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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1997)
~[ SHUTS Too close Nebraska’s 27-24 victory over Colorado Friday in Boulder was a little too close for Nebraska _ coaches, players and pollsters.PAGES 8-9 « IA&E An Apple a day The paradoxical Fiona Apple — that defiant, yet demure rock debutante — seduced a willing crowd Saturday night in Omaha. PAGE 11 December 1,1997 Thanks For Mostly sunny, high 46. low 27. VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 67 Claims won’t save Williams ■ Judges called the electric chair-bound inmate’s arguments ‘frivolous.’ By Ted Taylor Senior Reporter Death row inmate Robert E. Williams last week may have lost his last bid to keep him out of the electric chair Tuesday. Last Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a claim by Williams that his 1978 trial was tainted by a juror wl^ looked at a road map that was not entered as evidence. And Friday, a panel of three fed eral judges affirmed U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf’s ruling, which denied WilliamsJ argument that the electric chair'was cruel ami unusual punishment. The three judges were from Kansas City, Mo., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Little Rock, Ark. They agreed unanimously with Kopf’s finding Nov. 21 that Williams’ civil rights claim this late in the game was “frivolous.” With the two appeals denied last week, Williams’ only chance to stop the execution is if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear the case or if Williams decides to appeal to the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But as of Sunday, Williams had no pending appeals. Williams, 61, has been on death row since 1978, a year after he con fessed to the murders of two 25 year-old Lincoln women, Catherine Brooks and Patricia McGarry. He was sentenced to die in 1978 for shooting to death and raping Brooks in McGarry’s northeast Lincoln apartment. ^ If there is no furffitfMlMon the case, sometime after 1ft a m. Tuesday Williams will become the third person in four years to die in Nebraska’s electric chair. Fund would raise minority recruiting By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter While students headed home for Thanksgiving break Wednesday, Chancellor James Moeser unveiled a draft proposal to allocate the $530,000 Targets of Opportunity fund to recruit more women and minority faculty and graduate stu dents to UNL. The proposal sets specific goals for the recruitment and retention of faculty by the year 2002, and sug gests spending $400,000 to recruit minority faculty members and $130,000 to recruit minority gradu ate students during the next two years. “We’re moving past the rhetoric of diversity to the act,” Moeser said, adding that he welcomed campus debate over the draft proposal. Under the proposal, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln would hire at least 25 new black, Hispanic or American Indian facul ty within five years. Women would comprise about 45 percent of all faculty hired. Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said 32 minority faculty now work among UNL’s 140 faculty members, and women make up 37 percent of all new faculty hired. The proposal, created by UNL’s Office of Academic Affairs, would expect all UNL colleges and depart ments to make increased diversity a goal. Those units could apply to spend portions of the fund to pay the starting salaries of minority faculty. The money also could.be used to negotiate their employment condi tions by offering summer research funding, assisting with moving expenses or start-up costs and pay ing a graduate research assistant. The proposal calls for the uni versity to spend less than one-fourth of the fund during this fiscal year, but all of the fund before fiscal year 1999-2000. The fund is part of a $708,000 permanent fund committed to increase campus diversity through the budget reallocation process ear lier this year. UNL colleges that use the fund must later repay the Office of Academic Affairs. An annual report would keep tabs on the fund’s effectiveness by listing new hires by gender and race. ■ Moeser said the proposal would not result in hiring discrimination against qualified faculty who weren’t black, Hispanic or American Indian because it doesn’t contain quotas. The university will only hire the most qualified appli cants for faculty positions, he said. Although the proposal would meet requirements for more diverse Please see PLAN on 6 - " • Duck,duck, goose nroniTiiiiMWMMMmwTTrTriiiiii hi i i i i- i nn——^—■— .. pfe-t8-'. - , : Michael Warren/DN AS THE SUN sets Sunday in the west over Pionee&Paifc, several geese search the shore of Heron Pond for food left by the Nature Center at the park. .** * VV:'‘ - ~ ; - I •> - _ . \fXf- • ■ - __- ■ , V 1 • ADDS Day brings reminder of risks By Sarah Baker Assignment Reporter Attempting to make every student a little more aware is the focus of the World AIDS Day activities on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cam pus. Pat Tetreault, sexuality coordinator at the University Health Center, said the activities were based on educating stu dents. “We want to make students aware that AIDS is still a worldwide epidemic, and that every one of those statistics they hear represents a person,” Tetreault said. The activities, sponsored by Peers Educating Responsible Sexuality at UNL, include a panel discussion called “Positive Living: Living with It ... AIDS is still a worldwide epidemic” Pat Tetreault University Health Center sexuality coordinator HIV/AIDS” in the Nebraska Union tonight at 8. The panel consists of a physician and two people who are living with HTV or AIDS. “We hope the panel helps students understand they are at risk for AIDS. This is a time where people tend to think it’s not going to happen to them,” Tetreault said. PERSUNL isrgoing to have a booth in the Nebraska Union today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The group will be handing out safety packets, red ribbons and AIDS information. Carol Ash, health promotions and marketing specialist at the UHC, said PERSUNL would receive an award this morning from Mayor Mike Johanns. “The group is being recognized for the various ways in which they educate their peers at UNL about both HIV and AIDS,” she said. Tetreault said she hoped students think about the issues at hand concern ing AIDS. “They need to keep thinking about protection for themselves, and also remain compassionate to those people who already have AIDS,” she said •J Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http:/lwww.unl.edu /DailyNeb
