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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1996)
TUESDAY WEATHER: Today - Cloudy with a 20% chance of light snow. North wind 5 to 10 mph. Tonight - Mostly cloudy, <«C3»M<«C3»»4«S3»M<«C3>! low around 10 below. COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 94 j ____January 30, 1996 Travis Heying/DN Don Stenberg officially filed to run for the U.S. Senate Monday morning. Stenberg, serving his second term as Nebraska attorney general, said he would take a “Reagan Republican approach” to the Senate if elected. Stenberg files for Senate Attorney general to avoid Clinton approach By Ted Taylor and Chad Lorenz Senior Reporters Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg officially filed his candi dacy for U.S. Senate on Monday, saying Nebraskans want a Reagan Republican representing them. Stenberg, who is serving his sec ond term as attorney general, be came the first Nebraska candidate for Senate to pay the $1,300 filing fee for the November elections. He outlined his campaign plat form during a morning press con ference, saying he would work for a stronger national defense, lower taxes, fewer government regula tions, a balanced budget and “real welfare reform” — “a Reagan Re publican approach,” he said. Gov. Ben Nelson, the only an nounced Democratic candidate, did not discuss Stenberg’s candidacy during his weekly teleconference. Nelson did say, however, that he would officially file in the next couple of weeks. Stenberg’s challenger in the Republican primary, Omaha busi nessman Chuck Hagel, said Mon day he had not set an official filing date. Stenberg campaign manager Steve Thomlison said the campaign was pleased with early indications from Nebraska voters. “Nebraskans clearly want a Reagan Republican to represent them in the Senate,” he said. “Not a Clinton Democrat.” Thomlison said he was looking forward to running a “very spirited campaign.” In Stenberg’s first official cam paign speech before the Nebraska Resources District on Monday, he pledged to fight for Nebraska’s natural resource rights. “I’ve been an advocate for rural Nebraska as attorney general, and I’ll continue to be an advocate for rural Nebraska as U.S. senator,” Stenberg said. Stenberg said he wanted to fo cus on Nebraska’s water rights, to keep Kansas from taking more wa ter than it should. He said Nebraska farmers, not the government, should decide how to manage the state’s water. Stenberg reiterated his support of a balanced federal budget, both on moral grounds and because of the benefits for Nebraska agricul ture. “I think we have a moral obliga tion to the riext generation to pay our bills as we spend,” Stenberg said. Stenberg said that although he often is at odds with Nelson, he was looking out for Nebraskans. “I’ve been fighting with Gov. Nelson, but I’ve been fighting for you,” Stenberg told the crowd. Stenberg said he fought Nelson to allow a federal audit of the Leg islature and term-limit legislation. “I’ve proved myself right in the courts, time after time after time.” Hagel, who spoke after Stenberg, said he’d fight to keep Nebraska farmers and ranchers in control of natural resources. “The federal government should stay out of your business,” Hagel said. If Nebraskans put him in Wash ington, Hagel said, he’d change three natural resource acts. They would be: the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. See STENBERG on 6 New system makes getting info easier By Joshua Gillin Staff Reporter — Have you ever found out your grades by phone? Or received your housing bill with your tuition bill? Or checked which classes you need to graduate, at the end of every semes ter? You will, says Donna Liss, direc tor of information services at the Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln. Implementation of UNL’s new Stu dent Information System — a new way of making changes in the way university departments work together — should be complete by Thursday. Liss said the vast undertaking would mark a new era at UNL. “We’re trying to move into the 21 st century,” she said. “The new system is a big first step.” Before SIS, all divisions of univer sity services were consolidated, ex cept for scholarships and financial aid. The administration determined what services were required and which op erations were needed, as individual needs arose. With the new system, administra tive services will be divided among five steering teams — composed of staff members, faculty and students — that will decide on changes that should be made. The steering teams will be inde pendent of each other in their areas of expertise, allowing suggestions and recommendations to be developed more quickly. The steering teams will come to gether and vote on which suggestions should be implemented first. Imple mentation teams run by university staff will put the suggestions into effect. “What we wanted to do was pro vide a lot of our services directly to the students and faculty,” Liss said. “Be fore, a request had to go to that spe cific office, and the office might have become the bottleneck, since it was the only one dealing with all the re quests. “Now there will be whole teams devoted to certain areas.” The implementation and steering See SIS on 6 Grant, research awards stifled since shutdown By Julie Sobczyk Senior Reporter President Clinton and Congress Thursday again avoided closing the federal government, but UNL is still feeling the blows of the Dec. 15 shut down. University of Nebraska-Lincoln grants and research have been affected by the shutdown, said Priscilla Grew, vice chancellor for research. The National Science Foundation, the government agency that handles grants and research, was closed dur ing the December shutdown, Grew said, and grant awards have been slow. Because the number of grants var ies from year to year, Grew said she could not determine the number of grants that had not been received. “We haven’t received any new National Science Foundation awards since Dec. 15,” she said. Although the foundation is operat- 1 ing, the agency is backed up with ; requests for grants, Grew said. Be- j cause of the backup, UNL grant re quests and requests to continue grants i aren’t being met. Grew said UNL now had 261 pend- < ing proposals at NSF, totaling S36.9 ( million. The university depends heavily on these grants for research projects, she said, and last year alone 100 awards were granted totaling $14.4 million. “They are a very important compo nent. Now we’re waiting to hear on pending proposals,” she said. This slow process at NSF could hinder summer research, too, Grew said. UNL has plans to send a group to Greenland as part of an ice-drilling project, she said. But the university will need toknowby springifit will be able to send the group. “That’s a clear example of a con tinuing project where the shutdown has created uncertainty,” Grew said. UNL also is waiting to hear about smaller projects in agricultural re sources and the College of Arts and Sciences, she said. To show support for NSF, Grew said she and Interim Chancellor Joan l^eitzel wrote a letter to Nebraska con gressmen urging them to keep NSF )pen. “We are pleased with the action to ceep agencies open through March,” she said, “because the last shutdown lid create a lot of problems in terms of lelays.” UNL harassment policy to be implemented By Julie Sobczyk Senior Reporter --- Although the creation and approval of a harassment policy at UNL has been delayed for five years, an administrator said the policy should be approved by the end of the semester. Christy Horn, University of Nebraska-Lin coln interim director of affirmative action and diversity, said the policy—officially called the Harassment and Discrimination Policy and Pro cedures for Information Resolutions—would be UNL’s first official harassment and dis crimination policy. It should be implemented in two or three months, she said. Mary Beck, who helped draft the policy, said she didn’t know why the process had taken so long. “It beats me,” said Beck, assistant professor of animal science at UNL. “A lot of people have tried, and there have been several written, but none have made it into the final form.” Now, she said, UNL has an equal opportu nity statement instead of an actual policy. Under the new policy, guidelines will be given on how people should proceed if they are being harassed or discriminated against, Beck said. “People need to understand the limits of their behavior,” she said. “This policy defines the limits.” The policy also tries to define what behavior is decent and what steps over the line, Beck said. But before it becomes reality, Horn said, it must finish the review process. The policy, which has undergone a series of reviews since September, is in the final review and approval stages and has moved from Horn to Richard Wood, NU’s general counsel. “We are conducting a review from the stand point of legal issues and concerns,” Wood said. The policy will be sent to Interim Chancellor Joan Leitzel by the end of the week. “Once it is in a form that is satisfactory to the chancellor, it is proposed to the NU president and the NU Board of Regents,” he said. If the regents give their approval, the policy goes into effect. Horn said a wait for approval from different administrators and committees was to be ex pected. “We have to make sure all the people im pacted by the policy had input,” she said. “Ev erybody always has suggestions.” Horn, however, said the policy looked good when she reviewed it. “I had no specific concerns in terms of con sistency and making sure appropriate issues were attended to,” she said. Beck, too, said she had heard only positive responses. “Everything I’ve heard leads me to believe it will be approved,” she said. “But I don’t want to rejoice prematurely. “I’m hopeful that this will go through. It will be a step in the right direction.”
