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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1995)
WEDNESDAYjfIpi Tonight - Cold. Low €»»>*«<»»»• around 3 7. COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 22 -— . .. .... _September 20, 1995_ Off-field events continue to plague Huskers Sports Illustrated: Osborne undertakes role of judge, jury ByJeffZeleny <& 1995 Daily Nebraskan Nebraska coach Tom Osborne has been at torney, judge and jury in addition to being the most successful college football coach in the country, Sports Illustrated says in its edition to be released this week. “I don’t tell Tom Osborne how to run the football department, and he should stay out of the criminal justice system,” Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey told the magazine. The Sports Illustrated story, “Coach: The Jury,” was obtained Tuesday by the Daily Ne braskan. The magazine will be sent to subscrib ers and sold to newsstands this week. Three reporters from the magazine were in Lincoln last week with the pack of national media who covered Lawrence Phillips’ arrest on misdemeanor assault and trespassingcharges. After Phillips was arrested, he was suspended last week from the Nebraska football team. He pleaded no contest to the charges Tuesday, and a guilty plea was entered by a county judge. A source close to the football team told the magazine that Phillips would likely play by the Oct. 28 game against Colorado. Lacey told the magazine that Osborne has interviewed witnesses in criminal cases, of fered opinions on the innocence of players who haven’t stood trial and attacked the credibility of witnesses testifying against his players. “That’s (Osborne) using his influence to disrupt the criminal justice system,” Lacey said in the magazine story. “Osborne talks to wit nesses. Whether he tried to influence them or not, I haven’t heard of any specific instances. See SI on 6 Phillips changes plea, prosecutor dismisses case against Benning By Jeff Zeleny Senior Reporter —— — Exactly one week after Nebraska I-back Lawrence Phillips pleaded innocent to three charges, he changed his plea to no contest and was found guilty of assault and trespassing. Lancaster County Judge Jack Lindner en tered a guilty plea for Phillips during a brief court appearance Tuesday. A destruction of property charge was dropped, but Phillips agreed to pay restitution for damages to a door at the Meadow Woods Apartments. Phillips will be sentenced Dec. 1. Phillips’ news came the same day the pros ecuting attorney decided not to press assault charges against No. 2 I-back Damon Benning. But all news was not good for the Husker tailbacks. No. 31-back James Sims is scheduled for trial Nov. 7 on an assault charge. Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said Phillips could return to the defending national champi onship Comhuskers in about a month if he received medical attention to control his anger. Benning’s and Sims’ playing status has not been questioned. Phillips was accused of assaulting Kate McEwen, a sophomore guard on the NU women’s basketball team. On Sept. 10, police say Phillips scaled a wall to the third-floor ^ apartment of transfer quarterback Scott Frost. ™ Phillips was accused of assaulting McEwen both inside and outside Frost’s apartment. Phillips was ordered last week to have no contact with McEwen or Frost until his trial, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 17. Now, Phillips will not stand trial, but instead will be sentenced after the regular season ends. See FOOTBALL on 2 lNew center no ordinary science abode By Angie Schendt Staff Reporter The George W. Beadle Center stands out from other buildings on campus in many ways. “Visually, it is not just another classroom Beadle Center building, said Mark Metcalf, project manager and director for the center. Metcalf said the building’s structure was unique to meet the requirements of depart ments housed in the build ing. The Department of Bio chemistry, the Center for Biotechnology offices, 35 percent ofthe School of Bio logical Sciences and some labs for chemical engineering all are housed in the Beadle Center. The stacks on top of the building allow mass quantities of air to be exhausted from the build ing, Metcalf said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires that the exhaust stacks be a certain height above the building, much like a chimney, Metcalf said. “They can’t recirculate the air because of the potential of contamination,” he said. But the Beadle Center stacks are not hidden like on other buildings, Metcalf said. “We decided to celebrate it,” he said. The building’s exhaust, communication and temperature systems also are somewhat new to NU, Metcalf said. The Beadle Center is handicap accessible and designed in an “L” shape, with the entrance at the elbow of the “L.” The elbow also serves as a community space where people congre gate, he said. The legs of the “L” are where the day-to-day functions of the building take place, he said. It is common for the building’s occupants to work in teams, Metcalf said, so the offices are set up in little blocks. The building also will be used for general' purposes, said Larry Blake, project inspector. “There is one large lecture hall and three classrooms,” he said. But the building mainly will be used for teaching and research, said Marion O’Leary, head of the biochemistry department. Blake said the departments in the north wing moved into the building in July, and the depart ments in the east wing moved in August. The building will be dedicated Friday. Open house tours will be given, and James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for discover ing the structure of DNA, will be the featured speaker. Landscaping around the building has not been completed. See BEADLE on 3 Jay Calderon/DN Oxford University Professor Martin Holmes directs the Nebraska at Oxford program. Holmes has been in Lincoln for about three weeks recruiting for the program. Oxford professor makes learning fun By Doug Kouma Senior Editor Oxford University Professor Martin Holmes realizes his students may not hang on his every word when he talks about issues like European agricultural policy. So he doesn’t ask them to. “I tell students to see the common agricul tural policy as the pigs see it,” he said. “What’s it like to be a sheep in the common agricultural policy?” Holmes, a senior research fellow at Oxford’s Mansfield College and director of the Nebraska at Oxford program, has been at UNL for about three weeks, recruiting stu dents for the program and teaching a gradu ate course in the College of Business Admin istration. Holmes helped establish the month-long Nebraska at Oxford summer program seven years ago, and the number of students taking part has more than doubled since then. In fact, after 66 students traveled to Ox ford last summer, Holmes said, the program’s 70-student limit could easily be reached this year. “We are pretty much pushing at our ceil ing,” he said, “so we must be doing some thing right.” The program lets students earn Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln credits by taking two classes at Oxford, including Holmes* course on the British political economy since 1945. The courses are challenging, he said, but experiencing British and European culture first-hand expands students’ learning oppor tunities. “It should broaden their intellectual hori zons,” Holmes said. “They are studying in a different country with different faculty at a different university. That, in itself, should encourage development. And it does.” Holmes said that in addition to classes, students took part in a number of cultural events and excursions. “It’s the old cliche—work hard and play hard,” he said. But sometimes, students said, even that wasn’t enough to spur their interest in the subject matter. That’s where Holmes’ per sonality and teaching style comes in. Alison Means, a senior political science and English major, studied in Oxford this summer. She said Holmes made the course exciting, though it wasn’t one she normally would be interested in. “He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had,” she said. “He can make every lecture exciting, from singing union songs to doing impres sions of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.” Helen Fagan, a senior human resource See HOLMES on 3