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Spring football game
funds to go to victim
Simanek to receive
scrimmage donations
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
and Taryn Gilster
Staff Reporter___
Chis year, for ihc first time, Nebraska’s
Athletic Department will not charge
admission to the annual Red-White spring
football game.
Instead, Coach Tom Osborne is asking fans
to contribute what they normally would pay for
scrimmage tickets — $3 for adults and $2 for
children — to a fund for Gina Simanek, the
victim of an alleged Jan. 18 assault by Ne
braska football player Andrew Scott Baldwin.
The contributions will be accepted at entry
gates to the game, which will be at 1 p.m. April
25 at Memorial Stadium.
Simanek received various injuries, includ
ing permanent brain damage, in the assault.
Authorities said the attack was caused by atypi
cal psychosis suffered by Baldwin, who was
charged with first-degree assault.
Osborne said that because Nebraska law
prohibited the university or the Athletic De
partment from making direct payments to
Simanek or her family, the contribution was
one way of helping.
“Nebraskans have always been supportive
people, who have been willing to help peopld
out who are having problems,” he said. “I
would hope people would want to contribute
what they would normally pay to get into the
game.
“And if they wanted to give larger amounts,
we’d certainly be able to handle that, too.”
He said the Simancks were aware of the
plan.
In past spring games, Osborne said, 15,000
to 30,000 fans have attended, “so you can
multiply that and sec what kind of fund-raising
potential this could generate.
“We’re hoping we’re not embarrassed, we’re
hoping the amount is significant, and we’re
hoping that the Simancks arc pleased.”
Osborne said he and Frank Solich, Nebraska’s
running backs coach, had visited Simanek and
her family “eight or nine or 10 times,” and had
promised several days after the assault to help
out financially as much as possible.
He said no tax dollars, tuition percentages or
student fees would be, or have been, used to
pay for any aspect of the incident.
“It seems it’s very difficult to get that point
across,” Osborne said. ‘The University of
Nebraska Athletic Department is totally self
supporting. We have a totally separate budget
from the university.”
The Athletic Department already has taken
steps to help Simanek and her family, Osborne
said, by donating items for an auction in Wahoo
to raise money. He said some members of the
Athletic Department had made individual
contributions.
Osborne said public opinion had no bearing
on the Athletic Department’s decision to use
the spring game to raise funds for Simanek.
“We’re doing this because we think it’s the
right thing to do, not because of public outcry
during the last two months,” he said. “We
appreciate the (UNL) administration allowing
us to do this.
“How much is raised will depend on how
generous the public wants to be.”
As well as the spring football game, funds
for Simanek are being collected through pri
vate organizations and the Lincoln Founda
tion, Inc.
The Lincoln Foundation’s rehabilitation fund
is a single fund to assist both Simanek and
Baldwin. The donor may designate one or both
parties, and the money will be distributed based
on the physical and psychological rehabilita
tion nee(b of both. The Lancaster County Chapter
of the American Red Cross has managed and1
distributed the funds.
Jim Pratt, director of emergency services at
the Lancaster County Red Cross, said the or
ganization had not yet helped pay for Sima
nck’s expenses.
Along with the Lincoln Foundation, Pratt
said, two other private funds have been estab
lished to help with Simanck’s medical ex
penses — one at the Union Bank and one in
Simanck’s hometown.
Historical society offers job
to Montana’s state director
Candidate to make
decision by April 24
By Susie Arth
Staff Reporter
The director of the Montana Historical
Society was offered the job of director
at the Nebraska State Historical Soci
ety Saturday.
Lawrence J. Sommer, 47, said he would
make his decision whether to accept the posi
tion by April 24, when the Montana society
board met.
Sommer, who has been the director of the
Montana society since July 1989, said he was
interested in the Nebraska job.
“It would be an opportunity for advance
ment in a larger corporation,” he said.
According to The Omaha World-Herald,
Sommer said he made about $50,000 a year in
Montana. The former director of the Nebraska
State Historical Society, James Hanson, was
making $60,000 a year when be resigned in
January.
But Sommer said he would discuss the offer
with his family before making any decisions.
Sommer told The World-Herald he thought
the societies in Nebraska and Montana had
See SOMMER on 3
Erik Unger/DN
Wishy washy
JoAnn Bell, 59, cleans windows Monday morning at the NBC Building,
13th and O streets. Bell, owner of Clearview Windows, has been cleaning
windows for 28 years.
Reports of arson surge
By Ronda Vlasin
Stall Reporter _
Five recent residence hall fires have been
classified as arson, bringing the total of
suspicious fires reported in the past
week to 12, a UNL police official said.
LL Mylo Bushing of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department said the
first of the five additional fires was reported by
Michael Meindl, Cather Residence Hall direc
tor.
Two trash cans in a restroom and a rolled-up
newspaper in Caihcr Residence Hall’s stair
well were found burning Thursday shortly after
5 p.m.* Bushing said.
The fires caused $ 120 of damage, he said, to
two restroom trash cans, a wet paint sign and a
stairwell wall.
The second call reporting fires in the fifth
and seventh-floor restrooms of Harper Resi
dence Hall was made Thursday at 8:16 p.m.,
Bushing said. After residents extinguished the
fires, someone pulled the fire alarm, and the
See ARSON on 3
A nuclear activist attacks for
mer President Ronald Reagan
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Red alert! The stars of “Star
Trek: The Next Generation"
engage in a roundtable discus
sion on sex. Beam to Page 9.
Stephen King’s new movie,
“Sleepwalker," is not worth skip
ping a nap over. Page 10.
Wire INDEX 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A & E 10
Classifieds 11
Spring fever sows seeds of apathy
By Rainbow Rowell
Staff Reporter ___
□ just want to gel the hell out.
I don’t care anymore.”
The words of Jodi McGee,
a uoiiinan math major, are being
heard often on the U NL campus lately
as students become helpless victims
of spring fever.
*lt doesn’t lake an expert to see
that people don’t feel like going to
class, studying, socializing or work
ing when they’ve been here for eight
months,” said Vernon Williams, di
rector of the Counseling Center at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“I don ’t want to do anything — no
homework,” said Chris Butt, a sopho
more meteorology major.
“I’m tired of school,” Butt said.
“I’ve been here for over six months.
Meanwhile, my grades arc slipping.
‘‘It’s Monday, and I’m already
looking forward to the weekend,” Butt
said. “You can’t do that.
“Basically, I’m just burned out”
And the weather isn’t much of a
remedy for spring fever, said Jennifer
Blachford, a freshman biology ma
j 9L—
See SPRING on 3
