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.
