WEATHER: INDEX
Monday, mostly sunny, high in 20s with N j^g Digest 2
winds less than 10 mph. Monday night, clear Editorial „ ........ V.V. . 4
and colder with low of 10. Tuesday, nighs 30- Sports.7
40. Wednesday through Friday, dry weather Arts & Entertainment — .9
with high in mid 40s Wednesday warming to Classifieds.11
60s on Friday.
March 6,1989 _ University o? Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 114
NCAA due process bill fails to advance any further
By Jerry Guenther
Surff Reporter
Saying he does not wish to “slap the
wrist of the only entity” that regulates
college athletics, Sen. Loran Schmit of
Beliwood lea opposition to a bill Friday that
would have required the NCAA to use due
process when disciplining Nebraska colleges
and universities.
LB397, which received unanimous first
round approval in the Nebraska Legislature,
failed to advance from select file when only 21
of the needed 25 senators voted in favor of the
measure. The final vote was 21-8-8.
If LB397 would have become law, Ne
braska would have been the first state in the
nation requiring the NCAA to use due process
when disciplining member colleges and uni
versities in the state.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, co-sponsor
of the bill, said he drafted the bill because of
sanctions against a coach who had his constitu
tional rights of due process violated during an
NCAA investigation.
In that case, a Nevada state court ruled the
NCAA had an investigator who showed bias
against University of Nevada-Las Vegas coach
Jerry Tarkanian. UNLV was placed on two
years probation in 1977 for 38 rules violations,
including 10 involving Tarkanian.
The NCAA appealed the Nevada state court
decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last
Dec. 12 that the NCAA is not bound by federal
due process laws because it is a private institu
tion.
4 ‘The only way you can make them comply
with due process is through state law,'4 Cham
bers said.
Chambers said he has been contacted by
people from other states who want to pass
similar legislation.
During debate on the bill, Chambers said
LB397 would give colleges and universities in
the state a cause of action to recover damages
if the NCAA did not act fairly.
Chambers said the University of Nebraska
Lincoln was dealt with unfairly in 1986 when
the NCAA tried to suspend a large number of
football players for the mishandling of football
tickets.
But, Chambers said, “the NCAA backed
down,” because of media coverage and strong
public pressure from the fans.
Chambers also said the NCAA has been
working to promote itself while not always
considering the best interests of the athletes.
Schmit said he admits he doesn’t know how
“brutal” the NCAA can be, but said he didn’t
want to hamper the only association that regu
lates college athletics.
“Someone has to have some oversight,”
Schmit said.
Schmit said that college athletics now
supersede academic programs in importance,
and that the time has come to put college
athletics back into their “proper place.”
Before the bill was voted down. Sen. Doug
Kristensen of Minden moved to postpone de
bate until the Legislature could get an attorney
general ’s opinion to determine if the bill could
e unconstitutional.
Kristensen later withdrew his motion after
Chambers said he would agree to add any
amendments that the attorney general would
suggest before the bill’s final reading.
Mock COLAGE newsletters
distributed throughout campus
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
A university official said the
fact that someone placed
stacks of mock newsletters
about the Committee Offering Les
bian and Gay Events next to Daily
Nebraskan stacks last week proves
there is a need on campus for educa
tion in the rights of individuals.
“It frankly is an indication that
people on the campus aren’t respect
ful of the rights of gays,” said James
Griesen, vice chancellor for student
affairs. “I certainly hate to see at
tempts at humor that are at the ex
pense of other!”
The letter proposes the creation of
“COLAGE College,” offering stu
dents fictional courses in sodomy,
androgeny and speech communica
tion which “shows how anyone can
learn to talk like a homosexual.”
In a brief, satirical history of gays
on campus, the letter says students
persecuted gays in the past, forcing
them to “retreat to the safety of their
closet, the Sheldon Art Gallery.”
This “sad state of affairs” contin
ued until February, 1989, the letter
says, when Chancellor Martin Mas
sengale and Griesen granted funding
to COLAGE.
Griesen and Masscngale have not
made a decision on whether to fund
COLAGE yet. Griesen said he will
consider the question and come to a
decision some time after Wednesday.
Griesen said lie has not yet care
fully weighed the evidence, but if the
letter has any effect on his decision, it
probably will be on the side of CO
LAGE and the educational programs
it has proposed.
In the letter, the group claiming to
have envisioned the COLAGE Col
lege is the “Society for Prevention of
Cruelty to Avacados (sic).”
Brad Munn, University of Ne
braska-Lincoln Affirmative Action
officer, said that because avocados
are fruits, the group is probably using
a play on words.
Also included in the list of courses
to be offered by the college:
• “Creative Thinking, covering
methods used in making up words
like ‘homophobia’ and defining them
to your advantage.”
• An economics course, teaching
“How to tum your particular sexual
practices into money-making minor
ity status.”
• An evolution course ‘ ‘nails down
exactly where gays are on the evolu
tionary ladder.
iSpit Doctoring” teaches how
to “blame the spread of AIDS on
drug addicts and heterosexuals.”
The letter says anyone interested
in enrolling in the college should pick
up a registration form from a Daily
Nebraskan editorial writer.
Griesen said a student brought a
copy of the letter to his office last
week. After reading it, Griesen said
he found several of the letters next to
the stack of Daily Nebraskans in the
Administration Building and threw
the letters away.
Whoever wrote the letter has First
Amendment free speech rights, Grie
sen said, and there is nothing legally
wrong with the letter.
But if the group includes faculty
members, Griesen said, some action
could be taken because an employer
has the right to demand equal treat
ment for all employees.
Munn said the affirmative action
office cannot prosecute groups for
discrimination against homosexuals
because such discrimination is not
against state or university regula
tions.
But Munn said if he finds out who
distributed the letter he will try to
make them understand that such ac
tions have only negative results.
NU backs bill aiding students
from lower-income families
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
University officials and stu
dents testified Friday in favor
of a bill that would make in
come the major determining factor in
state financial aid, instead of making
the cost of a chosen school a major
consideration.
About 65 people listened as the
Legislature’s Appropriations Com
mittee held a public hearing on
LB468.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
James Griesen said NU supports
LB468 because of the bill’s apparent
intent to help students from low-in
come families.
He said mem students currently
are going to lower cost schools in the
state than to private schools because
low-income students can’t afford
private schools.
For that reason, he said, more fi
nancial aid should go to lower cost
schools, so more low-income stu
dents can afford college.
“I certainly favor channelling
those dollars along the lines of where
the needy students go,” Griesen said.
Deb Fiddelke, UNL student lob
byist, said the bill allows actual need
to be the determining factor.
“I stand in full support of provid
ing aid to those students who are truly
needy,” Fiddelke said.
See AID on 6
--------
Shannon Struby (41), a high school junior, celebrates as the final seconds tick off the
clock during Millard South s 57-29 win over Kearney in the Nebraska Girl’s High School
Basketball class A championship game Saturday night at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
Prof: Few pursue advanced degrees
By Lisa Twiestmeyer
Staff Reporter
The perception that there are few
faculty job openings in biology may
be one reason why fewer students are
pursuing advanced degrees in the
field, according to one University of
Nebraska-Lincoln biology professor.
Royce Ballinger, director of the
School of Biological Sciences, said
he thinks the number of students en
tering graduate programs in biology
has decreased nationwide, but the
opportunity for available jobs is a
major factor in this decrease.
Ballinger said many biology stu
dents are aware that there have been
plenty of candidates to fill available
faculty positions in the past
“Faculty positions have generally
been so tight that this may be a reason
that students have shied away,”
Ballinger said. “When they start to
loosen up, the number of graduate
students will increase.”
Low salaries and stipends for
graduate students may be another
reason for the decrease at many uni
versities, including UNL, Ballinger
said. The salary for a biology teach
ing assistant at UNL is $7,500, he
said, which is “no longer competi
tive” with salaries at other universi
ties.
Other schools like Texas A&M
are offering $10,000 to $12,000 to
teaching assistants in molecular plant
biology, Ballinger said. If that salary
is converted to full-time hours,
“that’s almost like hiring a faculty
member,” he said.
“We need to raise stipends (to)
$9-10,000 in order to be competi
tive,” Ballinger said, “and we are
not able to do that right now.”
Ballinger said that although more
science students pursue degrees in
biology than any other science na
tionwide, many of these students are
attracted to jobs in fields such as
industry and medicine because of
higher salaries.
The department has tried to raise
the budget for teaching assistant sala
ries, he said, but this reduces the
number of TAs the department can
support. There are so many sections
of biology labs to be taught, he said,
that TAs cannot cover all of the de
partment’s teaching needs.
UNL’s biology department must
employ undergraduate biology stu
dents to teach some of the freshman
biology courses, Ballinger said. Each
year the department selects 40 to 50
junior or senior undergraduates to
teach the beginning classes, he said.
“They do a very good job,”
Ballinger said. ‘ ‘We haven’t suffered
in quality. It’s the only way we are
able to survive as far as covering all
our needs.”
Ballinger said he doesn’t think
UNL’s biology department will face
a severe faculty shortage in the 1990s
like some are predicting for other
departments.
He said he doubts there will be a
glut of retirements then, and that the
department has been able to maintain
a competitive starting salary to attract
new professors.
“We haven’t noticed an inability
to find and attract good candidates,”
he said. "I’m not sure that it will ever
be a problem.”
Ballinger said starting salaries afe
a “function of the market place - if
you want a good one, you have to pay
the going rate.”
The concern at UNL lies in keep
ing the salaries competitive once the
faculty is hired, he said.
The biology department has lost
four faculty members in the last two
to three years, Ballinger said. One left
to take a job in industry, and three
went to teach at other universities.
Ballinger said he doesn't know if
the professors left because of low
salaries, inadequate research support
or for personal reasons.