■ _ • _%_ ^
TUESDAY
'' 7. ‘ \ ' * ‘. . -tIp *
WEATHER:
Today - Light flurries,
^ cloudy & cold. Northwest
wind 25 to 35 mph.
Tonight - Blustery & cold.
VOL. 95 NO. 113 Lqw around 5 t0 10 •
_February 27,1996
Travis Heying/DN
Ben Nelson speaks to a crowd of about 120 students Monday night at the Neihardt Residence Hall.
Talking politics
Nelson ansivers student questions on campaign
By Todd Anderson
Staff Reporter
Gov. Ben Nelson’s speech to the more
than 120 students in Neihardt Residence Hall
turned into a political question and answer
session Monday evening.
Nelson started with talking about his rise
to the governorship. He said he wanted to be
the governor of the state since the age of 17
and began his campaign for governor in 1990
with little or no name recognition.
However, after numerous recounts of the
votes in the primary and general elections,
he came out on top, he said.
“Nobody ever expected me to win, but I
never expected to lose,” he said. “I couldn’t
assure a victory, but I could assure I had given
it everything I had.”
After a brief interruption fa* an Innocents’
tackling ceremony, an initiation ritual,
Nelson was flooded with questions dealing
map
with several issues, many centering on his
candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
Nelson, a Democrat, said he supported
Attorney General Don Stenberg’s declaration
that a casino on the Santee Sioux reserva
tion is illegal.
Stenberg is running for the Republican
nomination for the U.S. Senate against busi
nessman Chuck Hagel.
Nelson said about the casino problem that
“no-one wants to be in this spot. We want to
work closely with all our friends.”
Nelson dismissed the rumor of a planned
raid on the reservation, but said it was an
option.
For now, he said, “we should let the courts
decide.”
After a question about negative campaign
ads, Nelson said he does not intend to run a
negative campaign and preferred not to re
spond to negative attacks from other candi
dates.
However, he said, the decision not to re
spond to negative advertisements was diffi
cult because the candidate runs the risk of
losing the election.
“People don’t like negative campaigns,
but they work,” Nelson said.
Calling himself “fiscally conservative”.
Nelson said one of his first priorities if
elected U.S. Senator would be to create a
farm bill that promotes agriculture and ex
port enhancement.
He also said he supported reforming the
Clean Water Act by creating incentives for
agricultural industries and businesses who
comply to standards rather than employing
an “environmental police force.”
Nelson said he also supported federal
deficit reduction in less than seven years and
a balanced budget amendment to the Con
stitution.
“It makes good sense,” he said.
i
$25 million
approved for
city building
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Construction companies will break ground
next month on a new County-City Building,
after the Lincoln City Council gave the build
ing commission a green light Monday after
noon.
After three years of planning, the Lincoln
Lancaster County Public Building Commission
will start on a $25 million project to convert the
existing County-City Building to a Hall of Jus
tice and construct another County-City Build
ing north of the present one.
The city council voted 7-0 to lease the prop
erty to the building commission, and the county
board is expected to vote in favor of the lease
today.
To satisfy a desperate need for space, the
Lincoln Police Department will join the
Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office in the Hall
of Justice.
City and county offices, such as the mayor’s
office, county commissioners’ office and city
council chambers, will move into the new build
ing, according to the proposal summary.
The site for the new building is now a park
ing lot. Parking will temporarily shift to other
lots in the area, and a storage building on J Street
will be razed for. another parking lot.
County and district courts, judges’ chambers
and offices for the city and county attorneys will
remain in the Hall of Justice, the proposal states.
The current police department headquarters
will be used by the election commission, data
processing and possibly the personnel depart
ment.
Fred Briggs, County-City Building admin
istrator, said an inspection of Lincoln Police
Department facilities determined that more
space was needed.
Offices in the County-City Building have
struggled with overcrowding for 18 years, he
said.
“This project is long overdue,” Briggs said.
“There are so many different departments op
erating in too little space.”
Jim Hille, an architect for Sinclair Hille &
Associates, said the Lincoln Police Department
had an urgent need for more room.
“In every respect they are totally over
crowded,” he said.
Hille said the department had terrible condi
tions for storing evidence, interviewing wit
See BUILDING on 6
.—.
Money no limit to AS UN
Nine Big 12 schools restrict candidates'spending
By Kasey Kerber
Staff Reporter
With no established spending lim
its, candidates for student government
executive offices at UNL spend more
than twice as much as executive can
didates at other Big 12 universities are
allowed to spend.
ASUN President
S h a w n t e 1 1
Hurtgen and vice
presidents Brent
Goertzen and
Steve Korell con
tributed $1,428 to
their 1995 cam
paign, compared
to the average of
_ $663 spent by
presidential and vice presidential can
didates at other Big 12 schools.
Nine Big 12 universities contacted
— Baylor and Missouri could not be
reached—place spending restrictions
on their candidates.
In last year’s ASUN elections, the
IMPACT party spent $2,915, com
pared to the $431 for the LETTUCE
party, $ 134 for the ACCESS party and
about $12 for the CUTCOST party.
Spending limits at Big Eight
schools averaged $583 for presiden
tial and vice presidential candidates,
while the average at the new Big 12
Texas schools was slightly higher at
$600.
Seven universities place spending
limits between $400 and $883, or 75
percent of in-state tuition, on cam
paigns. The universities of Kansas and
Oklahoma do not have spending lim
its, but they are not without regulations.
“We recommend spending limits
for our candidates, and then they must
tell us whether they plan to abide by
them or not,” said Sean Hennese, elec
tions commissioner at the University
of Kansas. '
The University of Oklahoma,
meanwhile, places limits on the num
ber of signs a candidate can put up and
places a $400 restriction on advertis
ing in the student newspaper.
Other Big 12 universities, such as
Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas
A&M, have more closely contested
elections, often among five or six par
ties.
Last year’s elections at Oklahoma
State stand in sharp contrast to those
afUNL.
Stacy Sweeten, treasurer of the stu
dent association government at OSU,
said five parties ran in that election,
spending an average of $300 to $400
each.
Iowa State also held a closely con
tested election, with six parties spend
ing about $500 each.
Marlene Beyke, director of devel
See SPENDING on 3
Spouses of NU faculty
find jobs with program
By Julie Sobczyk
Senior Reporter
When Gustavo Carlo, an assis
tant psychology professor, came to
UNL two years ago, he was sur
prised to find as much support for
his wife as there was for him.
Carlo and his wife, Roxana, re
ceived support through the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Dual
Career Program. The program, co
ordinated by Kay Kubicek, assists
spouses of newly recruited faculty
and staff in finding jobs in Lincoln
and at UNL.
“The program got my wife off
to a great start in meeting people,”
Carlo said.
The program was started by
former Chancellor Graham Spanier
in 1992 to help the families of new
faculty members find employment,
Kubicek said. About 350 people ■
have used the program.
Kubicek said Spanier was sen
sitive to the difficulties faced by
families as they moved across the
country.
So, Kubicek said, the program
eases families’ moves to Lincoln by
checking out career choices for
spouses of new faculty members.
The spouses’ resumes are
looked over and sent to companies
in Lincoln, she said.
Kubicek said she watched for
open positions that might interest
spouses, got applications and wrote
letters of support.
For example, Kubicek said, if a
new faculty member’s spouse had
experience at furniture factories, the
program would send his cm- her re
sume to factories in Lincoln.
When Carlo was being inter
viewed by UNL for his position, he
See SPOUSE on 3
