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i. _ Daniel Luedert/DN
THE LINCOLN ALL-CITY Girls Choir sings around the Nebraska State Christmas
Tree in the rotunda of the State Capitol Sunday Both the tree in the capitol building
and the tree in the Governor’s Mansion were open to public viewing Sunday
Shoppers support Russ’s
despite cocaine incident
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
A Lincoln supermarket may lose $75,000
because of possible food tampering last week,
but the company’s vice president said custom
ers’ safety was worth the sacrifice.
Last Wednesday, employees at Russ’s Mar
ket at 17th and Washington streets found four
syringes containing traces of cocaine near food.
One syringe was stuck into a pear.
Thirty employees loaded three semi-trailer
trucks with any food that could have been con
taminated —about 40 percent of the store’s mer
chandise. ^
^ ifWe certainly didn’t under-react,” said Pat
Raybould, vice president of B&R Stores.
Please see TAMPERING on 6
Nelsons give holiday tour,
more than 1,000 attend
By Erin Gibson
Staff Reporter
Gov. Ben Nelson and his wife, Diane, in
vited the entire state to join them Sunday on a
holiday tour of their Lincoln home.
More than 1,000 Nebraskans accepted,
showing up to greet the Nelsons and view some
of the 27 rooms, 11 bathrooms and 137 win
dows of the Governor’s Mansion, which was
decorated in holiday style.
Diane Nelson said she and her husband en
joyed the annual event and the chance to open
their home to its owners — the people of Ne
J braska. --
“We want to share everything we have with
the people of Nebraska,” she said. “It’s delight
' I ful to share it; that’s what Christmas is all
about.”
Children and adults alike seemed equally
delighted to view the holiday splendor of the
dignitary’s home.
Eleven-year-old Hailey Abbott said the man
sion was “neat.”
“It just seems so big, and it’s colorful, and it
has so many neat rooms,” she said.
Abbott and her friend, 10-year-old Kari
Langemach, especially liked the large candy
clad gingerbread village created by the
mansion’s chef and displayed in a meeting room
downstairs.
Aaron Spicka, 10, found inspiration in the
house itself — and in the great Christmas tree
in the entry hall.
“I want this house when I grow up,” he said.
‘I’d like to be governor.”
Patriotic nutcrackers, ribbons and pounds of
gold garlands and ornaments decorated the tree
—- Spicka’s favorite of the mansion’s holiday
displays.
Nelson said she and her husband are the first
occupants of the mansion to open its doors to
Nebraskans who are not state employees. Since
the holiday open house six years ago, the event
has reflected the open feeling about the gover
norship that the couple shares, she said.
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By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
The University of Nebraska received its gen
der-equity report card Saturday morning and
was ranked near the bottom of its peer group.
But some regents disagreed with the find
ings, saying the goal of being at the midpoint
of peer universities was flawed and arguably
illegal.
The Joint Commission on the Status of
Women, made up of the Chancellor’s Commis
sion on the Status of Women from each of the
four NU campuses, touched off some heated
discussion when it* annual report to the NU
Board of Regents showed campuses lacking in
four key areas:
• Developing a system of reward incentives
for administrators who increase their women
hires and promotions.
• Creating a budget pool of vacated posi
tions to be given to departments who can hire
senior women faculty.
• Determining why women faculty decline
NU job offers.
• Including progress toward gender equity
in annual reviews.
Marilyn Grady, a University of Nebraska
Lincoln associate professor of educational ad
ministration, said adhering to gender equity
goals set by the regents in 1991 should have
put UNL near the middle of its peer institutions.
It is now near the bottom of the rankings.
But Regent Drew Miller of Papillion said a
goal of hiring women to reach a midpoint of a
group was flawed because it advocated gender
based hiring.
“I think a lot of this is RC. BS that is going
on hoe,” he said during the meeting. “We could
very well get sued from this. It is illegal to hire
people based on gender.”
ti
We could very well get
sued from this. It is ille
gal to hire people based
on gender.”
Drew MitJiER
NU regent
Miller’s comments drew a rebuke from Re
gent Nancy O’Brien of Waterloo, who reminded
Miller that the regents rejected him last year
when he tried to dissolve peer-group compari
sons.
O’Brien said the task force that created the
seven gender-equity goals should be recreated,
and she said she would be willing to serve on it.
After O’Brien’s suggestion, NU President
Dennis Smith announced a newly created task
force on gender equity to review the goals of
the previous task force and to study new strate
gies of recruitment and retention of women.
The new task force will begin in January.
The implementation of the seven gender
equity goals created by the task force in 1991
were studied by the joint commission this year,
Grady said.
The findings were:
'• NU campuses completed all but six of 31
sub-goals to the seven main goals.
• In 1993-94 and 1995-96, UNL ranked low
Please see REGENTS on 6
Book celebrates football,
faith, life of Brook Berringer
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‘Ofle Final Pass’ pays respects to athlete, hero, son
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By Darren Ivy
Staff Reporter
To some, he was an athlete. To fans
of all ages, he was a hero. To Jan
Berringer, he was a son.
Those people united Saturday at the
University Bookstore for a book sign
ing by Jan Berringer of “One Final
Pass,” a tribute to Brook Berringer, the
Nebraska football player killed in a
plane crash last spring.
“One Final Pass” is a book about
Brook Berringer’s life, starting with his
relationship with his dad and going
through his football-playing days at
Nebraska. Berringer’s mother said the
book was to be about his faith and foot
ball.
“Working on the book has been
very emotional, but working on it is
better than not doing it,” Jan Berringer
said.
“It has been good therapy.”
She contributed to the stories, but
the first idea for a bode about Brook
. Berringer was planned by Arthur Lind
say. Lindsay, die writer of “One Final
Pass,” had started a book before Brook
Berringer’s tragic death. After the ac-*
Please see BERRINGER on 6
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