Sports
■ Veland takes snap at quarterback, Page 7
Arts & Entertainment
■ Medieval-style dining found at Huey's, Page 9
PAGE 2: Clinton lifts sanctions on Haiti
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COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 94 NO. 25
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By Mitch Stwrman
Senior Reporter
Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier, hos
pitalized Sunday afternoon at Bryan Memorial
Hospital because of a blood clot, will miss at
least Saturday’s game against Wyoming and
maybe the rest of the season, football coach
Tom Osborne said Monday.
Frazier was admitted to the hospital Sunday
morning to run tests on his right leg, which had
been sore since Sept. 17, the day Nebraska
I
played UCLA.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound junior from
Bradenton, Fla., was released from the hospital
late Sunday morning, only to be recalled later
that afternoon because tests showed a possible
clot behind his right knee.
Osborne said Frazier was treated intrave
nously Sunday and Monday with medication to
dissolve the clot.
“It has reduced about 25 percent in 24 hours,”
Osborne said after Monday’s practice, “which
is a good sign.”
Initially, Osborne said, Frazier was told by
doctors there was a 50 percent chance the clot
would be dissolved by this type of medication.
If the medication works, Frazier would likely
be cleared to play after a short period of rest, he
said.
“If they can get the clot dissolved,” Osborne
said, “they are going to try to come up with
some strategy that would be fairly safe to not
have the clot reform, and, at the same time,
allow him to play. Now whether they are going
to be able to do that or not, I don’t know.”
He said the next couple of days appeared to
be crucial concerning Frazier’s return to foot
ball. Even if the clot does not dissolve, how
ever, Frazier’s health won’t be in jeopardy as
long as he stays away from contact.
John Edwards, chief of vascular surgery at
Saint Joseph Hospital in Omaha, said Frazier’s
injury would require treatment with blood
thinners if the current medication did not solve
the problem.
See FRAZIER on 8
-1
Safety in Russia
learned hard way
By .toff Randall_ __ _
Staff Reporter
Many students take advantage of the op
portunity to study abroad every year. Most
of them expect an educational, entertaining
and safe experience.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior
Todd Nelson, who spent last year at the State
Technical University of St. Petersburg in
Russia, found that foreign study could teach
students a great deal and be fun. Safety,
however, isn’t always a guarantee.
During his 11-month stay in St. Peters
burg, Nelson learned more than just the
history and language of Russia. He learned
about the darker side of present-day Russian
society.
Nelson not only witnessed several
muggings and beatings, he was also a vic
tim.
After five days in St. Petersburg, police
arrested, beat andjailed Nelson. The experi
ence, he said, was terrifying.
“After I was beaten up by the guards, they
took all of my money and threw me into a
45-degree iail cell in my underwear,’’ he
said. “I was stuck there for five-and-a-half
hours and had no idea what would happen
next.”
Nelson said the time he spent in the jail
cell was not only frightening, but embar
rassing.
“In Russia, underwear is big, flowing and
covers a lot,” he said. “Meanwhile, I was
sitting there, looking just like an obvious
American in my bikini briefs. It was a very
difficult situation.”
Nelson said he had no idea why he had
been arrested or how long he would stay
there. The eventual reason given was public
drunkenness, although Nelson said he hadn t
been drinking prior to the arrest.
“I was just helping some drunk guy who
had passed out across the street when the
police van pulled up, and they threw me in,”
he said.
After his release. Nelson went to the
American Consulate to complain. He found
that his case wasn’t unique.
“The guy I talked to there had just been
released from the hospital because the same
thing happened to him,*’ he said. “While we
were trading horror stories, another guy came
in and said the same thing had happened to
him.’’
The problem, Nelson said, stemmed from
a local police station in St. Petersburg. He
said officers searched for foreigners to take
advantage of them.
Nelson said his experience with the po
lice department was one of his first indica
tions that not all Russian natives were hospi
table to foreigners, particularly Americans.
“A lot of the younger people were very
nice,” he said. “It varied from person to
person, but several of them were genuinely
interested in America.
“Most of the older people, though, were
pretty anti-foreigner. If I spoke English on
the Metro or in other public places. I would
get a lot of strange looks.”
Nelson said his foreign status was diffi
cult to hide. Russians, he said, have several
ways of spotting foreigners.
“People there could tell where you were
from just by looking at your shoes,” he said.
“To me. it was a very strange thing to find
people looking at your feet so much.”
Foreigners also were frequent targets of
the St. Petersburg Mafia, Nelson said. The
Mafiadidn't really have prejudices, he said,
but foreigners would inadvertently get into
trouble with them.
Foreigners wouldn’t recognize Mafia
members, he said, and would often offend
members of the Mafia without even know
ing it. But they would soon realize their
mistakes, Nelson said.
The result of the offending behavior was
most often a stomping, where a person was
severely beaten and kicked by gang mem
bers.
“There wouldn’t just be one guy, either,”
See VISIT on 3
Regent hopefuls set priorities for university
Hassebrook wants
education for all
By PePra Jaw—n
Senior Reporter
For Chuck Hassebrook, ensuring that higher
education is accessible to all Nebraskans is a
top priority.
Hassebrook, a candidate in the 3rd District
race for the University of Nebraska Board of
Regents, said he was worried that rapid in
creases in the cost of attending the university
threatened that accessibility.
“The purpose of creating the institution was
to make higher education accessible to ordi
nary folks,” Hassebrook said. “I fear we’re in
danger of losing that.”
As a regent, Hassebrook said he would ad
dress that and several other
issues he considered top
priorities forthe university.
Among those priorities are
improving the university’s
agriculture programs and
addressing NU’s policy of
equal recognition for equal
work of women and mi
norities.
The regents have advo
cated a strong policy on
equity in hiring and granting promotions,
Hassebrook said.
See HASSEBROOK on 6
Vrbicky stresses
ending brain drain
By PtDri Jantfn
Senior Reporter
Keith Vrbicky is concerned about the qual
ity of higher education.
That’s why he’s running in the 3rd District
race for the University of Nebraska Board of
Regents.
“Higher education is of vital importance to
our children, to our children’s future,” Vrbicky
said. “I want to get involved in trying to help
make sure that higher education is of high
quality.”
Regents' role
Vrbicky offered the following philosophy
on the role of the Board of Regents:
“The job of the board is to develop policy
that will make the university as strong as it can
be and guide it into the future,” Vrbicky said.
Vrbicky said the quality of a university was
measured by the quality of its students and
faculty.
One of the university’s top priorities, then,
should be recruiting Nebraska's top high school
graduates, he said. Many of those top graduates
leave the state to obtain higher education, he
said.
“We do have a brain drain in our state,”
Vrbicky said.
See VRBRICKY on 6
