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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1995)
THURSDAY WEATHER: Today - Partly cloudy and cooler. Northwest wind 20 to 30 mph. Tonight - Windy. Cloudy. Low in the mid 30s. _ _October 19, 1995_ Jay Calderon/DN Chad Grace, president of the UNL Boxing Club, spars with a partner at the YMCA Wednesday night. Boxing Club wants back on campus From Staff Reports After a two year absence from the campus arena, the UNL Boxing Club is trying to step back into the ring. Members of the club would like to practice on campus, but administrators say there isn’t a place for the club. The club now practices in the downtown YMCA’s aerobics room. But the room is too small to set up a boxing ring, said club presi dent Chad Grace. And besides, he said, it costs $15 per person per month to use. Grace, a senior construction management major, said he had been bounced from one administrator to another, trying to find the club a home. But James Griesen, vice chancellor for stu dent affairs, said the club will probably never practice on campus. The Campus Recreation Center, in consultation with the University Health Center, decided three years ago to ban boxing from the Rec Center. “If it’s unacceptable in the Rec Center,” Griesen said, “it’s unacceptable in our other facilities.” Unless Grace can present new evidence showing that the 1992 decision was flawed, Griesen said, the Boxing Club must practice off campus. Grace first asked to use Schramm Resi “It just seemed like I’m getting a lot of runaround. ” CHAD GRACE President of the UNL boxing club dence Hall’s basement, which is empty. But Douglas Zatechka, housing director, said the club couldn’t use Schramm. Though the basement is close to empty, Zatechka said, it might be used in the future for storage or some other purpose. “The answer is no,” Zatechka said. Instead, Zatechka suggested that Grace talk to Stan Campbell, Campus Recreation direc tor. “Housing is not a recreation department for athletic organizations,” he said. Grace said that frustrated him because the club was organized under the Office of Student Involvement, not Campus Recreation. Another concern for Zatechka is liability. “When Campus Recreation feels there’s some liability issues,” he said, “I’m going to listen to those people because they have a lot more understanding of those issues than I.” Campus Recreation banned boxing in its facilities in 1992. Campbell said he based that decision on meetings with University Health Center officials and UNL’s Risk Management Office. A 1983 American Medical Association report that encouraged the elimination of ama teur boxing was another factor, he said. The report states a list of resolutions adopted by the AMA. The association resolved to “pub licize the deleterious effects of boxing on the health of participants” and “encourage the elimination of boxing from amateur scholas tic, intercollegiate and governmental athletic programs as detrimental to the health of par ticipants.” “The basic concern we have is for the safety of the students involved in the activity,” Campbell said. Keeping boxing off campus is not a liability issue, Griesen said. “It’s a matter of the university officials ... saying ‘no, boxing does bad things to students’ brains and we do not support boxing on this campus as a sport,”’ he said. See BOXING on 6 Texan says he’d accept top position By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter A Texas administrator who resigned from his post amid controversy was one of the first nominees for UNL’s chancellor position, he said Wednesday. Ryan Amacher, former president of the University of Texas at Arlington, said the chancellor search committee sent him a letter early this summer saying that he had been nominated for the position and requesting that he submit a resume. David Sellmyer, chairman of the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor search committee, said the list was down to fewer than 10 candidates but would not name them. Sellmyer declined to say whether Amacher was ever a candidate or if he would be on the short list of candidates to be presented to NU President L. Dennis Smith in November. Amacher said he heard from the search committee about three weeks ago saying they had narrowed the list to between 15 and 20 candidates. He has not heard from them since, he said, but would accept the position if it was offered. “I enjoy administration. I think I’m good at it,” he said. “I’m not looking, but if the right job comes along I’m ready to try it.” Amacher is on a year leave with $155,000 pay from UTA and is writing a book about higher education. He resigned in June from the UTA presidency amid controversy. Two articles in the March 7,1995, issue of “The Shorthorn,” the UTA student newspaper, detailed a university audit that accused Amacher of the following: • failing to meet with deans and depart ment chairpersons for six months after taking office in July 1992 • bypassing established hiring mechanisms in order to select a personal friend, who lacked experience, as athletic director • mishandling university funds • refusing to raise academic standards • firing high-ranking officials for illegiti mate reasons Amacher said the audit did not prompt his resignation. “I viewed my job as being a change agent,” he said, “but it was interfering in the develop ment of the university.” The situation escalated until Amacher’s personal life became involved, he said. “I was getting death threats and needed police protection,” he said, “and I’m not even the football coach.” Robert Witt is acting UTA president until a search committee finds a replacement. When the UNL chancellor search commit See SEARCH on 3 Student aid cuts advance further By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter Two bills that would cut $15 bil lion out of student financial aid are working their way through Congress and should reach the president by the end of the month. The omnibus reconciliation bill, which contains about $10.7 billion in cuts to student loans, is being bundled into one bill along with Medicaid and Medicare cuts. The bill aims to balance the bud get by 2002. The Senate version also would put an .85 percent tax on col leges and universities based on the amount of money students borrow. The House and Senate are ex pected to discuss the bill on or around Oct. 24, said Ken Mclnemey, assis tant director of government affairs at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in Washington D.C. About 10,000 students at the Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln rely on federal loans. After the House and Senate agree on a final bill, it goes to the president for his signature or veto. President Clinton is threatening to veto the bill, Mclnemey said. If that happens, he said, the bill goes back to Congress for revision. The appropriations bill, which contains cuts to Pell Grants, has been passed by the House and is waiting for approval by the Senate. The House and Senate have yet to agree on the appropriations bill, Mclnemey said. “There’s a big difference on how the Senate would do that and how the House would do that,” he said. The Senate would provide $6.1 billion for Pell Grants, which is $400 million more than the amount allo cated by the House. It still falls short of the current $6.2 billion. However, the Senate would in crease the maximum award by $100 and maintain the minimum award at $400. The House would reduce Pell Grant funding to $5.6 billion, raise the maximum award by $100 and increase the minimum award to $600. But it would eliminate 280,000 stu dents from the program. Mclnemey said there had been minor changes in the bills within the past month. The most notable was a move to cap lending for 1995 direct See AID on 3 Internet needs funds to help NU keep pace By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter As the world cruises along the information superhighway, Internet users at UNL may get caught in a traffic jam. With e-mail traffic getting heavier, the num ber of accidents also is on the rise. Guy Jones, ■ -)'nnnr\ mana§er °f busi ness fmanCC users support at source Center, said UNL had about 300 e-mail users a few years ago. Today, it has more than 5,000. About 85 percent of the faculty and staff at the University of Ne braska-Lincoln are hooked up, he said, and the easy access to web pages and free connections in residence halls also have boosted Internet usage. As more people became familiar with the Internet, he said, it became less of a “cute toy” and more of an essential tool. While the number of accounts has grown, funding and staffing has not, See INTERNET on 3
