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Senators punt bill to pay football players
By TaDitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
By defeating a bill to pay Nebraska foot
ball players, the Nebraska Legislature
showed it is “more afraid of the NCAA”
than it is interested in doing
justice to players, Omaha
Sen. Ernie Chambers said.
LB68, a bill that would
have given Nebraska foot
ball players stipends, was »
defeated 19-16 during the
first round of considera
lion Monday. Bills must be advanced by 25
votes.
Chambers, the bill’s sponsor, can have the
bill reconsidered once b> the Legislature.
Fourteen senators did not vote on the bill, and
Chambers said he did not realize so many
senators would miss the vote.
Senators opposed to the bill said it would
place Nebraska in violation of NCAA rules that
prohibit member schools from paying their
athletes.
Sen. Rex Haberman of Imperial said he
agreed that football is “a great financial wealth
to the university” — an argument made by
Chambers.
However, if LB68 were passed, Haberman
said, Nebraska could be forced to withdraw
from the NCAA.
“If this state is forced to withdraw, just
forget the football program and the whole ball
of wax,” he said.
Chambers argued that the wording in the
NCAA rules did not make it clear that the
University of Nebraska would be kicked out of
the association for not complying.
Although Sen. Elroy Hefner of Coleridge
said he sympathized with the football players,
he also opposed the bill because of possible
sanctions the NCAA could place on the univer
sity.
If the bill passed, the NCAA could choose to
remove Nebraska from bowl game participa
tion and televised games, Hefner said.
He said the answer was to work with the
NCAA.
However, Chambers said “there are some
principles of justice and equity that supersede
NCAA rules.”
When he opened discussion, Chambers said
players who come from poor families are hurt
by NCAA rules that prohibit them from hold
ing jobs during the school year. Their option is
to take money illegally, he said.
Chambers said everyone involved with
Nebraska football gets paid except the athletes.
‘It (Nebraska football) is packaged, mar
keted and sold ... to the highest bidder,”
Chambers said.
After the vote, Chambers said he thought it
was “hypocritical for senators to pretend to be
concerned about the players,” yet not pass the
bill.
However, Chambers said, because LB68
was offered and debated seriously, die NCAA
will be persuaded to look at its rules closer.
The bill had been amended by Chambers
and Sen. Chris Beutler of Lincoln to require the
NCAA to work with NU to reduce the amount
of time players spend on football.
“We want to go back to the days when the
student athletes spent a reasonable amount of
time on outside activities,” Beutler said.
After complaints by Haberman that the
arguments given by Chambers and Beutler
would “fit like a glove” for other sports, the
amendment was further amended by Sen. Eric
Will of Omaha.
Will’s amendment would have required the
NCAA to investigate the amount of time colle
giate scholarship athletes in general spend on
athletics.
Bill for higher education compact advanced
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
After they were assured that the
Midwestern Higher Education
Compact would not bind
Nebraska into long-term obligations,
state senators Monday advanced a
bill to enter Nebraska into the com
pact.
LB209 would make Nebraska the
sixth state to join the compact, which
would allow member states to coordi
nate and strengthen services and re
duce higher education costs.
Sen. Ron Withcm of Papillion, the
bill’s sponsor, said there would be
few long-term obligations from the
bill because an amendment to it would
require only those states that contract
for compact services to pay for them.
Withem said the one obligation
Nebraska would have by passing the
bill would be the compact’s annual
$58,000 fee. And the slate only would
be obligated for two years if it de
cided to repeal the bill and end the
compact, he said.
Sen. Gerald Conway of Wayne, a
co-sponsor of the bill, called the
compact a “golden opportunity for
Nebraska,” and said now is the time
to join it.
By joining while the compact is in
the formation stages, Conway said,
Nebraska could direct the compact to
meet the state’s needs.
The compact will help member
See COMPACT on 6
INSIDE
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A&E 9
Classified 10
Taking a high view
Fred Guevara from Stutzman Sealants of Pleasant Dale waterproofs windows around Ha
milton Hall Monday afternoon.
U .a. airstnkes increased
against key Iraqi targets
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP)
- U.S. and allied jets stepped
up the air war Monday with
hundreds more bombing runs against
Iraqi targets. The
city of Basra,
strategic heart of
Iraq’s defense,
was believed to
be all but cut off.
“We hated to
come back, but
we ran out of
bombs,” an exuberant U.S. Air Force
pilot told reporters on his return.
As U.S. air commanders pressed
this “battlefield preparation phase,”
President Bush met with his war
advisers to consider ordering Ameri
can troops onto that battlefield.
Emerging from a White House
meeting with Defense Secretary Dick
Cheney and joint chiefs chairman Gen.
Colin Powell, both just back from
Saudi Arabia, the president said the
air war “will continue for a while.”
As for a ground offensive. Bush
said, “we’re not talking about dates.”
In Baghdad, the government an
nounced it was reaching stili deeper
into the Iraqi population for teen-age
soldiers to help “destroy the enemies
of God and humanity.”
Also Monday, Iraq’s religious af
fairs minister, Abdullah Fadel, said
“thousands” of civilians have been
killed or wounded in allied bomb
ings. It was the first time a senior Iraqi
official had spoken of such high civil
ian losses. The government previ
ously listed 650 civilian dead.
Peace activist and former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark, newly
returned to New York from a week in
Iraq, said the chief of the country’s
Red Cross affiliate estimated civilian
deaths at 6,000 to 7,000.
A Soviet envoy, Yevgeny Pri
makov, ventured into bomb-battered
Baghdad to meet with Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein on Tuesday about a
Kremlin initiative to end the war. In
Yugoslavia, representatives of 15 non
aligned nations began considering an
See GULF on 6
Official: More financial aid money
needed to retain minority students
By Angie Brunkow
Staff Reporter
A recent report blaming lack of
financial aid as one of the
major causes for low college
completion rates among low-income
and minority students is on target,
UNL’s Multi-Cultural Affairs direc
tor said.
“The No. 1 reason of minority
students for not continuing education
at a postsccondary institution is fi
nancial aid,” Jimmi Smith said.
The report by Congress’ Advisory
Committee on Student Financial
Assistance recommended that numeri
cal targets be set for increasing the
participation rates of these types of
students.
Smith said the University of Ne
braska Lincoln also needs to adopt
measures to decrease the number of
minority students who drop out be
cause they lack sufficient financial
aid.
He said the UNL Office of Schol
arships and Financial Aid makes a
genuine effort to fulfill the needs of
all low-income students, but not enough
funds are available.
Smith suggested that UNL could
redirect funds to target various types
of minority students. Students could
be considered based on need, aca
demic performance and talent, he said.
With this method, more opportu
nities would be available for minority
students, he said, and not just one
type of student would benef t.
Another option would be to offer
scholarships for minority students in
particular fields. Smith said minority
students need money incentives to
See AID on 3
