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Lincoln firefighters and paramedics treat 30-year-old graduate student Hann-Wan Guan, who was injured in a chemical
explosion Tuesday afternoon in Hamilton Hall.
Explosion injures chemistry student
Man listed in
fair condition
with cuts, burns
By Erik Unger
Staff Reporter _ _
A University or Ncbraska-Lin
coln student suffered bums and
cuts Tuesday after an explo
sion on the sixth floor of Hamilton
Hail.
Hann-Wan Guan, a 30-ycar-old
chemistry graduate student from Tai
wan, was taken to Lincoln General
Hospital and later transferred to the
St. Elizabeth’s Community Health
Center bum unit, where he was listed
in fair condition.
Authorities said Guan was work
ing alone in the lab when the explo
sion occurred about 4:15 p.m.
Guan was burned by the chemical
explosion and cut by glass, but the
exact cause of the accident and the
extent of the injuries were unknown.
Students and faculty members on
the scene speculated that Guan was
performing a routine chemical proce
dure involvingdislillalionofachemi
cal in the lab, said Phyllis Larsen,
coordinator of news and information
for UNL’sOfficc of Public Relations.
Nate Peachey, a chemistry gradu
ate student, was working on the Fifth
floor of Hamilton Hall when the ex
plosion occurred.
Peachey said he heard the cxplo
sion and the sound of glass shattering
and ran to the sixth floor. Other stu
dents were already trying to extin
guish the fire.
“Guan came staggering out of the
room,” Peachey said. “He was bleed
ing from his mouth, chest and throat.”
Guan’s hair and eyebrows also
were singed, Peachey said.
Peachey said Guan was coherent
and talking, but seemed da/.cd when
he reached him.
“Heasked me if his face was burned
and if he was bleeding,” Peachey said.
“I told him, and he was asking for
compresses for the bleeding.”
Peachey said the blood didn’t seem
to bother Guan.
“He spoke profusely, but in Chi
nese” to three students also on the
scene, Peachey said.
Although Pcachcy said he sup
ported Guan, the injured man exited
the building using his own strength.
Charles Kingsbury, safety director
at Hamilton Hall, said he was at the
scene of the explosion in a matter of
seconds. Smoke filled the hallway
and destroyed the lab, he said.
He said Guan was able to walk, but
was cut badly and was bleeding pro
fusely.
Kingsbury said he didn’t know what
caused the chemical explosion.
Peachey said Guan was doing re
search on non-linear optics when the
accident occurred.
Four or five other students were on
the floor, Pcachcy said, but Guan was
working alone in the room. Peachey
said graduate students routinely work
without faculty supervision.
Deadline
looms for
NU-NCAA
conflict
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Staff Reporter_ _
cbraskaathlctic department of
ficials may have to violate
NCAA regulations to avoid
breaking Nebraska state law this Sat
urday in the Comhuskcrs’ football
game against Utah.
The conflict has been forced by
Legislative Bill 69, a state law requir
ing the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln to allow all athletes eligible for
need-based aid to receive it. LB69
went into effect June 1.
NCAA regulations prohibit uni
versities from awarding more than 92
football scholarships a year. All need
based aid, besides Pell Grants or
student loans, counts as a scholarship.
A1 Papik, assistant athletic direc
tor in charge of compliance and ad
ministration, said 12 Huskcr football
players were eligible for need-based
aid and were not on scholarship. Of
the 12, he said, eight were freshmen
and would rcdshirl, meaning they
won’t play this year.
dui iour oincr piaycrs remain eli
gible for aid. If they accept the aid and
play in a game, they will be counted as
scholarship players and will pul UNL
over the NCAA’s scholarship limit.
But under LB69, UNL cannot pre
vent the players from participating in
games to keep them from being
counted as scholarship athletes.
“We cannot deny them the oppor
tunity to accept aid,” Papik said, “nor
can we curtail participation in athlet
ics because they arc recipients of aid.”
Papik said he did not know if the
four players intended to accept the
aid. If they play Saturday, he said, he
will determine if they received aid ,
and put UNL in violation of NCAA
regulations.
He said the athletic department
sent a last-minute request to the NCAA
Monday requesting instructions on
how to proceed if UNL was pushed
over its scholarship limit.
“We arc wailing for a directive
from the NCAA on how to proceed if
a v iolation occurs,” he said. ,fWc asked
for an immediate response because if
anybody participates Saturday, that
puls us over the limit, and we want to
See NCAA on 6
Crime statistics unrepresentative, official says
By Shelley Biggs
Senior Reporter _
Campus crime statistics often
arc unrepresentative of the
colleges and universities they
represent, UNL officials said.
As of yesterday, campuses nation
wide must disclose their crime statis
tics to comply with the U.S. Campus
Security Act of 1990.
UNL Police Chief Ken Caublc said
crime statistics depend on a campus’s
location — if it is close to a large city
— and the system students use to
report crime.
Caublc said there were several dis
crepancies in the way crimes were
reported.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln, for example, is the only campus
in the University of Nebraska system
that has a commissioned police force,
he said.
Caublc said it wasdifficult to com
pare UNL’s statistics with thoscof the
University of Nebraska at Kearney,
the University of Nebraska at Omaha
and the University of Nebraska Medi
cal Center because those campuses
lack their own police forces. Thus,
crimes occurring on those campuses
most likely will be reported to local
police instead of to the university.
And local police may not choose to
release those reports on a regular ba
sis, Caublc said.
“Sometimes municipal police de
partments will not share their statis
tics with campuses if they don’t have
a good relationship with them,’’ he
said.
*.
Unlike many other campuses,
Cauble said, the Lincoln Police De
partment is willing to release infor
mation to UNL Police.
James Gricscn, vice chancellor
for student affairs at UNL, said he did
not want to see the university’s crime
statistics used as a recruiting edge.
Gricscn also said it was unfair to
compare UNL’s statistics to those from
schools that do not have their own
police forces, such as Creighton Uni
versity in Omaha.
From Aug. 1, 1991, to July 31,
1992, Creighton reported six burglar
ies, while UNL reported 74.
Gricscn said he believed
Creighton’s reported crime statistics
were lower because the Omaha uni
versity reported campus crime to the
local police department.
“It is a reflection of the fact that we
have our own police force,” he said.
“Creighton would be wrong to say
they have a safer campus because
they don’t have a police force.”
A campus’s location also plays a
role in the crime statistics that arc
compiled, Caublc said.
The University of Kansas in
Lawrence, for example, has about the
same number of students as UNL,
Caublc said, but Lawrence has a much
smaller population than Lincoln.
“Where KU represents about one
fourth of the 66,000 people in
Lawrence, UNL represents aboutonc
tenth of the 193,749 people of Lin
coln," he said.
[Campus crime
Data aa reported to campua police 1969 to July 1992
Homicide 0 r
First degree sexual assault 4 m/j
Second degree sexual assault 0
Third degree sexual assault 4 KNB
Robbery 5
Aggravated assault 3
K| Burglary ' 266 _ I .
B Larceny/theft 2620
■PlMotorvehlcle theft 25
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