k^H Doubling Up
Freshman Amanda Buchholz is the
only NU woman to play two sports.
Jj^k SPORTS, PAGE 16
l M. DN ,ssl
. , . „ _ _ __ , . „ We tackle the big topic of obesity.
Wednesday, April 12,2000 dailyneb.com Vol 99, Issue 138 Literally.
OPINION, PAGE 5
Tooting his own horn
■ ' Mike Warren/DN
GRAHAM HOUSE, a graduate student in music performance, plays Ills french horn In the green space between Sheldon Memorial Art
GaHery aid Architecture Hall on Tuesday afternoon before going to work at The Gallup Organization. House said when the weather gets
warm he practices outside. “It sounds better outside, and 1 can get some fresh air,” he said.
Faculty: life sciences
program needs help
Taskforce recommendations mulled at forum
ByCaraPesek
Staff writer
About a dozen faculty members who attended
a Tuesday afternoon forum agreed on one thing:
UNEs life sciences program needs improvement.
“Right now, we can’t successfully implement
procedures that would get us into a higher academ
ic arena because we don *t know how to do that very
well at UNL,” said Jack Morris, director and pro
fessor of biological sciences.
Other faculty members made similar com
ments during the forum.
“We need more extension,” said one faculty
member. ‘We need more research,” said another.
Fortunately for these faculty members, change
is on the way.
In January, a task force appointed to enhance
the life sciences studies at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln released a report of recommen
dations to improve the life sciences program, said
Tony Joem, professor of biological sciences and
co-chairman of the task force.
Faculty discussed the recommendations at
Tbesdayh forum.
The life sciences, which include fields such as
agronomy, molecular biology, biochemistry and
horticulture, are scattered through the College of
Arts and Sciences, the College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources and the Agricultural Research
Division.
Because of this, the departments often lack
communication between each other. This has
resulted in a program that could be better, Joem
said.
“1th not that what we have now isn’t good,”
Joem said. “It’s that we have to make improve
We have to make
improvements, or in
five or 10 years we
won’t have a
competitive program.”
> Tonyjoem
biological sciences professor
ments or in five or 10 years we won’t have a com
petitive program.”
At Tuesday’s forum, Joem, along with task
force co-chairman David Mortensen, presented a
list of goals for improving UNDs life sciences pro
grams. Among these goals are:
■ Providing a greater balance between mis
sion-oriented and basic research activity in life sci
ences;
■ Forming a stronger relationship between
UNL and the University of Nebraska Medical
Center;
■ Revamping the structure of the life sciences
departments to improve communication between
die various colleges and departments that offer life
sciences courses. '
Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for
academic affairs, said he thinks improvements to
research and instruction efforts could be made in
the next six months.
For any improvements, Edwards stressed, the
recommendations will have to win the approval of
die majority of die life sciences faculty.
Exhibit lets
public act
as media
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
Most students and residents of
Lincoln rely on the city’s reporters,
editors and camera operators to bring
them the daily news.
But two 53-foot trailers parked in
front of Memorial Stadium during the
next few days will put those who take
in the news in the position of those
who produce it.
The traveling NewsCapade, the
mobile version of the Arlington, Va.
based Newseum, will allow visitors to
act as photographers on breaking sto
ries, edit the front page of the day’s
newspaper or act as anchors for the
exhibit’s live broadcast.
lhe exhibit, which will visit all 50
states by the end of the year, aims to
give the public a taste of what those in
the news industry do every day.
“The one thing the NewsCapade
tries to do is bring the public and the
media closer together in giving them
an idea of what a journalist does and
how news is made,” said Lauren
Crowley, a spokeswoman who travels
with the NewsCapade. : .
A1 Neuharth, founder of USA
Today and the Freedom Forum, which
funds the Newseum, travels with the
museum.
In an age where public disenchant
ment with the media is increasing, the
Please see NEWSEUM on 8
Man guilty
in sexual
assault
■ Lancaster County attorney will
recommend ‘stiffest sentence’ for
ex-comedian charged in other assaults.
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
A former comedian accused of sexual assaults
across the country was found guilty shortly after 7
p.m. Tuesday for the 1997 rape of a Lincoln woman.
Vincent Champ, 38, was convicted in Lancaster
County District Court of raping of a 27-year-old
woman who was alone playing piano in the basement
auditorium of the Union College’s E. Dick building
late Feb. 2, 1997.
Joe Kelly, assistant Lancaster County attorney,
said Champ, convicted of first-degree sexual assault,
faces a minimum of one year to a maximum of 50
years in prison.
Lancaster County Public Defender Shawn
Elliott, representing Champ, was unavailable for
comment Tuesday.
Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said this
was one of the first, if not the first, case in Nebraska
in which DNA was the primary evidence for prose
cutors. The DNA at the crime scene matched DNA
taken from Champ. It was the main reason for the
conviction, Lacey said.
During the trial, Elliott said DNA was not 100
percent accurate, no one had positively identified
Champ as the attacker in Lincoln or Omaha and that
the Lincoln victim told police she thought her attack
er was a white man. Champ is a black man.
But Lacey said the victim did not have a good
view of her attacker, and die attacker had something
covering his face.
Champ’s sentencing in Lancaster County Court
is scheduled for June 6.
Champ will be sentenced in Omaha District
Court for raping a Nebraska-Omaha faculty member
a month after the attack at Union College.
Champ pleaded no contest to the rape in Omaha,
and the judge decided to wait until the trial in Lincoln
was over to sentence Champ. Lacey said the crimes
in Omaha and Lincoln were similar, and it is possible
Champ will have similar sentences.
Depending on which court sentences Champ
first - Lincoln or Omaha - will determine which sen
tence he will serve first, Lacey said
Champ, a former Star Search comedian, booked
primarily college shows in the Midwest through An o
Professional Artists, out of Chicago, said talent agent
Scott Bass during testimony.
Based on Champ’s performance schedule, simi
larities in physical evidence and patterns during each
attack, he is suspected in several other states.
Authorities in Johnson County, Iowa, charged
Champ earlier this month with first-degree kidnap
ping for a September 1996 rape of a University of
Iowa student. The charge carries a mandatory life
sentence.
Iowa is asking to extradite Champ to face prose
cution in Iowa as soon as Nebraska has finished its
work on the case. Lacey said Lincoln and Omaha
authorities will cooperate with Iowa to the fullest
extent ' . •
Another charge was filed in Iowa for first-degree
kidnapping, for an attack on a woman at St Ambrose
University in Davenport on Feb. 16,1997.
Champ was also charged with attempted assault
at Pasadena, Calif., City College.
Attacks were also reported, but charges not filed,
at Knox College in Galesburg, 111., Carthage College
in Kenosha, Wis., and Augustana College in Rock
Island, ID.
In each rape, the man asks about the victims’sex
ual histories, forces anal sex, uses his saliva.feu: lubri
cation and asks die women to pray for him after he
rapes them.
Lacey said his office will be recommending die
stiffest sentence for Champ.