WEATHER:
Tuesday, partly cloudy, high 55 to 60, winds from
the west at 10 to 20 miles per hour. Tuesday
night, partly cloudy and breezy, low of 30. Wed
nesday, partly doudy, breezy and colder, high
near 45
INDEX
News Digest.2
Editorial.4
Sports.5
Arts & Entertainment.6
Classifieds.7
fgovember 14, 1989 _____University of Nebraska-Lincoln__y^ 8g No ^ ,
Visser’s suit unsuccessful
Jury returns verdict in UNL officials’ favor
% Jerry Guenther
Unuor Reporter
IM Laura Smith
Staff Reporter
#
niversity of Nebraska-Lin
coin officials said they wen
pleased and relieved Monday
ter a U.S. District Court jury re
med a verdict in their favor in th(
ise of a fired academic adviser.
The jury, which began delibera
lions Monday morning, decided ai
,about4:20p.m. that Mary Jane Vissei
was not fired for uncovering allegec
irregularities in student athletes’ rec
ords as she had contended in hei
lawsuit.
Visser, who was employed al
tJNL for 19 years, had brought suil
against James Griesen, vice chancel
■r _—
lor for student affairs, and general
studies Director Donald Gregory.
Griesen said he was pleased, but
not surprised by the jury’s decision.
Griesen said he thought even be
fore the trial began that there was no
: relationship between Visser’s termi
nation and her claims that she was
fired for reporting alleged irregulari
ties in student athletes’ records.
The decision to terminate Visscr
was based solely on her work per
formance, he said.
In the lawsuit, Visser was seeking
her former job back, damages for
emotional distress and back pay.
Visser also contended in her origi
nal lawsuit that the NU Board of
Regents failed to protect her First
Amendment right to free speech. But
U.S. District Court Judge Warren
Urbom dismissed that pan of the case
Nov. 7 because of insufficient evi
dence.
Griesen said he regrets that many
incidents brought out during the trial
were taken out of context
Some of those incidents may have
caused the public to have some mis
understandings about Gregory, Grie
sen said.
“Hj (Gregory) is a very fine
administrator and a very fine faculty
member,” Griesen said. ‘‘He didn’t
deserve this.”
Gregory said he was relieved after
hearing the court’s decision. Gregory
said he feels he has been vindicated.
‘‘During the entire process, we
went through every proper proce
dure,” he said.
Gregory said the process he used
leading up to Visser’s termination
also was vindicated.
“The whole situation was unfor
tunate,” he said. “I’d have liked to
seen it settled earlier.”
Gregory said a lot of important
people spent a lot of time at the trial.
That time could have been used for
other things, he said.
“Now we can get back to work,”
he said.
Lincoln attorney David Buntain,
who represented the university dur
ing the trial, said he also is glad the
trial is over.
“We hope this puts an end to it,”
Buntain said. “The jury had a lot of
pieces of evidence to consider and
they came to the right result.”
Thom Cope, Visser’s attorney, •
said he and Visser are considering
their options, including appealing the
case.
Cope said he plans to contact the
jurors to find out on what basis they
decided the case.
“I believe Mary Jane Visser was
right from day one, and I still believe
that to this day,” he said.
Cope said one ramification of the
jury’s decision is that UNL employ
ees may be afraid to speak up on
matters of public concern for fear of
losing their jobs.
Although the jury ruled in Gre
gory and Griescn’s favor, U.S. Dis
trict Court Judge Warren Urbom still
has to rule on Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act in which Visser could be
iwardcd compensation for sex dis
See VISSER on 3
Mary Cadwallader (right). University of Nebraska Press advertising manager, discusses paperwork with
Camille North, science editor, In Cadwaflader's office.
NU Press running out of office space
By Rofeia Trim arc hi
Suff Reporter ,
The advertising manager for the sec
ond largest state university press in
the United States has her office in a
repainted, one-windowed former closet,
and the technology manager’s office
doubles as storage space,
The University of Nebraska Press, lo
cated in Nebraska Hall, currently occupies .
5,500 square feet of office space, yet needs
8,000 square feet to accommodate the cur
rent staff, according to Bill Regier, director
and editor in chief of the pr&s.
Employees are working in offices that
are so overcrowded that one person's phone
call disrupts another's work, he said.
"Wd’re working on top of each other/*
'and we're working against
When your reputation depends
on proofreading," he said, "it is certainly a
handicap."
As a department of the University of
Nebraska, the press is unique in that it is
both academic and a business, Regier said.
But the press cannot operate independently
like a successful business can, he said.
For example, the press cannot acquire
additional space or make its own capital
improvements, he $aid.
Money for expanded facilities must be
allocated by the Nebraska Legislature
through funding for capital construction,
Regier said.
A recently completed five-year plan
indicates that the press will need about
14,000 square feet for offices, darkrooms
and “all the things we need to publish,”
Regier said. The offices are now inacces
sible and difficult for people to find, he said.
Growth in personnel is a major need as well,
he said.
See PRESS on 3
Students rally for federal financial aid
1 By Michelle Cheney
I Staff Reporter__
The national system of student financial
aid will be replaced with a federally
funded one in 1991 if a national group
of student government representatives has its
way.
This weekend about 40 college student
government representatives from 10 stales met
in Kansas City, Mo. They discussed possible
lobbying topics for congressional hearings
next year dealing with the reaulhorization of
the Federal Higher Education Authorization
Act, said Deb Fiddelke, the Nebraska represen
tative.
The act, whi^h deals with many higher
education topics including financial aid, was
passed in the 1960s but must be reauthorized
every five years, she said. College students
may lobby the issues at the hearings. She said
the act will come to the floor of Congress in
1991 or 1992 to be reauthorized.
At the conference this weekend, representa
tives discussed mainly financial aid topics,
said Fiddelke, chairman of the Government
Liaison Committee at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln. These topics included an idea
lor a completely federally funded financial aid
plan.
The plan, named the Westport Plan, would
allow for federally subsidized higher education
by offering every potential student the equiva
lent of four years of tuition costs at a public
institution, she said.
The name of the plan is derived from the
area of Kansas City where the students stayed.
Fiddelke said this plan would consolidate
all national financial aid programs, instead of
the several programs now in use.
The Westport Plan would “completely
overhaul the (national) financial aid system,”
she said.
~ See CONFERENCE on 3
Speaker outlines
positive goals
for greek system
By Roger Price
Staff Reporter
Even though most leaders in Ajnerican
history were members of greek houses,
Walt Keim, a national speaker on greek
systems, said that is not what he sees in frater
nity and sororities on college campuses today.
Keim, a Christian campus minister and an
alumnus of Delta UpsiIon Fraternity, said that
instead of joining fraternities and sororities for
the values and skills possessed by former
members most people say today they joined
greek houses because “they have great par
ties.”
He said that 85 percent of Supreme Court •
justices, two-thirds of all Cabinet members,
and all but two presidents were members of
fraternities or sororities.
Keim tolfl the audience, which represented
almost every fraternity and sorority at the
University ol Nebraska-JJncoln, that five
things need to be done to prevent the greek
system at UNL from following the fate of greek
systems on 22 other campuses in the United
States -- dissolution.
In order for a greek system to survive, Keim
said, its members should drink responsibly, lay
off drugs, be sexually responsible, stop hazing
and conduct themselves in a way they will be
proud of later.
“If you arc going to try and live by ‘Animal
House,’ you’re going to kill yourself,” he
said.
Fraternity members should “treat women
like you hope to God someone’s treating your
sister somewhere,” Keim said, instead of the
way women are treated in the movie.
Keim said that when drinking, “If you have
fun, enjoy it, but if you have problems when
you drink, you’re a problem drinker.”
People should recognize that if drinking
causes them problems they shouldn’t drink, he
said.
When Keim asked the audience how many
people had friends in high school who were
killed in alcohol-related accidents, he said he
counted more than 100 raised hands in the two
talks he gave Monday night.
“Asa campus minister, I have to bury you
when you don’t listen to me,” he said. “I
would much rather watch you gel married."
In his travels to college and university
campuses across the United States, Keim said,
he secs too many mirrors, razor blades, baggies
and other drug paraphernalia in grcck houses.
“Either you’re doing drugs, or you’ve
opened a meal market for Lilliputians,’’ he
said.
Keim told audience members that legal
consequences of doing drugs should be enough
to make them quit.
He said it is “impossible’’ in 1989 to get a
job after being convicted of a drug misde
meanor or felony.
Sexual responsibility also should be a con
See FRATERNITY on 3
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