Nebraskan Coach says state won’t pay legal fees By Sean Green Senior Reporter No state funds will be used to pay the legal fees or medical expenses of UNL student Andrew Scott Baldwin, Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Tuesday. But the University of Ncbraska Lincoln will support a request to the NCAA for a waiver allowing indi viduals to establish a fund for those wishing to contribute to Baldwin’s expenses, Osborne said. According to Tuesday’s Omaha World-Herald, Al Papik, assistant athletic director for administrative services, said UNL had asked the NCAA for permission to pay Bald win’s legal fees. Private fund may help meet Baldwin’s costs However, Osborne said he met with UNL Chancellor Graham Spanicr Tuesday after both his and Spanier’s office received several calls about the World-Herald article. In a written statement released Tuesday, Spanicr said UNL’s policy was not to pay for any student’s legal fees. The request, supported by Spanicr, would allow the establishment of a fund to help pay Baldwin’s medical and legal fees, and it would allow Baldwin to stay in Lincoln with Osborne or Frank Solich, a Nebraska assistant football coach. Baldwin, 22, is charged with as sault for allegedly beating Gina Si manek of Lincoln and injuring a Lincoln police officer Jan. 18. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. Baldwin was released from jail Monday after an anonymous source paid his S 10,000 bail. He immedi ately was transferred to St. Joseph Center for Mental Health in Omaha for psychiatric treatment. Osborne said NCAA regulations prohibited him from knowing who supplied the money for Baldwin’s bond. “The only thing I know is that (the anonymous source) had been out of the state for some years and had re cently returned,” Osborne said. “It was a stroke of good fortune, because no ticket holder or anyone connected to the team could pay it.” Baldwin is expected to return to Lincoln pending his release from St. Joseph’s, which could happen in a week to 10 days. One of the conditions of Bald win’s bond is that he stay with the Rev. Donald Coleman of Lincoln or with Solich until his court appear ance April 6. If the NCAA agrees to the waiver, however, Baldwin could stay with Solich or Osborne and receive finan cial help. Baldwin would be able to slay with Osborne if Judge Paul Merriu agrees to make that a condition of Baldwin’s release on bond. Osborne said Baldwin’s family did not have enough money to pay for his legal expenses. Baldwin is represented by Lincoln attorney Hal Anderson, who has yet to be paid for his services. Osborne said Anderson was at tending a sports banquet Jan. 18 when he heard Baldwin was in jail, and he went to the jail to see Baldwin. No one from the football program asked Anderson to represent Bald win, he said. Osborne also said he hoped fans would realize there were two victims in the incident. “I would hate to sec Baldwin painted See BALDWIN on6 N U still may lace NCAA sanctions Official says new aid requirements may violate rule By Cindy Kimbrough Senior Reporter Although most Nebraskans have put the issue of the NCAA sanctions against the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln out of their minds, some officials arc still debat ing whether UNL is in the clear. Al Papik, assistant athletic dircc --tor for administra live services and compliance coor ■ 1111 ■ dinator al UNI., f| !|l( P said a bill passed last year, sored by Sen. Jkl Ernie Chambers of Omaha, might cause the university to violate a NCAA rule. The bill, LB69, ensured that stu dents who qualified for any federal or A slate need-based aid received the full amount. A recentcffort to delay Chambers’ bill was killed in committee Feb. 25. LB963, sponsored by Sen. Chris Beullcr of Lincoln, would have de layed LB69 for two years. Papik said his office had received conflicting information from an an nouncement attributed to Dick Schultz, the NCAA executive director, and information from the NCAA office. Schultz announced Feb. 18 that he did not sec any conflicts between NCAA rules and the recently passed Nebraska financial-aid law. He also said he expected Division I schools to approve legislation next year to allow financially needy athletes to keep the full amount of need-based aid they receive. The NCAA now limits the amount of financial aid colleges can award to student-athletes and the number of athletes in each sport who can receive financial aid. But Papik said the legislative serv See NCAA on 6 -t • Arson suspected in natural gas explosion By Tom Kunz Senior Editor Arson is suspected in a fire that ignited a natural gas explo sion in a vacant duplex and a Tire in another house located at 1950 T St. early Tuesday morning. Lincoln firefighters were called to the scene at 12:06 a m. after Univer sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln police spot ted smoke at an adjacent vacant house. The property, located on the site for the proposed Beadle Center for ucnctics and Biomatcrials, recently was purchased by the university. Deputy Fire Chief Bob King said that when firefighters arrived at 12:08 a.m., they concentrated their efforts on the fire in the house on the south side of the lot, unaware that the du plex north of the house also was on fire. A second engine then arrived behind the duplex, and firefighters began dragging a hose to the house. King See FIRE on 6 Democrats Paul Tsongas, Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown all win primaries. Page 2 NU Basketball Coach Danny Nee says hot Kansas State will challenge Huskers tonight. Page 7 INDEX Wire 2 Opinion ( 4 Sports 7 A&E 9 Classifieds11 Balancing act Matt Becker of the Lincoln Public Works and Utilities Department works on the L Street extension. The overpass will take about a year to complete. Party demands clean campaign By Angie Brunkow Staff Reporter COMMIT party candidates de manded at a press conference Tuesday that ACTION mem bers run a clean student election campaign, be realistic in campaign ideas and quit playing political games. Andrew Sigcrson, presidential candidate for COMMIT, said members of the ACTION parly had ignored his parly’s mandate for running a clean campaign. , “Not only did the other party ig nore our plea for a clean campaign, they have blatantly tried to mislabel our conduct with false charges,” he said. Sigcrson said various rumors about COM MIT, which he declined to iden tify, had been traced to ACTION. Alyssa Williams, presidential candidate for ACTION, said the party had been running a clean campaign and did not need to focus on clean campaigning by holding press con ferences. “It’s a given,” she said. Sigcrson said that many students did not consider clean campaigning to be a given and that the two parties needed to emphasize the issue. “In our positions of leadership, we have to tell them it’s not right,” he said. Sigerson also asked the ACTION parly to take a “reality check” on election issues, such as obtaining a student regent vote. Obtaining a student regent vote is unachievable, he said, because it is not supported by members of the Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee and other state officials. Although officials may not sup port a student regent vote, Williams said, ACTION docs not support the status quo. “If we can serve as a catalyst to spark ideas, that’s the right direc tion,” she said. Students should not give up on the issue because others believe it cannot be achieved, she said. Sigerson also called for ACTION to “quit playing games” and to ad dress issues at hand. ACTION is using “feel-good po litical gimmicks,” he said. Williams said she thought that calling a press conference was a po litical move. “If you’re talking about us doing that, you need to be aware ol what you’re doing,” she said. After the press conference, Kristine Hubka, ACTION’S campaign man ager, accused COMMIT of slowing down the election process by calling and attempting to urge previous ACTION members not to sign a waiver that would allow ACTION to keep its name. “We feel this is unethical and not a clean campaign,” she said. The ACTION acronym was used in student elections five years ago. For a parly to run under the same name within five years, signatures must be collected from 50 percent of the students who had belonged to that party and still arc enrolled at UNL, according to the electoral commis sion rules. This semester, the rules have been amended to allow a party name to be reused after three years. Sigerson said the COMMIT party had nothing to do with the former ACTION members being called. Rather, a party supporter called the students on his own, he said. Although Sigerson is unhappy about the incident, he said he could do noth ing. “It’s not illegal or unethical,” he said. “It’s just politics.”