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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1993)
tltti I Superman returns Wednesday The worlds 91/66 reclaims his Thursday, chance of throne. thuntomim. Wiretapping of Bjorklund under scrutiny By Chris Hopfensperger Senior Editor Lincoln police used a wiretap to monitor Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund be cause officers did not want to rely on circumstantial evidence in their robbery inves tigation, an officer testified Tuesday. Lincoln Detective Sgt. Greg Sorensen said police did not pursue a search warrant because they feared it wouldn’t produce anything con clusive enough to arrest the pair. Sorensen’s testimony came in the third day of suppression hearings in Bjorklund’s first-degree murder trial. Barney, 24, and Bjorklund, 31, were arrest ed Dec. 2,1992, for possession of stolen prop erty and suspicion of being involved in a string of Lincoln robberies last fall. They were later charged in the murder of University of Nebras ka-Lmcoln student Candice Harms. Bjorklund’s lawyers, led by Chief Lancaster County Public Defender Scott Helvie, have asked a judge to prevent wiretap information and Bjorklund’s statements to police after his arrest from being used in his trial. The pair’s alleged ties to the Harms’ case was not discussed Tuesday. Sorensen said a confidential informant, who led police to Barney—and eventually Bjorklund — was not close enough to the pair for an undercover investigation, and police feared tipping the men off with any overt attempt to get information^ He said police had more than hers, the most incriminating evidence they could find would be cash, he said. But Barney and Bjorklund had just returned from a trip to Las Vegas, and they could have claimed to have won the money there, Sorensen said. Also, the robbers’ clothing as described by witnesses was not unusual. . Based on experience working with phone taps to trap robbers, Sorensen said he thought the men plann**! and discussed the robberies on thCAfter discussing the wiretaps, Helvie asked Sorensen about Bjorklund’s questioning fol See BJORKLUND on 8 KB*y Timp*rty/DN Brick laying 501 Mo* Johnson of T& M Construction works on laying bricks forons of 27 water inlets, or storm sewers, being built in conjunction with the construction on 10th Street by the 501 Building. See 501 construction and street construction stories on page 6. Officials question testosterone link to greek hijinks By Bocky Becher Staff Reporter Two UNL leaders doubt a recent study that blames testosterone levels for rambunctious fraternity members’ behavior. Members of three “rowdy” fraternities at an unidentified university had higher testosterone levels than members of two “responsible” ones, according to a study by J ames Dabbs Jr., profes sor of psychology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The testosterone levels in the rambunctious fraternities measured in the higher end of the normal range, the study said. Ninety-eight fraternity members were test ed for the study. Scott Bunz, Interfratemity Council presi dent and a member of Alpha Gamma Sigma fraternity at the University of Nebraska-Lin coln, said the study was ludicrous. Dr. Russell F. LaBeau, the University Health Center’s medical director of student health services, also questioned the validity of the study’s results. Saliva, which was used in the study, is a less accurate medium than blood for testing test osterone, LaBeau said. In addition, the number of subjects participating in the study was small, he said. “The author would agree with me that not enough research has been done to make heads or tail of this,” he said. But LaBeau said the study could have a shred of validity because testosterone was re HPWIftylufcpi lui mim —« !■ high itwww, be said. But LaBeau said the study indicated that the testosterone levels were still in normal range, * and thus really shouldn’t cause much differ ence in behavior. LaBeau and Benz said they blamed ram bunctious fraternity behavior on factors other than testosterone levels. ' Fraternity men often act either responsibly or irresponsibly because of the examples set by leading fratpmity brothers, they said. “A lot of fraternity behavior is learned," LaBeau said. “Some fraternities have a tradi tion of being wild party boys, and others have a more conservative bend.” ^ . 9 Modernizing registration elicits mixed emotions Students anticipate speedier drop/add By Dionne Searcey Sank* Fhport* _ Sometime during their college ca reer, probably every student on cam pus has caught a glimpse of Marty Cushing. Tuesday, you could see her gray hair and pink polka-dotted dress flash through three slits in a wooden parti tion at fall’s drop/add session. For 18 years, Cushing has been handed thousands of drop/add request forms through the slits each semester. She sorts and feeds the forms into a machine that helps create each stu dent’s schedule. “1 saw my son go through here, three grandkids, my daughter,” she said. Tuesday she saw nearly 3,000 stu dents who had waited in a line that at 6:45 a.m. stretched from the Admin istration Building to Burnett Hall. This school year is her last at drop/ add, though, as the university pre pares to install a new system of regis tration — one that will eliminate Cushing’s job. UNL Chancellor Gra ham Spanier has promised to install the line-free, less-stressful system in March for the 1994-95 school year. Cushing, along with what has become a friendly family of drop/add work ers, will be placed in other jobs across the campus next year. Cushing worked a similar job at drop/add even when the university had an archaic registration system that used paper cards to process re quests instead of computer-readable forms. The University of Nebraska-Lin — •• Old women do not fade away. They Just work registration. —Cushing drop/add employee coin's system now is a jumble of technological wizardry, said Antho ny Schkade, a UNL assistant director of registration and records. One thousand feet of computer cable, 1,500 feet of extension cords and 400 feet of telephone wire wind and weave their way through the Ne braska Union Ballroom miring the five-day session. Behind the scenes at the nearly extinct drop/add system are two ma chines that receive the red-and-white See DROP on 8 Human rights, invocation concern Academic Senate By Mfca Lewis Start Haporter Human rights and prayer at com mencement were on the minds of many of UNL’s Academic Senate members this summer. Fred Choobin eh, president elect of the sen ate, said the Hu man Rights Com __! mittee had been I CBMATF working on some OCIsM l,C changes in a res olution that the senate had passed in May. The resolution calls for a section of Discrimination addressed through evaluations, ethics statement the Professional Ethics Statement to be circulated around the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. The sec tion states that professors’ judgments of student work should be free from discrimination. The resolution also asks depart ments to include questions about in structors’ sensitivity toward women and minorities on teaching evalua tions. Choobineh said minor adjustments to the resolution would be introduced some time this fall because many professors had concerns about adding questions to teaching evaluations. Professors were worried that their chances at promotion and tenure might be unfairly jeopardized by the evalu ations, Choobineh said. Also, some professors wondered whether the senate’s resolution would infringe on their academic freedom, he said. “They were afraid that it would create an environment that was not going to be conducive to open expres sion, Choobineh said. But students’ rights also need to be taken into account, he said, and so the changes to the resolution will be an attempt at compromise. The academic senate's executive committee will probably report on the human rights resolution at the sen ate’s Sept. 14 meeting, Choobineh said, although no formal action will be taken then. At the same meeting, the senate’s commencement committee will re port about the commencement prayer issue. The committee had recommended last year that a moment of silence replace the invocation at commence ment. Chance llorGraham Spanier fol lowed that recommendation during the December and May 1993 ceremo nies, but he reinstated the prayer at the August graduation ceremony. Choobineh said Spanier made this decision after taking into account the opinions ofNebraska citizens, the NU Board of Regents, the academic sen ate and UNL students. Also at the Sept. 14 meeting, Steve Dunbar, the senate’s representative to the campus-wide information system advisory board, and Donna Liss, the student information system project manager, will give presentations on computers and campus information technology. The senate’s executive committee also will report on a senate retreat held last Thursday, Choobineh said.