Inside Thursday
Sports
■ Wyoming game will reunite two friends, Page 7
Arts & Entertainment
■ UNL senior directs Theatrlx play, Page 9
PAGE 2: Mexico politician assassinated
September 29, 1994
Fraternity
struggles
to survive
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporter
Beta Sigma Psi Fraternity has found itself
on new ground this year. And it’s unfamiliar
ground with battles at every turn.
Their house is gone.
Their membership is down.
And a closeness they had taken for granted
has been scattered throughout Lincoln.
But they’re not beaten.
Chris Potter, Beta Sigma Psi’s president,
said the fraternity is working on a deal to sell
their house to the university. Meanwhile, mem
bers were working hard to maintain the frater
nity and defeat a stereotype that a fraternity
cannot exist without a house, he said.
“The challenge is to change the mindset,’’
Potter said. “That’s just a whole different way
of thinking.’’
There are currently five fraternities and so
rorities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
without a house. The Lincoln chapter of Beta
Sigma Psi is the only chapter of that fraternity
without a house.
The NU Board of Regents will decide Fri
day whether to approve a $430,000 bid to pur
chase the fraternity house at 2224 U St. The
Alumni Chapter of Beta Sigma Psi Inc. ac
cepted the bid Sept. 16. Plans are to convert
the house into family housing units for stu
dents.
The mindset of house and fraternity being
permanently linked has run its course within
the fraternity as well, Potter said. Membership
stood at 30 before the Alumni Board began
accepting bids on the house this summer, he
said. Membership is now at 16.
“Eveiybody that has left has just left with
frustration and a lack of hope for the frater
nity to survive without a house,” Potter said.
Alumni decided to sell the house because it
was no longer economical to operate a build
ing meant to hold 100 people, he said.
Larry Meyer, pastoral advisor for the
Lutheran fraternity, said a membership of 57
men was required just to pay the mortgage on
the house. Membership hasn’t been that high
for the past 10 years. Meyer is also pastor at
the Lutheran Student Center, 333 N. 16th St.
Jayne Wade Anderson, director of greek
affairs, said membership at fraternities in gen
eral had not been declining at UNL. Meyer said
nationally, that had not held true. And because
the fraternity is selective in its membership,
as a Lutheran fraternity, the national trend had
hit home with more force.
Doug Zatechka, associate vice chancellor
and former housing director, said if and when
UNL receives the property, it would bring the
See HOUSE on 6
Jay CakJeron/DN
Bryan Manorial Hospital eayloyco wish NU quarterback Tommie Frazier wall as ha loaves the hospital
Wednesday. Nina Bostwick. a critical care nurse, walks with Frazier to the hospital’s entrance.
Future play status unclear for Husker
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporters
Tommie Frazier walked out of Bryan
Memorial Hospital Wednesday afternoon
saying his leg felt stiff, but that he wasn’t
in too much pain.
Frazier was admitted to the hospital Sun
day after a blood clot was discovered be
hind his right knee.
Walking slowly alongside friend Alycia
Tiemann, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln
sophomore, Nebraska’s quarterback care
fully climbed into Tiemann’s white Trans
Am at about 3:30 p.m.
Chris Anderson, Nebraska sports infor
mation director, said Frazier had been rest
ing comfortably, but he was anxious to get
home. Although Frazier will not play Sat
urday against Wyoming, his future playing
status has not been determined, she said.
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne
said Frazier, who has started 23 consecu
tive games as quarterback for Nebraska, had
progressed well.
“It still doesn’t mean that he is neces
sarily out of the woods,” Osborne said. “I
think certainly his life is in good shape. But
how quickly he will play football is specu
lation.”
Frazier will not be allowed to engage in
any contact until he gets doctors’ clearance,
but the junior from Bradenton, Fla., will be
allowed to exercise.
“I suspect that he will be doing some
football-related activity before too long,”
Osborne said, “some throwing, running,
conditioning. Maybe some team work.
“As far as playing, we’ll just have to wait
until the doctors say he can play.”
In a written statement, Frazier said, “I
want to express my sincere thanks to all of
the great Nebraska fans who have been con
cerned about me. The doctors and hospital
staff have been great and I appreciate all
their efforts. I feel good and I am anxious
to see my teammates.**
Paul Hadley, a member of Bryan Hospi
tal public relations* staff, said many fans
had attempted to see Frazier, some going to
elaborate lengths of disguise.
Security was so tight, however, that even
some coaches had trouble getting in, he said.
Frazier was receiving fan mail up to min
utes before his release.
Frazier’s release was delayed by one and
a half hours because “the needles had to be
removed and we had to make sure he wasn’t
leaking," Hadley said. Frazier was being
treated with a blood thinner intravenously
See TOMMIE on 11
Candidates want one university image tor NU
Berkshire ready
for higher challenge
By IWMMw Walt*
Senior Reporter
Richard Berkshire says he’s ready for a new
challenge.
The Omaha attorney,
who has served eight
years on the board of di
rectors for Metro Com
munity College, is look
ing to unseat incumbent
Rosemary Skrupa for the
regent’s 8th District seat.
Berkshire said he
wanted to take his expe
rience at the community
college to a higher level.
The community college system kept tuition
hikes to a minimum, only four in eight years;
kept property tax levels the same, even drop
ping them in some years; and still experienced
a 15 percent increase in students, he said.
“The Board of Regents is the real chal
lenge,” he said. “We can do it on a large scale.”
One University
Berkshire said the only way to run the NU
system was as if it were one university. In the
past, campuses have fought at the Nebraska
Legislature for funds for their own campus.
“If we had people at each of those campuses
to fight with each other... not only would it be
a monumental waste of time but it would not
serve ... the people,” he said.
The needs of the individual campuses
should be considered and allocated based on
necessity, Berkshire said. He said he supported
See BERKSHIRE on 8
Skrupa wants future
as regents focus
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Rosemary Skrupa has some unanswered
questions for the University of Nebraska Board
of Regents.
Skrupa, a former municipal court judge and
the first woman president of the Omaha Pub
jic Power District board of directors, is com
ing off her first six-year term as a regent. She
is being challenged by Richard Berkshire of
Omaha for the 8th District regents seat.
Skrupa said the engineering college issue,
although highly visible, was not the only ques
tion facing the regents.
“There is life after engineering," she said.
Some of the more pressing questions.
Skrupa said, were money issues, such as find
ing funding for inter-collegiate sports at the
Universities of Nebraska at Omaha and
Kearney. Unlike at the University ofNebraska
Lincoln, football does not fund other sports at
those campuses.
She also raised questions about rising tu
ition costs. She said the cost of tuition must be
kept low for NU schools to stay competitive
with others.
Students also are facing other costs, she
said. A proposed policy from the UNL Col
lege of Architecture that the regents will dis
cuss at their meeting Friday would require stu
dents to buy a computer.
The policy is supposed to keep students
competitive in the job market, Skrupa said. But
she had questions about the costs for the stu
dents, and whether the university was going
See SKRUPA on 8