Activists urge regents to take stand
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter_£__
Environmental activists, armed
with a 35-foot, inflatable chain saw,
told the regents Saturday that the com
pany contracted to provide video
screens for Memorial Stadium was an
environmental rapist. . .
mii nmpiiM Mitsubishi
NU REGENTS corp was con
traded by the NU
Board ofRcgcnts to
install two video
screens, valued at
$3.5 million, in
Memorial Stadium
for replays during
Nebraska football
games.
Protesters from Nebraska Earth
i First!, the Rain Forest Action Net
work and Ecology Now said the re
gents should lake their business else
where.
The group asked the board to break
the contract with M ilsubishi to send a
message to the company that its envi
ronmental practices would not be tol
erated. Mitsubishi has extensive log
ging interests around the world.
Rob Klein, a University of Nc
braska-Lincoln sophomore and Ecol
ogy Now member, told the regents he
had visited the rain forests in Belize,
South America, through a UNL pro
gram. While there, he said he learned
about the beauty and importance of
the rain forest.
“1 find it extremely disturbing ...
that I return to find the same univer
sity was supporting (Mitsubishi),’
Klein said. . .
The university has instituted recy
cling programs and other environ
mentally friendly policies on campus,
Klein said.
“The university needs to ... prac
tice what it preaches,” he said. “UNL
should show that it is an institution
that can stand up for what it believes
Klcinsaid the protest was not meant
to bring the university down, but to
encourage administrators to send
Mitsubishi a message.
Matt Rosscll, a recent University
of Nebraska at Kearney graduate and
Ecology Now member, said Mitsubishi
was destroying forests in Malaysia,
Brazil, Chile and Canada and is mov
ing into Siberia. And, he said, the
destruction is not reserved just to trees.
“This company is not just destroy
ing forests, it’sdestroying(culturcs),”
Rosscll said. “Mitsubishi’s operation
is truly an example of cultural geno
cide.”
Rosscll said although the contract
had been signed, he encouraged the
regents to break it for the sake of the
forests.
“Trees do not grow on money,
Rosscll said. “Once the forests arc
— II-—
UNL should show
that it is an
institution that can
stand up for what it
believes in.
— Klein
UNL sophomore and
Ecology Now member
-tt -
gone... no amounlofmoncy can bring
them back.”
Richard Wood, NU general coun
sel, said the regents’ hands were tied
in this matter. If the regents break the
contract, he said, they would be sub
ject to breach of contract lawsuits.
The environmental groups asked
Wood to investigate ways to avoid
legal liability, but he said he knew of
none.
If the contract can’t be broken,
Lisa Williams of Lincoln said the
regents should do something to tell
Mitsubishi they disagreed with the
corporation’s environmental prac
tices.
The regents could send Mitsubishi
a letter outlining the problems, she
said.
Regent Chairman Charles Wilson
of Lincoln said the board would have
to discuss the issue of sending a letter
at its next meeting.
AM •
Regents raise parking conce
ms to bpamer
From Staff Reports _ __
UNL Chancellor Graham Spanicr
didn’t plan to discuss the proposed
parking garage Sat
urday, but he ended
up answering re
gents’ concerns
anyway.
Spanicr took the
i tern otTlhc regents’
agenda for
Saturday’s meet
ing, but Regent
Nancy Hoch of Ne
braska City asked him to talk on the
issue.
Hoch said members anu aiumm oi
Alpha Phi Sorority wrote 195 letters
to regents about a proposed parking
garage next to their house at 1531 S
St.
Span ier sa id the idea was not sprung
on anyone, and an open lorum was
held on the issue. When no members
of the sorority attended the forum,
Spanier said he called the Alpha Phi
president.
Regent Rosemary Skrupa of Omaha
said the idea of building a parking
garage was confusing. Parking ga
rages were being planned as other
parking areas were being torn up for
green space, she said.
A park, or green space, will bebuilt
north of the Nebraska Union this sum
mer.
“It’s kind of incongruous to rip up
existing parking for grass and then go
down the street and build a garage,”
she said.
Skrupa also asked Span icr how the
parking garage would be financed.
She said if the garage could not subsi
dize itself, it should not be built.
Spanier said because financial
plans for the garage had not been
finalized, he had pulled the item from
the agenda.
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