October 19. 1993
University of Nebraska
Nebraska Athletic Director BiU
Byrne, football coach Tom Osbt
and players respond to the NCA
effort to achieve gender equity l
cutting football scholarships.
M
Tuesday
55/45
Cloudy with rain
today. Wednesday,
cloudy, chance of
rain continues.
Vol. 93 No. 41
Kiley Timporty/DN
Graham Spanier reflects on nearly two years of serving as chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Spanier was installed as chancellor Nov. 1,1991.
Plugging away
Consistent flow of issues keeps Spanier on his toes
By Dionne Searcey
Stnior f&oortm_
It was a cold, snowy Nebraska day two
years ago when Graham Spanicr as
sumed his duties as chancellor of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The temperature was below freezing;
three inches of snow covered the ground,
and the mayor had just postponed Hallow
een.
Students’ eyes focused on Spanier, who
was called upon to make his first decision for
UNL — whether to cancel Friday classes
because of the weather.
The snow fell all night, and school was
open Friday.
Spaniers decisions, he said, have grown
in importance since then.
“There are issues every day,” he said.
“Literally every day.”
’*The Halloween incident perhaps fore
shadowed Spanier’s busy schedule of deci
sion making.
Spanier dove head-first into the swirling
pool of academic administration. He en
tered the university in the midst of the largest
budget-cutting process in UNL’s history.
“The day I arrived we had to contend with
that,” Spanier said. “We brought a lot of
calm to the campus.”
' Spanier worked with other administra
tors to cut 4.5 percent from the university’s
budget through a series of hearings, discus
sions and heated debates.
“•.He then faced the task of hiring admin is
- --.I . ....
trators to fill several, empty upper-level
university posts.
As of this year, Spanier filled the jobs.
“This is one of the first times in years the
university has had stable leadership across
the top,” Spanier said.
Span ier said he had worked hard to steady
what was a shaky situation at UNL.
“The first ycar-and-a-half or so, I had to
spend time stabilizing things,” Spanier said.
Since then, his time has been filled with
university business. Spanier starts his day
about 7:30 a.m. and brings his work home
with him, often hosting evening meetings at
his house.
- Spanier’s office equips him to stay in
See SPANIER on 6
Bjorklund trial
jury selection
on in Sidney
From The Associated Press_
SIDNEY — A judge told potential jurors
for the Roger Bjorklund murder trial that
what happened 350 miles away from
them could become their business.
Eighty-three Cheyenne County residents
reported for possible jury duty in the trial
investigating the death of UNL student Candice
Harms.
“Maybe it isn’t your business what goes on
in Lincoln, but maybe it is,” Lancaster County
District Judge Donald Endacott told the poten
tial jurors.^
“We are involved in a serious business and
that business is a search for justice,” Endacott
said. “It’s up to every American to make sure
the system works.”
Bjorklund, 31, is charged with first-degree
murderand use of a weapon to commit a felony
in the abduction and shooting death of Harms,
a University of Nebraska-Lincoln freshman.
See BJORKLUND on 6
Beating leaves
foreign students
with concerns
By Alan Phelps
Senior Reporter
Police say they don’t know why a Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln student was
assaulted homecoming night in Broyhill
Plaza.
“We’re not sure what started the fight,” said
Sgt. Mylo Bushing of the UNL Police.
When authorities arrived on the scene short
ly after midnight early Sunday morning, they
found Boon-Chung Ong, a UNL student from
Malaysia, lying semi-conscious near the north
east comer of the Nebraska Union. Ong was
taken to Lincoln General Hospital where he
was treated and released, Bushing said.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James
Griesen said Ong was admitted to the Univer
sity Health Center some time Sunday for fur
ther observation. Ong had no broken bones, but
was suffering lingering effects from blows to
the head, Griesen said.
Ong was scheduled to be released from the
health center Monday afternoon, Griesen said.
A student witness to the incident told police
See ASSAULT on 6
Officials say gender equity may hurt football program
Editor's note: This story is the sec
ond in a week-long series that will
explore how Nebraska athletics has
been — and will be — affected by
the NCAA’s implementation of gen
der equity. Tomorrow: Nebraska's
progress and shortcomings in gen
der equity.
Gender equity, designed to in
crease opportunities for fe
male college athletes, may be
coming at college football’s expense,
athletic department officials said.
Because no women’s sports arc
comparable to football in numbers of
scholarship athletes, Nebraska Ath
letic Director Bill Byrne said, the
NCAA has decided to cut football
scholarships and balance the other
sports.
During the past seven years, Ne
braska football scholarships have
dwindled from 105 to 88. Next year,
the number will be cut to 85.
Nebraska football coach Tom
Osborne said he feared more cuts
By Jeff Griesch
Stnkx Fhoorfr_
“There arc those out there who are
more radical and want see the number
of scholarships cut drastically even
from where it is now,” Osborne said.
“Some would like to "bring it down
from 85 to 60 and eliminate three
more coaches.”
Byrne said he thought the NCAA
already had gone too far.
“I would like to have at least 95
scholarships,** Byrne said. “Football
will not have enough scholarships
with this cut.”
At Nebraska, it would take about
seven women’s snorts to equal the
number of football scholarships.
This year, the 88 football scholar
ships account for approximately one
third of the 231 men’s scholarships.
Almost 38 percent of the scholar
ship athletes at Nebraska are women.
To make up for the difference in
numbers of male scholarship athletes
and female scholarship athletes, Ne
braska must add to tnc number of
women’s sports or cut from men’s
sports, Osborne said. Nebraska has
chosen to do some of both.
But Osborne said he would like to
achieve equity “without eliminating
opportunities for men.'*
While the addition of women’s
soccer next year will help, Osborne
said, it also will add to the athletic
department’s costs.
Nebraska has allotted $50,000 for
women’s soccer in its 1993-94 bud
get.
The additional costs make cutting
programs more desirable to adminis
trators than adding new programs,
Osborne said.
Osborne said cutting scholarships
in football could lead to a decline in
the quality of college football.
And that may lead to reduced rev
enue from football in the athletic de
partment, he said.
The Nebraska football program is
the leading supporter of the entire
athletic department, generating more
than $13 million in revenue.
See EQUITY on 7
nmolliie to define gender equity
- Congress passes Title IX, a
stating “no person In the United
_j shall, on the basis of sex, be
excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or be subjected
to discrimination under any education
“ program or activity receiving Federal
financial assistance.”
r
a 1972-1988-A
A number of colleges
challenge Title IX’s
application to college
athletics. The U.S.
Supreme Court then
suspended Title IX's
application to college
athletics.
k 1988-TheCivil ,
A Rights Restoration
Act stated colleges
receiving federal funds
must comply with Title
IX provisions in ail
programs, including
athletic programs.
* 1991 - NCAA survey
k determines that white male
female student enrollment is
aproximately equal, men make
up more than 70 percent of
total athletes and receive more
than 70 percent of athletic
budgets, scholarship funds
and recruiting money.
J
-1
i 1993 - NCAA task force submits
A final report defining gender equity as
‘an environment in which fair and
equitable distribution of overall athletics
opportunities, benefits and resources
are available to women and men and in
which student-athletes, coaches and
athletics' administrators are not subject
to gender-based discrimination."