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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1995)
inside W Weekend Sports Nebraska sweeps Creighton in doubleheader, page 8 Arts & Entertainment “Our Country’s Good” premieres at the Howell Theatre, page 11 April 14-16, 1995 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 94 NO. 141 Now departing... '. ■- I ~ ~. d Amtrak passengers board the westbound train early Thursday morning at the station in the Haymarket. Jon Waller/DN Revenue losses force rail service to sever routes By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter As of June 1, the winds will die down in the Midwest. Every morning for more than 50 years, the whistling roar of the California Zephyr echoed through the sleeping streets of down town Lincoln. The Zephyr, an Amtrak Superliner train named after California’s gentle westerly zephyr winds, runs from Chicago to Oak land, Calif., with stops in Nebraska at Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Holdrege and McCook. But a $200 million financial gap will force Amtrak to cut the Zephyr’s service down to four days a week on June 1. The cuts are the latest in a series by the nation’s only rail passenger service. Debbie Hare, Amtrak public relations director in Chicago, said Amtrak had been losing revenue for two years: Competi^n with low-cost air fares, a bad image fr£m highly publicized accidents, damage from Midwest floods and a severe : winter ate into Amtrak’s emergency cash reserves, Hare said. ' About 900 management positions have been eliminated, she said, and the company is undergoing a massive restructuring effort. “It became more apparent that the rev enue situation wasn’t going to reverse it self,” she said. “We had to take more action to make sure we would live within our bud get.” Amtrak western routes are booked during the summer, holiday and ski seasons. Al ready, reservations must be secured months in advance, but when the service cuts take effect, more passengers will be left without seats. An additional car may be added to the train, she said, which would add about 70 seats to the Zephyr’s 280, but an extra car may cost more than it is worth. “The assumption that a train being filled pays for itself is a wrong assumption,” she said. “It depends on the circumstances.” An extra car would require extra staff, she said, and would make the train longer than the area where passengers boarded and ex ited. The additional length would require a “double stop,” which would cause a delay and take more time, she said. “If you give passengers a bad experience because of a delayed train, they won’t come back” she said, “so an extra car may not be refceriue in the end.” This concern for service is what lures Holly Kaiser to ride the rails. Kaiser, who moved from Denver to Lincoln about 21 years ago, takes the Zephyr to Denver at least four times a year to visit her family. On her way back from a wedding in Den ver, Kaiser caught the flu. The conductor and staff brought her hot and cold washcloths, she said, and checked her at night to make sure she was OK. “They did everything for me,” she said. “It’s that personal service you just can’t get in the air.” The conductor also found a playmate for her daughter. “My kids love it. Every year they just throw a fit if we consider flying,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful trip through the moun tains. “I love the motion of it. It just puts me to sleep. I love that rocking, clickety-clack sound.” When she heard about the cuts, Kaiser said, she felt betrayed—not by Amtrak, but by the government. The government subsi dizes all forms of public transportation and recently cut Amtrak’s funding. But Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., introduced legislation that would re-authorize funding for the basic Amtrak program. “Passenger rail transportation is safe, fuel See AMTRAK on 3 ASUN, bar officials meet, resolve dispute By Brian Sharp Senior Reporter A recent dispute over the behavior of ASUN representatives at a local bar has been resolved. But no one from either side is talking. Shawntell Hurtgen, newly swom-in ASUN president had little response when asked to comment about an afternoon meeting with the management of Barrymore’s, 124 N. 13th St. “We came away with a satisfactory conclu sion,” she said. “I’m going to leave it at that.” Hurtgen would not comment on what the solution was, whether an apology was offered by either side or whether she was concerned about the secrecy and confusion surrounding the incident. All she would say was that the solution was acceptable to both sides. The behavior in question stems from a gath ering at Barrymore’s on March 29. A group of an estimated 20 to 50 people, made up of past and present A SUN members, was celebrating the inauguration of Hurtgen and new ASUN senators.Laird Haberlan, manager of the bar, wrote a two-page letter to the Daily Nebraskan last week, complaining about the group’s be havior while in his establishment. Haberlan said people spit on the carpet, ripped pictures from the walls and damaged others’ property. “These are certainly not the actions of people I would associate with members of an elected membership and affiliated with the University of Nebraska,” Haberlan wrote. Haberlan could not be reached for comment following the meeting. Several calls to Barrymore’s and his home were not returned. The meeting was attended by Hurtgen, Haberlan, Marlene Beyke, ASUN director of development, and another UNL representative. Around 4 p.m. Thursday, Hurtgen met in her ASUN office with Beyke and a number of ASUN representatives. Questioned Thursday night about that meeting, Hurtgen said it was unrelated to the Barrymore’s incident, but would not comment on what was discussed. Hurtgen has denied Haberlan and other bar employees’ allegations, saying no one from ASUN witnessed anything like what he de scribed. Other ASUN representativesquestioned about Thursday’s meeting referred all ques tions to Hurtgen. Matt Bornshlegl, a junior pre-physical therapy major, was at Barrymore’s that night and said there was no doubt in his mind that members in the group were from ASUN. He was surprised by the group, he said, and left shortly after things got out of hand. Hurtgen refused comment on any further questions, saying she was ready to move on. Library journal cuts detrimental By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter Robert Hembre isn’t much differ ent from other chemistry professors. He monitors specialized science journals, teaches class, writes grant proposals and does research. But life has become more difficult for Hembre. Cuts in the number of journal subscriptions at campus li braries have forced Hembre and other faculty in the chemistry department to resort to other means of getting infor mation. “It slows down the process of be ing able to write papers and write grants,” he said. Now, Hembre calls friends at other universities and asks them to fax him copies of articles. “What used to take minutes now takes days,” he said. The problem, said Dean of Librar ies Kent Hendrickson, is skyrocketing inflation and price gouging of science journals. The subscription price of journals has been increasing at an average of about 14 percent each year, he said, while the budget for the libraries has been increasing by only about 3 to 4 percent. Thousands of journals have gone on the chopping block, he said. This year, the University of Ne braska has requested a 15 percent in crease in the University of Nebraska Lincoln libraries budget. Hendrickson said the increase was important for the library to maintain its current sub scription level. “We’ll go on without it, but infla tion on materials just grows like crazy,” he said. “When inflation is that far ahead of what we get, it means that we’ve had to cancel a lot of subscrip tions.” With stagnant budget increases, Hendrickson said, the libraries had seen no growth in 10 years. He said no staff had been added or cut during that time, but library use had gone up 50 See LIBRARIES on 3 Stolen sax exchanged, UNL drops lawsuit By Brian Sharp and Matthew waite Senior Reporters A local music-store owner says he was abused by the University of Ne braska-Lincoln. But UNL legal coun sel says it was the shop owner who was abusing the law. In an out-of-court settlement reached Thursday morning, Brent Bartu, owner of Banner Music, re turned an alto saxophone to the UNL School of Music. UNL sued Bartu after he demanded reimbursement of the $110 he paid for the stolen instru ment. In the settlement, UNL agreed to drop the suit and pay $42 in court costs in exchange for the saxophone. UNL filed a similar suit against King Dollar Jewelry and Loan for the return of a stolen tenor saxophone. That instrument also has been returned. Bartu, a 1978 UNL graduate, said UNL tried to play him for a fool in a case he could have won. But John Wiltse, NU associate See SETTLEMENT on 6