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MTV 11 Grant Top
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| Today, mostly sunny and
| II nice.Tonight and
■ V tomorrow, increasing
xi__u 9 XI..X10 clouds and a chance of
nasn & miff: storms.
I Ownership of bones disputed by officials
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Kentucky officials have some bones to
pick with the Nebraska State Museum.
And directors at the Kentucky De
partment of Parks arc hoping to pick them as
soon as possible, one Kentucky attorney said.
Fossilized remains of mammoths, bison and
other animals unearthed ala Kentucky archeo
logical site have resided in the Nebraska State
Museum since the early 1960s, where they have
been catalogued, preserved and studied by
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln students and
researchers.
Now, officials in Kentucky apparently want
them back.
But Hugh Gcnoways, director of the Ne
braska State Museum, said that exactly who
wanted the remains returned was unclear.
“The last correspondence we’ve had with
anyone in Kentucky was in 1988,” Gcnoways
said. “We haven’t heard anything from anyone
personally smcc then.”
That year, Gcnoways said, he received a
request from the Kentucky Department of Parks
for records of the 1962 digs. Gcnoways said he
complied with their request and had not heard
Kentucky Department of Parks wants fossils returned;
UNL reluctant to give back major scientific collection
from them since.
“I don’t know where they’re coming from,”
he said. “I think that maybe this,is just some
slick Kentucky lawyer trying to negotiate
through the newspapers.”
The bones were uncovered between 1962
and 1966 during a series of digs at Big Bone
Lick Staid Park near Union, Ky. The fossils
accumulated because of sal l and sulphur springs
at the site, which attracted animals between
20,000 and 12,000 B.C. Once there, bison,
horses and other animals apparently became
trapped in the soil soil, where they died.
When the project began, the National Sci
ence Foundation provided UNL with a scricsof
grants to finance the dig and specifically called
for the bones to be housed and studied at UNL.
The excavation was led by.C. Bertrand
Schultz, the Nebraska Stale Museum’s director
in the 1960s, and was conducted by UNL
researchers.
Henry Curtis, an attorney for the Kentucky
Department of Parks in Frankfort, said he didn’t
understand why Nebraska Slate Museum offi
cials were reluctant to return the remains.
“Nobody really wants Ip lake this deal to
"court, but we will if we have to,” Curtis said.
“Hopefully, we can gel it resolved before any
thing like that transpires. But I don’t understand
why they’re dragging their feel.”
Genoways said one rpajor^issuc was money.
“We’ve sunk scvcrakihousands of dollars
into these artifacts,” he said, “and we’re not
ready to turn them over to Kentucky, where
they would no longer be available for scientific
study.”
Curtis said thcboncs were partof Kentucky’s
history,and that Kentucky park directors wanted
to pul the bones on display at Big Bone Lick
State Park.
Genoways said he knew of no existing facili
ties in Kentucky that could adequately display
the 2,(XX) specimens currently housed at UNL.
Thcspccimcns include everything from bone
fragments to intact, individual bones, but the
collection “certainly is not a massive one,”
Genoways said.
Remains from Big Bone Lick — considered
by researchers to be one of the most important
archeological sites in North America — arc
displayed and studied at museums throughout
the world, .including London’s British Mu
seum, the Philadelphia Academy of Science
and the Natural History Museum in Paris. The
first digs at the site were ordered in the early
1800s by President Thomas Jefferson.
Genoways said he didn’t know if any of the
other museums displaying the artifacts had
been asked to return them.
He said the. fate of UNL’s collection de
pended on researchers in Kentucky, and added
that he would be willing to negotiate the return
of the bones if they would remain available for
scientific examination.
, But, he said, the loss of the collection would
cause problems for UNL.
“Obviously, the artifacts arc of major scien
tific importance to us,” Genoways said. “These
bones are from the Ice Age, and we at UNL
study artifacts from that time period very closely.
“To just give up something we’ve had here
for 25 years or more would be a little hard to
do.A,
— | |. ' onaun oarurvurM
Takin a dive
Jenny Brabec, a freshman accounting major, plunges for the ball Sunday afternoon during a game at the Harper
Schramm-Smith Complex sand volleyball court.
(Jmcials advise
[ students about
parking changes
By Shelley Biggs
Senior Reporter __
UNL Parking Services has been working
hard to advise students ol changes made
, this summer in parking on campus, an
| official said.
Parking officials arc taking extra initiative
to warn students of changes that were made for
their benefit, said Mike Cacak, manager of
! UNL’s Transportation Services.
“We’ve done what we can to notify students
and be helpful,” he said.
For example, Cacak said, parking officials
! arc posted around the loop near Memorial
Stadium to let students know of the changes
there.
Forty-two meters were pulled from the loop
and added to the parking lot north of Mabel Lee
i Hall at 14th and W streets, he said, and 22
meters were added to the lot. The existing space
; near the stadium was made into an Area 10 lot
and is reserved for faculty.
Parking officials also mailed and delivered
reminders to students who parked in the two
rows designated as reserved spaces in lots near
Pound and Abel residence halls, Cacak said.
In the past, he said, reserved spaces have
been located around the edges of the lots. This
year, the first two rows in each lot are reserved
parking.
Cacak said the reserved spaces were moved
closer to give students who paid extra for them
their money ’s worth. Annual permits cost S54,
while reserved spaces are SI55 lor a year.
NU to continue offering free tickets,
oy oneiiey oiyys
Senior Reporter
rwi he disclosure of S 12,045 in
I tickets given to state senators
^ and elected officials over the
past year will not change NU’s prac
tice of offering free tickets for foot
ball and basketball games and other
events, officials said Sunday.
The University of Nebraska re
ported the value of event tickets given
to state officials for the first lime
Friday. It did so because of a Ne
braska Accountability and Disclosure
Commission ruling that the value of
the tickets and other entertainment
spending by NU must be reported
under state lobbying laws.
The disclosure pul the university at
the top in entertainment spending
among groups that lobby the Nebraska
Legislature,- —
Richard Wood, NU’s chief legal
counsel, said giving away tickets to
slate senators and elected oiliciais
was a regular practice.
The value of the tickets always has
been a matter of public record in the
chancellor’s office, he said, and the
amount of money reported this year is
not uncharacteristic of past years.
“The university is not actually
spending the money; it is only the
value of the tickets,’’ Wood said.
Dannie Traulwein, executive di
rector of the Nebraska Accountability
and Disclosure Commission, said that
prior to the disclosure of the tickets’
value, the commission became aware
that NU wasn’t reporting the value of
admissions to social events. .She said
she contacted Wood, university lob
byist Lee Rupp and NU President
Marlin Massengale to discuss the is
sue, Al ter the meeting, she said, they
reached an agreement and the tickei
amount was reported to the commis
sion. i
inc university man t report tnc
value of the tickets in past years,
Massengale said, because NU offi
cials thought the university wasn’t
required to. He said the meeting with
Trautwein simply clarified the law,
because it was N U’s first disclosure of
that kind.
“The meeting was held for the
refinement of the interpretation of the
law,” Massengale said.
Each year, the university offers 49
state senators and six constitutional
officers — the governor, lieutenant
governor, treasurer, auditor, secre
tary of state and attorney general — a
pair of season football tickets, for a
total of 55 pairs.
Last year, 19 officials paid for the
tickets or declined them.
Massengale said the university
would continue to offer free tickets,
but officials could choose to buy them
instead.
•72 season football tickets, worth $136 each.
Total value of $9,792. Additional single-game
tickets given out worth $187.
•Basketball game tickets valued at $1,316.
•Tickets for events at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts worth $750.
.: - Scott Maurer/ON
