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April 5, 1990__University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. k&k j p /
-- f
Last-minute amendment strips restructuring bill
By Emily Rosenbaum
Senior Reporter
and Sara Bauder
Staff Reporter
In a last-minute compromise, state sena
tors on Wednesday gutted a bill to imple
ment higher education restructuring and
instead advanced a constitutional amendment
to give the present coordinating commission
more authority.
The Legislature also advanced to final read
ing LR239CA, the legis- ——
lation to create a Board of
Regents for Nebraska
Higher Education.
LB 1141 was intended
as legislation to implement
LR239CA, which would
abolish the current NU
Board of Regents and
Nebraska State College
Board of Trustees. LB 1141
called for creation of a
board of trustees for each university and state
college in Nebraska and a Board of Regents for
Nebraska Higher Education.
Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly success
fully proposed an amendment to LB 1141 which
strips the bill of its original form. The amend
ment would give the present Coordinating
Commission for Postsecondary Education the
power of coordination of programs and aca
demic activities and budget submission.
The commission now has no binding au
thority and serves as an advisory board.
Warner’s amendment passed 33-3.
Sen. Scott Moore of Seward said he sup
ported giving the commission more power
because the body now is like a ‘4 French poodle
with no teeth guarding the Brinks Bank.”
The amendment, not only ‘‘recognizes that
this body is not ready to go whole hog with
(LR)239(CA),” Moore said, but the proposal
also ‘‘gives some fangs to the poodle guarding
the bank.”
Warner, one of the sponsors of LB 1141 and
LR239CA, said his amendment would give
higher education restructuring more of a chance
on final reading to get the necessary 30 votes
for placement of the proposed constitutional
amendment on the November ballot.
The bill, as amended, passed to finakeading
37-6.
The proposed coordinating commission under
LB1141 would be composed of 11 members
who would be appointed by the governor and
approved by a majority of the Legislature. Six
of the members would be chosen from six
districts of about equal population and five
would be chosen on a statewide basis.
The commission would be established on
Jan. 1, 1992.
Another sponsor of the bills to restructure
higher education, Sen. Ron Withem of Papil
lion, failed in an attempt to delay consideration
on LR239CA until April 9.
In proposing the motion, Withem said he
wanted to ‘ ‘get a sense of where the body wants
to go with this legislation.”
Withem said he would like to see if senators
wanted to consider the constitutional amend
ment or if they wanted to study it longer.
The Legislature hasn’t really ‘‘caught on
fire” over the issue, Withem said.
One reason could be that the present ‘ ‘Board
of Regents has gone at least two months with
out doing anything stupid.” Withem said.
Sen. Sandra Scofield of Chadron said sena
tors should not bracket the constitutional amend
ment. and should address the subject because
that is what taxpayers want them to do.
“If we were paid by our productivity, we
would owe the taxpayers money because of the
last several days. Let’s earn the money we are
making and get something done,” Scofield
said.
It is important to put LR239C A on the ballot
so that the people across the state can voice
their opinions, Scofield said.
Sen. Rod Johnson of Sutton spoke in favor
of the motion to delay consideration.
Johnson said “support for this bill has not
gelled.”
“What does this bill do to improve educa
tion for students?” he asked.
Scofield said the proposal is good for stu
dents — they need coordination between the
states’ campuses for things like transfer cred
its, and non-traditional students need programs
across the state because they have families and
jobs and can’t easily move from Kearney to
Lincoln, for example.
Nebraska will lose students to other states if
itdoes not offer what they need, she said, which
is one reason for the state’s “brain drain.”
Victoria Ayotte contributed to this story.
Orr urges state senators
to sustain budget vetoes
uy victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter
Gov. Kay Orr, in urging sena
tors to ‘ ‘ say NO to more stale
spending,” Wednesday night
""WWfiU 11 Me than'St 1 million in new
spending programs.
The vetoes included several uni
versity appropriations: $900,000 for
greenhouse renovation at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln East Cam
pus; $122,085 in 1989-90 and $172,853
in 1990-91 for the Lincoln Medical
Education Foundation Family Prac
tice Program; $24,000, half the amount
requested for a chinch bug specialist;
$37,163, half the amount for a poul
try veterinarian; and $25,000, half
the amount for a potato specialist.
The governor signed the deficit
appropriations bill, LB 1031, but ve
toed $921,785 for 1989-90 and about
$5 million for 1990-91.
The bill does provide $350,000 for
instructional equipment to the Col
lege of Engineering and Technology
in 1989-90 and $525,000 in 1990-91.
The regents also will receive $1
million for health insurance in 1989
90 and $1.9 million in 1990-91. About
$1 million in 1989-90 and $1.3 mil
lion in 1990-91 was appropriated for
NU’s retirement program.
Orr vetoed LB 163, a bill to pro
vide a comprehensive solid waste
reduction and recycling plan, and
provide for research and grants to
local governments to help them li
cense their landfills.
LB520, a bill for a nursing schol
arship incentive fund, had $50,563
vetoed and $30,000 retained. Orr said
in a letter to the NU Board of Regents
that the Scholarship Assistance Pro
gram could finance the scholarship
program.
Orr signed LB260, which calls for
a tax on marijuana and controlled
substances.
She also signed LB 1220, to pro
vide financing for renovation of the
Eppley Science Hall at the University
of Nebraska Medical Center. She
vetoed appropriations of about $1.3
million for the hall, but retained
$475,000 of the funds.
Orr vetoed LB898e, which would
require $4.3 million in state funds
during the next four years for devel
opment of a Trailside Complex pro
posed as a branch of the University of
Nebraska State Museum. The bill also
would appropriate $ 190,000 for plan
ning a public events center and head
quarters building at the University of
Nebraska Agricultural Research and
Development Center at Mead.
“Both the Trailside Complex and
the Mead headquarters building are
worthy projects_However... I do
not believe that we can responsibly
commit money for these projects at
this time,” Orr said in a letter to
senators.
The governor gave a summary of
reasons for the vetoes in the state
ment. The $900,000 for greenhouse
repair was vetoed because the project
was fourteenth on the NU Board of
Regents’ priority list of 14 capital
construction projects.
According to the summary, Orr
partially vetoed funds for the medical
foundation’s family practice program,
because the University of Nebraska
Medical Center and Lincoln hospi
tals have agreed to provide additional
funds to cover the administrative costs.
The governor said the university
should reallocate its existing funds to
compensate for the partial vetoes of
See VETOES on 2
Al Sc ha ben/Daily Nebraskan
A pledge of thanks
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne thanks Gov. Kay Orr Wednesday morning for
her support of the third annual Drug-Free Pledge to be held at halftime of the Nebraska
spring football game on April 28th. Osborne, Orr and Don Banning, an assistant for
Omaha Public Schools, spoke about the pledge in the South Stadium lounge.
Delay tactics kill abortion bill
By Emily Rosenbaum
Senior Reporter
Near 11:30 Wednesday night,
Sen. John Lindsay of Omaha
conceded the defeat of his bill
to require informed consent and a 24
hour waiting period before perform
ing an abortion.
“We lost this game,” Lindsay said,
referring to the
successful fili
buster maneu
vers used by
senators opposed
to LB854.
Wednesday
was the last day
to advance bills
from select file
to final reading. ■ i
Unless a senator
would be successful today in getting
the 30 voles needed to overrule the
speaker’s agenda and suspend the mles,
the bill will not come up again.
Senators began debate on LB854
at about 7 p.m. with a motion by Sen.
David Bemard-Stevens of North Platte
to postpone the bill until >4 pril 9,
1990.
Bemard-Stevens then amended his
motion to postpone the bill until April
10.
He said the motion pending
Wednesday to suspend the rules and
advance the bill to final reading with
out further amendments or any de
bate was “anti-democratic.”
On Tuesday, the Legislature ad
vanced to select file a package of nine
bills, including the informed consent
bill, without debate.
Sen. Dianna Schimek of Lincoln
said it would 4 ‘ make a mockery of the
legislative process” to place the bill
on final reading without debate or
amendments.
'4 How do we know the facts in this
issue unless we discuss it,” she said.
The Bemard-Stevens motion to
postpone failed 8-31.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha
said a provision of the bill which
requires women to be informed of the
abortion procedure would be as
“gruesome, (and) as difficult as pos
sible,” for the woman.
He compared the proposed descrip
tion of the abortion procedure to that
of a dentist explaining to a patient the
procedure for removing a tooth.
Chambers said the description could
be designed to frighten the patient
away.
Sen. Sandra Scofield of Chadron
told senators ‘ ‘to take this bill out and
show it to the women in this stale.
“I think this bill really says you
don’t trust women,” she said.
“It’s unfortunate that this bill won’t
be considered, won’t be voted on this
year,” said Sen. James McFarland of
Lincoln, in response to the numerous
motions that were offered by senators
trying to delay the bill.
McFarland said the “vast major
ity” of abortions are for “birth con
trol reasons,” because the woman
doesn’t want to interrupt her career or
her college training, or for fear of
disapproving parents.
“Yes, you might have to wait
overnight,” Lindsay said. “But fora
decision that’s going to affect you for
the rest of your life, maybe that’s
important.”
The Legislature voted to adjourn,
27-11, at about 11:30 p.m.
ASUN passes bill to ban library smoking
From Staff Reports_
A fter a filibuster lasting almost
half an hour, student leaders
^ ^passed a bill urging university
administrators to ban smoking in Love
Library.
In the last meeting of this year’s
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska Senate, members
acted on Government Bill 9, which
was tabled at the last meeting.
ASUN President Bryan Hill, who
proposed the bill, said smoke in the
library disrupts studying by non
smokers because air from the smok
ing area travels through the entire
building. Smoke deteriorates books
in the library, he said, and studies
have shown that it damages build
ings.
Hill said simply replacing the
ventilation system to solve the prob
lems would be costly and unrealistic.
Criminal justice Sen. Lisa Lannin,
a circulation desk worker at the li
brary, said she is against the bill be
cause she thinks students will smoke
in other areas of the library if the
designated area is abolished. She said
she sees students breaking library rules
every day by eating in the stacks. The
same thing would happen with smok
ing if it were banned, she said.