Weekend Preview
■ Crash Test Dummies at State Fair, Page 8
Sports
■NU readies for Sunday Kickoff Classic Page 10
PAGE 2: Senate passes $30 billion crime bill.
Director set to move, learn about Nebraska
Powers assumes
ed commission
post on Oct. 17
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
David Powers is ready to get out of
the big city.
He got a sneak peak of Lincoln when
he was interviewed a few weeks ago to
bethcnewcxccutivedircctorofNcbras
ka’s Coordinating Commission for
PosLsccondary Education.
“It(Lincoln) hasevcrything 1 want,”
he said Thursday in a phone interview
from Minneapolis.
Powers said he thought Lincoln, with
its large university and population of
only200,000, was the ideal place to live.
He said the smaller population was
an improvement on the 2.2 million
population of the twin cities of Minne
apolis and St. Paul, Minn.
Powers has been thccxccutivedirec
tor of the Minnesota Higher Education
Coordinating Board since 1989. Before
that, he served as senior vice chancellor
of the West Virginia Board of Regents.
He has a doctorate in political science
from the University of Pittsburgh.
He was selected Wednesday as the
new executive director of Nebraska’s
coordinating commission.
Powers said he hoped to find a house
before he started work on Oct. 17, but he
said he would be at work whether he had
one or not.
His wife will not move to Lincoln
until next summer, because she will
continue her job as hcadofa consortium
ofcollcgcs in St. Cloud, Minn., he said.
Powers said he thought he was com
ing into a good situation in his new job.
“Nebraska has a lot going for it,’’ he
said. “A lot of states don’t have a solid
statutory policy in place.”
Strong statutes give the commission
a clear view of its rcsponsibil itics, Pow
ers said.
Another thing stacking the deck in
his favor, he said, is his existing rela
tionships with Nebraskan educational
and legislative leaders.
“I know their values,” he said. “I
think the people of Nebraska believe in
education, and they want to support it.”
Nebraskans, he said, also want edu
cation to be efficient.
One of his top priorities, Powers
said, is to spend a great deal of time
learning. To do that, he said he would
meet with legislative and educational
leaders.
“The first thing I want to do is learn
more about Nebraska and the people of
Nebraska,” he said.
Powers said a 1992 master plan for
higher education, written by the com
mission, was a solid plan to tackle
Nebraska’s higher education needs.
He said he would gather more infor
mation on needs for education and the
guidelines legislators wanted education
to follow.
“My first job is to realize I am a
catalyst and a facilitator between all of
the leaders,” Powers said.
Legislators need to make their de
mands known, and the educational sys
tems have every reason to ask for good
support. Powers said.
“The public is the winner,” he said.
“We have to work together.”
Jon Waller/DN
Tim Uden of the J Bar Cattle Co. in Juniata leads one of his Simmental bulls off his trailer in preparation for the
bull showing on Sunday. The Nebraska State Fair begins today. See story on Page 8.
Civil rights group may enter UPC battle
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska Civil Liberties Union will gel
involved in a dispute between two student groups
if it is not handled adequately on campus, an
NCLU official said.
Andrea Collins, assistant director of the civil
I ibcrtics group, said the organizat ion was worried
about possible free speech violations in the battle
between the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln’s
student government and its programming coun
cil.
A bylaw change passed at the end of last year’s
spring semester put the selection of the Un i versity
Program Council’s executive board and event
directors under the control of the ASUN president
and speaker of the senate and UPC’s outgoing
president.
UPC argued against the chance last semester
at a meeting of the Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska and since has rejected the
bylaw change, calling it “constitution tamper
ing.”
After UPC rejected the bylaw change, ASUN
filed a petition in UNL’s student court asking that
UPC be forced to comply. UPC has filed a coun
terclaim asking the bylaw be ruled inapplicable.
Before the student court action, members of
UPC contacted the offices of the NCLU. Collins
said a panel of lawyers reviewed the petition and
accepted it. She said the lawyers brought up the
issue of free speech.
Collins said the possible violations stemmed
from ASUN trying to control programming
through appointments.
NCLU will follow the student court proceed
ings,Collins said, and ifacomnromisc acceptable
to UPC is worked out, NCLU s involvement will
end.
She said the NCLU might advise UPC to take
the issue outside campus if it thought the cornpro
See NCLU on 7
Viewpoints
Andrea Collins, assistant director,
Nebraska Civil Liberties Union.
■ “If things don’t get worked out in the
university that's when we would get more
formally involved."
■ NCLU will follow the student court
proceedings. If involved, it would pay
attorney's and court fees. The case could
move to federal court.
Andrew Loudon, president,
Association of Students of the
Univerislty of Nebraska
■ “I think it is important that UPC remains
autonomous. It is an issue of accountabil
ity, not free speech."
■ UPC isn't held accountable to students
because its officers aren't elected by the
students body, like ASUN’s representa
tives.
Former coach
files claim
against UNL
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Former Creighton baseball coach Jim Hendry
filed a claim Wednesday afiemoon against UNL
for unproven allegations it made to the NCAA.
Hendry said his life was interrupted and dam
aged for more than a year because of the allega
tions.
“I thought this could have been handled be
tween my attorney and the University of Nebras
ka ” Hendry said from Batavia, N.Y. “Unfortu
nately, they chose not to do it that way.”
The claim was filed Wednesday with the Slate
Claims Board, seeking damages. The threc-mcm
See HENDRY on 3
Football bet may
require Loudon
to chew on coal
By Angie Schendt
biart Heponer
Stockings arc nowhere to be found, and UNL
student body president Andrew Loudon has been
a good boy.
But he may have to cat a piece of coal anyway.
In a bet with West Virginia’s student body
president, Brian Bigelow, about Sunday’s Kick
offClassic, Loudon will have to eat a piece ofWcst
Virginia coal if the Cornhuskcrs lose to the
Mountaineers.
If the Mountaineers lose the teams’ first foot
ball game, Bigelow will have local some Nebras
ka com.
“I called Andrew, and the first thing he said to
me was, ‘Is coal digestible?”’ Bigelow said.
Loudon actually would eat a piece of black
licorice candy that looks like a piece of coal.
Loudon isbringing Nebraska com with himon his
trip to New Jersey.
“I am so confident that we will win this game
that I had no trouble making this bet,” Loudon
said.
Bigelow and Loudon agreed the Mountaineers
and Cornhuskcrs weren’t rivals. But the two
decided to make the bet, which is similar to ones
made between governors and senators before big
bowl games.
Loudon said he thought Nebraska would win
the football game by 30 points.
Bigelow disagreed.
“I think it is going to be a real low-scoring
game,” he said. “Both defenses are real tough and
will outplay the offenses. It will be 17-14, West
Virginia.”
The bet will be settled after the game in the
parking lotofGiants Stadium in East Rutherford,
N.J.
