65/30
r Today, mostly sunny, and
warm, northwest winds 20 to
30 mph. Tonight, partly cloudy.
mostly sunny and
at 55 to 60.
William Lauer/DN
Out with the old, in with the new
Tom Day, a welder with University Maintenance, builds a goal post under the north end-zone stands Thursday.
The goal post replaced the one torn down by fans after Nebraska’s defeat of Oklahoma in November.
Dual roles difficult, panelist says
bpeaker urges blacks
to end discrimination
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter
incoln resident Richard Nockai-Diaz’s
dual life as an African-American and a
gay person is not an easy one, he said
Thursday at a panel on multicultural awareness
sponsored by the Gay Lesbian Student Asso
ciation.
A barrier Nockai-Diaz must face, he said, is
discrimination against homosexuality from
within the black community.
“Somehow our being gay makes us not
blacks,” he said.
Nockai-Diaz, co-chairman of the Lincoln
Gay and Lesbian Coalition for Civil Rights,
said he thought it was contradictory for Afri
can-Americans to discriminate against homo
sexuals. He said discrimination against homo
sexuals is not any different than racial dis
crimination blacks have had to face.
He said if he went into a black community
and used the word ‘nigger,’ he would be met
with an angry reaction. But discriminatory
language against homosexuals would not pro
duce that reaction, he said.
“It wasn’t very long ago that black people
were considered niggers,” he said. “We were
not people.
“For a black person to (discriminate) against
gay people is to do exactly what whiles did to
them.”
Nockai-Diaz said African-American gay and
lesbian people needed the support of the black
community.
“If your community doesn’t support you,
you are nothing,” he said. “It is very difficult to
find an anchor.”
But Nockai-Diaz said ending discrimina
tion would not be easy.
“Unfortunately, it’s a very difficult thing to
point out to people when they are being dis
criminatory,” he said. “They do not want to
admit it.”
Donna Polk, a graduate psychology student
at UNL, urged the 20 students attending the
panel to get involved in civil rights issues —
any civil rights issue, as long as they got
involved.
“Sexual issues, civil rights issues are very
important to me both in my position as a
lesbian and as a human being,” she said.
Polk said many groups in society hated
“Jews, blacks, gays and anyone who supports
them.”
Many people, she said, subtlety support
See PANEL on 6
Bill to give
athletes new
scholarship
protections
By Andy Raun
Staff Reporter
Students facing termination of their ath
letic scholarships would be allowed better
defenses under terms of a legislative
bill, the measure’s principal sponsor said.
Sen. Merton Dicrks of Ewing said LB 1185,
the subject of the judiciary committee’s last
public hearing of the 1992 session Thursday,
I-tc-—| wouldcrcate“ncwavenues
of due process” for chal
JffiyBtk I longing scholarship cancel
■ lillll Ration.
Passage of the measure
would “establish Nebraska
as the nation’s clear leader
in protecting the rights and
dignity of student athletes,” Dierks said.
The bill would require that athletes facing
cancellation of scholarships be notified in writing
by April 1 of the preceding academic year.
The athletes also would have the right to a
hearing before an impartial board. The hearing
would have to occur before May 1 unless a
continuance was agreed to by the athlete.
Under current UNL procedure, scholarship
termination appeals arc heard before a board
comprised of the UNL vice chancellor for
student affairs, the director of scholarships and
financial aid, the president of the Academic
Senate, the school’s Big Eight and NCAA
representative and the athletic director.
Having officials associated with the athletic
department serve on the appeals committee is
inappropriate and creates a conflict of interest,
said James McFarland, a Lincoln attorney who
represented a UNL woman athlete in a spring
1991 termination appeal.
McFarland said that in his client’s hearing,
he was not allowed to speak or cross-examine
the coaches who had decided to cancel the
scholarship.
LB 1185 would allow such cross-examina
tion and place with the institution the burden of
proof for justifying the cancellation.
McFarland said he thought that at UNL,
women athletes were treated worse than their
See SCHOLARSHIP on 6
Program aims to preserve communities
By Trevor Meers
Staff Reporter _
America’s future is determined
in its neighborhoods, and a
UNL program is helping
Nebraska communities plan ahead,
an organizer of the program said.
Steve Larrick, coordinator for the
University of Nebraska Community
Improvement Program, said he or
ganized the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln’s participation in helping
urban-Nebraska neighborhoods build
a sense of community.
“There arc so many forces pulling
communities apart,” Larrick said.
“There needs to be an effort to pull
people together and assess the prob
lems they face.”
UNCIP began in 1963 as a coop
erative effort between UNL, the state
government and private utility com
panies, Larrick said. Strong commu
nities are important because healthy
neighborhoods are good for business,
he said.
In the 1960s, Americans were inter
ested in building their neighborhoods
and country, Larrick said. He attrib
uted this strong work ethic to Presi
dent John F. Kennedy, who told
Americans to ask what they could do
for their country.
“There was a sense that people
were improving their communities
and at the same lime, their nation,”
Larrick said.
UNCIP coordinates Nebraska
communities’ organizations with
programs at all four NU campuses.
Larrick said he had coordinated
efforts of Omaha neighborhood or
ganizations with sociology classes at
Fired custodian sues university tor job
From Staff and Wire Reports
AUNLcusiodian fired lastsum
mcr for bringing an allegedly
offensive key chain to work
has filed a lawsuit to gel his job back,
his attorney said Thursday.
Attorney Richard Scott said Douglas
W. Geiger filed a suit Monday in U.S.
District Court in Lincoln. The suit
names the NU Board of Regents, the
university grievance committee and
various supervisors.
Geiger, who was fired last July,
said in his suit he was wrongfully
discharged for bringing a novelty key
chain with sexually oriented phrases
lo work, Scotl said. The key chain
displayed about 10 phrases or words,
including “screw you,” at the push of
a button.
John Marker, operational manager
of the custodial division at the Uni
versity of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said he
would not comment on the suit.
Rich McDermott, director of fa
cilities management at UNL, was
unavailable for comment.
According to the suit, two supervi
sors told Geiger they found the key
chain offensive and told him not lo
bring it to work again. The next day,
after Geiger told a supervisor he had
pul the key chain in his locker before
work, he was placed on administra
tive leave.
Geiger, who had been a custodian
for 14 years, was notified later that he
had been fired for “bringing sexually
oriented items to the work site” and
for “interfering with the job perform
ance of others,” the suit says.
Geiger said performance reports
from 1988 to 1990 did not mention
him interfering with others’ job per
formance, and he did not receive an
evaluation in 1991.
Scott said Geiger was seeking re
instatement, back pay and lost bene
fits related to his pension, medical
care and retirement.
the university ol Nebraska at Kear
ney and public administration classes
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
At UNL, the College of Architec
ture frequently helps neighborhoods
through class projects, Larrick said.
The South Salt Creek Community
Organization is an example of a UNCIP
project, he said. The college helped
the neighborhood design a commu
nity bulletin board/kiosk as a memo
rial to a neighborhood leader.
UNCIP will host a polluck supper
and awards ceremony tonight at Old
City Hall to recognize outstanding
neighborhood leaders, Lamck said.
Kim Bobo, a neighborhood-planning
expert from the Midwest Academy in
Chicago, will deliver a speech en
titled, “Why build a powerful neigh
borhood association?”
Bobo and another representative
from the academy will lead a work
shop Saturday at the County Exten
sion Center, 444 Chcrrycrcek Rd.,
called “Nuts‘n bolls of neighborhood
organizing for neighborhood improve
ment.”
The workshop is open to the pub
lic. Tickets are $7 at the door.
Corrections: A Feb 21 article about
changing Nebraska's method of execution
from the electric chair to lethal injection
should have indicated that William Beatty
Brown, who spoke in opposition to the bill,
supports the death penalty under justifiable
circumstances
The time of the Omaha Symphony
Orchestra concert at the Lied Center on
Sunday was incorrect in Thursday's calen
dar The concert will be at 2 p m
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 10
A&E 13
Classitieds 14
cerns about scientists defecting!
Page 2
open
announced. Page12
Topless dancers dance and
tell. Page 13