VOL. 98 ~ COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 136
SPORTS
They’re in
The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team got a
second-place finish at home for the regionals and
will head to Salt Lake City for nationals. PAGE 9
a a e
Russian through art
Vladimir Slobolev, whose work appears this
month at the Noyes Gallery, is visiting from
Moscow and painting America red. PAGE 12
April 12, 1999
A-OK 4
Mostly sunny, high 65. Cloudy tonight, low 45.
RickTownley/DN
MISSY TALBER, a graduate of Midlands College, climbs the wall at the Campus
Recreation Center as a part of the Flatland Climbing Competition. About 35
climbers participated in the competition on Saturday.
RIGHT: A CLIMBER STRUGGLES for a hand-hold at Saturday’s competition. The
competition was sponsored by the UNL Climbing Club.
;
pVr
scale peafes
of excitement
By John Hejkal
Staff writer
Ascending 37 feet up a vertical wall may not be
the usual trail to weekend excitement. But that’s
just what 35 avid climbers did Saturday.
The second annual Flatland Climbing
Competition was held Saturday at the Campus
Recreation Center.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Climbing
Club organized the event, which was open to stu
dents and non-students.
Senior English major Justin Reese, president
of the Climbing Club, said he was pleased^with the
event. /
“People climbed really well,” he said. “It was a
Please see CLIMB on 6
Lincoln
woman, 34,
strangled
Police arrest co-worker
after attempted suicide
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
Police have one man in custody after a Lincoln woman
was found strangled in her home Thursday afternoon.
Bettv Bich Tran’s sister found the 34-vear-old woman
lying in her bed in her house on the
4500 block of South 47th Street just
before 2 p.m. and called police.
Preliminary autopsy results
Friday showed she had been strangled
and her wrist had been slit, Lancaster
County Attorney Gary Lacey said.
> Shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday,
. police contacted their suspect, 28
year-old Dat V Nguyen, at BryanLGH
Medical Center West after he had
Nguyen attempted suicide, Lincoln Police
ChiefTom Casady said.
From Nguyen’s apartment on the 2500 block of Vine
Street, his brother reported to 911 that Nguyen had cut him
self and was bleeding.
After Nguyen was treated and released at the hospital
for cuts on his wrists, Casady said police took him to the
station for questioning where he was later arrested just
before midnight.
Casady said the death was “suspicious from the outset,”
partly because there were “no obvious signs of death.”
Police said that Tran and Nguyen had a social relation
ship and the two carpooled to work in Crete.
Casady said that police knew of Nguyen’s social rela
tionship with the victim, but he was not a suspect until he
was questioned after the attempted suicide.
Tran’s death was the fourth Lincoln homicide of the
year and the second last week.
Thursday morning David Higgins, 42, died in the hos
pital from a gunshot wound suffered during an argument
Monday. On March 21, James Allen, 38, was found in his
apartment stabbed to death. On Feb. 18, Brandon
Pickinpaugh, 17, was found with a gunshot wound to the
head in the parking lot of the Van Dorn Plaza, 48th and Van
Dorn streets.
Nguyen is expected to be charged with murder today.
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity gets charter
66
(Receiving our charter)
was a mixture of emotions.
It was a big sigh of relief
but also really exciting.
It is the highest point of
my extracurricular life
so far.”<
Jarrod Crouse
Pi Kappa Alpha chartering chairman
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
A colony of 64 men became official
Saturday as Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity received
its official charter.
An initiation ceremony Friday preceded
Saturday morning’s chartering convocation,
and Saturday evening’s banquet.
“(The charter) is what we’ve been working
the entire year for,” said Brian Fella:, a sopho
more computer engineering major and Pike
member.
Though die fraternity is without a house, the
charter is its first step toward acquiring one,
members said.
Last April, Pike members had their first
meeting without expansion recruiters.
In order for a fraternity to receive a charter,
members must be a colony for at least one
semester and goals must be set and achieved
beforehand. }
Chartering chairman Jarrod Crouse said the
colony’s goals included standards in communi
ty service, campus involvement, fund-raising
and GPA.
Pike members were involved in community
service, Feller said, logging more than 4,400
total hours by the end of die first semester this
academic year.
The average member completed 60 hours of
community service, he said.
Pike members will continue to be involved
in several activities, including philanthropies
and intramural athletics.
This group of Pi Kappa Alphas is not the
first on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
campus.
Two groups were present before this one.
The first fraternity existed 75 years ago
firoml924to 1941.
Pikes surfaced once again in 1967. That
group lasted 10 years until it disbanded in 1977.
Feller said two expansion consultants began
gathering and recruiting members in February
1998. Soon after that, there were enough inter
ested members to form a colony.
Once the fraternity’s goals had been met, an
inspection was necessary, Crouse said. Pike
members gave a two-hour presentation outlin
ing activities they’ve done and goals they’ve
Please see FRATERNITY on 6
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