SPORTS ARE FRIDAY
Coliseum crazies Chile Christmas December 4,1998
The NU Coliseum is a key element of the Andean folk artists are playing a special
Nebraska volleyball team’s success in the NCAA Christmas concert for Lincoln residents tonight T-MlNUS 58 AMD COUNTING
Tournament. PAGE 9 in the state capitol rotunda. PAGE 12 Light rain, high 58. Mild tonight, low 50.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 70
Ireland pleads guilty to death of Cockson
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
As part of an agreement with prosecutors,
Jeffrey Ireland pleaded guilty Thursday to the
crime that devastated the Cockson family.
On March 14. Ireland was driving the car that
ran a red light and slammed into a car carrying
Laura, Sarah and Erin Cockson.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln junior Laura
Cockson, 21. was killed instantly. Sarah, a 20-year
old UNL freshman, and Enn, a 16-year-old high
school junior from Friend were both critically
injured and remained in intensive care for weeks
following the wreck.
“We were devastated as a
family,” said their father Bob
Cockson quietly, with his
voice wavering.
Ireland pleaded guilty to
manslaughter, which carries a
penalty of one to 20 years
and/or a $25,000 fine. In
exchange, prosecutors
dropped the three counts of
Pnrkcnn secor>d-degree assault.
uocKson The mght of the accident
Ireland and two friends had been drinking at a bar
in west Lincob.
Around 11:30 p.m. they decided to take one of
their friends home, and Ireland was driving.
though his license had been suspended since 1993.
On their way north on Sun Valley Boulevard, a
Lincoln Police officer driving behind them noticed
that the car had in-transit plates, which appeared
altered.
Near Northwest First Street on Charleston
Street, the officer tried to pull them over. Ireland
accelerated to 50 mph. went around traffic and
drove through the red light, slamming into the
Cockson car.
Laura, Sarah and Enn Cockson had been at the
Lied Center for Performing Arts for a sorority
Mom's Day event and were on their way to meet
their parents. Laura was a member of Gamma Phi
Beta, as is her sister, Sarah.
“The traumatic death of a child is right at the
top of the grief scale.” Bob Cockson said. “You
can't imagine what we went through that night.”
When Bob and Eva Cockson arrived at the
scene a few minutes after the wreck, they were told
that one of their daughters was dead and the other
two may not live.
After two hours of waiting at the hospital with
older brother and UNL senior Steve Cockson, the
family found out which daughter died in the wreck.
“Laura was a person you couldn't help but
love," Eva Cockson said.
Sarah and Erin Cockson could not go to
Laura's funeral because they were hospitalized in
intensive care.
Please see IRELAND on 3
Rutgers group
holds vendetta
against NlPs
athletic teams
By Dane Stickney
Staff writer
A faction of the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers
University is waging an athletic battle against the
scarlet and cream of Nebraska.
However, this battle is not about field position
or first downs; it is about the emphasis given to
big-time college athletics.
A group called Rutgers 1000, consisting of
faculty members, students and alumni from
Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., has
taken many steps to make people aware of the
dangers of “professionalized” college athletics.
One of those steps has been taking shots at the
University of Nebraska Athletic Department.
Rutgers English Professor William Dowling, a
member of the group, argues that athletics at the
university have become more important than aca
demics.
“I don't believe that the University of
Nebraska still exists," Dowling said. "The athletic
program is like a cancer that has taken over and
turned the university into one big throbbing
tumor."
The group's Web page defines its stance.
“Rutgers 1000 is against institutions of higher
learning operating as sports franchises with trade
marks used in connection with products, promo
tions and advertising."
The site can be found at
http://members.aol.com/rutglOOO/herbhusk.htm.
Dowling said he believed the University of
Nebraska-Lmcoln had been damaged by its athlet
ic prominence.
“Nebraska places no emphasis on academics,"
Dowling said. “The whole attention of the state is
on 40 steroid-pumped non-students.”
Athletic Director Bill Byrne said Rutgers
1000 is incorrect in some of its assumptions about
UNL.
“We recruit good athletes that are good stu
dents,” Byrne said. “The graduation rate for the
athletic program is very high, and we lead the
nation in Academic All-Americans.”
Byrne said the Athletic Department con
tributes positively to UNL.
Dowling said the groups mam goal is to per
Please see RUTGERS on 8
Screamin’ seamen
i
Matt Miller/DN
MIDSHIPMAN LUKE WHITMORE CHEERS ON the Navy/Marine ROTC team Thursday night at Memorial Stadium. The Air Force ROTC lost the
game 19-20, as the Navy/Marine ROTC team continued its recent dominance over Army and Air Force. They have won for seven straight years.
University’s state funding on downward trend
By Lindsay Young
Senior staff writer
University, state college and community col
lege officials met Thursday with state lawmak
ers to talk about what slice of the pie their insti
tutions will get in the next two years.
Lawmakers, fiscal authorities and education
officials pored over budget trends and allocation
predictions.
The discussion came about a month before
lawmakers will decide on the state budget for the
next biennium, which could get interesting with
a new governor and taxpayers who have become
antsy about state spending.
Gov.-elect Mike Johanns said he has been
looking at what priorities he will set in working
with the state budget.
“Education is a value in this state,” Johanns
said.
Hastings Sen. Ardyce Bohlke and Sen.
Roger Wehrbein of Plattsmouth organized the
daylong meeting, coined the “Postsecondary
Education Summit.”
The meeting was meant to provide budget
information to state senators, senators-elect, leg
islative staff and higher education professionals.
The amount of money the University of
Nebraska has received and will receive has been
a top concern for university officials in the past
year.
In the 1998-99 fiscal year, which will end
June 30, 1999, 17.3 percent of state general fund
appropriations went to the University of
Nebraska.
That percentage has decreased in recent
years, and university officials have predicted the
trend will continue.
In 1984, NU received 21.2 percent of the
total state budget. The university predicts that by
2010, NU will receive 15.2 percent of total state
allocations.
Please see FUNDING on 8
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