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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1993)
NT^it^cVan ==■ 1 ~ \ It I II IV Organization. UPC is 1 \vL/l CiJJXCU L g Isss^-l Michelle Paulman/DN Food for thought Sen. Jim Cudaback of Riverdaie talks to UNL student Rob Czaplewskl. a senior political science major and ASUN senator, during the Legislators on Campus luncheon at the Wick Center Wednesday. About 14 senators and more than 50 UML students and staff members attended the luncheon. A ^ ^ CiwW: ‘ -V ^ — 1 L -___■■__I * - i II a Imi - a m M By Ctuick Given Senior Reporter A July 12 trial date was set Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court for Roger Bjorklund, one oflhe two men charged with last fall’s abduction, rape and murder of a UNL student. Bjorklund, 30, clad in navy blue jail fatigues, his feet shackled, stood before Lancaster County DistrictCourt Judge Jeffre Cheuvront and listened to Public Defender Richard Goos en ter a plea of not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and use of a fire arm to commit a felony. Along with Bjorklund, Scott Barney, 25, was charged last Decem ber in the fatal shooting of Candice Harms, an 18-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student. The trial will be by jury. A not-guilty plea also was entered by Goos for eight other charges against Bjorklund stemming from a robbery and burglary spree from last August to December. The charges included two counts each of robbery, use of a weapon to commit a felony and theft by receiv ing stolen property, and single counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and possession of a firearm to commit a felony. I Bjorklund was mute during both Chcuvroni set a May 10 trial date for the eight additional felonies. Shortly after the two men were arrested in early December for the robberies and burglaries, Barney ad mitted to his attorney that he was involved in the abduction, rape and murder of Harms. Harms had been on the way home from her boyfriend’s house shortly before midnight Sept. 22 when she disappeared. Barney led investigators to Harms’ shallow grave in a field on Dec. 8. At the time, neither man had been under suspicion for Harms’ disappearance. According to Barney’s testimony, Harms was abducted by the two men, who had posed as law enforcement officers. They allegedly raped Harms, then took her to a cornfield southeast of Lincoln and killed her with four gunshots to the head. The discovery of Harms’ body ended a two-month search that had turned up few leads. Because of the information offered by Barney, Lancaster County Attor ney Gary Lacey said he would not seek the death penalty for Barney, but only for Bjoiklund, who allegedly committed the shooting. Bjorklund also is being charged with using a firearm to commit a felony. Friday, Lancaster County Chief Public Defender Scott Helvie filed a 35-page motion challenging the le gality of the death penalty for Bjorklund. Bjorklund’s arraignment had been postponed from Feb. 12. Elections need student participation, students say By Angie Brunkow Staff Reporter Students’ interest and participa tion is the missing ingredient in the AS UN elections, a past AS UN president said. “Candidates try very hard,” Andy Massey, an environmental science major, said. “The voters need to take a more active role in trying to get informed.” Brandon Wilken, a sophomore ja ^ b | Hki geology major, said B^B he voted in the elec tion last year, but he probably wouldn’t vote again. “Every year it seems like the same issues and they never get solved,” he said. Gabriel Lardizabal, a senior fi nance major from Honduras, agreed. “They talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk,” he said. But Massey said the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska’s role — to serve as the student voice to the NU Board of Regents, Nebraska Legislature and : University of Nebraska-Lincoln ad m mistratioo — was important. M '* “Students try tofcelittle ASUN, but ia actuality, it does quite a lot,” he I said. ) Lardizabal said he thought ASUN didn’t have the power to accomplish anything, and so the same issues are repeated in campaigns every year. But current ASUN President An drew Sigerson said campaigns dealt with recurring issues like racism and parking because the issues were too big to be solved entirely in one year. Pat Piper, first vice presidential candidate for the ACTION party last year, said one way to increase the accountability of candidates and elec tions was to end mudslinging. Often, he said, the fight for student attention caused the candidates to mudsling instead of focusing on the issues. “Rather than pointing out the strength of their campaign, they point fingers at the weakness of the others,” See ELECTIONS on 3 New set of cuts doesn’t scare departments, officials say Speech communication, classics cost effective, too expensive to replace By Mark Harms Staff Reporter __ When UNL was forced to accept a 3 percent budget cut a year and a half ago, the speech communication and classics departments fought and won a battle for survival. With the threat of deep budget cuts again hanging over the university, members of the classics and speech communication depart men is say they are hopeful they can survive another round of cuts. ' * “I see no reason to be worried," said Valdis Lcinicks, chairman of the classics department. “It would cost money to cut classics." Leinicks said the classics department taught students at a cheaper rate per credit hour than most other depart ments. If the classics department was cut, he said, students would have to get their credit-hour requirements elsewhere. Be cause most other departments cost the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln more per credit hour, the university would lose money. Neil Adkin, associate professor of classics, said the classics department was a target earlier because it was “small and seemingly vulner able.” However, he said he was optimistic the department would again survive the cuts this lime around. “I’m an egotist,” Adkin said. “I just get on withmy own publications and don’t waste time speculating about what the administration may be up to. “However, I feci in my bones that wc shall survive. Wc are too good to lose.” Ron Lee, assoc iatc professor of speech com munication, said the possibility of the depart ment being dropped still existed. However, he said, the quality of the department would make dropping it a major loss to the university. “It’s safe to say we’re one of the top 20 departments in the country,” he said. Lee said speech communication, like clas sics, was cost effective, and UNL would end up losing money if it were eliminated. Lee said several degree programs at UNL required students to take speech and public speaking courses. He said these courses would have to be taught through other departments if speech communication were dropped. Graduate students in speech communication leach many of the introductory-level classes, he said. If speech communicauon' was dropped, See TARGET on 3 Multicultural education requirement to be pushed back By Corey Russman Staff Reporter— — '- - Delaying the implementation of multicultural education in Nebraska schools until the 1994-95 academic year received first round legislative approval Wednes day. Sens. Ernie Chambers of Omaha and Ron Withem of Papillion, once strong opponents to delaying themullicultural education bill, joined 31 other senators in giving LB27 first round approval. > Omaha Sen. Kate Witek, primary supporter of the multicultural bill, said she still had questions and con cerns about the cost of the program. The lack of local control also is a concern, she said. If the bill takes effect as is, the Department of Education would be in control of monitoring local school districts’ multicultural education pro grams. “I have m^jor concerns on cost,” Witek said. “Those concerns have not been answered.” . ' \ ’ ■ « “ J) The approval advanced the bill to the enrollment and review commit tee, and will be placed on select file for further discussion by the full Leg islature. Earlier this week, Witck proposed two amendments that were aimed at alleviating some of her concerns. One of the amendments, which was designed to delete (he sections of LB27 that dealt with testing students on their multicultural knowledge, was adopted on Tuesday. Witek said the tests would not be adequate in determining whether multicultural programs were being implemented adequately. Witek’s second amendment, pro See LB 27 on 3
