sports sports WEDN SDAY
Successful support Scoring explosion April 16,1997
NU women’s gymnast Shelly Bartlett has her sights The NU baseball team beat Hastings College 4-0
set on the NCAA Championships. Bartlett is the and 24-0 Tuesday. NU pitchers combined to al- Ditto
nation’s sixth-leading all-arounder. PAGE 7 low only five Bronco hits in two games. PAGE 7 Mostly sunny, high 52. Clear
VOL 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCQLN SINCE 1901 ^ NO. 139
KEN JONES, a corrections officer for the Nebraska State Penitentiary, says the most important aim of his
job is to maintain order among the inmates.
T • P_
raska prison
says his job
ns
wire
By Jim Goodwin
Staff Reporter
Men have killed to get where
Ken Jones is today.
Many more have raped, robbed
and swindled. The consequential dif
ference is that Jones gets to leave
at the end of his day. The others —
the inmates of the Nebraska State
Penitentiary — don’t
Jones is a corrections officer at
Nebraska’s only maximum security
prison for men. He deals with citi
zens who, according to society, do
not deserve their freedom.
A typical day for Jones involves
potentially dangerous situations that
for him add interest to a job many
others would not want He thinks
he’s created a balance between the
two so he can maintain order but
. not be seen as an enemy by inmates.
Jones said he and his colleagues
know their primary job: to protect
people outside prison walls from
those within.
Good day, sunshine
With the backdrop of an early
spring sunrise streaming through the
Constantina razor wire enveloping
the prison, Jones leaves behind the
J
relative safety of the administration
building and enters “the yard.”
Jones stands not a stitch over 5
feet 10 inches and weighs less than
180 pounds. Aside from the deten
tion tactics he learned in training,
Jones’ only protection lies in a dis
patch radio, a set of handcuffs and
the watchful eyes of the prison’s
nine tower guards.
It is here that the 32-year-old
will spend most of his "eight-hour.,
shift—in the company of.convicts
who outnumber him and about six
other guards by the hundreds.
Jones said the diversity and ex
citement of his job far outweighed
the possible dangers it presented.
‘1 love working the yard,” Jones
said. “That’s my favorite assign
ment. If I could, I’d work the yard
everyday. It’s outside, and you’re
dealing with lots of situations.
Things are always moving.”
Inmates are scattered in groups
involved in whatever passes the
time: some play cards, some play
basketball, others just stand and talk.
Four housing units designed in
the utilitarian-style of state park
buildings initially greet visitors ex
iting the administration building.
Asphalt drives and concrete
sidewalks weave throughout the 28
acre campus, whose fringes are host
to a variety of buildings, some of
them dating back to the 1940s.
Among them are a woodworking
shop, a library, a corrugated metal
building housing the prison’s South
east Community College branch
and, as expected, a license plate fac
tory.
Mr. Congeniality?
The individual guards’ person
alities and styles of interaction with
the inmates come heavily into play
in the yard. Mingling with the pris
oners isn?t expressly prohibited, but
Jones abstains. He said he thinks that
being detached from the inmates
lessened the setting’s inherent dan
gers.
The roles of prisoner and guard
have been established, and it is
prison after all, he said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m real popu
lar (with prisoners),” Jones said.
“That’s not what I’m after, That’s
not my job. Basically, I want than
to know I’m going to keep the rules,'
that I’m not going to let things slide.
“At the same time, I’m not here
to be a jerk, either. I’m not here to
ruin anyone’s day.”
Please see GUARD on 3
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents may be the last students in the
NU system to gain access to the newly
purchased Lotus Notes e-mail system.
The central NU plan shows all UNL
students gaining access to Lotus Notes
over the next six years.
But UNL will not follow this plan,
Kent Hendrickson, UNL associate vice
chancellor for information services,
said Tuesday.
UNL students are not guaranteed
access to Lotus Notes, he said. If stu
dents demonstrate a need for a more
advanced e-mail system than bigred,
some may be considered to move onto
the system in late 1998 or 1999.
No students will gain access this
year, Hendrickson said. The central NU
plan states 1,229 UNL students would
gain access this year.
As the largest NU campus, UNL
must move cautiously toward total
implementation, he said. East Campus
faculty, staff and administrative offices
on City Campus will move onto the
system in 12 to 18 months.
66
If a demand is
there, then we will
be looking at
students”
Kent Hendrickson
UNL associate vice chancellor for
information services
In late 1998, other City Campus
faculty who choose to obtain the Lo
tus Notes system may gain access. Fac
ulty members who don’t want to use
Lotus Notes don’t have to, he said.
Flagship foibles
The time UNL students come online
will depend on students’ feelings about
switching from bigred to Lotus Notes
e-mail and what instructors will require
as part of their course curriculum.
Please see E-MAIL on 6
luxedos not required
for job opportunities
By Tasha E. Kelter
*+ Staff Reporter
Students seeking summer jobs and
internships also may get a dose of nos
talgia for senior prom at today’s Stu
dent Employment and Internship Cen
ter Job Prom.
More than 40 employers with im
mediate openings will operate booths
in the Nebraska Union’s Centennial
Room to answer students’ questions
— against a backdrop of balloons, foil
stars and music.
Representatives from several Lin
coln and Omaha companies will be
on hand from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to
inform students about jobs, take ap
plications and maybe even extend
offers, said Emily Wilber, student
employment specialist and Job Prom
coordinator.
“These employers all want to talk
to students,” Wilber said. “They have
actual openings.”
Many of the companies will have
openings for internships, summer jobs
and part-time, year-round jobs, she
said.
Also, Wilber said, the Job Prom
could benefit students who just want
to make contacts or get information
about career opportunities.
“You can make some very practi
cal, if not helpful, contacts just to let
them know what you’re interested in,”
she said.
The companies will represent job
opportunities for majors or areas of
interest ranging from nursing to politi
cal science to journalism. They include
Sandhills Publishing, the Coca-Cola
Corp. and the Nebraska Attorney
General’s office.
Other attractions of the Job Prom
include die award of a Schaefer’s TV
and Appliance Center CD BoomBox
to the “prom royalty,” which will be
the student who collects the most busi
ness cards from the companies present.
Students may vote on a company to be
the event’s “employer prom royalty,”
Students also can be instant win
ners of items like bode bags, a football
picture autographed by Football Coach
Tom Osborne and various gift certifi
cates, Wilber said.
There will be a bake sale sponsored
by Sigma Alpha Iota, a UNL music fra
ternity, and the Music Educators’ Na
tional Conference.
“There’s a lot of ways we can have
some fun with this while we’re look
ing for a job,” Wilber said. “And... for
mal attire is not required.”
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