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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1997)
Coach stands by Phillips with hopes of helping him PHILLIPS from page 1 ter Coach Tom Osborne allowed him to play in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. After winning the national championship, Phillips entered the NFL draft and was picked up by the St. Louis Rams as the sixth pick u overall. Some controversy over past in cidents followed him to St. Louis, and Phillips stumbled through a lackluster rookie season hampered by a late knee injury. Phillips is tentatively scheduled to appear in Douglas County Court today for the Sunday night inci dent, Omaha police said. Omaha Police Officer Jim Murray said police were called to the Red Lion Inn, 1616 Dodge St., around 2:30 a.m. on a loud-party complaint. Managers led officers to an upper floor, where they found a party breaking up. Vermeil said the party was a wedding reception. As officers were investigating, Murray said, Phillips became ver bally abusive and started shouting obscenities. He was then arrested and taken to central booking. Also stemming from the party are allegations of sexual miscon duct — improper touching — against several men, including Phillips. Murray said that when police arrived, six men were still at the party, but there were reports of more men having been there. “What went on prior to our ar rival, I don’t know,” he said. “That is an issue we have to investigate and resolve.” Vermeil, who was hired in Janu ary as the Rams’ new head coach, said he is putting himself between Phillips and criticism. “We’re trying to get ourselves in a position to help him, not elimi nate him,” he said. “I just don’t believe I know him well enough to do something that drastic.” The coach said he had not heard of any disciplinary action on the part of the NFL, nor did he expect any. Vermeil said he was going to try to help Phillips the way Osborne helped Phillips. When Phillips was arrested for the assault in 1995, Osborne did not boot him from the team. Instead, he offered him a chance to return if the troubled run ning back went through counsel ing and a mental evaluation. “He needs help,” Vermeil said. “He made a mistake. Where he made a mistake was being abusive when the police got there.” Jaycees criticized after ‘Co-ed Naked’ controversy OMAHA (AP)—Though “Co-ed Naked Jaycees” may have worked to boost attendance at a convention, the concept prompted opposing groups to call for better coverage. The Nebraska Jaycees wanted to draw attention to their convention over the weekend in Kearney, so the local chapter billed it as “Coned Naked Jay cees,” much like the novelty Co-ed Naked T-shirts. The tactic worked. The Jaycees gained attention all right, but not from the crowd they were after. The creative theme caught the eye of the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women — and its members were fuming. It didn’t help that a Jaycee official urged chapters to invent “indecent” prizes for the convention and embel lished the theme to “Co-ed Butt-Na ked Jaycees.” Now the woman who heads the state Jaycees is mortified that the flap will tarnish the organization’s repu tation for helping the needy and train ing young adults for leadership. “I do apologize if we have offended anyone,” said Karen Heng, president of the Nebraska Jaycees. ?My particu lar preference is that it die down.” Responding to a complaint by a Nebraska Jaycee member, die commis sion sent a letter to the state and na tional Jaycees complaining about the “tasteless and sexist title.” The Jaycees probably will not face any fines or sanctions for the theme, but Joni Gray, the commission’s ex ecutive director, said the group should have known better. “They were drawing attention to women as sexual beings in a business context, and that’s not acceptable,” she said. Heng said the Kearney host chap ter just wanted a catchy theme for the quarterly convention. It may have worked. About 300 Jaycees attended the event, up from 200 at the past two conventions. f. S : . •>: The Daily Nebraskan will bring you free beer all next week in a five-part series on the bubbly belch-inducer. Drink it up; We promise you won’t feel it in the morning. Igjgr Us s| PoUfp'fi Your IvORicstt ' ■ r HeaLt^ Center • 472-7495 UNL is a nondiscriminatoty institution. t-; "'y~ .■/% - V; ■’ ■ jjif ___ ■ RECRUITING from page 1 hopefuls solidify their decision to at tend UNL. More than a letter But Schmidt said recruiting new students is more than a one-day event. Recruitment is a university prior ity that can span several years for sane high school students, she said. Recruitment’s priority status at UNL keeps its budget at about $1 million annually, not counting scholarship funds, Schmidt said. Recruitment begins at a young age for Nebraska students when they see or hear about the university from friends, parents or through the media. “They’re going to start forming perceptions of the university very, very early,” Schmidt said. For this reason, the university be gins recruitment at the fourth-grade level for some Omaha public school children. Students, especially minorities whose parents have not attended a university, are prime targets for early recruitment, she said. The purpose is to provide early awareness of college opportunities and spur students to strive toward attending UNL, Schmidt said. “Every part of the process is im portant,” she said. The hunt But the big push to recruit students occurs at the high school level, she said. The university sends informa tional fliers to interested students and buys names from national lists to re cruit students in specific areas, she said. ' ' • " > The lists are compiled #am those taking tests, including the PSAT and the ACT, Schmidt said. For about $180, universities can buy a report of all students meeting certain criteria, such as Nebraska high school students scoring 25 or higher on the ACT. In addition to the report fee, the univer sity pays about 22 cents per name that appears on the report, she said. This money is well spent, Schmidt said, because the university can then initiate contact with students by send ing fUers and other information. By their senior year, most students have decided where to attend college or have narrowed their field of choices to just a few schools. During this year, there’s an “intense push” to recruit those students who show interest in UNL, she said. Cream of the top Informational mailers will not be enough to recruit many of the best and brightest students, Schmidt said. “For some students, all that mail isn’t going to make a bit of difference,” she said, What matters to these students is scholarships and educational value for the amount of tuition required to at tend UNL, she said. “There’s a lot of talent out there that we could be recognizing, but the money does not go far enough,” she said. Chancellor James Moeser said in creasing scholarship funding to recruit Nebraska’s best students in state and at UNL is his top priority in recruit “We don’t want them to be lured out of state by other schools,” he said. Moeser said gifted Nebraska stu dents who fall just below the cut for receiving a UNL scholarship might receive a scholarship offer to an out of-state school. Although that scholarship might not cover enough out-of-state expenses to make the school’s overall cost as inexpensive as UNL, he said, the stu dent could be insulted by UNL’s ap parent lack of interest Mid apprecia tion for his or her talent. Such a student would likely attend the out-of-state school, Moeser said, and UNL doesn’t want that. ‘We’ve got to attempt to increase the scholarship pool,” Moeser said. Schmidt said the current total amount of scholarships offered is the highest ever at UNL, and recent raises in this amount have helped a lot to recruit outstanding students. And both Moeser and Schmidt said the amount of scholarships offered would continue to be increased. Vurtualiour Schmidt said the future of effec tive recruitment could also lie in elec tronic means through the World Wide Web. The admissions office has applied for $150,000 to go toward electronic recruitment in the next two years, she said. Currently UNL is at a disadvan tage in electronic recruitment because it is not featured on several popular College Search 'engines on the' web, Seftmidf safcL• One such engine, College Viewbook, could provide the univer sity with space for a 40-screen cam pus viewbook. This could be a strong virtual recruitment tool, she said, but it comes with an actual price tag. A deluge of scholarship funding and the means to recruit electronically would be ideal for the admissions of fice, she said. But when students finally commit to attending UNL, it is up to Red Let ter days to make them welcome, Schmidt said. “We want them to feel as comfort able as possible on this campus,” she said. 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