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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1998)
SPOBTS Jam packed The Nebraska men’s basketball team plays host to ISU Saturday. The Comhusker track and swimming squads will also compete in home events at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Saturday. PAGE 7 A & E Puppet masters Puppets take center stage in “The Crown of Destiny,” running tonight and Saturday at the _ Lied Center for Performing Arts. PAGE 9 January 23, 1998 It Feels Like A Meat Locker Flurries, high 32. Cloudy tonight, low 20. VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 86 Roe verdict may still be reversed By Brice Sullivan Staff Reporter Though the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision has stood for 25 years, there’s controversy whether the monu mental decision legalizing abortion will last another 25 years, said a UNL law professor on the anniversary of the case. “It will someday be reversed,” said Richard Duncan, a professor of consti tutional law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “It may be five, 10, 15 or 20 years, but the court will over turn when it's ripe to revisit the issue.” Judith Kriss, director of the University of Nebraska's Women's Center, agreed. “Yes, it could be overturned,” Kriss said. “Not this year or the next year, but the opponents are not through pursuing changes in the law.” But Chris Funk, director for Planned Parenthood of Lincoln, dis agrees. “I believe the decision will hold,” Funk said. “It got chipped away ... and weakened in state courts, but it will be held.” Duncan said the Roe decision repre sents more than just abortion rights, but also how people are governed. “Are we supposed to be governed by a body of unelected lawyers, or are we a self-governing body making our own rules?” Duncan asked. “The peo ple lost in that decision and oligarchy won. “The court can find any right it wants to find or make it up as it goes along.” Funk also agreed the Roe vs. Wade decision meant more than just the right to an abortion. “What Roe said was that women can be their own moral decision mak ers,” Funk said. “It was a theological issue about life.” Duncan said the court tends to make decisions in noncontroversial cases when it chooses to make laws, then bases future decisions on those cases. “They make up a principle, then over the years it grows into something far removed from what was initially cre ated by the court,” Duncan said. In 1973, the Supreme Court based its Roe vs. Wade ruling on a 1965 case, Griswold vs. Connecticut, in which the court overturned a state law prohibiting counseling of mamed couples to use Please see ABORTION on 3 UNL receives gift of tiny furnishings By Ryan Brauer Staff Reporter UNL's interior design department recently received a $500,000 collection of furniture. But you can't sit on any of it. And you may even need glasses to see it well. The collection includes tens of thousands of miniature, handmade pieces of furniture and accessories, all replicas of life-size originals from vari ous historical periods. The late Eloise Andrews Kruger of Lincoln spent 45 years collecting and commissioning the pieces, which she donated along with SI million to fund housing and preserving for the furni ture. said Betsy Gabb. University of Nebraska-Lincoln's interior design program director. The collection is arguably the best in the world and one of only four worldwide. Gabb said. All pieces were made to a scale of one inch equals one foot and many were crafted with painstaking attention to detail. So much detail, m fact, that an accessory box of chocolates the size of athimoie includes 12 separate. indi\id aaily wrapped chocolate pieces inside, eacii the size of a EB. Each miniature piece was built using the same material found in the original. For example, a miniature model of an original mahogany table is also crafted of mahogany, Gabb said. The furniture was crafted for themed rooms, each portraying a dif ferent interior design era. Kruger designed each room and conducted all the historical research herself, her cousin Ky Rohman said. “Eloise had a wicked sense of humor.” he said. “She designed a west ern-style country tavern that still makes me laugh.” But this collection of miniatures is more than just the world’s most expan sive and expensive set of doll house furniture, Gabb said. The collection will be used as a learning tool for interior design stu- ! dents, giving them a hands-on opportu- | mtv to study furniture from various his torical periods, she said. Architecture graduate student Jennifer Honebnnk agreed. “If you can't see the piece life sized.” she said, “this is the next best thing." Cecil Steward, dean of the College of Architecture, said the collection wiii give a “significant boost' to an interior design program that was recently named among the nation's 10 best. "The collection, ana the national Please see MINIS on 6 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb _ DN Lane Hickenbottom/DN SIXTH GRADER Justin Almery, left, crosses 13th Street after a day at Saratoga Elementary School. To his right is Sigma Chi fraternity member Jow Tidball, a junior international affairs major. Sigma Chi members volunteer at the school to offer community service and help repair their tarnished image following last year’s cross-burning incident. Event kindled sensitivity By Erin Gibson Special Projects Reporter One year ago tonight. Sigma Chi Fraternity members lit a legend out side Lincoln. The students, entrenched in a pre-initiation ritual, burned a six foot cross. in it. they saw the maternity s ear liest history: Emperor Constantine's calling to join the Crusades. But community members watch ing the next aav's TV news saw the charred remains of a crime against humanity. Their fiery reaction has yet to bum out. Sigma Chi's cross, burned in frigid. January woods, evoked an unprecedented year of cultural learn ing at the University of Nebraska Lmcoin and in the surrounding com munity. “We hate to point out a negative incident as having positive conse quences.” Chancellor James Moeser said. “But 1 think this one has.” The community leaders who were first to respond to the cross burning last year aiso see those con sequences. Sigma Chi s actions one year ago proved some students possessed a dangerous cultural ignorance, they said. That flaming call to action ripped responsibility for race relations from the hands of a few minority groups and distributed it among all campus members. Meanwhile, the red-hot words "cross burning” and “racist” seared the skin of the fraternity's 80 mem bers. Sigma Chi President Jack Baker said he and his fraternity brothers | Please see CROSS on 2 j