Oldfather Hall break-ins
raise Questions of motive
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
A bizarre string of break-ins early Sunday
morning in Oldfather Hall left footprints on
walls, 19 doors kicked in and only theories as
to what went on.
Twenty-one offices were broken into, from
professors to teaching assistants to department
offices for math and statistics, political science
and philosophy.
What makes the break-ins so strange is what
the vandals took—nothing. So far, only a can
of peaches was moved, opened and dumped out
on the floor. And one teaching assistant said
he is missing a can of refried beians, but he isn’t
sure it was stolen.
“I feel violated,” joked Anthony Caskey, a
political science teaching assistant.
No tests were swiped, no grade books
changed, no computers stolen, no audio-visual
equipment removed and no personnel files were
tanqiered with.
The vandals did $1,225 damage to doors,
locks and ceiling tiles. Two offices were bro
ken into by crawling through the ceiling.
Brian Foster, dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences, said there were any number of
valuable or sensitive documents that could have
been taken.
“There are all kinds of possibilities that
arise,” he said. “It is a problem. It’s something
that needs real serious attention.”
Foster said there was some talk about a re
view of building security, but no action has been
taken yet.
University Police were called to the build
ing on Sunday by a political science professor
who came to her office that morning to finish
some work. When she got there, she found evi
dence of a break-in.
For the rest of the day Sunday and Monday
morning, more and more offices were found
broken into. Even more odd is that vandals tried
gluing some of the doors they broke back to
gether again.
And, Sgt Mylo Bushing said, there was no
pattern at all.
“We thought maybe if it was just one de
partment, maybe it was someone flunking out,
but they hit three different departments,” he
said.
Political Science Department Chairman
David Forsythe, whose office was broken into,
said the incident, however strange, appeared
to be just random vandalism.
“There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or
reason or pattern to the destruction,” he said.
Jan Edwards, a word processing specialist
in the political science department office, said
seven political science offices were broken into,
including the offices of the department chair
man, the staff assistants and several professors.
And she said she was as confused as anyone
about the incident.
“I’m just coming up with random things and
wondering,” Edwards said. “None of it makes
sense.”
Debate begins on aid bill
SCHOOLS from page 1
much of the aid.
“Omaha and Lincoln receive 25 percent of
the funds,” Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings,
chairwoman of the Education Committee, said,
“but they also have 25 percent of the state’s
students.”
Bohlke said although the bill had received
criticism from rural schools, it would not force
all small schools to consolidate.
The bill saves schools that must be small,
Bohlke said. Schools that are small by choice
can choose at the local level whether to merge.
“(This bill) solves the greatest number of
problems from 1114. We can’t avoid it... 1114
never promised us a rose garden.”
The bill saves schools that have to be small,
Bohlke said. Schools that are small by choice
can choose at the local level whether to merge,
she said.
On the options of closing vs. consolidation,
Sen. Floyd Vrtiska of Thble Rock said, “It re
minds me of the convict sentenced to death who
could either be shot or hung. It’s not really much
of a choice at all.”
Vrtiska said parents would spend extra
money driving to and from schools or possibly
contributing money to keep rural schools afloat.
Two amendments proposed by Sen.' Bob
Wickersham of Harrison were added to the bill.
One would allow subdistricts to retain owner
ship of their property after a merger with a high
school. The other would prohibit the high
school boards from taking any action that would
adversely affect the subdistrict until after elec
tions were held for board seats.
.. .... wm ^ . , >
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Fighting Heart Disease
and Stroke
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Cash For Books
*
Bring us your used Books and
Well exchange then', for cash.
Book Buyback,
Hr Fays to Be Fart of Hr
PcwufM Campus
Mon-Thu, Apr 23-May 1...3:3O a.m.-5:30 p.m.
=riday, May 2.3:3O a.m.-5:00 p.m
Mon-Thu, May 5-3.3:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m,
Friday, May O.. 3:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m
Thu-Fri, May 1-2...3:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Mon-Fri, May 5-0.3:30 a.m.-430 p.m.
(No Saturday Hoar?.)
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| ** Nebraska Union Nebraska East Union
UNIVERSnY
BOOKSTORE
}■ - -
state may incur charges
for records from Internet
- _
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
A bill that would empower a state
records board to establish charges for
accessing public records on the
Internet advanced 29-1 Tuesday.
Opponents of LB590 say the bill
will allow one company to monopo
lize the distribution of public records.
Right now, Nebraska Online operates
the state government information and
records web site. Their contract will
be terminated in 1998, at which time
the board will begin taking bids for
another contract.
Sen. Joyce Hillman of Gering said
the company would not have a mo
nopoly because it would compete for
the job of putting information on the
web at the time of bidding.
Most of the information on the web
site is available free of charge, but cer
tain records, like Department of Mo
tor Vehicles records, require a charge.
Insurance companies frequently access
those records to determine insurance
rates and to whom the companies will
give coverage.
Sen. Curt Bromm of Wahoo pro
posed an unsuccessful amendment
that would require that the board
charge “fair” fees. But Sen. Kermit
Brash ear of Omaha said the charge
should be “entrepreneurial” and faring
in some profit for the public.
“We don’t know when we’ve got
something that’s worth selling and we
don’t know how to price it,” Brashear
said. “LB590 is better than the
Neanderthalic methodology we’ve
used in the past.”
I i dJ I M P 1 \ I! 1
Brashear said the information,
which is gathered and organized with
tax money, was valuable to insurance
companies because it saves their cli
ents money; therefore, they should be
charged to access the information.
Other senators felt that approach
left the common citizen out in the cold.
“That’s who I’m representing is
John Q. Public,” Sen. Kate Witek of
Omaha said. “You are forcing us to
pay for the project, taking money from
the same taxpayer who put the project
together.
“We can’t get information on state
or county level, and you have to go
through a private monopoly (to get the
records) even though the state paid Re
collection of the information.”
Sen. Ron Withem said the Legis
lature had taken adequate steps in pro
tecting the public from unreasonable
fees, but that the public hadn’t re
sponded to the bill.
“I’m a little frustrated we haven’t
heard from John Q. Citizen, who ac
cesses this information by computer,”
Withem said. “The people who are
driving opposition to this bill are those
who profit from public records ... in
surance companies.”
Bromm said that during second
round debate legislators would have
to deal with a problem that has come
up frequently during first-round de
bate: whether or not records should be
accessible solely by Internet, or should
be available at die government agency
and through the mail.
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