CORRECTION In a story about the ASUN Senate s denial of student fee funding to the Committee Offering Lesbian and Gay Events (DN, Feb. 16), ASUN Sen. Steve Thomlison said sodomy laws in the Bible show that homosexuality is morally wrong. He did not, however, quote specific Bible passages. WEATHER: Monday, light snow, high of I INDEX 30, E winds 10-20 mph, 70 percent chance of snow. Monday night, doudy with flurries, Editorial.4 highs 15-20. Tuesday, high of 35 with doudy Sports.6 skies. Classifieds.7 I February 20» 1989__University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No 104 COLAGE might go to court if denied university funds By Brandon Loomis Senior Reporter The gay and lesbian programming group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a “wait-and-see attitude” but may consider legal action if the university denies Financing it through student fees, according to the group’s co-chairperson. Nanci Hamilton of COLAGE, the Commit tee Offering Lesbian and Gay Events, said legal precedence is on the group’s side. If the I3NL administration follows the advice of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska and denies funding, she said, CO LAGE could take the university to court. “The option is there, but I’m not going to confirm or deny whether we’ll pursue that option,” Hamilton said. The decision of whether to fund the group now goes to UNL Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James Griesen and Chancellor Martin Masscngale. Hamilton said John Taylor, director of the Nebraska Civil Liberties Union, looked into similar cases in the past and found that a federal court last year ruled that denying funds to a gay and lesbian group is unconstitutional. The case, Gay and Lesbian Students Asso ciation (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville) vs. Gohn, was heard in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that denial of funds based on content of programming vio lated First Amendment free speech rights. Taylor, referring to ASUN’s consideration of COL AGE student fee funding .said, “The decisions that have been made have been made on content.” Because Nebraska is within the 8th Circuit Court’s jurisdiction, Taylor said, the Arkansas case is binding on Nebraska. The court that would hear COLAGE’s case would have to decide if the case is substantially similar, he said. “It appears to me to be substantially simi lar,’’ Taylor said, “but I’m not an attorney.” Jill Durbin, an ASUN senator and member of the Committee for Fees Allocation, said it is hard to compare the two cases. She said she would have to study the Arkansas case care fully before saying if ASUN had acted in the same manner as the University of Arkansas. ASUN voted 18-7 with one abstention Wednesday to deny COLAGE funding. “I don’t think we’ve acted unconstitution ally, and I think it’s going to be hard for them to prove we have,” Durbin said. CFA has received letters from a gay and lesbian group at a California college urging the committee to fund COLAGE, Durbin said. That group made similar claims of the uncon stitutional^ of denying funds to COLAGE, and said that it, too, had won a court case, she said. But Durbin maintained that ASUN’s and CFA’s decisions were constitutional and not based on personal prejudices. “It wasn’t a decision based on morality, at least not for me,’’ she said. Jeff Petersen, AS UN president, said that in deciding to deny funding to COLAGE, AS UN did not violate the group’s First Amendment free speech rights. “No one has ever said that the gay and lesbian community didn’t have the perfect, 1 (X) percent right to speak out and hold events on campus, ’ ’ Petersen said. “ It’s just a question of who’s going to pay for it.’’ Durbin said the new developments in the controversial COLAGE funding issue won’t change her mind or make her think she has acted unconstitutionally. “If they want to take us to court, I guess we’II just have to take them on,’’ she said. Book sells due to controversy By Brandon Loomis Senior Reporter When Waldenbooks ordered its stores across the nation to remove the con troversial book “The Satanic Verses” from the shelves Friday, customers at the Lincoln branch had already beaten them to it. The manager of Lincoln s Waldenbooks, who would not give her name, said the nation’s largest bookseller will continue to sell the book upon request where and when available. She said the decision to take the books off display was an effort to protect store employees. The book prompted Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini to demand the death of the book’s author, Salman Rushdie, because it is allegedly blasphemous. Bomb threats also have been made against the book’s U.S. publisher. Although the manager of Waldenbooks would not say if the book ever sold in Lincoln, a salesclerk confirmed Saturday that the book sold out when the controversy began last week. Waldenbooks is located in the Centrum Plaza. Kathy Stasch, manager of Lincoln’s B. Dalton Bookseller said her company ’ s national headquarters had told her not to comment on whether her store had sold the book. But B. Dalton, located in the Gateway Mall, sold out See BOOK on 3 David Frana/Dafty Nabraakan Roamin’ in sneakers A statue in Architecture Hall sports a pair of high top sneakers donated by an anonymous friend. former UNL financial aid assistant leaves Nebraska for Iowa position By Larry Peirce Senior Reporter Doug Severs begins a new job today as financial aid director of the University of Dubuque, Iowa, after 15 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Schol arships and Financial Aid. Severs, who was assistant director of the UNL office until Friday, began his career at the university in 1973, after the U.S. Department of Educa tion reviewed aid programs and found that students’ on-campus em ployment wasn’t being monitored properly. He had been there longer than anyone in die office. “They hired rne in part to fill holes they found in the (1973) review,’’ he said. The reviewers found the office was “over-awarding” aid to students because they indicated they weren’t going to work, but did, he said. Severs got his job at UNL alter he noticed a job opening at the aid office posted in the College of Business Administration. He was hired with a beginning wage of $1.90 an hour to monitor students’ on-campus em ploymcni and help students find off campus jobs. Two months later he was making $2.50 an hour, and a vear later he became coordinator of work study programs. Much has changed at the office during his time there, he said. In 1973, Pell Grants didn’t exist, and guaranteed student loans were rare. UNL offered only work study, National Direct Student Loan and Supplemental Education Opportu nity Grant programs, he said. College costed less in the early 1970s. The estimated total cost of attending UNI. was about $2,200 per year in 1973, compared to about $6,300 today, he said. “Kids could probably work and get some help from parents and get by (in 1973),’’ he said. “Now about two-thirds are on some form of finan cial aid.” The size of the office’s staff has doubled over the years, while the work has quadrupled, he said. “Thousands” of guaranteed stu dent loans go through the office every year, with almost all banks offering them, he said. Federal guidelines have caused the workload and amount of paperwork to increase, he said. One of the most frustrating aspects of the job, he said, is explaining to students that federal regulations dic tate the amount of aid they can be awarded. “I say 'I’d love to do something for you (students), but we have these federal guidelines,’*’ he said. The guidelines are “not necessar ily fair or rational,’’ but the office still must follow thei.i, he said. Aid applicants now must show they are registered or exempt from registration with the Selective Serv ice, and 30 percent of applications must be verified with tax forms, he said. These requirements didn’t exist in the mid-1970s, he said. The University of Dubuque, a pri vate school in northeast Iowa, has about 1,200 students and offers a doctor of theology degree and a lib eral arts program. Severs said it will be like returning to the early ’70s at UNL when almost ail of the work was done manually by a small staff. See SEVERS on 3 Pf JuUt Pttuet Z'WfM .....,., ■•» ^Jp^siasweaiinliifbfeac^ uui. pjc’wes has led It to help 8* * tianxc Tt«etfcb bdng «wwfoc wd by asswiett pw nkm™ :# jpBBt fa a data vorojprwaion i||* 3pm system be is working on lx *a|J»eip reduce dkioafc* in m§ aft|Ct>mnty trcm spice and wl allow research and I store targe amounts of easily ac cessible iflfotxomloki. V V' \X “The ultimate goal is trying a> vichievo maximum ;don.pres$*Q#i maximum image