1 [»*BBTS__ f a e WEDNESDAY
Freshman fireballer The Full moon Aprils, 1997
NU softball pitcher Jenny Voss has shown her abil- JJ The Moon Seven Times, a five-piece band from
ity this season with a 13-11 record. She has ap- Champaign, Til-- in the, midst nf a mini-tnnr, will
- peared in 28 games for the Huskers. PAGE 7 L_ stop in Omaha tonight for two shows. PAGE 8 Cloudy, light
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J VOL. 96COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN SINCE 1901 .134
A consultant approves
women’s treatment in NU’s
Athletic Department.
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
Women student-athletes do not face s£*ual
harassment or a hostile environment in th^Uni
versity of Nebraska Athletic Department, a con
sultant said Tuesday.
Beverly Ledbetter, a consultant hired to study
die climate for women athletes at UNL, revealed
her finished study Tuesday and said a positive
environment for women student-athletes now
exists at UNL.
Her finding contradicts the accusations made
by a 1996 university task force that women ath
letes were frequently harassed by men athletes
in the Hewit Center and other Athletic Depart
ment facilities.
In 30 confidential interviews and bye-mail,
UNL women athletes told Ledbetter the reported
’ incidents of harassment were isolated, “not per
vasive, hostile or threatening,” she said.
NU athletes support each other like family,
* Ledbetter said, and the strength of their unity
and respect for one another surprised her.
However, Ledbetter said the strength of ath
letes’ unity women athletes from
reporting in Assment to her.
Athletic Byrne seemed pleased
by Ledbette:
“It confirms what we knew all along,” he
said. “That we have a great program.”
Both Byrne and Ledbetter acknowledged the
Athletic Department was not free of problems.
Ledbetter said past reports of sexual harass
ment at UNL were not unfounded, but incidents
were less common than reported. In interviews,
women student-athletes said incidents were not
a result of a poor climate at UNL, but were the
result of atypical athletes who acted outside the
realm of acceptable behavior.
Ledbetter said athletes felt past cases of
sexual assault involving high-profile athletes at
die university have tainted the public’s opinion
of the Athletic Department.
Both men and women NU athletes want this
perception to change, she said. To help opin
ions change, the department should make re
forms that will allow it to appear more sensitive
to women athletes, she said.
Ledbetter recommended a series of such de
partment reforms to correct negative perceptions
and to further help women student-athletes feel
comfortable at UNL.
Recommendations were:
• Make changes to the Hewit Center’s din
ing center to make it more hospitablefbrWOhien
student-athletes.
Physical cfiaipg should bemade to the hall
way leading to fc dining room, where some
women athletes~$itd they felt uncomfortable.
Men athletes, wh^sit on hallway benches called
“blocks,” sometimes have heckled female pass
ersby. -
The price of an evening meal should also be
lowered to allow Women athletes, many whom
are not on full scholarship, to afford the meal,
Ledbetter said.
' The evening meal at Hewit costs $2 higher
than elsewhere atUNL, she said, because of an
upgraded meal made available to athletes.
A past report had said women athletes did
not feel comfortable eating in the Hewit dining
room for the evening meal because of male ath
letes.
Football players, who are on full scholarship
and do not pay for their meals in Hewit, domi
nate the dining room in the evenings, the report
said.
If prices were reduced to accommodate
women athletes, the number of women who eat
in Hewit in the evenings would increase, and
they would feel more comfortable there,
Ledbetter said.
• Hire more senior-level women staff mem
bers in the Athletic Department.
More women in administrative positions
_ would send a message that women are qualified
Please see CLIMATE on 3
5 ,-I-I
*By Lori Robison
Staff Reporter
Although the City Council primary election
is over, for the six candidates chosen to advance
to the May 6 general election the real campaign
is just beginning.
Incumbents Jerry Shoecraft and Cindy
Johnson led the race with 18.4 percent and 17.4
percent of the vote respectively, according to
unofficial results Tuesday night.
Shoecraft said he probably won his share of
votes because he followed through on campaign
promises and worked hard during his term and
the campaign.
“If you roll up your sleeves and work hard,”
he said, “many positive things can happen.”
Johnson said the positive election results did
not come as a surprise, partly because of her
Please see ELECTION on 3
' Senators try amendments
to resolve gay-union bill
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
Legislators spent Tuesday morning
debating an amendment that one sena
tor said helped determine who was
“worthy to marry.”
Sen. Dave Landis of Lincoln said
LB280, which was debated on select
file for a second time Tuesday, was
drafted to define who was worthy of
marriage by outlawing recognition of
gay or lesbian marriages.
Landis proposed an amendment
~ that would prohibit obtaining a mar
1 riage license or recognizing a marriage
if a person had been convicted of as
sault on a spouse three times. The
I amendment failed with 15 senators
! voting for the amendment and 17 sena
I tors voting against.
Landis said the Legislature should
try to offset the unfairness of outlaw
ing gay and lesbian marriages by offer
ing an “olive branch,” a symbol of
rilf; peace. ~
i : , Landis tried to do that in first-round
debate by proposing a failed amend
ment that would have made workplace
discrimination on the basis of sexual
k orientation illegal. “ f ' I'm
Landis said he was not a moral ab
I solutist and gave an example of a time
j when Old Testament rules could be
; broken. If a Nazi came up to you dur
| ing World War n, Landis said, and
- asked where Anne Frank was, and you
knew, should you lie? T r
f ‘T would lie with joy in my heart,”
| Landis said. “The New Testament is a
far more sensitive weighing of rights
and wrongs.”
U
They don't like the
sanctity of marriage
being ruined by
this act *
Sen. Don Weseet
Lincoln
Quoting the fourth chapter of John
in the New Testament of the Bible,
Landis said, “And everyone who loves
is bom of God and knows God.
“Sol Jensen’s bill really flies in the
face of that language.”
Landis said he would be willing to
vote for die biH outlawing same-sex
marriage if some fairness, such as one
of his amendments, was tacked on.
Sea. Ernie Chambers*# Omaha of
fered an amendment that would allow
gays or lesbians to create a legal do
mestic partnership.*
Tbe partners would sign a statement
under oath declaring their intent for a
domestic partnership, which wpuld
provide legal recognition of an intinSate,
committed relationship, ChambersSaid.
No divorce would be required to
dissolve the partnership. However, one
partner would have to inform the state
Please see MARRIAGEo&f>
MmNMY COHEN, art Im Underground Railroad, speaks Tuesday
alglrt la ths Uniai Alp Intltuti.
Historian retraces slaves escape route
Train ride, 800-mile hike still lead to freedom
By Kasey Kerber
Staff Reporter
For 26 hours, Anthony Cohen
traveled in a box barely large enough
to support his dimensions in an
Amtrakfreight car with temperatures
w* well over 100 degrees.
: And he did it to recreate exactly
what a slave would do to achieve
freedom.
Cohen, a historian who walked
more than 800 miles from Maryland
to Canada to retrace the Under
ground Railroad, spoke to a crowd
of more than 70 people Tuesday
night in the Nebraska Union.
Cohen performed the “box” act
last year to recreate what former
slave Henry “Box” Brown did in |
1848—shipping himself tc
aboard a train. (
At first, Cohen’s friends were ex
cited by the idea of trying to recre
ate a slave escape. But as possibili
ties of failure entered their minds,
they became less sure, Cohen said.
Please see RAILROAD on 6
Read the Daily NeWtekan on the World Wide Web at http: / /www.unl^du / DailyNeb
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