SPORTS ARE_
Home run derby Sci-fi summer May 5,1997
The Nebraska baseball team pounded Texas 25- Sci-fi fans willl be taken care of this summer as
15 in a game that featured 11 home runs and 38 “The Fifth Element” and “Men in Black” lead the Final RAYS
hits. PAGE 7 pack for summer movie releases. PAGE 8 Sunny, high 76. Clear tonight, low 43.
VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 152
By Jonathan Houghton
Staff Reporter
There will be hundreds of proud
parents in the audience at the Uni
, versity of Nebraslca-Lincoln’s com
mencement Saturday.
There will also be at least one
proud parent among the gradu
ates.
Ruth Lavin will receive her
d<£korate in community and hu
man resources Saturday. She will
graduate alongside her son, Pe
ter, who will receive his bachelor’s
degree in electrical engineering.
Ruth Lavin said returning to
school as a nontraditional student
has been an invaluable experience
for her.
“It has taught me to think like
Please see GRADS on 2
Matt Miller/DN
RUTH LAVIN, left, and Peter Lavin are troth graduating Saturday.
Ruth is receiving her doctorate in community and human resources
and Peter is getting his bachelor^ degree in electrical engineering.
Woman earns doctorate,
graduates alongside son
Abusive relationships
could lead to homicide
Records show killers
are more likely to be a
family member or
friend.
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
While media-driven fears have
people looking around comers for ho
micidal strangers, it is more likely that
family and friends would be the killers
they are looking for, Lancaster County
law enforcement records show.
However, in Lancaster County, the
chances of a person being the victim
of a homicide are six times less than
someone living in the nation’s most
murderous cities. The county’s rate is
half of the FBI’s national murder rate.
But someone’s chances of being on
the wrong end of a Jipmipide .awe. mucji
greater if they are [jaftt^ixddient re
lationship, domestic or friendly.
In the ’90s, 81 percent of all homi
cides in Lancaster County in which an
arrest was made involved people close
to the victim — mothers, fathers, boy
friends, wives and friends, to name a
few.
During the last month, the Daily
Nebraskan built a database of Lincoln
police and Lancaster County records
and analyzed trends from that data.
What was clear was that few were
cases of random violence, and several
displayed situations similar to national
research on domestic violence.
Homicide in Lincoln:
■ Was more likely to occur in the
victim’s home, with 54 percent of all
incidents.
■ Was more likely to involve a male
victim, with 69 percent of incidents.
■ Was more likely to involve a male
perpetrator, with 58 percent of inci
■ Wa^fhdre likely to have a fatal
*1
wound in the neck, 25 percent, or head,
25 percent.
■ Was more likely to involve a gun,
36 percent, or a knife, 21 percent, than
any other weapon.
Truth be known, anyone’s chances
of being on the wrong end of what
police call a negligent homicide are
slim: In 1992, Lancaster County’s most
murderous year, nine people were
killed, five with guns.
That equates to 4.5 out of every
100,000 people being victims of a ho
micide. Most other years the rate hov
ered around 1.5 homicides per 100,000
—just two or three homicides per year.
“I deal with this every day,”
Lancaster County Sheriff’s Capt. Bill
Coleman said. “I still have to keep the
perspective that the chance of jne, even
as a police officer, dying in a violent
crime, is pretty astronomical.”
But with so few homicides, a rare
Please see HOMICIDES on 3
• i -i
btudent nopes to nonor guide dog
for escorting her to UNL classes
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
This dog will have his day.
Cappuccino, a service dog for
Catherine Carver, will cross the gradu
ation stage with her Saturday.
But Carver wanted her dog, nick
named Capp, to get more recognition.
Capp has tagged along with Carver to
every lecture she has attended at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the
last two years.
Carver, an elementary education
major, said she applied for Capp to get
an honorary degree for helping her
complete her four years at UNL. He
has spent two years in lectures, she
said, and Capp has worked with her in
Lincoln schools while she finished stu
dent teaching.
Still, the university did not want to
give an honorary degree to a dog, she
said.
“I know they’ve given honorary
degrees to people who’ve never even
sat through a lecture,” Carver said. “To
ignore (Capp’s work) is kind of a dis
service to him and maybe even to guide
dogs.”
Herb Howe, associate to the chan
cellor, said the dog missed the dead
line for honorary degrees. The NU
Board of Regents voted on recipients
in January, he said, and the request for
Capp was not received until months
later.
Howe said the dog will not receive
the award, but he does not deny Capp’s
contributions.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,
what that dog has done for her,” Howe
said.
Carver said the university could rec
ognize the dog with a smaller honor
«
I know they've given
honorary to people
who've never even sat
through a lecture."
Catherine Carver
graduating senior
than a degree, if necessary.
Capp, a golden retriever service
dog, is trained to help Carver overcome
her mobility impairment by pulling her
in her wheelchair, fetching household
items and opening doors.
Please see DIPLOMA on 6
UJNL awards professor tor service
64-year-old Paul Olson crusades for quality living after 40 years
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
In 40 years at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, Paul Olson has not
stopped crusading for a better quality
of life.
He fought ignorance during the civil
rights movement to provide educa
tional opportunities and equality to
minorities and women.
He mediated between students, fac
ulty and administration when the cam
pus was divided by Vietnam War pro
tests. .»
He also has been working with ra-v
ral schools to teach children about their
small-town roots and how to invest in
their communities.
Now, Olson has received a UNL
service award for 40 year of work at
the university.
In the next decades, Olson said he
wants graduate students to be paid
higher wages for their work, and he
wants the university to regain a strong
sense of community.
He also wants students to do
more than superficially accept diver
pity. Groups of every background
must and respect one another,
fie said;’
But that should be all in a few years’
work for Olson, a distinguished UNL
English professor.
Olson first came to the university
for two years as a graduate student in
1951. After he received a Fulbright
Scholarship and studied at Princeton,
he was hired by UNL.
That was 1957, and Olson was 24
years old. He has been at UNL ever
Please see OLSON on 2
£
ENGLISH PROFESSOR Paul Olson sits by Love Library reading a Latin book
last Friday.
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