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Students protest acquittal by burning flag
oy Bean ureen
Senior Reporter
A group of UNL siudcnts burned an Ameri
can Hag Thursday at Broyhill Fountain
to protest Wednesday’s acquittal of four
Los Angeles police officers accused of beating
Rodney King.
The innocent verdict was passed down in
the seventh day of deliberation. The seven
week trial was wrapped up 14 months after a
bystander videotaped King being beaten by
police officers.
The UNL protesters interrupted a rally in
support of democratic presidential candidate
Jerry Brown.
“There is no hope, no justice in America,”
said Angela Green, a sophomore political sci
ence major at the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln. “We arc tired of Martin Luther King
(Jr.’s) dream ... It’s time for people to wake
up.”
The (lag-burning occurred in the middle of
a speech by Sen. DiAnna Schimck of Lincoln,
who said she attended the rally to voice outrage
about what was going on in Los Angeles.
Brown was in Omaha Wednesday and was
scheduled to spend part of Thursday in Lin
col n. However, the former governor of Cal i for
nia cut short his visit to Lincoln and flew to
California after receiving word of the verdict
and subsequent rioting.
Brown’s supporters announced Thursday
morning they would hold the rally to protest the
verdict and to provide an open forum.
About 200 students gathered on the north
side of the Nebraska Union to watch or take
part in the sometimes heated debate.
The rally began shortly alter noon and dis
cussions and shouting matches between groups
of students continued until after 2 p.m.
Siudcnts voiced mostly outrage about the
verdict in the King trial, the status of African
Americans in the United Slates and the Mike
Tyson trial, as well as minority relations at
UNL.
Andrew Sigcrson, president of the Associa
tion of Students of the University of Nebraska,
briefly took the podium at the request of some
members of the crowd.
Sigcrson said he agreed there were prob
lems both on campus and across the country,
and said his efforts at UNL to improve race
relations had not done much good.
“All we’ve done is fight amongst ourselves,”
Stacy Jackson, left, a senior home economics major, confronts ASUN President Andrew Sigerson Thursday during
an open forum on Broyhill Plaza. The forum was in response to the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in
the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
he said. “The verdict was wrong, but I’m not
sure standing out here and burning the Ameri
can flag is the way to deal with it.”
A shouting match between Sigerson and
some members of the crowd ensued.
One student accused Sigerson of being a
member of the white, male establishment that
had been oppressing minorities for years.
Sigerson replied, “I was elected and, like it
or not, you have to deal with me.”
In a telephone interview before the protest,
Waller Gholson, a counselor for African
American students at UNL, said students he
had talked to were angry and frustrated about
the verdict in the King beating trial.
“People arc naturally frustrated at what is a
basic injustice,” he said. “When you see that
kind of violence on videotape, and then the
legal system says it’s not violence, in the eyes
of the law, it makes you question whether there
is any justice at all.”
Gholson said he had been to the sections of
Los Angeles where the riots were occurring,
and said he understood why people would
destroy their own neighborhoods.
“After awhile, you can’t look at that neigh
borhood as belonging lo the people rioting,” he
said. “They were attacking businesses as sym
bols of the system.”
Gholson said he did not condone the vio
lence in Los Angeles and said violence was not
a solution — it only bred more violence.
And he said the King verdict was not a
black-white issue — it was an issue of a police
department vs. civilians.
“The real question is, ‘Was it a fair trial?’”
he said. “What’s a fair trial for people who have
been caught beating the hell out of some
body?”
Omcials say proposed peer group acceptable
By Cindy Kimbrough
Senior Reporter
UNL faculty and officials said
they were satisfied with the
university’s proposed peer
group, but said they hoped UNL would
not settle for being average.
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
faculty salaries would rate 1.6 per
cent above the average in the pro
posed peer group.
George Tuck, former president of
the Academic Senate, said he thought
UNL would be in good shape in the
newly proposed peer group if it did
Professor says UNL should strive for top
not settle for letting faculty salaries
lie in the middle.
“What (the 1.6 percent above
average salary) means is that we have
achieved our goal of making parity,”
he said. “It is now time to set a new
goal and move on to the top of the
new group.”
An advisory group comprising three
former university presidents was
formed in January to examine UNL’s
peer institutions and recommend a
new peer group.
The advisory group was formed in
response to the concern of UNL and
state officials who questioned the
adequacy of the university’s peer
institutions in terms of research spend
ing, student enrollment, faculty size
and stale population, and because UNL
was rated 11 th out of the 12 schools,
according to faculty salaries.
In addition, the National Center of
Higher Education Management Sys
tems recommended last year that UNL
should find a new peer group.
The advisory group recommended
a new peer group of 10 schools lo the
NU Board of Regents April 19, re
placing four schools in the old group.
The original group included Ohio
State, Purdue, Iowa Slate, Illinois,
Minnesota and Missouri.
Colorado State, Colorado, Iowa
and Kansas were added, while Mary
land, Penn State, Wisconsin and
Michigan State were dropped from
the original peer group.
Tuck said he thought the proposed
group was solid, and lhal Ihc advisory
group had made a good ease for ihc
new comparative group of universi
ties, according to their similar roles,
missions and programming and his
torical backgrounds with UNL.
Herbert Howe, assistant to the UNL
chancellor, said the new peer group
appeared to be a good comparison.
The group is composed of distin
guished universities that arc geographi
cally compatible and accredited un
der the North Central Association of
Colleges and Schools, Howe said.
See PEER on 6
Parking committee sets
goal for parking policy
By Jean Lass
Staff Reporter
After looking over results from
a parking study, the UNL
Parking Advisory Committee
passed resolutions Thursday to de
velop a parking policy by September
Com m i ttec
members also
voted to appoint
four students next
fall to increase
student represen
tation on the com
mittee.
The study, done by Walker Park
ing Consultants of Minneapolis, said
UNL should establish a parking pol
icy, develop a long-range plan and
consider a parking garage for the
Temple lot, where the proposed
Madden Gardens would be.
The Walker firm advised that the
committee survey students, staff and
night shift people for their input on
campus parking.
Ray Coffey, business manager for
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln,
said the committee needed a survey
to develop a long-range plan.
See PARKon 3
Death toll rises to 18 as Na
tional Guard troops move in to
help stop rioting in Los Ange
les. Page 2
Campus preacher says call
ing led him deliver sermons.
Page 9
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A&E 8
Classifieds 10
UNL plan would aid
dual-career couples
By Sarah Scalet
Staff Reporter
A preliminary plan being re
viewed at UNL would sup
port dual-career couples and
increase the number of women and
minorities employed by the univer
sity, an official said.
Liz Grobsmith, assistant vice chan
cellor for academic affairs, who drafted
the policy, said it had become in
creasingly apparent that many poten
tial employees were affected by the
careers of their partners.
The Dual Career Program would
„ $
help partners, who need not be legally
married, to find employment both
within the university and the Lincoln
area.
Grobsmith said the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln must be respon
sive to dual-career couples.
“There is a need for some kind of
support for partners,” she said.
Grobsmith said she created the
proposal based on information from
other institutions that had dual-career
policies.
The proposal is similar to pro
See DUAL on 6