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PartSy sunny today with a high of 30
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night, doudy with a 40 percent
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teens Cloudy Friday with a 30 per
cent chance of snow and highs in
the low 20s.
Strong board
would limit NU,
regent powers
8y Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
A bill introduced Wednesday to provide
powers and duties for a strengthened
higher education coordinating commis
sion would r.ot hurt the university, but would
limit the regents’ powers, officials said.
Larry Scherer, legal
counsel to the Nebraska
Legislature’s Education
Committee, and Richard
Wood, University of Ne
braska vice president and
general counsel, agreed
that the bill, LB663,
wouldn’t have a detrimen
tal effect on the university.
“I think the university will still be the pre
mier higher institution in the state,’’ Scherer
said. “Its authority to do whatever it wants to.
.. will be somewhat limited.”
Voters approved a constitutional amend
ment in November to strengthen the existing
Nebraska Coordinating Commission for
Postsecondary Education. The commission now
serves only as an advisory body.
The implementing legislation would pro
vide that the commission could approve or
disapprove programs, review and submit budget
requests to the Legislature for public higher
education institutions, approve changes in role
and mission statements and create a compre
hensive statewide plan for postsecondary edu
cation.
Changes in role and mission statements
See COMMISSION on 3
ASUN approves
support of troops,
lobbying, parking
By Adeana Leftin
Staff Reporter
Thunder from the Persian Gulf had reper
cussions on Wednesday’s meeting of
the Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska. _
A resolution support- r AC£| i&J
ing U.S. use of force in
the gulf failed to receive
the votes needed for con
sideration on emergency
status.
General Studies Sen.
Andrew Sigerson, who
authored the resolution,originally submitted it
at the Jan. 15 ASUN meeting, but said he
didn't bring it up then because of the emo
tional strain caused by the beginning of the
war that night.
“I think it’s an issue that deserves discus
sion on campus,” Sigerson said. “It’s the war
See ASUN on 3
Charlie CofbTh of Lincoln waves a flag in support of troops in the Middle East during a rally at the State Capitol
building Wednesday evening. Corbin said attendance at the rally, estimated at 1,400, was excellent.
1,400 rally in support of flag, troops
By Alan Phelps
Staff Reporter
Fourteen hundred flag-waving patri
ots formed a sea of red, white and
blue on the steps of the State Capitol
Wednesday evening in a show of support for
America’s troops in the Persian Gulf.
“This is outstanding,” said Jim Willett,
one of the organizers of the rally. “This is
way more than the 200 or 300 people we
expected.”
Flags of all sizes were lofted by people of
all ages as several speakers, including Gov.
Ben Nelson, took the podium to the cheers
of the crowd. Business suits mixed with
camouflage outfits while the group listened
to the speakers, sang patriotic songs and
chanted “U-S-A ”
Signs and banners with wonts like “Thank
You, Troops,” and “Support Your Troops”
mingled with the flags. At the base of one
large banner proclaiming “Beta Sigma Psi
Supports Our Troops” stood Dan Niebaum,
a junior architecture major.
“I’m here to support the troops,” Nie
baum said. “There’s a lot of guys in our
house that are in the National Guard or
Reserves. It’s kind of a show of support for
them. If people can protest, people can sure
support.”
“It lets troops know that there are people
back here behind them,” said Chris Meier, a
freshman mechanical engineering major.
Such sentiments were echoed by Nelson.
“We are behind their effort. We support
their effort through and through,” Nelson
said from the podium. He called on the
rallygocrs to meet again in a week and “not
grow weary of showing our support” for
America's soldiers.
State Sen. La Von Crosby of Lincoln said
she, loo, was behind the troops in the Middle
East.
“Nobody likes war, but when our men
and women go out to do their duty, it is our
job to support them,” she said. “I lost two
good friends from high school (during World
War II), so I know what war is like. But still
we must support our troops.
“We believe in our troops. We back them
with our hopes and our prayers,” Crosby
said.
Lincoln Mayor Bill Harris said he thought
it was great to see this show of support for
the forces in the gulf.
“It’s important to attend rallies like this
as long as conflict endures,” he said. “Your
presence is important for these people.”
Harris’ closing statement, “God bless
them, God bless you and God bless the
U.S.A.,” brought an enthusiastic reaction
from the crowd.
Last to speak was Vietnam veteran David
Traver, who began to speak as a group
singing of “America” was dying down.
Traver said that even those people who
protest the war support the troops, whether
they know it or not, because without the
troops, “they couldn’t do what it is they do.”
“This is not a political rally,” Traver
said. “It’s not a protest. It’s not something
we did just to show other people we could
organize also. We all have different opin
ions about the war. Today we are gathered
here to show unbending support to our troops
See RALLY on 3
UNL professor
I-—1 discusses
POWs.Page4
What’s new in the Nebraska Leg
islature. Page 6
Diversions’ view of life in the
UNL campus residence hafls.
Page 7 .
uu. INSIDE
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Diversions 7
Sports 15
Classified 18
U.S., Iraq meet in northern border firefight
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia - U.S.
armored cavalrymen skir
mished with Iraqis in the first
firefight along the northern border,
where vast fleets of tanks maneu
vered and dug in on the desert floor
Wednesday for the land war just over
the horizon. _
The Ameri
cans captured -
six Iraqis and
suffered two
slight casualties,
the U.S. com
mand said. It
denied a
Baghdad claim that the Iraqis also
seized prisoners.
Iraq fired off a double-barreled
volley of Scud missiles at both Saudi
Arabia and Israel. No casualties were
reported immediately.
One Scud descended on northern
Israel about 10 p.m. and was inter
cepted by U.S.-supplied Patriot de
fense missiles, the Israeli military said.
At the same time, over Saudi Arabia,
at least three other Scuds apparently
were intercepted by Patriots, Saudi
officials and witnesses reported.
The Israeli leadership was holding
its fire Wednesday at the urging of the
United States.
Kuwaiti oil installations burned
on, sabotaged by the Iraqis and show
ered nearby Iran with “black rain.”
The skies over Iraq itself began to
clear, and allied air commanders
pressed their mission-a-minute cam
paign in the seventh day of Operation
Desert Storm.
Allied bombers have demolished
half of Iraq’s oil-refining capacity,
commanders said. Iraq announced it
was suspending gasoline sales.
More and more Iraqis were emerg
ing from their shelters in Baghdad,
said Cable News Network’s Peter
Arnett, the only Western journalist
allowed to report from the Iraqi capi
tal.
Commerce seemed to be resum
ing, Baghdadis were shopping at the
central market, and water trucks were
making their rounds, he said.
The allied army is deployed along
the 130-mile Saudi-Kuwaiti border
and farther west, along the Iraqi-Saudi
border, where the desert-trained 3rd
Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort
Bliss, Texas, is believed to be con
ducting reconnaissance and guarding
the allied force’s western flank.
Wednesday’s first report of a ground
action came from the Iranian news
media, which said Iraq repotted its
forces had attacked enemy troops in
Saudi territory and captured allied
prisoners.
The U.S. command reported that
3rd Armored Cavalry troopers were
manning an observation post near the
Saudi-Iraqi border late Tuesday when
they came under small-arms fire from
an Iraqi patrol and returned fire.
Two Americans were slightly
wounded and relumed to duty after
treatment, and six Iraqis were cap
tured, the command said. It denied
that any Americans had been cap
tured.