Thursday
October 24,1996
Eye cue
Lane Hickenbottom/DN
RAY GIBSON, a freshman general studies major, plays a game of pool Wednesday
afternoon in the Nebraska Union gameroom.
Harassment claims
Mow new professor
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
A new UNL theater professor left his previ
ous job after allegations of sexual harassment
were reported by two female students in 1994.
William Grange came to the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln in August as a tenured asso
ciate theater professor.
During his time as a tenured professor at
Marquette University in Milwaukee he was ac
cused of sexually harassing female students.
Grange is at a conference in Wisconsin, and
attempts to reach him this week were unsuc
cessful. Messages left in Wisconsin for Grange
Wednesday afternoon were not returned.
Michael Price, associate dean of the College
of Communications at Marquette, said the ac
cusations against Grange were mostly of ver
bal harassment.
“Language he used was making students un
comfortable,” Price said.
But some students who had class with
Grange at Marquette said the problem went
beyond verbal harassment.
“It was inappropriate behavior,” said a 1993
graduate of the Marquette theater program who
asked that her name not be printed. The alumna
said Grange sometimes told lewd jokes and
entered female dressing rooms before students
said he could come in.
The university warned Grange, she said.
“Dr. Grange did have his hand slapped more
than once, and his behavior did improve, but it
wasn’t great,” she said.
Grange supported, showed interest in and
helped his students search for graduate schools,
she said, but his problem was that he didn’t
understand the boundaries of a professor-stu
Please see GRANGE on 6
Law attracts businesses,
lets employers fire at will
Before switching to that next job, beware.
Nebraska is one of 21 states that honor the
Employment at Will Law. This law gives an
employer the right to fire an employee for any
reason, or no reason at all. As long as the em
ployer doesn’t violate a worker’s civil rights, a
person’s job may be here today, gone tomor
row.
“You have no rights as an employee,” Ed
Wines of the Lincoln Employment Office said,
“as long as you get fired based on a business
decision and not discrimination.”
Nebraska does not give employees a right
to appeal dismissals, said Rich Nelson, a labor
law specialist for the state of Nebraska. Al
though the Employment at Will law may put
employees in bad situations, the law actually at
tracts businesses to Nebraska, Nelson said.
Wines said he agreed.
“Employers like the right to control their
own work force. It gives them better control
over their business,” Wines said.
Dan Massara, a UNL senior education ma
jor, found out about the law first hand.
Dan turned down several other job offers to
take a wait position at Old Chicago, a new res
taurant in the Haymarket.
His third day into training, Dan was let go.
He said his boss told him, “Let’s just cut the
ties.”
“I couldn’t believe they would let me go with
out ever giving me the chance to wait on a table,”
he said.
Massara, who had experience as a waiter, said
Please see FIRED on 8
Men speak against violence, say ‘no excuse’ for abuse
By Erin Gibson
Staff Reporter
Four women in Lincoln will be beaten today.
Too many women have bore the brunt of
domestic abuse for too long, and a group of more
than 30 men say they will not take it anymore.
“Men Speak Out Against Violence” voiced
its opposition to violence against women
Wednesday night during a program at Bryan
Medical Plaza Conference Center, 1600 S. 48th
St.
Topher Hansen, a commissioner with the
Lincoln-Lancaster Women’s Commission, said
the men gathered to take responsibility for male
violence against women.
The message “No hitting; No excuses” must
be passed down through generations until it be
comes the norm, he said.
r,We are going to be a hurdle for (domestic
violence) to continue,” Hansen said. “We hope
to be the end.”
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said do
mestic violence was a local problem. Police in
vestigate an average 4.1 domestic assaults in
Lincoln per day, he said.' ;
‘It’s clearly our most significant threat to the
health of our people,” he said.
A series of 911 calls illustrate the problem;
• A10-year-old girl watches her mother be
ing punched and abused.
• A son watches his father punch and spit on
his mother. -
• A man drops his baby to the ground when
confronted for beating his wife earlier that flight
These cases are among several that have oc
curred in Lincoln since Sunday, Casady said.
Billy Aplin, a senior psychology major atthe
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said violence
against women touches everyone. j
“We are spilling die blood of the peopkhwe
love, and that Mood is staining the very fabric of
our society,” Aplin said.
An abusive father stained Aplin’s childhood
until he was seven, he said. That year, a man
murdered his father during an argument.
“That was probably the best thing that ever
happened to me,” Aplin said.
Aplin said he could not imagine his life had
he spent an entire childhood with a violent fa
ther. But many courageous women have stood
the abuse for a long time, he said.
Doug Boyd, a Lincoln resident, said all
people pay for such domestic abuse.
Tax dollars cover the medical costs of trauma,
rape and physical violence that burden the health
care system, he said. Public resources are wasted
when schools cannot educate children who are
traumatized by abuse at home.
‘It is a subtle, evasive sickness that perme
ates our society.”
■ v* • • ■ ' -dfei- •
Jay Calderon/DN
DOUG BOYD of Lincoln speaks at the “Men Speak Out Against Violence” program
Wednesday night at Bryan Medical Plaza Conference Center, lb his left are Billy Aplin, a
UNL senior psychology major, and area businessman Gary Whiteman. The program
addressed ways in which men can help women combat abuse and discrimination.
