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I Attorney general to investigate closed sessions
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska attorney general’s
office is looking into closed
meetings both of a subcom
mittee of the NU Board of Regents
and of the Budget Reduction Review
Committee to determine if they con
stituted violations of the state open
meetings law.
Dale Comer, assistant attorney
general, said that Attorney General
Don Stenberg agreed to explore the
matter after receiving requests from
Common Cause/Nebraska, a group
that lobbies for openness in govern
ment, and Lincoln Star editor Tom
White.
Bill Avery, a spokesman for
Common Cause and a UNL political
Lobbying group concerned with possible violations
science professor, said the group first
became concerned about the univer
sity violating the open meetings law
when the BRRC began holding closed
sessions to discuss budget proposals
early in November.
When the regents general affairs
subcommittee held a closed meeting
soon after, the group wrote a letter to
Stenberg asking him to investigate
both matters.
White’s concerns focused on the
regents subcommittee meeting, Comer
said.
He said the attorney general’s of
fice responded to the requests by asking
NU general counsel Richard Wood to
provide his analysis of the facts in
both cases.
Wood has not prepared his response
yet, but he said that he would have it
ready within the next week.
When questions were first raised,
Wood indicated that neither of the
closed meetings constituted a viola
tion of the open meetings laws.
He said that the BRRC is only an
advisory committee to the UNL chan
cellor and is not taking formal action;
it is merely making recommendations.
Therefore, it may hold its meetings in
closed session.
With regard to the regents sub
committee meeting that five of the
eight Board members attended, Wood
said that no violation of the law oc
curred because the meeting was of a
subcommittee.
Although full regents meetings
must be open according to the law,
subcommittees are exempt unless they
are holding hearings, making policy
or taking formal action. The subcom
mittee did none of those things at its
meeting, Wood said.
Comer said he would examine
Wood’s response before drawing any
conclusions. He said he probably will
render his (pinion on whether Wood’s
inteipretation of the open meetings
law is correct and then Stenberg will
review it.
“There is not a lot of interpretation
from our courts saying how this law
should be read,” Comer said. “So
we’re left with the plain language of
the statute.”
Avery said at the very least, both
closed meetings violated the intent of
the open meetings law, which is to
ensure that the public is informed of
governmental bodies’ decision-mak
ing processes — not just the final
decision, he said.
. Avery said he thought that Sten
berg would find that violations had
occurred, and the attorney general’s
office would establish guidelines for
future meetings to avoid further vio
lations.
At the same time, Avery said
Common Cause will look into ways
that the law could be lightened so that
subcommittees and advisory commit
tees would be explicitly included.
Journalism
college needs
more space,
dean says
By Chris Tipton
Staff Reporter
he UNL College of Journal
ism has outgrown its home
— and is looking for a new one,
the dean of the college said.
Will Norton said a study done last
year by former dean R. Neale Copple
showed that the college needs more
space.
When the journalism college moved
from Nebraska Hall to Avery Hall in
1979, its new area held 600 students.
The college now has more than 1,000
students, Norton said.
The college is looking at the old
; Whittier Junior High School building
as a site for possible relocation, he
said.
The Whittier school building, lo
cated at 22nd and W streets, was
bought by the University of Nebraska
Lincoln about five years ago.
r>:n *_'a_•_ _ • _ _
diii spumer, interim vice cnan
cellor for research and dean of gradu
ate studies, said the Whittier building
houses three enterprise businesses.
Brine shrimp and angelfish arc being
raised in a building adjacent to the
school building as part of two enter
prise businesses. Another business
manufactures aircraft machinery.
Splinter said that all three compa
nies now pay the university for rent
and utilities.
Because the Whittier building is
so big, Splinter said, he thinks there is
plenty of room for both the journal
ism college and the three businesses.
The Whittier building looks prom
ising in terms of the journalism col
lege’s space needs, he said, but he
added that the building needs a lot of
work.
“If the proper amount of money
was spent on renovation, the Whittier
building has the potential to be one of
the finest mass media facilities in the
country,” Norton said.
No official estimates have been
made on how much it would cost to
make the needed renovations, but
Norton said it could cost S10 million.
The building needs asbestos removed
and possibly an underground heating
and cooling duct.
John Benson, director of institu
tional research and planning, agreed
with Norton that the building needs
work.
“We are anxious to help them in
reviewing that (the Whittier build
ing) as a possibility,” Benson said.
Right now, Benson said, all of the
See JOURNALISM on 2
Shaun Sartin/DN
Lee Thurber, a sophomore agribusiness major, is the new national president of The
National FFA Organization.
To the top
FFA leader continues Nebraska tradition
By Juliet Yenglin
Staff Reporter
A Nebraska tradition will
continue under the
leadership of Lee
Thurbcr, 20, newly elected presi
dent of The National FFA Or
ganization.
Thurbcr, a sophomore
majoring in fi ^Student
agriculture J ! Profile
honors with
an emphasis
in agribusi- F "Tj
ness at the B [j 1
University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
will leave for Washington, D.C.,
Monday with five other national
officers to fulfill the first part of
his position as national president.
In reaching the top position,
Thurbcr will be the third national
FFA president from Nebraska in
the past five years.
Thurber’s bid for the FFA
presidency began in early
November, when he participated
in weeklong interviews at the
National FFA Convention in
Kansas City, Mo. He was
selected national president out of
50 candidates.
Thurber said preparing for the
conference was a satisfying expe
rience under the guidance of Rich
Katt, executive director of Ne
braska FFA.
‘‘(Katt) taught me to think, and
I was prepared to sec the issues,
evaluate the situations and react
in a confident way,” Thurber
said.
Katt suggested ways of ap
proaching the interviews in a
genuine, confident manner,
Thurber said. The process taught
him more about himself, his
strengths, how to capitalize on
those strengths and how to
develop answers smoothly, he
said.*
Thurber participated,in a
series of six interviews, each
having a different theme,
including one-on-one discussions
of values, thoughts on local,
national and worldwide agricul
tural issues, FFA knowledge,
activity planning and handling
group situations.
Thurbcr said one of the
themes was to plan and present
an FFA program to an urban high
school.
“My philosophy is to be
myself, genuine and ask ques
tions,” he said.
As part of his duties as the na
tional FFA president, Thurbcr
will lake a yearlong absence from
UNL and travel more than
200,000 miles throughout the
United Slates, Japan, Hong Kong
and China representing FFA.
After returning from an officer
training session in Washington;
D.C., Thurbcr will spend Christ
mas with his family in Roca
before his agenda of conventions
and conferences takes priority.
He will depart for his 17-day
tour of Japan on Feb. 1. He will
meet with the mayor of Tokyo
and high-level agricultural
leaders, visit Japanese green
houses, learn about the agricul
tural systems in Japan, and stay
See FFA on 3
Proposed plan
would integrate
student groups
By Erik Unger
Staff Reporter
proposed plan to integrate the
ideas of campus organizations
— would better represent stu
dent’s needs, the University Program
Council president said.
Frank Forman said the plan calls
for a group of about 30 organization
leaders to meet and discuss issues that
concern students at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln. The solutions
would be based on a consensus that he
said he hopes would represent student
views.
“It will bring people together, to
help break down the boundaries,”
Forman said. “That is what this cam
pus needs.”
The initial plan was drawn up in a
meeting in October that was attended
by about 20 people, Forman said.
Under the plan, either all 270 student
organizations at UNL could be in
vited to express views on each issue,
or representatives from the organiza
tions could be chosen to participate in
round-table discussions, he said.
The group must be narrowed to
about 30 people, Forman said, to
facilitate discussion.
Forman sai'Tie worked with Mari
lyn Bugenhagcn, director of Campus
Activities and Programs, on the ini
tial program plans but credited her
with turning the idea into more.
“My idea last spring was just to
have a structured outreach,” Forman
said. “Marilyn and the Racial Plural
ism Action committee decided it
See GROUP on 3
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Page 5
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 5
A&E 6
Classifieds 7