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.”