r . < . . Travis Heying/DN
Lights out
Stephen Waftman of the Nebraska Union Maintenance Department replaces the lights above the front entrances of the union
Tuesday morning.
Bill targets minors driving drunk
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
One co-sponsor of a proposed bill
intended to discourage minors from
drinking alcohol and driving insists
the legislation is not meant to pick on
young people.
During the
Legislature’s
Transportation
Committee’s hear
ing Tuesday at the
State Capitol,
-nothing was of
fered to dispel her claim.
Sen. Connie Day of Norfolk, one
of the bill’s co-sponsors, said she
thought the bill was important to let
minors know they, too, pose a threat
to themselves and others if they drive
while under the influence of alcohol.
Under LB564, if a minor is caught
driving with a blood-alcohol content
level higher than .02 percent, his or
her driver’s license would be sus
pended for 30 days.
If the offense was repeated, the
license would be suspended for up to
six months.
If the minor refused to lake a sobri
ety test, he or she would automati
cally lose their license for 90 days.
“1 think we send a very inconsis
tent message to young people when
they’re found to be driving with a .06
(blood-alcohol content level) and all
we can do is turn our heads and say it’s
wrong,” Day said.
Complaints that LB564 is target
ing minors for unfair treatment al
ready have began to find their way to
Day, she said.
“My 20-ycar-old son and I have
had very intense discussion about this
bill, and he’s not in favor of it,” Day
said. “I’m sure not many minors would
be.”
Norman McPherson, regional su
pervisor of the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, said
more than 3,100 minors die each year
in alcohol-related traffic accidents.
Bob Schracder, director of the
Nebraska Alcohol and Drug Abuse
-44
My 20-year-old son and I have had very intense
discussion about this bill, and he's not in favor of
it I’m sure not many minors would be.
— Day
State senator
-99 -
Council, said he thought the new law
would be effective in lowering that
statistic.
“Young people value their driver’s
licenses dearly,” he said. “If they lost
it, even for a month, it would impact
them greatly. But it would make them
think harder before drinking and driv
ing.”
Ronald Abdough, director of spe
cial programs for Omaha Mayor P.J.
Morgan, said he supported LB564
because it “sends the right message.”
“It’s not a catch-all solution, or an
answer for everything, but it's an
important step and a possible deter
rent,” he said.
In a related bill. Sen. Thomas
Horgan of Omaha introduced LB698,
which would provide penalties for
driving under the influence of alcohol
when a minor is in the vehicle.
The bill, he said, would mirror
legislation introduced in Illinois last
year.
Under LB698, a driver convicted
of DWI would receive an additional
$5(X) fine and sentence of five days of
community service work if a minor
was in the car at the lime of the
incident.
A second offense would increase
the community service sentence to 10
days.
Academic Senate votes support
for chancellor in budget battle
By Angie Brunkow
Staff Reporter '_
The Academic Senate passed a
resolution Tuesday supporting Chan
cellor Graham Spanier’s effort to pro
tect UNL’s inter
ests in the midst of
proposed budget
cuts.
Spanier said he
- _ would not stand by
SENATE while the Nebraska
Wi!!’nW Legislature’s Ap
propriations Committee proposed to
cut an additional 5 percent from the
NU budget. Spanier said the proposal
would cut the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln’s budget by about $7 million
dollars.
“My job is to lead this university
forward, not backward,” he said.
Spanier said the cuts would mean
el im ination of staff and fac ulty, whose
salaries make up 80 percent of UNL’s
budget.
These cuts come on top of three
successive budget cuts in past years.
But Spanier reassured the senate
that the budget cuts probably would
not mean a dramatic increase in tu
ition for students. The NU Board of
Regents iscommittcdtokccping costs
for students down, he said.
“I don’t think our students will be
affected in any profound way,” he
said.
-44
My job is to lead this
university forward, not
backward.
Spanier
UNL chancellor
-tf -
Academic Senate President Sally
Wise said she thought the Legislature
would take into account the position
of the senate and the value of the
education the university provided
when making its final budgetary deci
sions.
“We need to help the citizens of the
state understand the mission of the
university,” she said.
But Spanier said faculty and staff
members should remember to con
centrate on their current roles at the
university and not to get “bogged
down” with budget concerns.
Spanier also said the two positions
of associate director of affirmative
action had been filled by LindaCrump
and Ron Ross.
In other business, the senate passed
a resolution asking the Curriculum
Committee to meet with the execu
tive committee to discuss the role of
inclusiveness at UNL.
The senate originally had given
the committee the issue to consider in
November after the Chancellor’s
Committee on the Status of Women
requested the inquiry.
Curriculum Committee Chairman
Michael Stricklin said the committee
had planned to use inclusi vencss as an
item that it would consider as it re
viewed class proposals.
“It depends upon who you read and
who you listen to,” he said. “There’s
a wide variety as to what the term
means."
Leo Chouinard, math and statistics
department senator, said he was dis
appointed because the committee did
not offer a concrete proposal.
Wise said the committee did not
have a proposal because it misunder
stood the senate’s desire for direction
from the committee aboulhow to deal
with the issue.
-r
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Board planning
forum to discuss
smoking in union
By Matt Woody
Staff Reporter
Concluding that a pro-active ap
proach was necessary in order to make
its voice heard in
IMIllflPI the debate on a new
IflQUIa smoking policy,
Vaf] the University of
|^MlNan Nebraska-Lmcoln
Union Board de
cided at its meet
I ing Tuesday to
seek input from the
unions’ patrons.
The board discussed scheduling a
town hall-type meeting to get input
from union patrons. The meeting prob
ably would be held during the lunch
hour, the union’s busiest lime, to get
as much input as possible.
Although nodatc was set, Nebraska
Unions Director Daryl Swanson said
he expected the forum to be sometime
in March.
“I think the path of least resistance
certainly would be for me to do noth
ing, you to do nothing, let the univer
sity study take its course, and then we
accept its findings,” Swanson said to
the board.
But, he said, it is the board’s re
sponsibility to determine what union
users want and need.
The question is how to balance the
rights of the smoker with the rights of
the non-smoker, Swanson said. That
may either be banning smoking or
limiting it to designated areas, he
said. _
“II wc accommodate smoking, wc
have to provide assurance that we will
protect the rights of the non-smok
ers,” he said.
-