October 18, 1993
University of
◄ sports
Passing Wildcats
Huskers survive Kansas
State scare and go on to
win 45-28, despite record
passing day from Wildcat
quarterback Chad May.
Pages
Monday
55/45
Cloudy with a chance
of rain today. Tuesday
continued cloudiness,
chance for rain.
-Lincoln
Vol. 93 No. 40
Regents approve green space, consultants
Park construction
begins next April
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter
Despite protests from ASUN senators, the
NU Board of Regents voted to go ahead
with the construction of North Plaza
Park.
The park, or grcenspacc, is part of a proposal
submitted by UNLChancellorGraham Spanier
to replace a parking lot north of the Nebraska
Union with an arboreous landscape.
The board voted 6-2 to approve the proposal,
a board official said.
Speaking before the board. Deb Silhacek,
chairwoman of the ASUN Campus Life Com
mittee, said there was an “overwhelming” re
sponse from students and faculty against build
ing the park.
Silhacek said the $ 198,000 dollars budgeted
for the park could be better spent on other
projects, such as renovating Richards Hall and
funding the Academic Success Center. She said
those projects were neglected because of bud
get cuts.
“The program is not right in light of contin
uous budget cuts,” she said. “The plan needs to
be reassessed from a student’s point of view.”
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student
Regent Keith Bcnes said he worried about the
message building the park would send to the
See GREENSPACE on 3
Group to investigate
NU engineering
he NU Board of Regents approved a list
of consultants Friday to study Nebraska’s
engineering programs and suggest solu
tions if problems are found.
But board members disagreed about the
wording of the consultants’ mission.
Regent Rosemary Skrupa ofOmaha said she
was happy with the consultants selected, but
she was disappointed that the definition of their
charge contained no specific mention of cstab
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter
lishing an independent college at the Universi
ty of Nebraska at Omaha.
“This is very nice verbiage, but it is not
getting to the heart of the matter,” Skrupa said.
“What precipitated this was a very urgent re
quest by business leaders and faculty to reestab
lish an independent engineering college in
Omaha.”
Skrupa proposed an amendment to have the
consultants look specifically at establishing an
engineering college at UNO.
Regent Nancy O’Brien of Waterloo also
said the consultant’s charge should specify
studying UNO’s request for its own engineer
ing college.
“If this study docs not address the particular
issue of an independent engineering college in
See ENGINEERING on 3
Flames of enlightenment
AIDS vigil
informs crowd,
recalls victims
By Ann Stack
Staff Reporter
It only takes one candle — one
1 ight in the darkness—to make
a difference.
That was the message of Friday
night’s candlelight vigil for'AIDS
awareness.
For some, the candlelight sym
bolized hope fbrThe ftiturc, as indi
cated by the number of young chil
dren there.
For others, the (lames served as
a memorial —a symbol of sadness
and loss. UNL graduate Lynne
Knutzen-Young was one of those
people.
On January 14, 1993, AIDS
claimed the life of her brother,
Duran Knutzen. Friday night,
Knutzen-Young participated in her
First candlelight vigil for AIDS/
HIV awareness.
Sponsored by the Minority AIDS
Education Task Force, the sixth
annual Lincoln Candlelight Vigil
included a march from 12th and O
streets to the north side of the Cap
itol.
About 75 people turned out for
the event, nearly doubling last
year’s count of 40 attendees.
Joel Gaiardo, Coordinator of the
Hispanic Community Center, said
concern, support, and education
were the objectives in the fight for
AIDS/HIV awareness.
. “It’s growing much more rapid
ly than anyone anticipated,’’ he said.
“And right now, the only solution is
prevention.”
The evening’s agenda included
speeches by a representative of
Gov. Ben Nelson and Sen. Don
Travis Heying/DN
Marty Matson of Omaha listens during a candlelight vigil Friday night while other
participants recall loved ones who have died ol AIDS. About 75 people attended the
march to the Capitol for AIDS awareness.
Wesely of Lincoln.
Crowd members also had the
opportunity to speak openly about
lives of loved ones claimed by
AIDS. A chorus of “Kum-Ba-Ya”
was interspersed throughout the
program.
Wesely began his speech by
comp! imenting Nebraskaon its lack
of segregation of those infected
with HIV. '
“In this slate, we’ve been able to
stop the hysteria that has started
elsewhere,” he said. “We’ve been
able to combat the ‘Scarlet Letter’
altitude. Nebraska should be com
mended for moving slowly and
wisely.
“But maybe we’ve moved too
slowly. It’s time to reach out and
comfort those who need our sup
port,” Wesely said.
UNL English graduate student
David Whitaker, who has attended
five other AIDS awareness vigils in
Lincoln and Omaha, said he thought
Nebraska needed lo catch up with
the rest of the country.
Since January 1993, 160 cases .
of AIDS have been reported in
Nebraska, Gajardo said. That num
ber more than doubles the number
of cases reported during 1992, he
said.
Inthcpasl,Gajardosaid,alislof
names was read to commemorate
Nebraskans who had died of AIDS.
By now, he said, the list has gotten
too long to read.
Free hemp
rally draws
disappointing
small crowd
By Rainbow Rowell
Staff Reporter
he University ofNcbraska-Lin
coln’s NORML/Hcmp chapter
experimented with its first free
concert rally Saturday night. But the
results were disappointing, the group’s
president said.
David Spl ichal said only 40 people
wefc-ftt the rally at-anygiven time.
“When we charge three bucks, we
get about 300 people,” Spl ichal, a
junior horticulture major, said. “So
maybe next time we’ll charge five
bucks and hope for 500.”
Splichal said competition from
UNL’s Homecoming festivities might
have contributed to the poor turnout.
The group usually organizes two
rallies each year to attract new mem
bers and provide information about
the legalization of marijuana.
,Saturday’s rally was sqhcdulcd to
start at 6 p.m., but had a late start. First
band Pretty Kitty, formerly Bunker
Joe, started playing after 7:30 p.m.
Pretty Kitty lead singer and guitar
ist Daniel Kruse said the band wanted
to help out NORML/Hcmp because
of troubles in their hometown of
Hardington.
Kruse said he thought five
Hartington kids were entrapped by
the legal system for smoking
ditchweed, a type of marijuana that
grows wild in Nebraska.
“There’s an aura of secrecy and *
shame that surrounds this issue,” Kruse
said, “and this brings an aura of igno
rance.”
Just the Opposite, a Lincoln duo,
also played at the rally. Urethra
Franklin was scheduled to play, but
See HEMP on 2
NU officials struggle to implement gender equity
Attempts at gender
equity get burned
By Mark Harms
9tatf Rtoortm____
UNL has made important strides toward
achieving gender equity on campus in
recent years, an official said.
But these efforts have spurred hostile reac
tions from some faculty and students, said
Claudia Price-Decker, chai rwom an of the Chan
cellor’s Commission on the Status of Women.
The hiring of more women and minorities
and the increasing role of the Affirmative Ac
tion Office arc signs the University of Nebras
ka-Lincoln is moving in the right direction,
Price-Decker said.
“Perhaps because of the progress that we
have made, we now see a backlash which is
reflected in hostile behavior toward women and
others who have attempted to secure a more
equitable environment at UNL,” she said dur
ing her report to the NU Board of Regents
Friday.
Price-Decker recalled numerous incidents
of such hostility:
Eric Jolly, director of the UNL Affirmative
Action Office, received hate mail, had deroga
tory remarks stamped in the snow outside his
office w indow, and had a ful 1, used condom put
on his office door, Price-Decker said.
She said male students barged into the offic
es of women faculty and asked them who they
had to sleep with to get their jobs. Department
chairmen told the women it was their problem.
Price-Decker said.
In another incident, Price-Decker said, a
See EQUITY on 2
Football scholarships
decrease 20 percent
By Dan McKinney
Stsff Rtoortmr_
Since 1972, the NCAA has been struggling
to define gender equity.
Now, after an NCAA task force defined
gender equity in August, Nebraska’s struggle
lies in implementing equity.
Nebraska athletes and administrators arc
trying to determine whether equity has to be
achieved through eaual numbers of sports or
equal numbers of scholarship athletes.
Building off of Title IX — the 1972 law
calling for equal educational opportunities
among men and women — the NCAA has
defined gender equity as providing male and
female athletes equal opportunities tor scholar
ships, benefits and services.
Nebraska currently has il men’s and 10
women’s sports. With the addition of women’s
soccer next year, the number of men’s and
women’s sanctioned sports will be equal.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor
Graham Spanier said adding women’s soccer
would take Nebraska one stop closer to equity.
“When we have women’s soccer up and
running, 1 will feel we have satisfied most of the
definition of gender equity,” Spanier said. “The
only test we wouldn’t pass would be equal
numbers.”
At Nebraska, approximately 61 percent of
scholarshipathletcsarcmen.ln 1993,231 men,
as compared to 144 women, receive scholar
ships. In 1991, the NCAA conducted a survey.
See NCAA on 2
