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INDEX
News Digest.2
Editorial.4
Sports.5
Arts & Entertainment.6
Classifieds.6
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November 10,1989__ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No*®
Job performance scrutiny continues
Testimony ends; jury to begin deliberation
By Eric Pfanner
Senior Editor
In the last day of testimony at a
U.S. District Court trial, fired
general studies adviser Mary
Jane Visser’s job performance con
tinued to come under close scrutiny.
The question of whether “her in
terest and intention was on something
other than her job,” or “the defen
dants got together ... and decided to
get rid of her” was left to the jury.
Deliberations begin Monday.
David Buntain, representing Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln officials
named in Visser’s lawsuit, continued
to assert that Visser was fired for poor
formance.
m Cope, representing Visser,
said her termination was a result of a
“conspiracy” on the part of Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs James
Griesen, general studies Director
Donald Gregory and other university
officials. Cope said they fired her
because of her investigation into ir
regularities of student athletes’ rec
ords.
Visser is suing to get her job back,
damages for emotional distress and
back pay.
During his closing argument
Thursday, Cope asked the jury for
$350,000 in future pay, $24,500 in
hack pay and $1 million for emo
tional distress.
Cope said he asked for this much
in damages to “send a message to the
defendants and people like them.’’
Bunlain said returning a verdict in
Visser’s favor would “encourage
public employees to feel it’s OK not
to put in a 40-hour week.’’
Unlike her co-workers, Buntain
said, Visser was not able to take criti
cism. Several other general studies
employees took the witness stand
Thursday.
Cope asked Susan (Carpenter)
Wade, general studies adviser,
whether she had discussed the case
with Michael Shada, another adviser,
and receptionist Kathi Vohland while
the three sal together in the court
room Thursday. Vohland said she
had.
Shada said, ‘‘that’s a lie,” when
asked the same question earlier
Thursday.
Cope said that was evidence of a
conspiracy.
Visser was treated differently than
Shada by UNL officials, Cope said,
because, “she (Visser) was not the
goodold girl who stayed at home. She
was the woman in the office who
stood up.”
Buntain said Visser’s claims of
sex discrimination were excuses to
cover up poor job performance. Other
members of the general studies office
performed their jobs appropriately,
he said, so they were not fired.
Instead of digging into student
athletes’ records to try to uncover
irregularities, Buntain said, Visser
should have concentrated on her job
performance.
* ‘The athletic department is not on
trial in this case,” Buntain said. ‘‘Ms.
Visser was trying to put them on
trial.”
About the irregularities, he said,
‘‘there’s a lot of smoke and no fire.”
One of the irregularities men
tioned during the trial was that sev
eral Comhuskers played in the 1988
Fiesta Bowl after being dismissed
from the university. But under
NCAA rules, that is allowed, Buntain
said.
Another irregularity Visser re
ported, he said, was that several sen
ior athletes were enrolled in general
studies, and had not declared a major.
But Buntain said 280 senior non-ath
letes were in general studies at the
same time, so they also had not de
clared a major.
“Where’s the beef? Where are the
irregularities?” Buntain asked.
Cope said it was irregular that 5 th
ycar-senior athletes were in general
studies, and not showing “satisfac
tory progress” toward a degree.
“There was no need to complain
about students, just the athletes,” he
See VISSER on 3
KSC case
to be heard
in January
By Jerry Guenther
Senior Reporter
Assistant Attorney General Harold
Mosher said Thursday he thinks it will
be early January before the state Su
preme Court hears a case challenging the con
stitutionality of transferring Kearney State
College into the University of Nebraska sys
tem.
‘you just simply cannot
take Kearney State
from the Board of Trus
tees. If you do that,
there is no stability in
our government.’
-- Mosher
Mosher, who has filed a lawsuiton behalf of
Attorney General Robert Spire, said he filed
his closing brief on the case Tuesday.
LB247, which calls for a task-force study of
higher education in the state, would transfer
KSC into the NU system by July 1,1991.
Because of a specialized statute, Mosher
said, the attorney general can sue the secretary
of state in state Supreme Court to determine the
See KEARNEY on 3
Pro-choice coalition
rally set for Sunday
By Jana Pedersen
Senior Reporter__
The battle over abortion rights will shift
from the national front to the state level
Sunday as pro-choice activists across
the country stage rallies at state capitols.
Locally, activists are preparing for a Sunday
rally on the north steps of the Nebraska Stale
Capitol in Lincoln.
Elaine Waggoner, president of voters for
Choice, called the rally the “kick-off” of f*
series of activities planned by the Pro-Choice
Coalition of Nebraska.
The coalition is made up of 18 Nebraska
pro-choice organizations, including Voters for
Choice.
•.“The main message we want to send to
legislators and the governor’s office is,that we
are here and that a majority of mainstream
Nebraskans believe in pro-choice,” Waggoner
said.
The rally will include a program of six pro
choice speakers and two singing groups, she
said. Coalition members also will set up tables
for distributing information and selling T
shirls, buttons and balloons, she said.
Elna Peirce, president of the Pro-Choice
Coalition of Nebraska, said the program will
start at 2 p.m. and wiir last about 45 minutes.
After the program ends, she said, the rally
will move to the YWCA for an information
session on future activities and opportunities
for networking.
The coalition has spent about $2,000 to
promote the event, she said.
Rachel Murray, acting coordinator for the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln organization
Students for Choice, said the student group has
been involved in preparations for the rally.
See PROTEST on 3
Sorority to prohibit little sister participation
By Lisa Bolin
Staff Reporter_
Being a little sister will become
a thing of the past for Kappa
Delta sorority members at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The sorority has adopted a resolu
tion prohibiting members from par
ticipating in women’s auxiliary
groups, such as fraternity little sister
programs, beginning in the fall se
mester of 1992, said Mary O Brien,
Kappa Delta president.
O’Brien, a senior biology major,
said the Kappa Delta’s Pi chapter in
Lincoln is not the only chapter of the
sorority that has adopted the resolu
tion* • ,
The policy was voted on and
passed at the sorority’s national con
vention in June, she said.
According to the resolution,
members who violate the policy will
be subject to disciplinary action that
could result in losing sorority mem
bership.
Melanie McMillan, spokesperson
for the sorority’s national chapter in
Denver, said the resolution is based
on a resolution adopted by the Na
tional Panhellenic Conference in
November 1988.
NPC’s resolution, she said, dis
courages the formation of all auxil
iary groups concerning both men and
women, but does not specifically
prohibit them.
Kappa Delta’s resolution also
prohibits men’s groups within the
sorority, McMillan said.
Little sister programs defeat the
purpose of a sorority's formation as a
separate and equal women’s frater
nity, she said.
“The little sister program dis
tracts from the concept of single-sex
membership," McMillan said.
NPC discourages auxiliary
groups, she said, because they take
away time and effort from both fra
ternities and sororities. Little sister
members may tend to spend more
time benefitling the fraternity than
their sorority, McMillan said.
Another reason Kappa Della
adopted the resolution is that many
little sister programs can contribute
to the formation of cliques within the
sorority, she said.
O’Brien said she doesn’t think the
policy will have a negative effect on
sorority members. Little sister pro
grams help younger members assimi
late into the greek system, she said,
but are not vital to sororities.
Jayne Wade Anderson, director of
greek affairs at UNL, said dissolving
little sister programs is becoming a
trend for many fraternities and sorori
ties.
The National Interfratemity Con
ference adopted a resolution in 1987
encouraging fraternities to eliminate
little sister programs, she said.
‘The little sister
program distracts
from the concept
ofsinale-sex
membership. ’
--McMillan
UNL Ioterfratemity Council
President Kevin Yost said seven little
sister programs remain at UNL fra
ternities. Acacia, FarmHouse, Alpha
Gamma Rho, Sigma Alpha Mu, Beta
Sigma Psi, and Triangle fraternities
still have little sister programs, and
Alpha Gamma Sigma is in the proc
ess of phasing its out, according to
house officers.
Officers of the other UNL sorori
ties said they do not have a policy
prohibiting participating in auxiliary
groups, but many said their national
chapters discourage it.
International President for Delta
Gamma Sorority Maureen Syring
said the sorority does not prohibit
members from joining little sister
groups because this would be a viola
tion of their First Amendment rights
of freedom of association.
However, she said, the sorority
highly discourages it and has seerna
large decline recently in the number •
of members becoming liuie sisters.
O'Brien said Kappa Delta will not
enforce the resolution any sooner
than 1992. Currently, 10 to 15 Kappa
Deltas are active in little sitter pro
grams, she said.