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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1995)
insidellT Hi ednesday Sports Sallee may have to sit out half of next season, page 7 Arts & Entertainment Atlanta’s Big Fish Ensemble! opens for the Indigo Girls, page 9 •__ — ^ lfc March 29, 1995 Political dance Travis Heying/DN Karen Skiber of Lincoln joins in protest Tuesday night with members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., in front of the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Lied show sparks protest from anti-gay group § By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter ' W-'-' What started as a protest against a dance performance turned into a shouting match between gay rights and anti-gay rights ad vocates Tuesday night in front of the Lied Center for Performing Arts. A line of Lincoln Police officers sepa rated about 20 anti-gay rights advocates and 300 gay rights supporters, who shouted insults but remained peaceful during the protests. See related story on page 3. Members from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. came to Lincoln to protest the Bill T. Jones dance company. Jones, who has the HIV virus, uses dance to interpret how people deal with AIDS. His partner Amie Zane died of AIDS last year. The church group stood on the northeast comer of 12th and Q streets holding up signs with the slogans “God hates fags” and “Get back in the closet.” Gay rights supporters, who were stand ing on the southwest comer of 12th and Q streets, moved across to face the protestors. Lincoln police officers kept the crowd from joining on the sidewalk. No protestors went inside the Lied Cen ter, and Director C. Bruce Marquis said the protest did not seem to be scaring people away and may have made more people aware of tne performance. Complaining about the cold weather, 7 year-old Rebecca Phelps-Roper and her 9 year-old sister, Megan, joined their parents in protesting the performance. “God hates fags,” Rebecca said, “cause the Bible says.” All the “big people” were holding signs, Megan said, so she joined her sister in shouting at die gay rights supporters. “There’s a whole bunch of fags, and it’s really weird,” she said, pointing across the sidewalk. “It’s fun to yell at the fags. These people act like they’re 2-year-olds.” Pastor Fred Phelps, who led the congre gation from Topeka, said he was pleased with the crowd. Phelps said he was protest ing the performance because he wanted to warn people against the dangers of homo See PROTEST on 6 Spanier offers advice to newcomer By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter More than a week since his announced departure, Chancellor Graham Spanier offered some advice Tuesday for whoever takes his office. “Keep your chin up at all times,” he said, laughing. Q TRANSITION AT THETOP Spanier was selected March 16 by Penn State to be the next president. NU President Dennis Smith said he would appoint a committee to search for a new chancellor in the next few weeks. Though Spanier said he had no specific qualities he felt the committee should lode for, he did say that the new chan cellor should be prepared. “Nowadays, to be in a position like this, you need a fair amount of energy and stamina ” he said. Strong academic values and care for the people who work at UNL are also important traits, Spanier said. “It would make me feel very good when I leave the university that the custodians and maintenance staff felt as good about my ac complishments as the faculty,” he said. And when he does finally leave UNL, Spanier said it would be on good terms. “We have much less of a ‘we-and-they’ attitude than a few years ago,” he said. Faculty morale is high, he said, and the budget situation for the next biennium is look ing good. The re-wiring of the campus is another healthy sign. In addition, several classrooms have gone from deferred maintenance to reno vation,and the landscape has improved, Spanier said. Applications for fall admission are up sig nificantly, and the applications for the honors program have doubled. Spanier said he tried to emphasize undergraduate education, and that he didn’t think smother chancellor would change his work. “These were all areas that needed atten tion,” he said. “I think someone coming in would want to build on those, not turn it in another direction.” But Spanier said he couldn’t have com pleted his projects alone. He needed support oi the regents, faculty and administrators, he said. He had been successful in the last foui years, but could have done more if time per mitted, he said. “Other priorities would have evolved had 1 stayed longer. I’m sure there will be nev improvements (with a new chancellor).” His priorities during his time at UNL were not his own, Spanier said; he did what UNL needed in academics, business and diversity. “Different chancellors will have differeni degrees of personal commitment to that,” he said. “It’s a matter of emphasis on what one cares about.” At Penn State, priorities will be differeni because of different needs. The agenda there will be set by the Board of Trustees and the faculty, not by him, he said. “I bring my own value system — that will follow me. It’s the value system you bring, noi an agenda per se. The agenda here was whai UNL needed, not what I wanted to do.” Signature amendment notchanged By Jeff Randall Staff Reporter Members of the Legislature spent nearly all morning Tuesday trying to push through amend ment after amendment to LR6CA, but to no avail. All proposed amendments to LR6CA, in troduced by Sen. Cap Dierks of Ewing, were ei ther dropped or voted down. LR6CA is a proposed con stitutional amendment that would lower the number of signatures needed to place initiatives and referendums on the ballot. Nebraskans ^—» would vote on tne resoiu LEGISLATURE tion in November 1996. Debate over LR6CA be gan Tuesday with a proposed amendment by Dierks to reinforce the idea that the legislation would keep the citizens’ rights of initiative and referendum. Several senators, including Tim Hall and Ernie Chambers of Omaha, spoke out against Dierks’ amendment, saying it was nonsensical and of little function. Dierks said he was convinced by his col leagues’ arguments, then dropped the pro posed amendment. Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln followed with an amendment that would have put a six month time limit on petition drives. Wesely said unlimited time for petitioners created a lack of focus on the issues and signing by uninformed citizens. “If there is a limited amount of time, you have a better-informed electorate,” he said. Chambers backed Wesely and said he be lieved the powers of initiative and referendum were dangerous when placed in the hands of uninformed and underinformed citizens. He said making petitioning for initiatives and referendums more difficult was a safety mea sure that had to be taken. See LEGISLATURE on 3 Senators see penitentiary from the inside By John Fulwider Staff Reporter Five Nebraska senators were locked into the State Penitentiary Tuesday night. But unlike most penitentiary dwellers, they were let out three hours later. Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhom gave a tour of the peniten tiary to Sens. Donald Preister of Omaha, Gerald Matzke of Sidney, C.N. “Bud” Robinson of Blair and Jim Jensen of Omaha. More than 15 other friends and staff of the senators also came along. Pedersen said he gave the tours so senators could see what prisons really were like and make better-educated decisions on crime leg islation. He said people’s opinions about prisons changed when they saw one firsthand. For one, he said, they find that inmates are human beings, not animals. “They discover that not every prisoner is out there with a knife ready to cut their giz zards out,” he said. The group toured most of the facility, in cluding several cell blocks. One person, when passing an 8 foot by 10 foot, double-bunk cell, See TOUR on 3