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Tuesday, March 28,2000
dailyneb.com
Vol 99,
All Mixed Up
311 brings its funky fresh style to
Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium.
A&E, PAGE 10
Powerful Pipeline
Offensive lineman Russ Hochstein
paces a formidable Husker line.
SPORTS, PAGE 16
Committee suggests firing Reinhard
By Kimberly Sweet
Staffwriter
Nearly two years after the discov
ery of the possible mistreatment of
American Indian bones at UNL, a fac
ulty committee has recommended the
firing of a professor who worked with
die remains.
In a special report, the committee
of six faculty members, appointed by
the Academic Rights and
Responsibilities Committee, voted 4-1,
with one member abstaining, to recom
mend that anthropology professor Karl
Reinhard be fired
If Chancellor James Moeser
decides against termination, the com
mittee recommended that Reinhard be
sent a formal letter of censure, that his
10 percent appointment within the
anthropology department cease, that he
be excluded from merit-salary increas
es and that he have other sanctions
placed upon him.
Reinhard said he was stunned by
the committee’s recommendation to
fire him.
“That’s outrageous,” Reinhard said.
Reinhard said the lesser penalty
would be equally damaging.
“The only thing they don’t say is
that I should stay out of the classroom,”
he said.
Moeser said the report, which was
obtained by the Daily Nebraskan, was
confidential and consequently he
would not comment.
Twenty charges were brought
against Reinhard by a UNL faculty
member and two members represent
ing American Indian nations last
spring.
A majority of the faculty commit
tee voted to indict Reinhard on 11 of the
charges brought forward.
The charges voted on by a majority
of the committee “represent a pattern of
violation of and disregard for federal
and state laws, UNL policy, and profes
sional and university codes of ethics,
and call for severe penalty,” the report
stated.
Some of the charges a majority of
the committee voted on include the fol
lowing:
■ That Reinhard conducted inva
sive testing on remains connected with
the Ponca nations despite opposition
and against the Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
and university policy.
■That he kept remains in his teach
ing lab in violation of UNL and NAG
PRA policy.
■ That Reinhard breached UNL
policy by publishing studies based on
illegal research done on remains. The
committee also said he violated policy
by making a false statement to get a
research grant to continue illegal study.
■ That Reinhard transmitted
“unethical and immoral values” to stu
dents during his tenure at UNL and cre
ated a “hostile” environment for
American Indian faculty, staff and stu
dents.
Reinhard said the committee acted
on allegations rather than evidence and
that all the charges could be refuted
with documents.
He also said that he has been target
ed unfairly for actions taken by univer
sity officials in the past that damaged
the university’s image in its treatment of
remains.
“This all comes down to the unwill
ingness of the university to accept
responsibility,” he said.
When he came to the university,
Reinhard said he was assigned to work
Please see REINHARD on 7
inside the a
campaign
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a
weeklong series taking a closer look at the
2000ASUN elections.
Impact party
takes relaxed
approach
By Samuel McKewon
Senior editor
There is no plan etched in stone for running
an ASUN presidential campaign.
Some are meticulous and prepared to the hilt,
like Empower and its presidential candidate
Heath Mello. Others, like A-Team and Duff, are,
well, looser.
Impact presidential candidate John Conley
was somewhere in between. More laid back than
Mello but more structured than the other two
parties, Conley, first presidential candidate Brad
Bangs and second vice presidential candidate
Amy Ellis, along with a loyal nucleus of sup
porters, do the brunt of die work few the election.
Ellis, a junior human resources and family
sciences major, is the schedule-maker of the
group. One night, there’s an hour-by-hour chart
of what Impact will doing as a party, scrawled in
Impact’s party color of blue.
“That’s Amy right there,” Conley says as he
points at the chart. “She’s always the organized
one.”
Ellis also organizes Impact supporters and
senate candidates on work nights, which take
place on Tuesdays. Ellis directs a few people to
Please see IMPACT on 8
- Heather Glenboski/DN
HEATH MELLO PAINTS a campaign sign, to be hung on a fraternity or sorority house, at one of the
Empower Party’s work nights in the Nebraska Union.
Empower party begins and ends with details
By Linasay Young
Senior editor
A terrible meeting at first, says Empower
presidential candidate Heath Mello, pacing in
the room and then sitting down.
But it got better, his first vice presidential
candidate, Cecily Rometo, says, bunched up
on the couch with her feet next to her body.
Oh, I’ve seen worse, second vice Mike
Butterfield says, and stretches out further on
the couch with his hands behind his head.
At the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority house,
the three had just finished brainstorming for
their party’s platform with about 20-30 of
meir supporters, it s aoout a month beiore the
first election day.
The three executive candidates for the
Empower party balanced each other out well
throughout the campaign, considering they
were three people who didn’t know each other
well before their two-month marathon began.
Mello was always on the go, intent on
staying on track with his campaign schedule.
But he can be lax, sometimes, when looking at
rules. Not that he means to break them; it just
seems he feels everything will work out in the
end.
Rometo is more intense, more intent on
following plans to a tee. She and Butterfield
keep Mello in check. She s more of a behind
the-scenes person and admits she has the ten
dency to sound impersonal when talking to or
in a group.
And then there’s Butterfield, who can be
best described as laid-back. His words trickle
drop by drop out of his mouth as if it were a
faucet that wasn’t shut off entirely. But it’s an
intense laid-back. He sticks to his path.
The day the three went over platform ideas
with their supporters wasn’t a short one. But it
went OK. The meeting started around 3:30 or
4 p.m. and finally wrapped up around 6:45.
Please see EMPOWER on 9
Professor
receives
new award
■ Vernon Williams was recog
nized for helping provide a more
inclusive environmentlor gays.
By Margaret Behm
Staffwriter
For the first time, people who have stood up
for the gay community were officially recognized
by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Vernon Williams, an educational psychology
professor and career counselor at UNL, was pre
sented with the Outstanding Contributions to the
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered
Community Award by the chancellor on Monday
in the Nebraska Union.
“I was overwhelmed,” said Williams, a mem
ber of the UNL committee for GLBT concerns.
“I really wasn’t expecting it, and I was very hon
ored by it.”
Williams, wno is also president ot Barents
and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, received a
plaque and $1,000 will be given to the depart
ment or program on campus of his choice. He
said he is undecided on who the money will be
given to. His name will also be on a plaque in
Chancellor James Moeser’s office.
Nick Wolff, a member of the Sexual
Orientation Advisory Council, said he was
pleased that Williams valued the award.
“The award is important because it gives
recognition to people who make contributions to
the gay and lesbian community,” said Wolff, a
senior mechanical engineering major. “It also
gives importance to the (gay) movement.”
Williams’ nomination was one of four
received by the UNL Committee for GLBT
Concerns. The three other nominees received a
certificate of recognition.
Pat Tetreault, co-chairwoman of the commit
tee, applauded the efforts of everyone who stands
up for the gay community.
“It takes courage and leadership to work
towards a more inclusive and safe environment
for GLBT people,” said Tetreault, sexuality edu
cation coordinator for the University Health
Center.
The gay community is not treated equally on
this campus, Williams said.
“The GLBT community is a group of stu
dents, faculty and staff who are not recognized or
given equal rights,” he said ‘To have some recog
nition of their needs is crucial.”
People sometimes face uncomfortable situa
tions because of words spoken on this campus,
Please see AWARD on 7
