Difficult drives still ahead for UNL motorists
By Matthew Waite
Staff Reporter
Road construction on Vine Street,
R Street and the 10th Street viaduct
project continues to make driving on
campus difficult for University of
Nebraska-Lincoln motorists.
A1 Imig, deputy city engineer, said
10th Street between R Street and
Avery Avenue would be open next
Friday. He said the last piece of pave
ment was laid Thursday.
. The 10th Street bridge, however,
will not be open by Thanksgiving as
scheduled, Imig said. The city does
not expect the viaduct to be finished
until Christmas, Imig said.
Imig said weather had caused de
lays in the construction of the bridge.
Larry Blake, facilities manage
ment project manager at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the
construction on R Street in front of
the Nebraska Union was connected
to UNL expansion.
Blake said UNL owned the Union
Insurance Building on 14th and Q
streets, which currently is being re
modeled. Two-thirds of the building
will be permanently occupied by
UNL Press, and the other third will
temporarily house departments dis
placed by building constraints, Blake
said.
He said some College of Business
Administration faculty, who were dis
placed by remodeling, already had
offices in the former insurance build
ing.
Blake said construction was con
necting the building to UNL utilities
plants. He said workers were extend
ing chilled water pipes and a data
line — a 4-inch, fiber-optic conduit
connecting the building to the uni
versity computer network.
“We’re expecting the work out on
R Street to be done in the next couple
of weeks,” Blake said.
Clark DeVries, a project manager
at architectural and engineering ser
vices, said the project on Vine Street
from 16th to 19th streets was similar
to the project on R Street.
DeVries said the project was ex
tending utilities to the Beadle Center
through a tunnel running from 16th
to 19th streets. The $ 1.5 million Bea
dle Center project still is under con
struction.
UNL construction [-1 construction I
Sorority members vacate
after addition fails fire test
By Mike Lewis
Staff Reporter
Twelve members of Chi Omega
sorority moved into their sorority
house’s new addition last month, but
they didn’t have a chance to get com
fortable.
The women had to move out of
their rooms and into a motel last week
after a fire inspector declared the
house’s addition unsafe.
Eric Schoen of the Bureau of Fire
Prevention inspected the Chi Omega
house last Thursday and found con
struction of the addition was incom
plete.
At the time of inspection, Schoen
said, the main smoke alarm system
and sprinklers had not been activat
ed, and the stairwell had no hand
railings.
Also, he said, construction items
left in the stairwell would have hin
dered people trying to get out of the
house during a fire.
Chi Omega also had failed to get
the occupancy permit required for
the addition, Schoen said.
“It just wasn’t a safe place to live,”
Schoen said. “We hated to (tell them
to move out) because we understand
they’re overcrowded.”
Janet Ehlcrs, president of the Chi
Omega Corporation Board, said she
hoped the women would be able to
move back in after another fire in
spection Friday.
The smoke alarm system and
sprinklers have been activated, she
I
said, and all fire doors and emergen
cy lights have been installed. The
stairwell railings should be installed
by Friday, she said.
The corporation board, made up
of Chi Omega alumnae, is paying the
motel bill.
“It’s been no cost to the girls,” she
said.
Ehlers said she thought the motel
bill would be more than $1,000.
Ehlers said the corporation board
decided to let the women move into
the addition before an occupancy per
mit was obtained.
“We were caught in a bind,” she
said.
The board was unable to put the
women in residence halls because
the halls were full, Ehlers said. Be
cause the women had nowhere else
to live on campus, she said, they
were allowed to move into the addi
tion early.
The rooms in the addition were
finished, and the women wanted to
live on campus, she said.
The addition seemed safe, Ehlers
said. Two of its three exits had light
ing and were completely accessible,
she said. ,
The addition was supposed to have (
been finished Aug. 12, Ehlers said,
but summer rains prevented crews
from meeting that deadline.
After school started and the addi
tion became enclosed, “work pro
ceeded at a slower pace than what
we’d hoped,” Ehlers said.
grapmc
Festival celebrates diverse Asian cultures
From Staff Reports_
“A Night in the Orient,” a semi
formal banquet to celebrate diverse
Asian cultures, will be Saturday in
the Nebraska Union.
Nancy Wolf of the University Pro
grams Council said the UPC-spon
sored event would include of a meal
of Asian cuisine. Students will
present cultural performances from
different Asian countries.
A dance will follow the banquet
and performances.
“A Night in the Orient” will be in
the Centennial Ballroom at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $9 for students and $12
for non-students.
Wolf said the event sold out last
year and only a few tickets remain
for this year’s celebration.
Wolf said the event demonstrated
how much Asian students wanted to
express their culture.
Fall
Continued from Page 1
itself appeared to be accidental.
Calls to the fraternity were re
ferred to the house’s attorney, who
could not be reached Thursday night.
Scott Bunz, president of the UNL
Interfraternity Council, said he had
no comment on the incident other
than to say that it was under investi
gation.
Nursing Supervisor Sandra
Keefover at Lincoln General Hospi
tal said Knoll’s condition was fairly
stable Thursday. She said Knoll had
facial fractures and a closed head
injury after falling on his head and
shoulders.
Keefover said doctors were wait
ing to see what happened with Knoll’s
head injury. Doctors are reluctant to
predict the chances for a full recov
ery too soon after this type of acci
Jent, she said.
Family members reached at the
lospital said they had no comment.
Gricsen said violations of the Stu
dent Code of Conduct leveled against
fraternity members could include al
:ohol possession and dispensing, haz
1
ing, physical abuse and dangerous
conduct.
“It could go as far as them losing
their charter,” he said.
Hazing also is a violation of state
law, Gricsen said, and investigation
reports will be forwarded to the
Lancaster County Attorney’s office.
Individual fraternity members and the
organization itself could be brought
up on criminal charges, he said.
Hazing, Griesen said, is defined
by state law and UNL regulations as
acts that cause harm or create risk to
the physical or mental health of any
member of a group.
Griesen said it was not yet known
how many members were involved
in the incident. City and university
investigators will try to determine
which individuals were responsible
for the apparent hazing of Knoll and
what degree of collective responsi
bility the house shares, Griesen said.
Cauble said the investigation
would not be completed until Knoll’s
medical condition improved enough
for him to talk to police.,
Griesen said student conduct vio
lations would stand even if police
found Knoll cooperated in the haz
ing.
“Even if Jeff says it’s all in fun.
- «-—
Even if Jeff says It’s
all in fun, that’s not a
defense.
— Griesen
UNL vice chancellor for
student affairs
-tf —
that’s not a defense,” he said.
Alcohol also was involved in a
1989 rape at the Fiji house, police
said. A former UNL student was con
victed of sexually assaulting a 17
year-old girl, and the fraternity was
put on probation until the spring of
1990.
Griesen said that while the frater
nity members did not intend for Knoll
to suffer such an injury, they should
have known their conduct could lead
to physical harm.
“We extend to the greek living
units certain rights in return for their
pledge to abide by university rules
and regulations,” Griesen said.
“There’s an agreement of responsi
bility that we hold them accountable
for.”
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Trial
Continued from Page 1
the brain.
Goos asked Okoye if he had chem
ically analyzed any samples of the
wounds to determine whether they
contained blood.
Okoye said he did not analyze
samples because he was satisfied
“within a degree of medical certain
ty” that his examination concluded
the injuries occurred before death.
“You only do that examination if
you are not sure,” he said.
Okoye also showed jurors a slide
of Harms’ broken hyoid bone from
her neck.
“This is compatible with manual
strangulation,” he said.
Okoye told the jury the strangula
tion, along with multiple gunshot
wounds, killed Harms.
“These wounds altogether substan
tially caused the death,” he said.
One slide prosecutors showed the
jury revealed a bruise on the back
side of Harms’ right hand, which
Okoye said occurred during an at
tempt to fight off an attacker.
Some of the slides revealed three
patches with many small cuts on
Harms’ lefi breast and similar ones
on her right upper arm. The cuts
ranged in size from 1 millimeter to 8
millimeters.
Those cuts, Okoye said, also oc
curred before death. The size and
shape of the cuts, Okoye said, led
him to believe they were made by a
small sharp instrument, such as a
small pocketknife.
Okoye, who arrived at the scene
where the body was found at 134th
Street and Yankee Hill Road, said he
determined animals fed on some or
gan tissue and that some tissue de
composed naturally.
Parts of the head and shoulders
were covered with soil, Okoye said,
but the rest of the body was protrud
ing from the ground.
Okoye said another cut on the up
per left forearm occurred after death.
That cut, he said, could have been
made by a shovel.
Dismissed juror
A former juror denied Lancaster
County District Judge Donald
Endacott’s assertion that the juror had
been released from the trial because
of “personal Hardship.”
EndacbtUold the court that juror
Jack Ellis was dismissed Wednesday
afternoon because “it was a deep and
substantial personal hardship for him
to serve on this case.”
The judge said Ellis had done noth
ing wrong and had performed his
jury duties well.
But Ellis said in a telephone inter
view, he thought he was removed
because he had called his nephew, a
Lincoln police officer, to help start
his car.
“The only hardship I had was that
I had car trouble,” Ellis said.
Ellis’ car failed to start Tuesday
night, he said, and no other juror had
jumper cables. So he called his neph
ew Wednesday morning.
, That afternoon, Ellis was replaced
by one of four female alternate ju
rors. Endacott said lawyers on both
sides of the case agreed Ellis should
be released from the trial.
“They never told me why I was
dis-missed,” Ellis said from his home
in Sidney. “1 assume that phones were
tapped, and they monitored all calls
in and out. I really don’t know.”