UNL police plan deters violence i
Program accents
avoiding situations
at work, in class
By Brian Sharp
Staff Reporter
While violence in the classroom
and the workplace is rare atUNL, the
university police have created a pro
gram to ensure it stays that way.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln Police Department’s new pro
gram, “Violence in the Workplace,”
is aimed at diffusing situations before
they escalate to a violent point, Cpl.
Larry Kalkowski said.
“This is a service so we ’ re prepared
in advance,” he said. “The ideal thing
is to have all this training and infor
mation and never have to use it.”
The free program is available to
everyone, not just university person
nel and students. It is designed to
cover all types of situations, from a
student complaining about a grade to
a confrontation with an intoxicated
person, he said.
“The program tells them (partici
pants) what we as the police depart
ment would like to see them do,”
Kalkowski said. “Primarily, it’s de
signed to give the person a plan to deal
with a situation that is anticipated or
might develop.”
Simple things such as office design
can remove some danger from the
workplace, he said. Sitting next to the
door in a meeting or moving the desk
close to an exit avoids being trapped if
an individual becomes violent.
Kalkowski said it was also a good
idea to have others present if there was
a possibility of danger.
Body language is another key topic
covered by the program. Kalkowski
said understanding the style and way
in which things were said is at the
center of diffusing a situation.
“A large percentage of what is heard
is not what is said,” he said.
Learning the warning signs and
reporting suspicious behavior could
be the keys to avoiding a violent situ
ation, he said.
Kalkowski began work on the pro
gram in late July. Prompted more by
things that were going on nationally
than specific incidents at UNL, how
ever, he found no one in the area was
doing anything. The program draws
from various personal safety classes,
as well as his own ideas, he said.
“We’re not trying to tell people that
they have to live in a state of fear,” he
said. “A little training and prepara
tion for the day is always helpful.”
Mini-conference set for March
Diversity panels,
open forums, part
of day-long event
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Building on last semester’s Diver
sity Retreat is the main goal of a
similar event set for next month, a
UNL official said.
John Harris, special assistant to the
vice chancellor for student affairs,
said the Second Annual Diversity
Mini-Conference was set for March
12 as a follow-up to last fall’s diversity
retreat.
“The Diversity Mini-Conference
gives us an opportunity to bring the
information we share in the retreat...
to a larger group,” he said.
The day-long conference will cen
ter on the theme “Preparing for a
Future in a More Diverse America,”
Harris said.
Harris said he expected more than
400 people to attend the event. More
than 200 people participated in the
mini-conference last semester.
Harris said the conference was free
and open to the public.
“The challenge for us is making it
as good as the last one,” he said.
“We’re working hard to do that.”
Harris said the mini-conference
would include:
• A workshop on cultural diversity
being the challenge of the 1990s.
• An historical overview of Affir
mative Action and its effectiveness.
• A panel of international students
discussing their experiences in the
United States.
• “Workforce 2000,” a workshop
on the increasing diversity of the U.S.
workforce.
• A “Dear Abby” open forum,
where people from the audience write
anonymous letters about issues they
may feel uncomfortable talking about
in public.
Harris said the “Dear Abby” seg
ment would be in the same format as
last week’s Racial Pluralism Action
Team rally.
The video festival, a s 's of vid
eos selected to raise awan. 's of ra
cial and cultural issues als^ will re
turn, running concurrently with the
program, Harris said.
“We just want to make it an inter
esting day,” he said.
Fire
Continued from Page 1
He left again with the candles still
burning to study at a friend’s house.
Wysocki said he received a call a
few hours later from Abel staff saying
they thought his room was on fife and
he should get back.
The fire occurred while Dave
Keller, the Abel South Residence Di
rector, was out of town, said his re
?lacement, Senior Student Assistant
roy Gronberg.
Gronberg said he woke up, checked
some of the rooms on his floor and
went downstairs to talk to the firemen.
When Gronberg and the firemen
went upstairs, he said one thing was
hard to miss.
“1 saw a lot of water,” Gronberg
said. “There were six or seven rooms
that had a layer of water on the floor.
The carpet in the hall was soaked.”
Gronberg said both sprinklers in
the room were going off, putting out
about 30 gallons a minute each. He
estimated that there was 600 gallons
of water on the floor.
The water leaked all the way from
the 13 th floor to the basement,
Gronberg said.
Wysocki said he was the first to talk
to the UNL police. He said he was
pretty shaken up when he spoke with
them.
The police asked Wysocki where
he had been, if anyone was in the room
at the time of the fire and if he could
-‘ailed account of what had
Wysocki then talked to the Fire
Marshal, who asked the same ques
tions. After the questioning, the au
thorities let him go upstairs for the
first time.
Wysocki said he saw the water that
had flooded half of the floor being
vacuumed.
“There was no fire damage at all,”
he said.
The only signs of a fire in the room
were the smoke stains on the walls and
plastic on the floor from melted crates.
Residents of the 12th and 13th
floors were not allowed back onto the
floors until 6:30 a.m. Many of the
residents took shelter next door in
Sandoz Hall in the lobby and friends’
rooms.
Deb Mullen, the complex program
director for Abel-Sandoz, said main
tenance had been working all day
Monday to get students’ carpets out of
the rooms and dried. She said they
were trying to prevent a mildew prob
lem.
Mullen said maintenance were also
giving students quarters to dry laun
dry that had been soaked by the sprin
klers.
Currently, there is no policy disal
lowing candles in residence hall rooms,
Mullen said. However, she said, she
thought it was dangerous.
Wysocki said the people on his
floor had been decent about the whole
ordeal.
“A lot of them asked if I needed
help cleaning up the mess,” he said.
“They’re just concerned.”
The only damage he had was to a
sleeping bag, two blankets, two radios
and a typewriter.
Sgt. Bill Manning of the UNL po
lice estimated the costs of the cleanup
on the floor to be between $305 and
$350.
The costs to the students’ rooms is
difficult to estimate, Manning said,
since students file damage claims with
their individual insurance companies.
Wysocki said he would be able to
move back in his room by Tuesday and
had some advice for people living in
the residence halls.
“Just blow out your candles.”
THE ROYAL GROVE
340 W. Cornhusker, Lincoln, NE
Medicine & Therapy
Tuesday Feb. 8
$5 Door
plus one drink minimum
Doors open 8:30 pin
18+ admitted
I.D. required
Police Report
Beginning midnight Thursday
7:24 a.m.—Purse stolen and recovered,
Ferguson Hall, $40 value.
9:45 a.m. — Bookbag taken, University
Bookstore, $92 loss.
10:12 a.m.—Bookbag stolen, University
Bookstore, $126 loss.
11:12 a.m. — Noninjury accident, Alpha
Delta Pi Sorority, 1115 N. 16th St., $800
damage.
12:47 p.m. — Wallet stolen, Campus
Recreation Center, $17 loss.
10:25 p.m.—Phone calls, Phi Mu Soror
ity, 125 N. 16th St.
Beginning midnight Friday
8:59 a.m. — Hit-and-run accident, Area
10 lot near Veterinary Diagnostic Center,
$1,200 damage.
9:37 a.m. — Noninjury accident, 38th
Street and East Campus Loop, $300 dam
age.
11:15 a.m. — Purse stolen and recov
ered, Nebraska Union, $41 loss
2:53 p.m. — Car stereo equipment sto
len, Area 6 lot near Burr Hall, $25 dam
age, $100 loss.
4:05 p.m.—Car stereo stolen, Area 1 lot
at 17th and R streets, $900 damage.
4:09p.m.—Car stereo stolen, 1820 rock
lot, $270 damage, $222 loss.
9:04 p.m.—Money stolen, Campus Rec
reation Center, $30 loss.
9:48 p.m.—Wallet stolen, Campus Rec
reation Center, $115 loss.
Beginning midnight Saturday
6:17 a.m.—Two phone receivers stolen,
Abel Residence Hall, $50 loss.
8:35 a.m.—Arson, door burned, Selleck
Residence Hall, $150 damage.
Beginning midnight Sunday
7:11 a.m.—Vandalism and criminal mis
chief, vehicle damaged, Area 10 lot at 940
N. 17th St., $500 damage.
12:19 p.m. — Items stolen from vehicle,
alley 405 in University Terrace, $385
loss.
12:38 p.m. — Items stolen from vehicle,
driveway of University Terrace, $500 loss,
$250 recovered.
4:30 a.m. — Fire, Abel Residence Hall,
unknown damage.
Free Computer
Classes!
The Computing Resource Center is offering free
microcomputer classes to UNL students. The classes will
feature an introduction to Microsoft Word for the
Macintosh and WordPerfect for IBM machines. No
reservations are required.
Introduction to WordPerfect for IBM
Tuesday, February 8 1:30 - 3:00 Sandoz lab
Introduction to Microsoft Word for Macintosh
Tuesday, February 8 3:00 - 4:00 Andrews Hall lab
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