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
