Deiily j | ^jj~
Research center
top consideration
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
The proposed George W. Beadle
Center for Genetics and Bio
materials Research has moved
to the top of the NU regents’ list of
capital construction priorities, accord
ing to Regent John Payne of Kearney.
Payne said the center was left off
the priority list when plans were drawn
up last summer because regents were
unaware it would require $6 million
in matching funds from the state.
But, Payne said at an Appropria
tions Committee hearing before Spring
Break, the regents now consider the
$6 million for the center their top
priority, even if that would be the
only capital construction money NU
received this year.
Committee members questioned
NU President Martin Masscngalc about
the center’s projected $23 million to
$27 million cost, but he responded
that most of the money for it was
necessary.
Massengale said the center would
help NU obtain three objectives —
new discoveries, well-trained people
and expert knowledge.
“If we’re going to be able to com
pete ... we must move forth with
these kinds of investments,” he said.
Steve Thomlison, Association of
Students of the University of Nebraska
senator from the Teachers College,
said students at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln are “solidly behind
the Beadle Center.”
The committee heard testimony
on six bills to allocate state cigarette
lax money. Currently, NU capital
construction projects receive 4 cents
from every pack of cigarettes sold in
Nebraska.
LB241, sponsored by Sen. David
Landis of Lincoln, would continue to
give that money to the university.
While the Legislature wasn’t “duty
bound” to continue the aid, Landis
said, senators should see the need for
it because it would let them “take our
foot off the gas in the general fund
knowing that the gas isn’t there.”
The other five bills would earmark
cigarette tax money to other educa
tion programs, to a prison fund or to
the state’s capital construction fund.
LB647, sponsored by Omaha Sen.
John Lindsay, would create the
Postsecondary Education Award
Program, designed to stop the flow of
studentsoutof the state, Lindsay said.
The bill would earmark 1 1/2 cents of
the lax for financial aid to students at
public and private colleges.
LB541, sponsored by Sen. Tim
Hall of Omaha, also would attempt to
stanch the “brain drain” by allocating
1 cent per pack to scholarships for
students at private Nebraska colleges.
Two cents would go to the Cancer
Research Fund.
If LB541 passed, Omaha Sen. Eric
Will said, tax money would go to
“scholarships and students, rather than
brick and mortar.”
LB799 would provide capital
construction funds to stale colleges.
Sen. Gerald Conway of Wayne,
the bill’s sponsor, said it would help
finance projects that had been placed
on the “back warmer” at various state
colleges.
Because the bulk of state college
funding has gone to Kearney State
College, other colleges, such as Wayne
State, haven’t built new classrooms
in 20 years, Conway said.
LB848, requested by Gov. Ben
Nelson, would direct tax money to a
prison fund so that Nebraska would
be prepared if it received a court
order to take action on the problem of
overcrowded prisons.
LB760, introduced by Sen. Scott
Moore of Seward, would pul ciga
rette tax money into the Nebraska
Capital Construction Fund.
Arguing against other proposed uses
of the tax money, Moore said passage
of LB760 would show that the tax
money “belongs to no one.” —
I - xV'
Shaun Sartln/Daily Nebrakan
Surf s up
Assistant professor of chemistry Carolyn Price spends Easter Sunday windsun ing at
Holmes Lake.
Senators pass amendment to proposed gun mu
By Pat Dinslage
Senior Editor
Handgun control in Nebraska moved one
step closer to reality when the Legisla
ture approved an amendment Thursday
to LB355, the handgun control bill now under
consideration.
Sen. Jerry Chizek of Omaha said his amend
ment addressed the objections raised by oppo
nents to LB355, the provisions of which the
Nebraska Legislature has been debating for
three years.
The amendment calls for the purchase of an
annual permit to buy handguns, Chizek said.
Gun dealers, law enforcement personnel and
people who sell guns to family members would
be exempt from the permit requirement.
He said permits
would be obtained from
local police or sheriffs’
departments, and people
wanting a permit would
have to be 21 years old,
provide identification and
meet other federal require
Other provisions of the Chizek amendment
state that local police would run a background
check on permit applicants that could be com
pleted in minutes, Chizek said, but police would
have up to two days to complete tne check.
Chizek said this waiting period is shorter
than the seven-dav waiting period of the “Brady
Bill,” now under consideration by Congress.
The Brady Bill refers to legislation advo
cated by the wife of former Press Secretary Jim
Brady, who was permanently disabled in the
1981 assassination attempt on former Presi
dent Ronald Reagan.
The permit would allow the holder to pur
chase any number of handguns within the one
year period, he said.
The LB355plan is preferable, he said, to the
proposed LB801, which would require a back
____
ground check and registration of each gun pur
chased.
In presenting the Chizek amendment, Sen.
Brad Ashford of Omaha, LB355’s sponsor,
said, “Chizek is trying to carve out a Nebraska
alternative to the Brady Bill. If you check with
the Nebraskan people, they oppose the seven
day waiting period the most”
Sen. Carol Pirsch of Omaha said she op
posed LB355 and LB801 “because I couldn’t
sec how they would accomplish it — no more
shooting with guns.”
But Pirsch expressed her support for the
See GUN on 3
f
Official: Job standards
safe from rights bill
By Kara Morrison
Staff Reporter
The Civil Rights Act of 1991
probably would not involve the
court system in basic college
hiring standards, according to UNL’s
Affirmative Action officer.
Brad Munn said he views the leg
islation Congress is considering as
intending “to help and not hurt "
Although some have alleged that
hiring quotas will result if the civil
rights bill is passed, Munn said such
quotas are illegal and are not the
intention of the legislation.
Munn said he thinks that if Con
gress passes the legislation, initial
court decisions involving colleges will
set precedents for other colleges. But
he said he does not foresee the courts
becoming involved in issues of stan
dard hiring practices, such as requir
ing faculty members to obtain doctor
ate degrees or conduct research.
“Reasonable education require
ments will not be considered discrimi
natory. If hiring requirements such as
the requirement of a Ph.D. would be
considered discriminatory, (colleges)
See RIGHTS on 3
nwwriv
yUMni,
A look at the
Soviet power
struggle. Page
4.
Albanians
vote in historic
multiparty
elections. Page 2.
The Bill of Rights travels the
tobacco road Page 10.
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 8
A&E 10
Classifieds 11
Professor says new Law
to improve student skills
By Lori Stones
Staff Reporter
Anew law requiring all Nebraska
accounting majors to complete
150 credit hours before taking
the certified public accountant exam
will improve students’ skills, accord
ing to a UNL professor.
Bob Raymond, a professor at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln School
of Accountancy, said the Nebraska
Legislature’s adoption of LB75, which
passed in March and will take effect
in 1998, means Nebraska accounting
majors will have “better communica
tion, interpersonal and critical think
ing skills.”
Currently, UNL accounting ma
jors must complete 128 credit hours
before taking the exam, said Ray
mond, chairman of the ad hoc com
mittee of the Nebraska Society of
Certified Public Accountants that
recommended the requirements for
LB75.
The increase was mandated be
cause ‘‘there is a growing awareness
that four years of college isn’t enough,”
he said.
See ACCOUNTING on 3