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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1995)
q\]tt WEDNESDAY UAA V «g' WEATHER: I * I Today - Partly Sunny. I I W Southeast wind 10 to VJf^ |C vl I 1 20mPh yk £ Jk I Tonight - Partly cloudy. mJLm ^ ^^b^ JL> m %/Wnl -JL. Zozz; around 70 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 4 - * __August 23, 1995_ Sleeping among giants ... Tanna Kinnaman/DN Paul Kramper relaxes afer touring the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Kramper. a student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, was visiting Lincoln. Deposit date springs surprises By Michelle Collins Staff Reporter If you haven’t paid your $200 tu ition deposit yet, you’re more than a week late. But don’t panic, said Bob Clark, director of student accounts, your reg istration won’t be canceled. In the past, Clark said, all students paid a $35 fee a few weeks after they enrolled. This semester, that fee was increased to $200, and everyone had the same due date — Aug. 15. The change came as a surprise to Nina Virdi, a sophomore. “It was a shock because there was no information given to me that I’d have to pay,” Virdi said. “When I called on Aug. 15, they explained to me the billing process, and I got my payment in.” Students who missed the preregis tration fee due date will have to pay a $20 late fee, Clark said. Not everyone had to pay the $200 fee. A new computer system allowed the Registration and Records office to take intoaccount scholarships, grants, loans and other forms of financial aid before billing students. The amount was directly deducted from accounts of students who had at least $200 of financial aid. The change was a welcome one for Candy Ross, a junior elementary edu cation major. “It is easier for me to have it pulled from my financial aid directly rather than trying to come up with $200,” Ross said. With the old system, Clark said, students who enrolled at the Univer sity ofNebraska-Lincoln in the spring or summer sometimes would decide to change schools. They would forget they had paid the fee and would forget to withdraw, Clark said. By pushing the due date back to Aug. 15, he said, students are less likely to make that mistake. Clark said he wasn’t sure whether the new deposit system would be used again, but he thought it was working well. “It will be examined over the next couple of months,” Clark said, “and then we’ll be able to give our decision on whether it’ll continue.” The number of students who missed the deadline is not available, he said. Home is where t the lounge is Women cope with makeshift rooms By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter When the residents of Abel Hall room 253 wake up in the middle of the night, it could be the middle of the morning. They wouldn’t know. They don’t have a window. For Leigh Ramert, a freshman me chanical engineering major, her make shift room is “like a dungeon.” Ramert and her three, roommates are among 115 students living in lounges, which have been converted into makeshift rooms. With increasing freshman enroll ment and the higher number of return ing upperclassmen, last year’s over crowded residence halls j ust got worse. Clothes hang from rolling laundry bars — makeshift closets. A bed sits on each level opposite the bunk beds on the other side of the lounge. Posters and photos decorate the walls in an attempt to make the room look “homey.” They have few electrical sockets, one telephone jack, no windows, no lamp, no mailbox, no mirrors, no per manent furniture and no thermostat. And all the girls agree, “It’s cold.” Kelley Sittner, a freshman history education major, said they even had taken on a name. “People refer to us as the lounge girls,” she said, “or the lounge rats.” Sittner’s roommate, Shana Randof, a freshman physical therapy major, said die was unsure whether she should unpack her belongings. Her mother had to take back several items she didn’t have room for, she said. Though the overcrowding may in convenience some students, Housing Director DougZatechka said the situ ation was a positive sign. “It helps hold down costs,” he said. “The more full the whole system re mains, the less the cost of room and board increases.” Zatechka said he knew of schools that closed down halls because of underassignment, and the remaining students had to foot the bills through their own room and board fees. Room and board fees are an issue that some lounge residents would like to take up with university housing. Julie Haverman, a freshman gen eral studies major, said her fees should be lowered if she has to stay in her temporary lounge much longer. She and her roommates don’t get all the conveniences other residents have, she said, so they shouldn’t be che d for them. :y had to bring dressers, mir rors, lamps, a pantry and other fur nishings from home, she said, and they had to adapt to the limited ser vices. Her roommate, Cari Newcomb, a freshman general studies major, dem onstrated by holding a long strand of extension cord above her head. “Lots of extension cord,” she said, smiling. The residents also have to work around each other’s schedule, Newcomb said. The lounges have one light switch that controls the room’s overhead lights, so when one gets up, they all get up. Their other roommate, Laurie Prince, a freshman social work major, said they were mad when they found out about their situation, but lounge living had its advantages. Some of the students like the free See HOUSING on 7 Fraternity faces suit over 1993 accident By John Fulwider Staff Reporter A lawsuit filed by a former Delta Upsilon Fraternity president against the fraternity has come at a bad time, said the Lincoln chapter’s current president. “Itwas right in the middle of rush,” said Delta Upsilon President Bret Bailey, “and rush is very important to a house’s survival.” Eric Lindvall, a senior secondary education major, is suing the frater nity over an accident that resulted in the loss of his left leg. Lindvall was trapped in the house on June 6,1993, for 13 hours after 10 sheets of drywall fell on him, pinning him against a wall. He was the fraternity’s rush chairman at the time. The suit stated that Lindvall en tered the house at 6 pjn. The house was under construction, and Lindvall found the drywall sheets blocking en try to his room. When Lindvall tried to move the sheets, they fell on him. Lindvall filed the suit June 5,1995, one month after he left the fraternity and only six months after his term as president began. Lindvall would not comment on the accident or the suit. The suit alleges Delta Upsilon was negligent in failing to properly super vise the construction, in failing to pre vent the construction companies from placing the drywall in front of Lindvall’s door and in failing to warn Lindvall of the danger posed by the drywall. Bailey said the suit surprised many fraternity members. But he said it didn’t surprise him. “When something like this hap pens,” he said, “more than likely there’s going to be a lawsuit.” Delta Upsilon and the fraternity’s alumni association answered Lindvall’s complaint in a court docu ment filed July 10. The document stated that Lindvall was responsible for his injury because he tried to move the “openly and obviously heavy” dry wall dieets by himself. Thomas Culhane of Erickson & Sederstrom law firm said a trial date had not been set. Culhane said he did not expect one to be set this year. The suit stated that Lindvall in curred more than $ 125,000 in medical expenses. It seeks an unspecified amount of damages. The suit also names Great Plains Materials Inc., KCG Inc., Richard Robison of Robison Construction and John Cooper of Cohawk Drywall.