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Students say inquiry increases tensions
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Unanswered questions and in
adequate explanations about a
police investigation targeting
five African-American men at UNL
have heightened racial tension on cam
pus, said two of the students ques
tioned by investigators.
Phil Bates and Anthony Briggs
said they were contacted about a 1 1/
2 weeks ago by a University of Nc
braska-Lincoln pol ice officer who told
them she was following up on an
investigation into the disappearance
of UNL freshman Candice Harms,
who has been missing since Sept. 22.
James Gricscn, viccchanccllor for
student affairs at UN L, said the inves
tigation was initialed when a student
enrolled in an anthropology class —
- §§----—
We all feel like suspects. We keep hearing that we’re not, but it sure seems
that way. It almost seems like it’s open season on black men.
Briggs
junior psychology major
___ _ _
in which the men and Harms arc en
rolled —reported to pol ice that Harms
was scaled by and talking to an Afri
can-American man the day of her
disappearance.
Police then contacted the five Af
rican-American men enrolled in the
class.
Bates and Briggs said they thought
the inquiry was racially motivated.
“We all feel like suspects,” said
Briggs, a junior psychology major.
“We keep hearing that we’re not, but
it sure seems that way. It almost seems
like it’s open season on black men.
“If this were the 1950s, you would
have found five brothers hanging from
a tree.”
Police acquired the names of the
five men through the Registrar’s Of
fice, whose computer banks include
race and gender information on stu
dents, Gricscn said.
Officers then contacted the men,
asking for their Social Security num
bers, previous addresses and other
information. The men then were pho
tographed.
77
The incident prompted a letter from
state Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha
to UNL Chancellor Graham Spanicr
that requested a meeting with Spanicr
and other university officials.
Gricscn dismissed the incident as
non-racially motivated, and said the
police acted appropriately in their
investigation.
But Briggs said he was unsatisfied
with Griesen’s explanation.
“It’s like he’s trying to play both
sides of the fence,” Briggs said. “He
just isn’t stopping to think how we
fed throughout all of this.
“It’s not that we’re insensitive to
the Harms ease, but the manner in
which police presented the case to us
.. . demands a public apology.”
Bales agreed, adding that people
“can’t discount these types of trends.
“If Gricscn released the informa
tion on us, he’ll do it again to other
students,” said Bates, a graduate stu
dent. “There arc larger ramifications
to consider. It’s just like censorship.
One day it’s this, the next day it’s
something else. Where docs it end?”
Briggs said other African-Ameri
can students at U NL were angry about
the incident and Gricscn’s explana
tion. He also said the incident had
heightened racial tension in the an
thropology class.
See INVESTIGATION on 3
Poll says state
favors lottery
by slim margin
By Shelley Biggs
Senior Reporter ___
The odds favor a lottery for Nebraska by a
slim margin, a recent poll indicated.
The latest Omaha World-Herald poll,
conducted Oct. 20-22, indicated that 57 percent
of the 847 people who had opinions would vote
for a state lottery.
(That figure is down from
62 percent in an Oct. 6-8
World-Herald survey. In an
early September survey, the
figure was 69 percent.
Randy Moody, campaign
manager for Friends of Edu
cation and the Environment,
a grass-roots campaign orga
nized in support of a Nebraska lottery, said he
was confident Nebraskans would vote for a state
lottery. His organization has had strong support
throughout the campaign, Moody said.
“I think it will win solidly,” he said.
But Chris Eskridge, acriminal justice profes
■ rfior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a
member of Citizens Against More Gambling,
said the lotufry would do more harm than good.
“The lottery has a hollow allure,” he said. “It
is misleading, especially to the poor.”
People in favor of Friends of Education and
See LOTTERY on 2
Budget cuts
to leave snow
on some paths
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter ___
Students may have to drag out their cross
country skis if they want to navigate
some areas of campus this winter.
Bud Dascnbrock, director of landscape ser
vices at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln,
said some sidewalks would not be cleared of
snow this winter.
Dascnbrock said 1992-93 budgctcuts forced
him to cut back on personnel and machinery.
About $12,(XX) was trimmed from his budget
July 1, he said.
Sidewalks and steps that students use the
least will be thconcs that snow crews ignore, he
said.
“We try to choose sidewalks that aren’t
going to impose an inconvenience on people,”
he said. “If people choose to walk on them, it
will be at their own risk.”
Some sidewalks on both City and East cam
' See SNOW on 3
Roll the vote
Charlie Jordan wheels voting booths out to the loading dock at the Lancaster County Election Commission’s
warehouse Monday in preparation for today’s general election.__
Bush likely to lose, professor says
Campaign strategy
reduces likelihood
of election upset
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Stafl Reporter
President Bush has managed to close in on
Gov. Bill Clinton’s lead in the waning
days of the presidential election, but it
won’t be enough to carry him to victory, a
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln professor said
Monday.
Robert Siltig, a political
science professor who spe
cializes in elections, said that
although Bush had managed
to stage a comeback similar
to Harry Truman’s in 1948,
he wouldn’t be able to dupli
cate Truman’s final result —
a win.
Incumbent Truman was forecast by many to
lose his 1948 race with Republican Thomas
Dewey. Truman staged a comeback in the final
weeks of the race and was re-elected.
Siuig said Truman was able to stage his
comeback in 1948 because polling was not as
sophisticated then. Had Republicans at the time
realized that Truman’s last-minute charge was.
working, they might have been able to m inimiz.c
it, he said.
“Truman could surprise the opposition and
make a cross-country train trip, and the opposi
tion didn’t respond,” Siltig said. “And appar
ently, he made incremental improvements in his
showing steadily during the last two or three
weeks of the campaign.
“Now that would be impossible,” he said.
“The opposition has a strategy to deal with
almost every effort the other campaign makes."
Siltig predicted Clinton would prevail over
Bush in a close race in the popular vote and a
larger margin in the electoral vote.
“I think Clinton will win,” he said. “I think
Bush willdo relatively well—he’ll win enough
states that he won’t be humiliated or embar
rassed — maybe 10, at the most 20.
“But the trouble is, within that category,
most of them arc going to be small or at most
medium-sized states, and so the Electoral Col
lege reality is that it won ’lbe very competitive.”
A candidate wins the presidency by winning
a majority — 270 — of the nation’s electoral
votes. Electoral votes arc gained by winning
individual stales.
California has 54 electoral votes, while Ne
braska has 5, so a candidate could win a close
race in the popular vote while winning by a
much wider margin in the Electoral College by
winning big states.
Sittig predicted Clinton would receive about
47 percent of the popular vote, Bush about 44
percent and independent candidate Ross Perot
about 9 percent.
“But again, the popular vote isn’t the deter
minant vole, so as close as that looks (in the
popular vote), it looks like it’s going to be more
handsome for Clinton in the Electoral College,’’
he said.
Sittig predicted Clinton would win the presi
dency with about 300 electoral votes.
Bush could still win, Sittig said, but the
chances at this point arc very remote.
“I think there’s a chance, but 1 think it’s one
in 10,” he said. “There arc 10 to 15 other states
states that he is within striking distance —
mostly Midwestern and eastern industrial states
like Illinois,Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn
sylvania and New Jersey.
“By some stroke of fortune, maybe he could
carry most of those,” he said. “If he did, along
with the 10 or 12 I expect him to carry, that
would be enough for him to make it close.’