SPORTS
Shadowboxing Fiona
Setter Jill McWilliams turned down offers to
start at other schools to play for NU and learn
from All-American Fiona Nepo. PACE 9
Resident designer
L'NL Professor Sandv Veneziano divides her
time between teaching in Lincoln and working
on film sets in Hollywood. PAGE 12
October 14, 1998
The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain
Mostly cloudy, breeze, high 70. Cloudy tonight, loee 53.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 38
Report finds no bias in department
44
Basically what the report
says is that we should
continue to do what we are
doing in the department."
Elizabeth Theiss-Morse
political science department graduate chairwoman
By Lindsay Young
Senior staff writer
Despite a ruling last semester by an academ
ic senate committee that said L'NL's political sci
ence department "tolerated” sexual harassment,
a faculty committee said Tuesday that it found
no hard evidence of gender inequity in the
department.
Former Political Science Professor Valerie
Schwebach. now of Houston, who brought sex
ual harassment complaints against the depart
ment last year, said the ruling proves the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln will do nothing
to solve what she said was a serious sexual
harassment problem.
Schwebach. who resigned her position in
protest of what she said was the university's
inaction to address her sexual harassment con
cerns. said the faculty committee appointed by
UNL Chancellor James Moeser was biased
before it was even formed.
The ad hoc committee of three faculty mem
bers was formed last spring after the Academic
Senate's Academic Rights and Responsibilities
Committee found that the political science
department tolerated a sometimes hostile envi
r i
ronment to women.
The ad hoc committee members are John
Berman, professor and chairman of the psychol
ogy department; Joan Giesecke. dean of
libraries; and Anna Shav ers, associate professor
of law.
The ad hoc committee's opinion, which was
released to the public Tuesday, was accepted by
Moeser. who said the report was one of the most
"scholarly and thorough” reviews of a situation
of this sort.But doubters of the validity of the
committee's report said two committee mem
Please see REPORT on 8
1 TT 5 T T •
Sandy Simmer." DN
JOHN HARRIS, special assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs, will be leaving the university after seven years. Harris said
he will miss his interaction with students most. “They’re the reason I got into higher education,” he said.
ui\ls flams
to depart for
higher calling
By Kim Sweet
Staff unter
As a child John Harris often changed his mind about
what he wanted to be w hen he grew up.
Now. after many y ears and many career mov es. L NL's
special assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs
will change occupations once again after he ends a seven
year stay at UNL this semester.
“Ed still love to be a sportscaster today." Harris said
laughing.
Harris said he is not sure of w hat he is being led to do
or where he is supposed to do it.
He isn't leav ing UNL for a particular |ob. but because
of a particular calling. Just as vocal about his Christianity
as he is about helping people. Hams is driven by a force he
said is much bigger than himself (iod.
“There is a greater work that 1 am called to dee" 1 Iarns
said. "Em not sure what it is."
1 Iarns points to an S' :-by -10-inch paper sign taped to
a file cabinet in his office. It reads. "Muir circumstances
are not your problem, it's your attitude."
Firmly driven by the statement. 1 Iarns has tried to pass
it on to people with whom he comes in contact.
Please see HARRIS on 8
Student loans still on the rise
■ Increases in grant
spending have failed to
defray many of the costs of
higher education, UNL
officials say.
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
Despite higher grant spending lim
its authorized last week, students must
borrow more today than 15 years ago
to pav for a college education. UNL
financial aid officials said.
President Clinton last week signed
a bill that included some good news
about financial aid for students, but
Craig Munier. UNL director of schol
arslups and financial aid said students
still have to borrow money to pay for
college.
Munier said students have no
choice but to borrow more money
because federal aid cov ers less of the
costs of college.
“I took out loans to help pay for
school." financial business senior Tim
Salzbrenner said. “There is no way 1
could afford it (without loans).”
During the 1979-1980 school year,
the maximum Pell grant award cov ered
55 percent of the S3.300 estimated cost
of attending UNL. Munier said.
Today that maximum Pell grant
amount covers 30 percent of the esti
mated $9,912 cost of attending l NL.
The estimated cost figures include
cost of liv ing. tuition and books.
Many students also work part time
to help pav for college, but the rela
tionship between work income and
college costs also has eroded o\er
time. Munier said
Even a student working 20 hours a
week at minimum wage will struggle
to gain ground on the increasing cost
of higher education.
In 1979-1980 a minimum-wage
income of SI,856. based on 32 weeks
of work, was 56 percent of the cost of
attending UNL.
Now that same minimum-wage
job generates S3.296 income, but cov
ers only 33 percent of the cost of col
lege.
"More of the cost of college is
being shifted to students." Munier
said.
In 1979-1980 a Pell grant and a
part-time job essentially would co\er
Please see AID on 8
Education costs
The percentage of students paying for their education by working a minimum wage job and
receiving a Pell grant is shrinking. Cost estimates include cost of living, tuition and books.
Figures are rounded.
Cost of
education: $3,300 $5,400 $7,500 S9,900
I $2,000
1980-81 1986-87 1992-93 1998-99
0 Percent of undergraduate student costs paid by working 20 hours per week at
federal hourly minimum wage
@ Percent of undergraduate student costs paid with maximum Pell grant award
•Jon Frank DN
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