyped notes produced by Jon’s Notes were completely in correct, she said. She said she uses dashes and indentions instead of numbers and letters in outline form. The typists typed the notes in outline form, making them unclear, Osborne said. Donlan said these were the notes that were retyped and redistributed for free. Osborne said Hitchcock, whose class she takes notes for, likes her work. She said she consults Hitchcock’s notes and talks with him after class toclarify questions on material or to fill in statistics or quotes. Stan Parks, an anthropology research assis tant, said he has had similar problems with Jon’s Notes. Parks lakes notes for Anthropol ogy 110, taught by assistant professor Douglas Bamforth and instructor Nancy Hamblin. See JON’S NOTES on 5 If