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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1997)
SPBBT> * I- WEDNESDAY Senior leader Wesley Unplugged March 12,1997 Kim E)eHaan has been a key part of the NU women’s Well, not quite. But Wesley Willis’ return to Lin gymnastics program for few years. Sunday she com- coin without the Fiasco was an entirely different petes at home for the last time. PAGE 10 and entertaining experience. PAGE 13 R * VOL 96COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901NO. 119 NU asks Leglslaluie to fund renovations I " Repairs have $95-million price tag By Eiun Gibson Senior Reporter - Tuition increases will partially pay the university’s bills if the Legislature does not give the University of Nebraska the money it needs, NU President Dennis Smith said Tuesday. Smith told the Appropriations Committee the university would need every cent it requested i for the 1997-99 operating budget and much needed renovation projects. “The state has to decide how much they want ■ students to pay,” he said. “It’s clear we can’t - continue to support the university with declin f ing funds from the state and without raising tu ition.” State support of the university has declined k in the past 10 years, Smith said. If the trend con r-- tinues, tuition could increase by about l percent for every $900,000 of funding shortfall. Smith defended a proposed $19-million in crease in the state-funded portion of the university’s operating budget, increasing it to $350 million. He also testified on behalf of LB857, which would authorize $95 million for 16 different renovation and deferred maintenance projects on all four NU campuses. Smith supported NU’s overall budget request by citing technology, distance-learning costs and employee salary increases as priorities. a-— If we let this go on ... we're going to dig a hole so deep that I don't know how we'll get out of it." Sen. Don Wesely Lincoln ‘Tgimrad Myin^nW —-»■— Part of the budget request would add an ex tra $1 million each year for 10 years into the operating budget to help reduce the university’s deferred maintenance backlog. The Legislature currently appropriates about $9.3 million a year to maintenance, Smith said. Even with an extra $10 million annually, the budget will not solve the problem. Please see BUDGET on 6 Phillips to serve 30 days for assault, trespassing St. Louis Rams running back could be out of jail in 23 days with good behavior, attorney says. By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter Lawrence Phillips was taken to jail in hand cuffs Tuesday morning after a Lancaster County judge sentenced him to serve 30 days in jail. Judge Jack Lindner re voked the troubled pro football star’s probation and sentenced him to 30 days in jail for each charge against him: an assault and a tres passing charge. Lindner said the sentences could be served at the same time. Phillips, the second former Husker to be sent to Lancaster County jail in two months, started serving the sentence minutes after the brief hearing. Hal Anderson, Phillips’ long-time attorney, saidthat with good behavior, the St Louis Rams running back could be out in 23 days. Phillips was on probation from a 1995 as sault of former girlfriend and former UNL bas ketball player Kate McEwen. Police reports said Phillips climbed onto a balcony, entered the woman’s apartment, assaulted her and then dam aged private property. A Husker running back and Heisman trophy candidate at the time, Phillips pleaded no con test and was given probation for the charges. Coach Tom Osborne then suspended him from the football team, only to reinstate him later in the season. Phillips was later arrested in California in June 1996 for drunken driving. The arrest was two months after he became the sixth overall pick of the NFL draft, five months after an impressive performance in the Fiesta Bowl, where Nebraska won its second national championship game. After he pleaded no contest to that charge, Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey filed to have his probation revoked. Phillips’ day in Lancaster County Court had been delayed by the California case. Phillips’ legal troubles have been, at times, as storied as his on-the-field acclaims. His most recent troubles — a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a party in Omaha, to which he pleaded innocent Monday — are another chap ter in a lengthy legal history. Please see PHILLIPS on 7 -- ' ; _ Jay Calderon/DN ERIC MAMRTZER, center, speaks at the Capitel in support of higher-education funding. Marlntzer Is flanked by members of student government from other University of Nebraska ASUN representatives urge building renovation, upkeep By Erin Schulte Senior Reporter Leaky, crumbling “dungeons” like Richards Hall could send UNL recruits running to other universities, the president of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska said Tuesday, and that’s one reason legislators should pass LB857. At a press conference in the Capitol rotunda Wednesday morning, Eric Marintzer and 10 other student government representatives from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Univer sity of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney met to voice their support for the bill, which would provide the university with millions in matching funds from a cigarette tax. The money would be used for deferred main tenance —fixing buildings like Richards Hall at UNL and UNO’s Arts and Sciences building. “The place basically looks like a dungeon,” Marintzer said of Richards. “There are other buildings that are not far from that.” But some buildings on campus show what can be done when money is spent in the right place, he said. The technology in the College of Business Administration is a good example, he said. , One of the many probleiris'caused by build ings that are falling apart is that the conditions might make it harder to retain Nebraska’s “best and brightest.” •---*—:— > „ Please see RENOVATION on 7 Read the Doily Neb, Web at http: / / www.unl.edu /DailyNebl - £ ' •- - ,v. _ tr'. - is -^.vs ’<0*' - • . ~ •«
