p .•„■ 1. J
inside
eekend
Sports
^ ■ Thompson leads Husker J
wrestling team, page 7
Arts & Entertainment
The School of Music
presents “The Marriage of
Figaro,” page 9
February 17-19, 1995
Abortion funding, notification debated
umana senator introduces
bill that would ban use of
public funds for abortion
By J. Christopher Hain
Senior Reporter
People on both sides of the abortion issue
should be able to agree that they disagree, Sen.
John Lindsay of Omaha said Thursday.
“It’s indisputable that the issue of abortion
is an extremely divisive issue in this country,”
Lindsay told the Legislature’s Judiciary Com
mittee.
Lindsay introduced a bill that would pro
hibit the use of public funds for abortion.
LB879, he said, avoids determining which
side is correct. But the bill prevents those who
are opposed to abortion from being forced to
contribute to abortion through tax dollars, Lind
say saia.
“It is fundamentally wrong for the state to
use its money to violate the most fundamental
principles you hold,” Lindsay said.
The committee voted 6-0 to advance the bill
to the floor of the Legislature.
During the hearing, Susan Hale of Planned
Parenthood of Omaha and Council Bluffs said
she was concerned the bill would continue a
long history of mistreatment of poor women.
She said the bill would restrict access to
health care and force many poor women to
carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
Unwanted children bom to poor mothers
face a long road of problems throughout their
lives, said Sheryl Schrapf of Planned Parent
hood Voters for Choice.
“The economic and social costs to society
are enormous,” Schrapf said.
Responsibility to inform
students of abortion laws
may change if bill passes
By J. Christopher Hain■
Senior Reporter
Informing high school students about abor
tion laws is a medical issue, not an educational
issue, Martha Fricke of the Nebraska Associa
tion of School Boards said Thursday.
. Fricke was speaking to the Legislature’s
Judiciary Committee in support of LB859,
which would take that responsibility away from
the state’s school districts.
In 1992, the Legislature passed a bill that
required school districts to provide informa
tion to all students in grades seven through 12
about parental notification of an abortion and
how to obtain a judicial waiver for that notifi
cation.
LB859 transfers that responsibility to the
Department of Health, and allows the informa
tion to be made available on a 1-800 line.
Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings, who spon
sored the bill, said it still provided the same
information, but changed how that informa
tion was delivered.
“Currently, every student gets the informa
tion whether they need it or not,” Bohlke said.
Bohlke said that by providing the informa
tion through a taped telephone message, those
who wanted access to the information could
obtain it confidentially.
Susan Hale of Planned Parenthood of Omaha
and Council Bluffs said she supported LB859,
but would like to see the information both
handed out and available through a telephone
line.
“Young people have the right to know about
a law that could irreparably change their life,”
Hale said.
Regents to
viewUNL
themselves
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter T
Regent Drew Miller of Papillion
said Thursday that in business, a tour
like the one the Regents were taking
today was called “management by
wandering about.”
Whatever you call it, the NU Board
of Regents will be shown the high
lights of instructional quality at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln to
day as part of their monthly meeting
this weekend.
NU spokesman Joe Rowson said
the regents’ tour was part of a change
made by the governance committee,
which, among other things, elimi
nated the campus reports from chan
cellors at the meetings.
In its place, he said, the regents
would tour each of the four NU cam
puses and also the Institute of Agri
culture and Natural Resources on
UNL’s East Campus.
Stops along the way for today’s
tour include briefings about univer
sity housing, the new media center in
Mabel Lee Hall, discussions with the
deans of the College of Arts and Sci
ences and the College of Fine and
Performing Arts and tours of the law
college on East Campus.
The tour would focus on instruc
tional quality and undergraduate edu
cation, university spokeswoman
ray ms i^ai sea sum.
“We can’t show the regents every
thing,” she said. “We’re trying to
show them some of the things that
they maybe have not seen.”
Several issues, including deferred
maintenance, had been considered as
a tour item, but instructional quality
won. She said deferred maintenance
already had been discussed at length
by the regents.
“It’s hard to talk about these things
(instructional quality highlights) in a
meeting,” she said.
Several regents agreed.
Miller, who grew up on the UNL
campus where his father was a pro
fessor, said having a report was one
thing, but seeing the item was an
other.
Miller said that even with his and
other regents’ familiarity with die
campus, many things would be new
See REGENTS on 6
Working for a living
I
um^SLESPi* junior pre-architecture major, prepares an offset printing plate for storage in the press^rtiat^
aG"8 Wrth 4,500 °,her UNU empl0yees’ wi" 566 a increase «
Increasing wages may scrunch UNL
Dy rauia uavigne
Senior Reporter
While 4,500 student, temporary
and regular employees at UNL
would receive pay increases if the
minimum wage was raised, that
would not raise all university em
ployees’ wages, a university direc
tor said.
Bruce Currin, director of hu
man resources at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said employees
in pay classes below the new mini
mum wage would be “scrunched”
into higher classes.
President Clinton proposed rais
ing the minimum wage to $5.15,
and a bill before the Nebraska Leg
islature would raise it to $5.25.
Both wages would be near the bot
tom of UNL’s pay scale.
Currin said raises might not be
successive. For example, if those
making $4.75 had their wages
raised about 10 percent to $5.25,
that wouldn’t mean someone al
ready making $5.25 or above also
would receive a 10 percent raise.
Daryl Swanson, director of Ne
braska Union, said such compres
sion was not good personnel prac
tice, but was the most economical
solution, r
Temporary and regular employ
ees receive above the current $4.25
minimum wage, but most receive
below $5.15. Only a few student
employees receive $4.25.
Regular employees are hired for
six months or more, and include
lab assistants, food technicians, li
thographers and others, while tem
porary employees are hired for six
months or less for special events
such as registration.
Students often are hired through
work-study programs.
As a regular employee at The
Bakery in Nebraska Union, Tammy
Hennecke said she did not think
the minimum wage increase would
affect her current $6 wage.
“If they are going to raise the
minimum wage, they should raise
everyone’s wages,” she said, “but
they don’t have to raise everyone’s
by a dollar.”
Because each department deter
mines its own wages, Currin said
the result would depend on the
department affected. He said de
See SCRUNCH on 6