ET_NF W<S DIG F ST Nebraskan
Edited by Jeff Singer JL lJ—/ V V k-/ x J I V I 1 J kJ A Thursday, Novambar 4,1993
Firefighters try to save homes
MALIBU, Calif. — With a tamer
wind at their backs, thousands of
firefighters challenged walls of flame
with water and fire retardant Wednes
day, thwarting an onslaught that has
destroyed 200 canyon ranches and
seaside mansions.
“Our belief is the worst is over,
that we’re going to stop virtually on
this line here,” Los Angeles Fire
Chief Donald Manning said as the
still out-of-control Malibu-area blaze
crept eastward toward the Los Ange
les city limit.
The fire injured 120 firefighters
and three civilians. Two men were
critically burned, including Holly
wood screenwriter and director
Duncan Gibbins, 41, who was hurt
trying to save a cat.
Wednesday was Southern Califor
nia’s eighth day of wildfires. Twice
in the past week, firestorms have gut
ted whole neighborhoods. The week’s
toll rose to more than 215,000 acres
of land scorched and 1,000 homes
destroyed.
At daybreak, flames were still
leaping 150 feet into the air, climb
ing canyons and incinerating build
ings.
A force of nearly 5,000 firefighters
started their attack after dawn, as the
ferocious winds that drove the fire
unchecked for 20 hours subsided.
“The bottom line is it depends on
the wind,” said county fire inspector
Jack Pritchard. “We can talk about
what we’re going to do, but if the
winds are blowing, Mother Nature is
going to get what she wants.”
Manning said six C-130 cargo
planes were “painting” Topanga Can
yon on the fire’s east side with thou
sands of gallons*of fire retardant to
stop its creep toward hundreds of
homes in the Pacific Palisades area
of Los Angeles.
Besides the Malibu fire, which
covered 35,000 acres, fires were re
ported to the east and south in River
side County, San Bernardino County
and San Diego County.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
said officials will need to examine
laws on building in canyons, perhaps
requiring better brush clearance and
different zoning.
“1 think once this is all over we
arc going to have to do some soul
searching about the process of build
ing into these deep canyons with all
the brush,” Babbitt said. He said dam
age in the latest fire could reach S500
million.
The fire at Malibu — a mile-wide
city of 15,000 that winds along 27
beachfront miles—erupted Tuesday
as hot, dry Santa Ana winds gusting
at up to 53 mph returned to Southern
California. The cause of the fire re
mained under investigation.
-M-rs
We can talk about
what we’re going to
do, but If the winds
are blowing, Mother
Nature is going to get
what she wants.
— Pritchard
L.A. County fire inspector
-ft —
“It just came thundering down.
By the time I left, it looked like
‘Apocalypse Now,’” said writer Ri
chard Christian Matheson, who be
lieves his house burned after he fled.
Deborah Carpentier, barefoot, in
shorts, her face streaked with soot,
stood at the water’s edge clutching
her 18-month-old son as the hillside
above her blazed a bright crimson in
the night.
“I had him wrapped up in a wet
towel. He was screaming,” she said.
“We stood on the beach and watched
our house bum.”
The Malibu Colony, the wealthy
gated enclave of movie stars and mil
lionaires that is the heart of the city,
Clinton evaluates Republican sweep
. WASHINGTON — President
Clinton asserted Wednesday that a
Republican sweep in three major
elections does not amount to a re
pudiation of him or his policies,
but reflects a desire among voters
for change.
“Voters aretxtremely discrim
inating,” Clinton told reporters.
“They make their own judgments
for their own reasons.”
Senate Republican Leader Bob
Dole emerged from a morning
meeting with Clinton to declare:
“It’s a big, big defeat for the White
House.”
“What a difference a year
makes,” Dole, R-Kan., said in an
earlier speech on the Senate floor.
“We can officially proclaim 1993
to be the year of Republicans.”
House Republican Leader Bob
Michel of Illinois said Clinton “was
a drag rather than a help to the
ticket.”
In New Jersey, Republican
Christie Whitman narrowly defeat
ed Gov. Jim Florio for the state’s
top office. In New York City, Re
publican Rudolph Giuliani took a
razor-thin victory in his rematch
with Mayor David Dinkins and in
Baker
Continued from Page 1
said.
But, he said, advancing research
should not be done at the expense of
the humanities and undergraduate
teaching.
“The humanities are essential if
you’re going to produce good citi
zens and critical thinkers,” Baker
said.
He said most, if not all, faculty
should be involved in undergraduate
teaching.
“I think the rub occurs when you
reach a situation where faculty are
no longer interested in undergradu
ate students,” Baker said.
Baker said Polytechnic State Uni
versity promoted a hands-on approach
to undergraduate education. Under
graduates there often have access to
equipment usually reserved only for
graduates, he said.
If chosen president, Baker said his
administrative style would be that of
a consensus builder. Without con
sensus among its leaders, the univer
sity loses credibility, he said.
Regent Charles Wilson of Lincoln
said the NU president represented the
university in the Nebraska Legisla
ture. He asked Baker if he had expe
rience in that area.
-M
(Clinton) was a drag rather than a help to the
ticket.
— Michel
House Republican leader
t — **''*-^*'** v ‘ . _. • -si- -
HIM II I .11 I ... ■■"'■■■"■■
Virginia, Republican George Allen
easily beat Democrat Mary Sue
Terry for governor.
Clinton campaigned for Dinkins
and Florio, and was a side issue in
Allen’s campaign in Virginia.
Clinton noted that he had been
elected five times in Arkansas, in
cluding carrying the state by a wide
margin in 1984 — the year of
Ronald Reagan’s landslide re-elec
tion. He said he did better in the
state than Reagan did.
“I don’t think you can draw too
much conclusion from this,’’
Clinton said, noting that many
Democratic mayors had been re
elected.
Clinton followed a White House
line that the elections reflect the
clamor for change that put Clinton
in office a year ago.
“The Americaa-people want
change and they want results,”
Clinton said.
People are upset about crime
and have “a sense that govern
ment is not working for them.”
“It’s certainly not a message to
run and hide from the tough is
sues,” Clinton said.
Speaking to reporters after
wards, House Speaker Thomas
Foley, D-Wash., said that Tues
day’s elections were decided for
various reasons — and that it’s
wrong to read the outcomes as a
message for Clinton.
“Incumbents are being chal
lenged, in many cases effectively.
But that’s not a message that strikes
at cither Democrats or Republi
cans,” Foley said.
Baker said he had extensive expe
rience and had built strong relation
ships with key members of Califor
nia’s legislature.
He said it was often effective to
invite legislators to campus to give
them a sense of contact with the uni
versity.
“It’s important not to just visit
with them when you want some
thing,” he said.
Regents asked Baker what a uni
versity should do when faced with
budget cuts.
At Polytechnic, Baker said, ad
ministrators faced budget cuts and
ended up cutting programs.
“It’s better perhaps to do fewer
things than cut across the board and
weaken all programs,” he said.
Any program cuts should be
viewed as temporary, and efforts
should be made to control budgets by
finding ways to increase the produc
tivity of a university’s personnel, he
said.
Baker said he was interested in
Nebraska because the university was
an important element to the state.
The regents will interview on
Thursday the other two candidates:
Constantine Curris, president of the
University of Northern Iowa, and
Gregory O’Brien, chancellor of the
University of New Orleans.
Smith
Continued from Page 1
The university system, anticipat
ing hard times and acting as soon as
minimal cuts were required in 1989,
began broad-based cuts, Smith said.
The cuts made by the university were
larger than those dictated by the Cal
ifornia Legislature, creating excess
funds to be put toward future cuts, he
said.
By saving the extra money, Smith
said, and creating academic and non
academic task forces to identify inef
ficiencies within the university, the
California system now has enough
extra money to give the system a
two-year reprieve.
“Higher education is never again
going to have the resources it had
two decades ago,” Smith said.
Universities also will have to make
changes to deal with advancing tech
nology, he said.
Teaching with computers and in
teractive television can allow uni
versities to improve their geographic
access, Smith said.
“We should take advantage of in
formation technology,” he said.
The university, Smith said, will
have to adapt in order to take advan
tage of future technological advanc
es.
^CALIFORNIA FIRES
California.
was spared.
“At this time it’s safe,” said coun
ty Fire Inspector Dan Ertel. “But due
to the erratic wind conditions you
can never have any guarantee any
more.”
Chaos also reigned at roadblocks
along scenic Pacific Coast Highway.
People trying to get out vied for
road space with drivers scrambling
home after learning of the fire. Fran
tic, some abandoned their cars, trap
ping firetrucks in massive traffic
jams. In a few cases, Highway Patrol
officers drew their weapons on mo
torists who tried to cross fire lines.
Russia says nuclear
weapons still an option
MOSCOW — Russia for the first
time is declaring a willingness to use
nuclear weapons if it or its allies are
a mgfi-rtfftkth'gbmdal said Wearies-**
day.
That is a reversal of the policy
announced by then Soviet leader Le
onid Brezhnev at the United Nations
in June 1982, when he made a unilat
eral commitment not to use nuclear
weapons first — scoring propaganda
points because of a U.S. refusal to
make a similar pledge.
The new nuclear policy was part
of Russia’s new military doctrine that
was adopted by President Boris
Yeltsin.
“Russia reserves the right to use
all means at its disposal to repulse
aggression and crush the aggressors.”
said Valery Manilov, deputy secre
tary of the country’s top policy-mak
ing Security Council.
Russia’s new military doctrine al
lows use of nuclear weapons “against
states, nuclear or non-nuclear, which
have undertaken aggression against
Russia or supported such aggression,”
“The problem is we function in
universities as we did 100 years aeo,”
Smith said.
Smith also said he preferred small
er classes and direct interaction with
research professors to large, imper
sonal lecture classes.
With a strong science-oriented
background, a doctorate in experi
mental embryology and post-doctor
al work at the Argonne National Lab
oratory, Smith has a particular inter
est in the research-oriented educa
tion provided by UNL.
“I think the emphasis in the Lin
coln campus with research and teach
ing is excellent” Smith said.
Without research, Smith said, an
institution could still provide a good
education, but research and teaching
“go hand-in-hand to provide a unique
educational experience.”
Smith also spoke briefly about
admission standards in education.
“At some point you have to set
standards,” Smith said. “It doesn’t
do anyone any good to admit every
one and flunk out half of the fresh
man class.”
Smith, at this point in his inter
viewing process, was unaware of
Nebraska’s admission standards.
he said.
He said Russia regards nuclear ,
weapons as a deterrent, necessary to
“prawnt tto OBCtjption of local con- J
ffamwer r nnr-btown war.” \
Manilov said only Yeltsin and a |
few members of the 13-member Se
curity Council had seen the 23-page
text of the doctrine. He said full de
tails of the doctrine would not be
made public.
The doctrine declares Russia’s goal
is to eliminate nuclear weapons in
the long run, but says it will continue
to possess them “at the minimum
expedient level.” Manilov said.
The doctrine also reflects Russia’s
awareness of itself as a great power,
“with interests in many parts of the
world, which it intends to defend pri
marily by political, peaceful means,"
he said.
Although the new doctrine views
no single country as a potential ad
versary, it warns of threats from states
that make territorial claims on Rus
sia or have unreliable regimes pos
sessing nuclear capability and deliv
ery systems, he added.
Nelua&kan
Editor Jeremy FKipetrick
472-17—
Managing Editor Wendy Mott
Aaeoc. News Editors Angle Brunkow
Kara Morrison
Editorial Pans Editor Kathy Stalnauer
Wire Editor Jafl Singer
Copy Desk Editor Chris Hoptenspsrger
Sports Editor Todd Cooper
Arts i Entertain- Tom Malnsill
ment Editor
Night News Editors JaffZalany
Lisa Sickert
Kristina Long
AfkiLea |(a|ff
Art Director David Badders
General Manager DenShattll
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Advertising Manager Jay Cruse
Senior Acct. Exec. Bruce Kroeee
Publications Board
Chairman Doug Fiedler
4SB4407
Professional Adviser Don Walton
472-7301
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