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Wednesday night's Gfm&r HANlAcs
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directed at CFA's
proposed budget cuts,
not the prayer at
graduation issue The 42/18
P® e®rets Morning clouds then
tne error. becoming partly sunny in
the afternoon. Weekend
outlook, cloudy and
cooler._
Abortion
bills raise
questions
Education, consent
debated over at
committee hearing
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
Over 40 people testified during
four hours of discussion on
three abortion-related bills in
a judiciary committee hearing Thurs
day.
Informed con
sent, a 24-hour
waiting period
prior to having an
abortion, prohibi
_tion of public
funds and facili
—-ties for use in abor
tiemsand eliminating thcduly for school
districts to provide abortion informa
tion were ail brought before the com
mittee.
LB110, introduced by John Lind
say of Omaha, would require that in
formation detailing the anatomical and
physiological characteristics of an
unborn child be provided to a woman
prior to having an abortion.
The bi II would also requ ire a woman
to wait 24 hours after she signed the
informed consent document to have
an abortion.
reoplc on both sides of the abortion
issue debated on exactly when life
begins, but Lindsay tried to bypass
that argument.
“When life begins is not the ques
tion here,” Lindsay said. We need to
“look beyond the issue of pro-choice
and pro-life.
“Abortion rights might divide us,
but the issue of informed rights
doesn't.”
Guyla Mills of Lincoln told the
crowded committee room that she
knew from personal experience that
women need to know the truth before
having an abortion.
“This bill allows the right for a
woman to hear the facts,” she said. “I
was exploited by the abortion industry
10 years ago.”
If there had been a 24-hour wailing
period then, she said, that child would
now be alive.
Dr. Wall Weaver, a Lincoln cardi
ologist, said women must be informed
about what happens during an abor
tion, just like any other medical pro
cedure. A law might be the only way
to ensure that.
Steven Dinsmore, professor of
education and counseling at Wayne
Stale College, said the discussion
should move away from the religious
and emotional aspect of the issue.
“I’m sick to death of the debate
about abortion,” he said, in opposi
tion of the bills. “Normally, I would
See LEGISLATURE on 6
* Therrese Goodi6tt/DN
People fill the food court in the basement of the Miller and Paine building, 13th and 0
streets, over the lunch hour. With new offices and businesses moving in downtown, the
food court is bustling with people during the work week.
Downtown revival
Mayor: Students play key role in success
by HeDecca b. Kruse
Staff Reporter__
Lincoln’sdowntown, once en
cased in a cocoon of wither
ing business interest, has gone
through a metamorphosis.
“In the
past 18
months the
downtown
has experi
enced a re
naissance,"
Mayor Mike
Johanns said.
“I feel better
about the
downtown
than I have in a decade or more.”
Dan Quandi, director ol the Lin
coln Convention and Visitor’s Bu
reau, agreed.
“It’s heated up,” Quandi said.
“Whatever slide it may have been
in has bottomed out.”
“I have watched the reforma
tion and restoration of the
Haymarket into a really bustling
area,” Quandi said.
The keys todowntown Lincoln’s
success include the university, re
tail, entertainment, housing, com
mercial office use and stale gov
ernment, Johanns said.
“We have to pay attention to
each one of those," he said. “If we
do that, the future of downtown
looks very bright.”
Many students live in the area
even if they don’t live on campus,
Johanns said. The downtown area
has a natural attraction for stu
dents, he said, offering restaurants,
bars and theaters. The retail indus
try is also trying to attract students,
he said.
“We love UNL students,”
Johanns said. “They are great for
the city of Lincoln.
“I wish I could give each and
every one of them a big hug.”
Downtown businesses arc ad
justing to the various needs of their
student clientele, Quandt said, and
they arc taking a harder look at who
See DOWNTOWN on 2
Attorney
seeks death
sentence
for accused
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey said he planned to seek
the death penally for at least
uuc uf the two men accused of mur
dering a UNL student last fall.
Lacey is seeking the death penalty
for Roger Bjorklund, 30, of Lincoln,
for the alleged abduction, rape and
murder of Candice Harms, an 18
year-old freshman at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Harms was last seen leaving her
boyfriend’s house Sept. 22 shortly
before midnight, on her way home to
6100 Vine Sl She never made i t home,
and she was reported missing the next
day.
After almost three months of ex
tensive searches, her body was found
in a shallow grave southeast of Lin
coln.
Scott Barney, 25, also of Lincoln,
led authorities to the site Dec. 8. He
and Bjorklund were being held in
Lancaster County Jail at the time for
their alleged involvement in a string
of armed robberies and burglaries in
Lincoln last summer and fall.
Lacey said he and Barney had come
to an agreement before authorities
were led to the grave site. He refused
to specify the terms of the agreement,
but hinted that it might have made
Barney immune to receiving the death
penalty if convicted.
oamcy was arraigned Wednesday
in Lancaster County District Court
before Judge Jeffrc Cheuvront, who
set a March 29 jury trial for eight
charges related to the robberies.
The charges included: two counts
of robbery, two counts of theft by
receiving stolen property, two counts
of using a weapon to comm it a felony,
one count of conspiracy to commit a
robbery and one count of possession
of a fi rearm whi lc comm i tting a felony.
Barney pleaded not guilty to
charges of first-degree murder and to
the robbery charges.
Bjorklund, who allegedly commit
ted the fatal shooting, also was charged
with using a firearm to commit a
felony.
He was scheduled to be arraigned
Wednesday, but his attorney. Deputy
Lancaster County Public Defender
Scott Helvic, filed a motion to quash
the murder charge.
The motion to quash is a proce
dural move often used in legal cases.
It is a motion that alleges facts used
were possibly unconstitutional or de
fective.
Lacey would not comment on
whether he would also seek the death
Dcnaltv for Bamcv.
Freshman retention to
the sophomore year
Retention rate figures are from
Falr90 to Fall 91
Rate
School retained
Stanford 98%
Yale 98
Ohio St. 83
Iowa St. 83
Minnesota 82
Missouri 80
UNL 76
* Middle Tenn. St. 47
North Texas St.38
Brian Sheflito/DN
Freshman dropout rate declines
Low fynds, grades
barricade return,
UNL official says
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter '_
The number of students returning
after their first year at UNL has
increased in the last two years,
but UNL’s retention level still lags
behind its peer institutions, an official
said.
The lower rate of returning fresh
men affects UNL’s national reputa
tion because publications that rank the
nation’s colleges include retention
rates in their overall evaluations, said
James Griesen, vice chancellor for
student affairs.
According to the UNL Office of
Registration and Records, 77 percent
of the traditional freshmen who en
tered the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln in the fall of 1991 returned in the
fall of 1992 — a 1 percent increase
from 1990.
Earl Hawkey, director of registra
tion and records, said there were sev
eral reasons freshmen dropped out
after their first year. Financial prob
lems, family concerns and the desire
to take a year off to reflccton life goals
arc some of the more common rea
sons, he said.
But Hawkey said low grades were
the main reason most freshmen didn’t
return.
Griesen said programs like Uni
versity Foundations, the Academic
Success Center and Special Opportu
nities and Services helped increase
UNL’s retention rate by helping stu
dents adapt to university life and to
See RETENTION on 6