inside
M
onday
Sports
Chris Peterson passed
over for Miami of Ohio
job, page 14
Arts & Entertainment
Summer movies to take theaters
by storm, page 20
May 1, 1995
COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901
VOL. 94 NO. 152
The chancellor of a ‘different generation’
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
The chancellor smiles confi
dently and leans over the micro
phone, scanning his skittish
audience. It’s a tough crowd, but
he isn’t nervous.
He never is.
Graham Spanier runs every
show with perfection. The timing
the voice, the script, all fit into
his plan.
From a distance it appears
complicated, but with closer
examination it becomes much
simpler.
Spanier gracefully wins over
his guests with a wide smile,
which some might call a smirk.
His audience is restless, but soon
they’ll be following the lead of
the man who has brought the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
into the next generation.
Spanier seems comfortable in
front of any crowd. But this day’s
audience could be his most
difficult.
He’s not wrangling with
senators or regents, but instead
doing a live radio talk show with
children on their perceptions of
higher education. He tries to
pacify a squirming 6-year-old,
while watching and listening to
the radio engineer.
“Thirty seconds, chancellor.”
“Anything can and will
happen, I’m sure,” Spanier says
with that same smile, just seconds
before he goes on the air.
But after all, this time it’s only
a show.
Whether it is senators, alumni
or in this day’s case — four kids
under the age of 10 on a radio
talk program—Spanier is ready
for each different set of listeners.
An audience is nothing new to
him. He was accustomed to
crowds long before he became the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
chancellor 3 1/2 years ago.
He has been preparing for this
nearly all of his 46 years through
his work as a journalist, professor
and administrator.
See SPANIER on 12
Graham B. Spanier
■ Graham Spanier
became the 17th
chancellor of the
University of
Nebraska-Lincoln on
Nov. 1, 1991.
■ He accepted the
presidency of
Pennsylvania State
University on March 23.
He will take over that
position Sept. 1.
Travis Heying/DN
Regent Rosemary Skrupa of Omaha discusses a change in the Student Code of Conduct at Saturday’s NU Board of Regents
meeting. The change requires students to store guns with University Police.
Gun policy approved;
students stilltoppose
By Jeffrey Robb
Senior Reporter
Tyson Menke would rather live
off-campus or use his car for storage
than keep his shotgun with the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln Police.
“There’s no way I would giye it tc
the police station,” said Menke, whc
stores his weapon according to cur
rent housingpolicy at Burr Hall, where
he lives. '
On Saturday,-the NU Board ol
Regents unanimously passed a revised
Student Code of Conduct, including z
new policy banning weapons on cam
pus.
Students now can keep their guns
in central locations in each residence
hall and greek house but will need tc
store their guns with University Po
lice starting this fall. They will be able
to check them out 24 hours a day and
will have an area to clean their guns.
* Menke, a senior fish and wildlife
major, kept his shotgun on campus
during the hunting season, from about
November to January. He will gradu
ate this month and will not be affected
by the new policy banning weapons
on campus but said his friends agreed
with him.
“It’s just the thought of them hav
ing the guns that bothers everyone,”
he said.
Opponents said at the meeting that
the gun policy would backfire in its
attempt to promote safety. Doug
See REGENT on 10
Regents vent concern,
approve union project
By Jeffrey Robb
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska Union expansion
project barely cleared a hurdle Satur
day when the NU Board of Regents
nearly knocked it off track.
The board voted 5-1 in favor of the
project, with two abstentions. Regent
Robert Allen of Hastings hesitated
and sighed before voting in favor of
the measure.
Regents Chuck Hassebrook of
Walthill,and Drew Miller of Papillion,
questioned whether the university
should undertake the $12.7 million
renovation project when it had higher
priorities.
To pay for the expansion, student
fees starting in the 1998-99 academic
year would increase $20 per student,
per semester. The project includes
enlarging offices and the University
Bookstore, adding meeting rooms and
improving recreation space.
Miller said priority projects, such
as repairing Burnett Hall, should be
taken care of first. Meetings could be
held in Burnett if the building were
repaired, he said. NU President Den
nis Smith said that was not possible.
The mention of a broken-down
Burnett Hall seemed to strike a chord
with Allen, who said he also wanted to
see the building renovated first. Other
regents assured him that construction
of that hall would start this summer.
Hassebrook said he didn’t like see
See UNION on 10
Budget,
crime bills
top agenda
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
The crime bill and the budget will
dominate the remaining 20 days of the
legislative session, three state sena
tors said.
All three agreed that both topics,
which have yet to be debated, would
important and time-consuming.
Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings
said she thought debate on the crime
.bill would center on its cost and the
boot camp provision.
She said boot camps, if adopted,
should produce rehabilitated, rather
than just physically fit, criminals.
Speaker Ron Withem of Papillion
said he had plans to special order the
crime bill to the top of the agenda. But
he said he expected “legislative melt
down” on the issue.
“I don’t know if the Legislature
will have the capability to make it
pass,” he said.
Even though the public considers
the crime bill to be critically impor
tant, he said, senators may not agree.
The budget bill also will be crucial.
Gov. Ben Nelson has said senators
were being irresponsible by failing to
make spending cuts he had recom
mended.
But Sen. John Lindsay of Omaha
said there was always a difference
between executive and legislative pri
orities, so there would naturally be
differences between the governor’s
and the Legislature’s budgets.
He said he was sure Nelson would
have to make some cuts. Nelson has
said he wanted the Legislature to make
spending cuts so he wouldn’t have to.
“It’s a lot easier for one person to
make cuts than for 49 to make cuts,”
Lindsay said.
The 1995 session has been a slow
one, Bohlke said, because the Legis
lature faced difficult issues, such as
the Micron bills, the adoption bill and
welfare reform.
“I don’t mind going slowly when
we’re dealing with such complex is
sues,” she said.
Lindsay agreed that the session had
been unusual but for a different rea
son.
He said the difference this session
was that many issues were addressed.
Some previous sessions, he said, have
been dominated by one issue, such as
See LEGISLATURE on 8
*