—• -g Legacy of Learning
B I BT T A UNL program is named after a
I M ^^k I I %/ Challenger astronaut who died 14
mYm ^ ^ JLJL J ^B years ago today. NEWS, PAGE 8
Nebraskan —*
JL '^B «Bk flJIL Two Canadians present an altema
Fnday, January 28,2000 dailyneb.com Vol 99, Issue^Q'Q at the Lied, a&e, page io
AT A WEDNESDAY morning press conference in his hometown of Nestings, former Nil football coach Tom Osborne announces he
will run for the 3rd Congressional District seat In the U.S, House of Representatives.
Osborne enters political race
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
HASTINGS - It didn’t take Tom
Osborne long to break a roomful of
reporters’ suspense about whether he’d
make a run for the U.S. House of
Representatives on Thursday morning.
The former Nebraska football coach
walked into the temporary pressroom
housed in the student union of Hastings
College - his alma mater - as reporters
clung to their cell phones, giving on-the
spot updates to their news directors and on
air reports to radio stations.
All wondered one thing: Would he or
wouldn’t he?
Then, he walked up to the podium to
make his announcement.
“The reason we’re here in Hastings is
because I am announcing my candidacy for
the 3rd District Congressional race,” he
said.
After making the announcement,
Osborne, 62, told the audience he would
enter the political arena in a somewhat non
political fashion.
His campaign and potential term would
not be driven by party leanings.
“I’m not a partisan person, and I don’t
understand party politics at all,” he said.
His campaign will be closed to individ
uals and organizations expecting to influ
ence him through large contributions.
“We hear from time to time about cam
paign reform,” Osborne said. “We’re going
to have a campaign that is already
reformed.”
If elected, Osborne said he would be
faithful to only one thing.
“I want you to feel that whatever side I
am on will be simply based on my con
” I want you to feel
that whatever side I
am on will be
simply based on my
conscience.
Tom Osborne
Congressional candidate
science,” he said.
Osborne said he decided to run for the
spot Bill Barrett will vacate after talking to
other Nebraska delegates and determining
Please see OSBORNE on 8
Clinton
speech
criticized
State of the Union covers
taxes, guns, education
ByJillZeman
Staff uriter
In his final State of the Union address, President
Bill Clinton championed issues such as increased
spending for schools and health care, reducing the
national debt, tax cuts and stricter gun control laws.
The total bill for his proposals: more than $364
billion.
Thank goodness this was , ,
his last State of the Union •• tt > •
address because we can’t /Tc o dgdlYl
afford any more,” said Sen. > •
Chuck Hagel. ClCting OS
Clinton spoke for almost ,7 7 7 •
90 minutes on Thursday, and tnOUgrl Dig
with his new proposals, it cost
American taxpayers $4 billion gOVemment
per minute, Hagel said. , 77 ^7
“This was the great grand- fldS dll trlC
daddy of speeches in terms of ,
spending,” Hagel said. dlflSWCVS, DUt
Rep. Lee Terry of the 2nd 7 , 7
District said he was pleased trldt S not the
Clinton had an aggressive plan f f
to eliminate the national debt. CdS€.
However, Terry said,
Clinton’s plans of expanding Bill Barrett
government programs and ,rd DisIIicI representative
reducing the national debt
seemed contradictory.
“I will hdp him achieve his goal of reducing the
national debt by fighting his plans for more govern
ment,” Terry said.
Sen. Bob Kerrey said he thought Clinton gave a
good speech but agreed that some of Clinton’s tax
breaks could create higher taxes for everyone.
Rep. Bill Barrett of the 3rd District said the gov
ernment doesn’t have enough money for all the pro
grams Clinton suggested, and he thought most of the
programs would not be passed in Congress.
Terry agreed.
“We need to adopt the Nebraska value of thrift,”
he said.
Barrett and Hagel both said they thought the
president proposed programs that would make the
government too big.
“He’s again acting as though big government has
Please see UNION on 7
iNnEsBiRdAeS K A
] ” i
Idea of offering athletes chance
to study their sport gains interest
By Samuel McKewon
Senior editor
Murray Sperber sees it as all a big con
spiracy against the college athlete.
Sperber, an associate professor of English
at the University of Indiana and author of
College Sports Inc., a book outlining the eco
nomics of college athletics, contends athletic
departments have been using athletes for
years.
“They’re guns for hire,” Sperber said.
“They’re professional athletes that don’t get
paid.”
Another movement designed to hurt ath
letes, Sperber said, is currently being bounced
around NCAA boardrooms. An athletics
major, which would allow athletes to more
specifically focus on their sports, could
become a reality in the next century.
The idea of a sports major is among the
numerous issues that surround this question:
Just how much of an athlete is a student?
For Sperber, who has written two books
about athletes and is working on a third, about
the relationship of undergraduates and their
schools, athletes are lesser students than they
have ever been before.
He spoke of athletes in his classes who
performed well below their abilities because
of nothing more than a lack of time. Too many
Please see MAJOR on 9