SPORTS
Lone Star losers
The Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball teams return home
after big losses deep in the heart of Texas Wednesday. The Husker
men lost to Texas, while the women fell to Baylor. PAGE 7
AAE
Chemical blues brother
Grading papers and writing exams should be
enough to give any professor the blues, but Bob
McLaughlin doesn’t mind. PAGE 9
January 22, 1997
It Keeps Going and Gomsand Going
Chance of snow, high 28. Flurries tonight, low 17.
Asian markets
stifle students
By Lindsay Young
Assignment Reporter
Asian students at UNL are feeling the effects
of market crashes thousands of miles from here.
Economic crises in their home countries
have left some foreign students at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln scraping for cash or even
struggling to stay in school, and university offi
cials are trying to help.
Judy Wendorff, international student adviser
in the International Affairs office, met with uni
versity officials Wednesday to brainstorm ways
UNL can reverse negative effects.
Wendorff said the university is exploring
avenues such as financial assistance, grants,
tuition payment deferral, loans and eliminating
the fee applied to late bills to help out students.
Because of the economic instability in sever
al Asian countries, students studying abroad in
Lincoln only have enough money to pay for
necessities such as tuition, students said.
u
I think that most of the
problem is (for) the
undergraduate students
funded by their parents ”
Soongoo Hong
president of Korean Students Association
The undergraduate students are funded by
their families at home, and must get permission
to work off campus while in the United States.
“I think that most of the problem is (for) the
undergraduate students funded by their parents,”
Soongoo Hong, president of the Korean
Students Association, said.
Please see MARKET on 6
Chemistry department
staff member charged
By Josh Funk
Senior Reporter
A former UNL administrative assistant was
charged with theft in Lancaster County Court
Wednesday.
Diane Stevens, 51, was fired from the chem
istry department and arrested Tuesday for stealing
more than $60,000 from the university during the
last decade.
Stevens could face up to 20 years in jail and a
$25,000 fine, Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey said. Additional charges could also be filed.
Lacey would not comment on the alleged
involvement of Stevens’ husband, but the universi
ty’s preliminary investigation showed he was par
tially involved, said Melvin Jones, vice chancellor
for business and finance.
As an administrative assistant at the university,
Stevens was responsible for the hiring of tempo
rary faculty members, Jones said.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at the
university before,” Jones said.
In more than 20 years at the university, Jones
added, Stevens earned a level of trust from her
supervisors.
“She definitely abused that trust,” he said.
Stevens was able to create a fake faculty mem
ber using a personnel action form used university
wide.
The form includes personal information about
the person as well as information on what depart
ment they would work for, how long they would
hold the position and how much they would be
paid.
In the chemistry department these temporary
faculty members work as laboratory research
associates.
Under the current system the form would go to
the college’s dean and other supervisors for
approval, but these supervisors would not review
the actual hiring, Jones said.
The supervisors examined other factors relat
Please see STEVENS on 3
Student dies in highway collision
By Todd Anderson
Assignment Reporter
Amanda Churchill had everything to look
forward to on her 20th birthday last Wednesday
A freshman social science major, she was
traveling to her hometown of Seward to renew
her driver's license and celebrate with friends
later that evening.
Earlier in the day her fiance broke the news
that he had just reserved a church for their sum
mer wedding.
But her special day and dreams of mamage
were cut short when she was killed in an acci
dent after her car collided with a pickup truck
shortly after noon.
According to a report by the Nebraska State
Patrol, Churchill’s car crossed the median and
collided head-on with an east-bound pickup
truck at 12:35 p.m. on Highway 34, one mile
east of Garland.
The driver of the pickup, Raymond Naber,
70, of Utica suffered fractured ribs and cuts. He
was taken to Lincoln General Hospital.
His wife, Mary Naber, 67, was killed in the
Please see CHURCHILL on 2
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu /DailyNeb
Plow this
Scott AIcClurg/DN
DOWNTOWN LINCOLN was blanketed with about four inches of snow late Tuesday
evening. The National Weather Service has forecasted a 30 percent chance of snow flur
ries again today with a high in the 20s.
Parties agree to oppose LB905
By Brian Carlson
Senior Reporter
Democrats and Republicans in Nebraska
disagree on many issues, but they agree that
independent voters shouldn’t help select their
parties’ candidates in the primaries.
The executive directors of both parties tes
tified Wednesday in opposition to LB905
before the Government, Military and Veterans
Affairs Committee.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. George
Coordsen of Hebron, would allow voters who
aren’t affiliated with a political party to request
a partisan ballot in the primary elections.
Independent voters could thus help select
party nominees for any office on the ballot and
help choose delegates for the parties’ county,
state and national conventions.
Coordsen said the proposal could rejuve
nate interest in politics, encouraging more of
the state’s large number of independent voters
to vote.
No other proponents testified during the 15
minute hearing.
But Beth Smith, executive director of the
Nebraska Republican Party, and Ken Haar,
executive director of the Nebraska Democratic
Party, said the bill could hurt politics in the
state by diminishing the influence of political
parties.
“It would unquestionably hurt political par
ties by encouraging a decline in political affili
ation,” Haar said. “Parties grow people into
politics and stimulate an interest in politics.”
Haar said the bill would encourage parties
to run fewer candidates, limiting voters’ choic
es. It also would be unfair, he said, to allow
independent voters to select delegates for party
conventions.
Smith said failure to pass LB905 would not
be unfair to independent voters, who can regis
ter with a party if they want to vote in the pri
maries.
“We don’t feel like independent voters
would be denied a vote,” she said. “Like us,
they have the ultimate vote in November.”
