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April 10. 1990 8 B ' University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No
State senators place
beefed-up commission
on November ballot
By Emily Rosenbaum
Senior Reporter
Slate senators Monday gave
Nebraska voters the power
to determine the course of
higher education governance.
On the last day of the 60-day
legislative ses
sion, senators
. voted 35-12 to
place LB1141,
which pro
poses a consti
tutional
amendment to
create a more
powerful Co
ordinating
Commission for Postsecondary
Education, on the November bal
lot.
LB 1141 originally was intended
as the implementation legislation
for LR239CA, another proposed
constitutional amendment to pro
vide for changes in higher educa
tion governance. LR239CA was
passed over Monday.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jerome
Warner of Waverly successfully
stripped LB 1141 of its original intent
and added provisions to grant the
coordinating commission budget
authority and the power to coordi
nate programs and academic ac
tivities.
The current commission serves
only as an advisory board.
Under LB 1141, the structure of
the NU Board of Regents and the
Nebraska State College Board of
Trustees would stay the same, but
the boards’ duties would be re
duced to day -to-day management
of the institutions.
The original higher education
legislation,LR239CA, would have
replaced the current NU Board of
Regents and die State College Board
of Trustees with an overall govern
ing board and institutional boards
of trustees.
The Legislature passed over
LR239CA Monday at the request
of Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion,
the resolution’s sponsor.
Withem said his proposed con
stitutional amendment seemed to
be “causing confusion” with the
amended LB 1141.
He said that although he favors
his original proposal “we should
focus our efforts on 1141.”
The proposed coordinating com
mission would be made up of 11
members to be appointed by the
governor and approved by the
Legislature. Six members would
be chosen from districts of about
See EDUCATION on 3
Davki Hansen/Daily Nebraskan
State Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion, addresses the Legisla
ture on Monday afternoon during the last day of the 60-day
session.
State budget nearly balanced as session ends
ay victoria Ay one
Senior Reporter
Suite senators adjourned for the
year Monday night after over
riding millions in gubernato
rial vetoes and leaving the state just
about at the legal level for a balanced
budget.
The state must have a 3 percent
reserve over a
balanced budget
and came within
a half million of
reaching that
point Monday
night.
Sen. Jerome
Warner of Wav
crly gave senators
a running total of
how much was left to override and
still maintain the legal 3 percent re
quirement.
The Legislature has an “obliga
tion” to follow through on this, he
said, and urged senators to give
“careful thought” in voting to over
ride bills.
Senators defeated a motion to re
instate SI90,000 for development of
a public events center and headquar
ters building at the University of
Nebraska Agricultural Research and
Development Center at Mead.
Senators approved a $269,000
override of funds for National Guard
tuition credits.
The budget realities came home as
senators rejected most veto override
attempts on the mam deficit appro
priations bill, LB 1031.
1 he Legislature deleatea an over
ride attempt on the governor ’ s veto of
$24,000 for a chinch bug specialist at
the University of Nebraska.
Sot. Spence Morrissey of Tecumseh
supported the override, saying south
east Nebraska is “infested” with the
bugs.
“There are a lot of little buggers
out there running around,” he said.
Warner said the Legislature has
recognized in part the seriousness of
the chinch bug issue and private funds
or reallocation within the university
could make up for the partial veto.
Senators also defeated an override
attempt of Phase II of the LB247
study committee, which would look
at role and mission of the universities
and state colleges.
Nebraska legislators approved over
riding the language related to a
$900,000 veto for UNL’s East Cam
pus greenhouse renovation but did
not reinstate the appropriation. The
Legislature had appropriated $ 1 mil
lion, and the language said the project
cost should not exceed $1.9 million.
Orr vetoed that language, which
makes it unclear whether the state
wants the project completed. Outside
funds could be used to take over for
the $900,(XX) greenhouse renovation.
Sen. George Coordsen of Hebron said.
An override attempt failed to rein -
state $24,100 for counseling of the
Nebraska Indian Community College.
Senators also defeated a $395,(XX)
override attempt to reinstate money
for Museum of Nebraska Art at Kear
ney State College.
Senators reject
governor’s veto
of recycling bill
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter
State Sen. Rod Johnson of Sut
ton on Monday used some
strong language in urging
Nebraska legislators to override the
governor’s veto of the recycling bill
he sponsored.
Johnson said Gov. Kay Orr’s veto
message on
LB 163, to pro
vide a compre
hensive plan and
grants to reduce
solid waste,
probably did not
serve any purpose
“other than to
piss us off.”
Johnson later
said that may have been a poor
of words, but he fell strongly that On
had missed the point when she ob
jected to LB 163.
urr naa saia me dim lanea 10 nuna
on the Legislature’s past work on the
solid waste issue.
“That’s what the purpose of this
bill has been from the teginning,”
Johnson said.
The Environmental Protection
Agency will change regulations and
force hundredsof unlicensed landfills
in Nebraska to close if the Legislature
does not act, he said.
“Why wait until the train hits you
before getting off the tracks,’’ he said.
Johnson said LB 163 would “get
us moving down the road’’and off the
tracks with its provision for a $1 tax
on tires, fee for businesses and 5500,000
from the state treasury. That money
will be used to create a plan for waste
reduction and grants to local govern
ments to help them license their
landfills.
“I guess I’m just asking you to
have the guts to vote for the bill,’’ he
said.
Sen. Elroy Hefner of Coleridge
opposed the override, saying the fee
to businesses is “unfair,” and the bill
singles out one part of the problem,
tires, to lax.
“This problem is too important to
ignore,” Sen. Don Weselv of Lincoln
responded.
“To avoid doing something this
year, to me, just delays the inevi
table,” Johnson said. Senators over
rode the veto 31-16.
Spring break protesters arrested
for trespassing at nuclear test site
By Matt Herek
Staff Reporter
Ten Lincolniies and University of Ne
braska-Lincoln students went to Ne
vada for Spring Break -- expecting to
get arrested.
Nell Eckcrsley, a sophomore social sci
ences major, said they were protesting nuclear
weapons testing, ecological damage from the
tests, and that land for a test site in southern
Nevada was taken away from the Shoshone
Indians.
The protesters were arrested for trespassing
March 31, along with about 800 others at the
Nevada Test Site, she said.
Eckcrsley said she went to the protest, spon
sored by the anu-nuclear group American Peace
Test, so the U.S. government would hear that
she and thousands of other protesters think the
test site should not exist.
Eckerslcy said the land she was arrested on
belongs to the Shoshone Indians. It was placed
under government supervision without permis
sion from the Shoshones, she said, who have
riot received reparations for it.
Tyler Divis of Lincoln said that when he
was arrested he was placed in a holding cell
until buses arrived to take him on a60-mile trip
to Beatty, Ncv., where he was given a ticket for
trespassing and released.
Eckersley said she thinks her arrest will not
catch up with her in the future unless she tries
to become a U.S. citizen. Eckersley said she
currently is a British citizen.
The citizens of the area around the test site
have mixed feelings about the annual Peace
Test, she said.
Some people thanked the protesters for trying
to make their homes and the world safe from
nuclear weapons, she said, while others think
they arc just hippies causing trouble and not
solving any problems.
Divis said that while they were in Nevada,
some of the protesters from Lincoln helped set
up and run a community center. They posted
the activities and events that went on, coordi
nated rides and consolidated information about
what other groups were doing around the coun
try.
Protesters also participated in workshops
and demonstrations, Divis said.
See PROTEST on 3
Selling T-shirts in Nebraska
Union banned for religious bias
By Todd Neeley
Staff Reporter
UNL’s Affirmative Action compliance
officer Monday decided that Stu
dents for Choice could not giveaway
or sell a T-shirt because it contains what he
considered a religiously biased statement.
Bradley Munn said in a press release that
“if pamphlets were being passed out this
would be tolerated, but displaying the shirt
and vending it on University of Nebraska
Lincoln property can be seen as degrading
and humiliating to many Roman Catholics
and others.”
The shirts about * ‘The Incredible Shi ink
ing Woman ’ s R ight to Choose “include the
statement “rated PC, papal guidance is
suggested.” If that statement were removed,
Munn said, he would not oppose sales.
He said the issue at hand is not whether a
group is for or against abortion, but that
students with Catholic backgrounds or any
other religion would be offended.
‘‘It’s difficult to draw the line,” Munn
said. ‘‘No one would disagree that if the
shirts read, ‘Kill all Jews, assassinate all
gays or rape all women,’ that they should
... be removed and not sold on our cam
pus.”
He said stores in the union also would not
be permitted to sell T-shirts that said some
thing ‘‘degrading to the pope.”
Munn said it wouldn’t be fair to allow
students to do one thing ‘‘in a student
owned-and-operated building” and not al
low others to do the same.
Munn said the group wasn’t asked to stop
selling all its shirts, ‘‘only from displaying
and selling this one.”
He said that if the group were to sell the
shirt in any place other than approved union
booth, it would be less likely to be banned.
Munn said he will ‘‘convene with other
UNL administrators to develop a wntten
policy” to make sure items sold on campus
See SHIRT on 3