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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1999)
SPORTS It’s official: NU’s on a roll The Nebraska men’s basketball team won its fourth straight game Saturday with a 72-55 win over Colorado. PAGE 12 AM_ Too much ‘Light’ The Lincoln Community Playhouse opened the zany comedy “Light Up the Sky" last weekend.The characters and plot prove to be too much. PAGE 9 MON >AY January 25, 1999 Januwears On You Partly cloudy, high 33. Cloudy tonight, low 23. Schwebach files suit against NU regents By Ieva Augstums Copyright ©1999 Daily Nebraskan A former UNL assistant political science pro fessor who said her rights to a non-hostile, harass ment-free work environment were not adequately protected, is suing the university. Valerie Schwebach, who left UNL in May 1998, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit Thursday against the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. The lawsuit details Schwebach’s allegations of sexual harassment in the political science depart ment, as well as information regarding several graduate students’ complaints and sexual harass I ment problems since January 1993. Schwebach, now in Houston, requested to be reinstated to what she said was her rightful place as a professor, as well as be awarded back salary and fringe benefits, compensatory benefits and attor ney s fees. “They forced me to leave,” Schwebach said. “They are obligated to bring me back.” NU General Counsel Richard Wood said he was aware of Schwebach’s suit, but would not comment on the case because he said the universi ty had not formally been served the court docu ments. Schwebach said she began experiencing the department’s “sometimes unsafe environment” soon after coming to UNL in 1994. “When this all first started all I wanted was an apology. Now I want them to make changes,” Schwebach said. Thom Cope, one of Schwebach's attorneys, said Schwebach had been fighting for her civil rights for almost five years. “She fought her case internally at the universi ty, and adequate results were not produced,” Cope said. Schwebach brought harassment complaints to Professor David Forsythe, then political science department chairman, in the spring of 1995. The lawsuit stated no action was taken by Forsythe or the department to stop the harassment. Subsequent incidents of what Schwebach said were harassment led her to file complaints with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Brian Foster in 1996, UNL Academic Senate's Academic Rights and Responsibilities Committee, and the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission in 1997. She also filed complaints with UNL's affirmative action office in 1998. Cope and Schwebach said some of the admin istrative investigations wefe flawed, and in 1998 Schwebach decided she wanted to pursue her case in court. Cope said the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the NEOC’s investigation was inadequate, and the EEOC Please see SUIT on 8 Matt Miller/DN ABOUT 200 STUDENTS lined up as early as 5:30 a.m. outside of CBA 209 on Jan. 15 to interview for overrides into management infor mation systems courses. Many students missed other classes, work or sleep as they waited in line for up to three hours. Job market plentiful for MIS graduates By Kim Sweet Staff writer Despite the increase in demand for man agement information system classes at UNL, university officials said there wasn’t a risk for the field becoming saturated anytime soon. “I see the field growing rapidly,” said Keng Siau, assistant professor of management. “Currently the demand is more than we can supply.” Management information courses, which teach students to integrate a variety of software to do different tasks in one system, have seen an increase in demand over the past five years. During the first week of school, hundreds of UNL students lined up to get permission to override into the management information classes. While the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has offered a curriculum in MIS for more than 25 years, Management Department Chairman Sang Lee said the courses became popular about five years ago. Modem technology’s increased use in the business world and the rise of the Internet have led to the demand for courses with an MIS emphasis, Lee said. Students interested in the MIS field must have management skills along with a knowl edge of information technology. This combi nation of knowledge is what has put the pro gram in the business college, Siau said. Programming - or creating software - isn’t a necessity because the software itself already exists, Lee said. “We need more people to use the tools to build the system up,” he said. “That is where the money is.” UNL graduates are highly sought-after once they have graduated with the MIS emphasis. With a curriculum that was modi fied and updated two years ago, Siau said he has been told by some companies they will take as many MIS graduates as UNL can pro duce. Having a curriculum that Lee called sec ond to none doesn’t hurt graduates’ prospects Please see MIS on 8 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at dailyneb.com Legislators look to slow 1-80 to 70 By Jessica Fargen Senior staff writer Three years ago when the Legislature bumped up the 1-80 speed limit to 75 mph, they did it with the belief that speeding motorists would be ticketed more often for speeding just a few miles over the limit. More fines, less speed and a safer interstate were the goals. But with inadequate law enforcement, that didn’t happen, and reducing the speed limit without enforce ment is not effective, lawmakers and highway officials said. The Highway Safety Initiative of 1999, introduced by Wahoo Sen. Curt Bromm, contains a series of bills that would reduce the speed limit from 75 mph to 70 mph on Interstate 80 from the Hamilton County line, near York, east to Omaha. under tne initiative, penalties tor drunken driving offenses would be stiffened and failure to wear a seat belt would become a primary offense, meaning a law enforcement officer could pull drivers over solely for not wearing their seat belts. Bromm’s plan also calls for the installation of an ignition interlock system in the cars of people with two or more driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence citations on their record. The interlock system links an alcohol breath test to the ignition, and will not allow a person to start their car if they are intoxicated. The bill would also require that motor vehicular homicide, normally a misdemeanor, would be upgrad ed to a felony in certain cases. It also would make it ille gal to have an open container of alcohol in the passenger area of their car. As an alternative to reducing speed limits, Sen. George Coordsen of Hebron introduced a bill to double - and sometimes more than triple - existing fines for speeding on 1-80. But highway safety administrators said unless peo ple are held accountable for speeding, neither fines nor lowered speed limits will make a difference. Bromm said reducing the speed limit on the most heavily traveled and most dangerous part of 1-80 was aimed at lowering the number of accidents. Please see SPEED on 8