Chancellor announces specific program cuts
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
Four programs and 36 full-time positions
will be eliminated at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln next year as part of a
budget cut.
The Academic Success
Center, Writing Lab, Czech
language program and fund
ing for off-campus exten
sion grants all will bcclimi
nated before next semester.
The eliminations will save
the university $130,000.
The budget cuts, totaling S2.9 million, have
loomed over the university since they were
announced in a special legislative session last
September. Chancellor Graham Spanicr speci
fied the cuts at a news conference Wednesday.
He said the $2.9 million cut should not be
confused with the cuts currently pending in the
Legislature.
See List of Cuts on page 2
“The timing should not confuse anyone that
we are dealing with currcntculs,” he said. “This
is the final step in responding to cuts in the
1991-93 biennium.”
Although no colleges were eliminated in the
latest round of cuts, Spanier said the quality of
instruction eventually would suffer.
“Anytime you reduce the university’s bud
get by a couple million dollars, we can’t claim
we’re emerging as a better institution,” he said.
The two-page list, compiled by U NL adm in -
istration, names 71 areas to cut. All areas for
reduction were specific, Spanier said, which
eliminated the need for across-the-board cuts.
The cuts, which represent 1.5 percent of the
total budget, will also eliminate 21 administra
tive and support staff positions, which account
for S594.000. Custodial, secretarial and other
staff positions make up for the majority of the
job eliminations.
Fifteen full-time faculty positions will be
eliminated to save $781,000, Spanier said, but
no tenured faculty will lose their positions#
The biggest section of cuts came from
changes in summer sessions. The cuts total
$1.012 million, most of which comes from the
reduction of professor compensation for sum
mer sessions. Classes also will increase in size
due to the cuts, Spanicr said.
“It’s fair to say the single largest impact is
concentrated in summer sessions,” he said.
Reductions in operating, travel and mainte
nance fees account for $382,000. Operating
and travel expenses for the Bchlcn Observatory
will be eliminated under this section of cuts.
Kimball Hall, the Division of Continuing Stud
ies, the Bob Devaney Sports Center and mail
service all will suffer cuts under the proposal.
The cuts were made after consultation with
the Academic Planning Committee and the
Academic Senate Executive Committee.
The Legislature is expected to discuss a
proposed $3.5 million budget cut next week. If
approved, it would increase the total budget
cuts to $9.5 million since Spanier came to UNL
18 months ago.
Robin Trimarchi/DN
Workers on strike from American Signature printing company cheer as strike supporters drive by Wednesday.
Unions blame working conditions for strike
Groups combine
to protest hours,
benefit packages
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
Employees of the American
Signature plant in northwest
Lincoln walked out on their
shifts late Tuesday night, begin
ning a strike they said would con
tinue for days.
About700 workers arc involved
in the strike against the printing
and binding company. Bad work
ing conditions and poor benefit
packages prompted the strike, Steve
Rich, a union representative, said.
“We're not asking fora raise.all
we want is working conditions we
had before," he said.
Problems began at the plant last
year after it was acquired by Heller
Financial Group of Chicago, Rich
said. The financial group is a sub
sidiary of the Japan-based Fuji cor
poration.
Employee Randy Kuhn of Lin
coln said negotiations had been
going on for more than a year, but
broke down Tuesday.
“We were really forced in to
this," he said. “Health care premi
ums are skyrocketing and coverage
has gone down."
American Signature officials at
die scene would not speak to the
Daily Nebraskan Wednesday.
The strikers represent a coali
tion of three unions: GraphiesCom
municalion International Union of
Press Workers No. 221, Bindery
Workers No. 520 and International
Machinists Union Local No. 31.
Production work was believed
to be continuing at the plant
Wednesday, union members said,
with office personnel running ma
chines.
“That’s very unsafe, pulling
them on high speed machines,’’
Kuhn said. You can look at half of
the (regular employees) in the dc
partmcnt without fingers.”
Employcesof the plant said they
thought the company was hiring
new employees to replace them.
“Nebraska is a right to work
state,” he said. “They can hire
whoever they want if we’re on
strike.”
Negotiation meetings between
union workers and company offi
cials were held Wednesday, but no
progress was made, Kuhn said.
Kyle Slickclman, a freshman
general studies major at the Uni
versity of Ncbraska-Lincoln, has
worked at the plant for five years.
The problems began when the work
See STRIKE on 3
University honors dead civil rights leader
By Steve Smith
Senior Reporter
About 60 students, faculty and
administrators gathered in
front of the Nebraska Union
Wednesday to pay tribute to Cesar
Chavez, a civil rights champion who
died Friday.
Chavez, 66, was often referred to
as an “American Gandhi” and was
most famous for launching a drive to
raise wages and improve economic
conditions among Mexican-Ameri
can farm workers in the late 1960s.
In 1964, he unionized workers in
the grape fields and formed the United
Farm Workers Union. He organized
several grape-picker strikes, (lie most
well-known ‘liuelKa” occurring in
1965 in Delano, Calif. He later turned
to calling for nationwide boycotts of
lettuce and grapes.
Nine speakers were featured dur
ing the hour-long tribute that was
sponsored, by UNL’s Office of
Multi-Cultural Affairs and campus
Affirmative Action.
Misucl Carranza, the acting asso
ciate dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, said Chavez battled through
difficulties so others like him would
not have to.
“Chavez went through his struggles
so that we wouldn’t be iust migrant
workers, so that we could go to uni
versities and to other professions,”
Carranza said. “Unfortunately, that’s
not true with all of us — we need to
lake ihe next step.
“We need to take Cesar’s legacy
and use the university as a setting to
stimulate social consciousness," he
said.
Carranza challenged the univer
sity administration to boycott grapes
in campus cafeterias, which drew ap
plause from the crowd.
James Gricscn, v ice chancel lor for
student affairs, said all Americans
See CHAVEZ on 2
Bjorklund
requests to
defend self
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
nc of the men charged with
last fall’s murder of a UNL
, student has requested to de
fend himself in his upcoming trial,
and at least one county official is
wondering why.
Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey said Wednesday he didn’t un
derstand the motivation behind
Candice Harms murder suspect Roger
Bjorklund’s request for self-counsel.
“You’d have to ask him,” Lacey
said. “I really don’t know why he did
iL”
At a hearing Monday, Bjorklund
asked Lancaster County DistrictCourt
Judge Donald Endacotl to grant him
the option of defending himself in his
first-degree murder trial, which is
scheduled to begin OcL 18.
Bjorklund and Scott Barney, both
of Lincoln, arc charged with the first
degree murder of Harms, an 18-year
old University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
student who disappeared Sept. 22.
Last Dec. 6, a few days after the
two men had been arrested in connec
tion with a siring of robberies and
burglaries in the Lincoln area, Barney
led investigators to a site southeast of
Lincoln, where Harms’ body was
found in a shallow grave in a corn
field.
Barney apparently had agreed to
cooperate with authorities investigat
ing the Harms case in exchange for
immunity from the death penally.
Lacey said he was seek ing the death
penalty for Bjorklund, but not for
Barney, who will testify against
Bjorklund.
Bjorklund said Monday that he
had filed a complaint against the Pub
lic Defender’s Office with the Ne
braska Bar Association’s council of
discipline.
He said his attorneys — particu
larly Chief Deputy Public Defender
Scott Hclvie — had shown a “lack of
aggressiveness’’ in defending him in
the case, and that he thought nc could
better defend himself.
Also, he sqid, he thought there was
a conflict of interest between the Pub
lic Defcndcr’sofficc and the Lancaster
County Attorney’s office. He told
Endacotl he thought the county
attorney’s office was “superior," and
would have more influence in decid
ing his ease.
Hel vie refused to comment on the
matter.
Lacey said he did not know if
Bjorklund would be able to success
fully defend himself, if Endacotl
granted the request.
“We’ll find out soon enough," he
said.