r ‘ * ’ *
Correction
A story that appeared Alcohol.
Aug. 28 should have .1_
reported that UNL QnigSj
and other
parking violations, cine
The Daily Nebraskan
regrets the error.
PN File Photo
I want a roommate, plain and simple. Everyone else gets one,” says Kristy Coleman, a junior
human development and the family major.
Disabled student sues UNL
Housing Office
_denies request
for a roommate
By Angela Opperman
Staff Reporter
Kristy Coleman wan ts a room -
mate.
k Coleman, a junior major
ing in human development and the
family, said she believed that she
shouldn’t have to live alone just
because she had cerebral palsy and
used a wheelchair.
But UNL has denied her request
for a roommate since the fail of
1991.
Coleman filed a lawsuit Mon
day against the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, alleging that its
housing policies discriminate
against her_
“I want a roommate, plain and
simple,” she said. “Everyone else
gets one.”
She asked to share a double
room with another student, but was
assigned a single room in Selleck
Hall, an accessible residence hall.
In her U.S. District Court suit,
Coleman claims UNL violated her
rights under the Americans With
Disabilities Act and the Constitu
tion when it denied her request for
a roommate.
UNL officials would not com
ment on the case Wednesday.
However, James Griesen, vice
chancellor for student affairs, is
sued a press release saying that
UNL did not differentiate stu
dents with disabilities from other
students in its housing policy, un
less a student’s need for attendant
care or special equipment, or both,
interfered with another student’s
privacy and space.
Coleman requires a personal at
tendant for dressing and using the
restroom.
The only equipment she needs,
she said, is an electric wheelchair,
a fold-up wheelchair for car travel
and a small bath chair that she uses
in the shower. But all of these
things are easily stored in the cor
ner, she said.
Coleman had several non-dis
abled roommates when she attended
Peru State College, she said, and
they lived together without any
problems.
Coleman said some people
might think that living alone should
fail to bother her, but she believed
she was missing out on social inter
action.
Also, Coleman must pay an ad
ditional $550 a year for a single
room.
_See LAWSUIT on 3
Baldwin’s treatment
extended by judge
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Lancaster County District Judge
Paul Merritt Jr. ruled Wednes
day that UNL student Andrew
Scott Baldwin should continue his
mental treatment program at Omaha’s
St. Joseph’s Center for Mental Health.
Merritt ordered Baldwin, 23, to be
committed to St. Joseph’s after
Baldwin and his attorney, Hal Ander
7 son, conceded that he continued to
present a “clear and convincing dan
ger ... by mental illness or defect” to
himself and others, and would in the
future without treatment.
Baldwin was to be committed to
St. Joseph’s security unit Wednesday,
where Dr. Donald Swanson -— who
formulated the treatment program —
and other psychiatrists would inter
view and test him. Those doctors then
would determine if Baldwin should
be released and treated as an outpa
tient.
Merritt gave psychiatrists treating
Baldwin the authority to determine
his freedom of movement outside the
security unit with the stipulation that
their decision be made “with the
public’s safety in mind.”
Merritt also ordered Baldwin not
to leave Nebraska until his treatment
was completed, and set a progress
review hearing for Aug. 23, 1993.
The ruling allows Baldwin to live
in Lincoln and attend classes at the
university. He will no longer be re
quired to live with UNL football
coaches.
The ruling came after Merritt post
poned an Aug. 24 hearing in which
new evidence was submitted. The
evidence included police reports and
psychological evaluations.
Baldwin was charged with first
degree assault and assault on a police
officer stemming from a Jan. 18 at
tack on Gina Simanek Mountain. This
summer, he was found not respon
sible by reason of insanity after a
psychological evaluation. ^
Merritt said St. Joseph’s personnel
had agreed to accept the ruling. Nei
ther Lancaster County nor the court
will have to pay for the treatment.
Merritt sard he received a letter in
which the Nebraska athletic depart
ment prom iscd to pay Baldwin’s treat
mcntcosls until he graduates. Baldwin
is expected to graduate in May.
Anderson predicted Baldwin would
be released from the security unit
Wednesday night.
He also called the ruling “really
unusual.”
“The judge, in my opinion, doesn’t
believe he has the authority to commit
(Baldwin) to an outpatient program
directly,” Anderson said, “so he is
going to let the doctors at St. Joseph’s
determine it.”
If Baldwin docs not comply with
Merritt’s order, his treatment could
be altered, Anderson said. He could
be treated at an in-patient program at
St. Joseph’s or another state institu
tion.
“But that’s very unlikely,” Ander
son said. “1 told Scott that 1 thought
this was what was going to happen,
and he was prepared for it.”
Under Swanson’s treatment pro
gram, Baldwin would continue to meet
with a St. Joseph’s psychiatrist at least
twice a week, and would continue to
receive two daily doses of lithium
carbonate, a depressant.
Anderson said he was pleased with
Merritt’s decision.
“What occurred here was the best
for everyone,” he said.
Chemical tire victim
still in fair condition
From Staff Reports _
AUNL graduate student injured
in a chemical explosion at
Hamilton Hall remained in fair
condition Wednesday at St. Elizabeth
Community Health Center, authori
ties said.
Hann-Wan Guan, a 30-year-old
chemistry student from Taiwan, was
taken to Lincoln General Hospital
and later transferred to the St. Eliza
beth Community Health Center burn
un it after an explosion Tuesday on the
sixth floor of Hamilton Hall.
Guan was burned by the chemical
explosion and cut by glass. He sus
tained injuries to his face, throat and
•m
chest.
Authorities said he was working
alone in the lab when the explosion
occurred about 4:15 p.m.
Dan Olsen, chemical safety spe
cialist for UNL’s Environmental
Health and Safety, said Guan was
performing a routine chemical proce- '
dure involving distillation of
tetrahydroform in the lab.
Tetrahydroform, a highly flam
mable organic solvent, commonly is
used in organic chemistry, Olsen said.
All floors of Hamilton Hall arc
open, he said, but the lab where the
explosion occurred is closed. Olsen
said he did not know when it would be
opened.
a -m
committee to provide input on recycling plan
By Kathryn Borman
Staff Reporter
Recycling at UNL is on the verge of some
positive changes, the vice chancellor
for business and finance wrote Wednes
day in a memo to members of the Recycling
Advisory Committee.
In the memo. Jack Goebel asked for input
from*"’ committee members about the
campuswidc recycling plan and the hiring of a
coordinator for waste reduction. The commit
tee first suggested both proposals in November
1990.
The suggestions were compiled in a report
sent by Goebel to University of Nfcbraska
Lincoln Chancellor Graham Spanicr in July.
Spanier proposed a campuswide recycling plan
and the hiring of a recycling coordinator in his
State of the University address Aug. 20.
Spanier had asked Goebel to organize a
campus plan for recycling, and Goebel said the
Committee’s suggestions would be the founda
tion of the plan.
The Recycling Advisory Committee, formed
in the spring of 1990 and headed by Bud
Dasenbrock, director of UNL Landscape Ser
vices, issued a report in November 1990 calling
for a coordinator for recycling and an advisory
committee to support the coordinator.
“It just makes sense to go back and get that
collective wisdom to apply to a new and more
progressive approach,’’ Goebel said.
“I’ve asked them at their first meeting... to
. 1 4
consider those issues and get some feedback to
this office as promptly as we can, so that we can
get going.”
Goebel said he would form a new committee
to work with his office to create a plan and
select a coordinator. The new committee will
include some members of the Recycling Advi
sory Committee, he said, because they have
worked hard and have a vested interest in, and
knowledge about, recycling on campus.
“It might take us a little bit longer, but I think
we’ll have a sounder approach,” Goebel said of
forming a new committee.
He said it might be four to six weeks before
the committee was formed and a plan was
created for hiring the coordinator.
At the time the committee first proposed
*
hiring a recycling coordinator, he said, budget
• cuts thwarted the plan.
Goebel said a coordinator should provide
the stability needed for a successful, ongoing
recycling program.
“I personally fcdl that (the committee’s)
assessment with regard to the value of a coor
dinator is right on die mark,” he said.
Goebel predicted the coordinator’s job would
be a “hands-on” position.
Paul Carlson, interim business manager at
UNL, said the position might be filled by
someone working jointly with the university,
city and state, but he said UNL had no specific
plans to select the coordinator in conjunction
See RECYCLE on 3