A&E V
Winter
Solstice
Concerts to
warm up chilly
Lincoln
weekend.
Page 9
Judicial board to hear case at Fiji’s request
By Dionne Searcey
Senior Reporter
Members of the Fiji fraternity
will be offered the chance
to present their case to the
university judicial board about an in
cident officials have labeled as haz
ing, the UNL chancellor said Thurs
day.
Graham Spaniersaid Fiji members
requested a hearing concerning an
episode at the Phi Gamma Delta Fra
ternity house where UNL student Jef
frcy Knoll fell three stories. Universi
ty of Nebraska-Lincoln officials have
said Knoll was coerced by fraternity
members to drink alcohol before the
fall.
The recommendation from the ju
dicial board, along with one from the
Interfraternity Council calling for a
five-semester suspension of the Fiji
chapter, will be presented to Spanier.
He will make the final call on Fiji’s
future. Spanier would not comment
on the specifics of the case.
“I want to reserve my judgement
until I get all the facts,” he said.
Vice Chancellor for Student Af
fairs James Gricsen said the decision
most likely would be made by the end
of the fall semester. The university
judicial hearing probably will be next
week, he said.
The Wednesday night IFC meet
ing was not a hearing, Griesen said. It
was an informational meeting where
pol ice and counc i 1 me mbers d i sc ussed
the incident without both sides pre
senting their cases, he said.
Linda Schwartzkopf, director of
Student Judicial Affairs, said that at
uni versity judicial hearings, both sides
were given a chance to present their
eases.
“The hearing process is formally
informal,” Schwart/.kopf said. The
judicial board is made up of five
students and four faculty members,
she said.
Proving guilt beyond a shadow of
a doubt is not required at a university
judicial hearing as it is in a court of
law, Schwartzkopf said.
“We’re not bound by the strict
rules of evidence,” she said.
The judicial board will hear evi
dence of “what really happened more
likely than not, instead of having to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt and
be 99 percent sure of what happened,”
Schwartzkopf said.
Craig Wittstruck, one of the attor
neys for the Fiji chapter, said he would
not comment on the possible outcome
of the recommendation.
Wittstruck said evidence still was
See FIJI on 6
, .. William Lauor/DN
Deck the walls
Rich Hamby strings lights outside the NEBHELP building at 13th and O streets Thursday afternoon.
UNL’s Ivy Day ceremony withers
Editors’ Note: College heritage is an impor
tant part of student life. UNL students today,
however, don’t have the chance to take part
in many long-standing campus traditions.
This is the last in a week-long series of stories
about UNL’s forgotten traditions.
By Jeffrey Robb
Staff Reporter
The 1919 Cornhusker yearbook states
that the records of the first Ivy Day at
UNL almost have been obliterated.
Today, the traditional celebration of Ivy
Day at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has
also all but vanished.
The senior class of 1898 began Ivy Day in an
attempt to provide memorial gifts to their alma
mater, according to me tvtv
yearbook. The class plant
ed an ivy sprig to give the
university a gift that would
last long into the future.
In its 95 years, Ivy Day
has evolved into a ceremo
ny for the Innocents Soci
ety and Mortar Board.
[ UNL’s two senior honor
societies. Leslie Strong,
vice president of the Innocents Society, said as
UNL grew, it couldn’t allow what became such
a large celebration. So, she said, the two clubs
adopted it.
In that first ceremony, the senior class also
placed a boulder east of the library in a further
attempt to create a lasting UNL tradition.
That first Ivy Day was strictly for seniors. No
underclassmen were allowed to witness the
planting of the ivy sprig. The location of the
first site has been forgotten over the years.
The earliest known location of an ivy plant
ing was by the former University Hall, which
was located between Ferguson and Architec
ture Hall, in 1901.
Ivy Day quickly evolved. Soon recognized
as “Senior Day,” it turned into a celebration.
See IVY DAY on 6
-1
Approval of Smith’s contract expected
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter
he contract for NU president-elect
Dennis Smith likely will be approved
at the NU Board of Regents’ meet
ing Saturday, a university spokesman said.
Joe Rowson, University of Nebraska pub
lic affairs director, said both the regents and
Smith assented verbally last month to the
terms of the contract that includes a $ 165,000
salary, a house, a car, a $22,000 expense
account and a tenured appointment as a
professor of biological sciences.
The three-year contract begins March 1
and includes a yearly performance evalua
tion conducted by the board.
The contract is similar to ones made with
NU President Martin Massengale and other
university system presidents, Rowson said.
“I think it was the intent of the board to
till DEf*EtlTC ma^e h comparable to
NU nCUCNIO what other similar insti
tutions were doing, par
ticularly in this region,”
he said.
In other business, re
gents are expected to ap
prove guidelines for de
termining tuition poli
cy.
The guidelines include maintaining and
enhancing access to NU for underrepresented
racial and ethnic groups and ensuring need
based financial aid remains available as
tuition increases and that tuition increases
only as education costs rise.
“I think this is formal approval of some
thing that’s been used for a long time,”
Rowson said.
Rowson said the board wanted to docu
ment the guidelines partly so that it could
provide them for the Coordinating Commis
sion for Postsecondary Education. The com
mission is required by law to have tuition
guidelines.
Regents also are expected to approve an
agreement to continue funding total ing $ 1.6
million for the National Institute for Global
Environmental Change-Great Plains Region
al Center. One of the center’s headquarters
is in Nebraska.
The U.S. Department of Energy provides
the university with money for the center.
Alliance gives
businesses edge
in global market
By Alan Phelps
Senior Reporter
new partnership between Nebraska and
the university seeks to draw on UNL’s
expertise to help businesses compete
in the global market.
Gov. Ben Nelson and University of Ncbras
ka-Lincoln Chancellor Graham Spanicr an
nounced Thursday the launching of the Interna
tional Business Development Partnership, the
outgrowth of a yearlong task force study.
Priscilla Grew, vice chancellor for research
at UNL, said the partnership would serve as a
bridge between Nebraska companies and valu
able knowledge at UNL.
“What they want to do is match up compa
nies in Nebraska with the skills and background
at the university,” Grew said.
Businesses considering a venture into a for
eign market might receive, for instance, help
with language, information on the country's
economics and background or tips on market
ing, Grew said.
Instead of duplicating this type of expertise
at a state agency, Grew said, the aim of the
partnership is to make skills already available
at the university more accessible to businesses.
“It’s to make as much economic use as we
can of the expertise at the university,” she said.
Wallace Johnson, an Omaha attorney and
adjunct professor of law at UNL, was named
director of the partnership on a part-time basis.
Grew said Johnson had extensive experience in
foreign business relationships, and has repre
sented large U.S. corporations overseas.
Johnson, whose appointment was approved
See TRADE on 6
Construction tar
ignites small fire
on roof of UNL
dental college
From Staff Reports
Hot tar being used by construction work
ers started a fire Thursday evening on
the roof of the UNL dental college,
university police said.
UNL Police Sgt. John Lustrea said a Crete
Roofing Co. crew was working on the roof
when the fire started shortly after 5 p.m. It was
contained to the northeast comer of the build
ing, he said, which is on the East Campus of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The fire was small, Lustrea said, but a lot of
smoke was produced. The building was evacu
ated as a precautionary measure, he said, but no
one was injured.
The accident caused about $750 damage,
Lustrea said.
Rich McDermott, director of facilities man
agement, said a complete assessment of the
building and roof would be made Friday morn
ing.