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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2000)
The Great Plains Art Gallery provides a forum for art from the wild, wild West In Arts/8 In News/3 Friday November 10,2000 Volume 100 Issue 57 dailyneb.com Since 1901 Daily Nebraskan LeBtanc plays two roles on the MU soccer team In SportsWeekend/10 416 won't nullify benefits BY VERONICA DAEHN In light of Initiative 416, the fight for domestic-partner bene fits at the University ofNebraska Lincoln can go on. UNL Associate English Professor George Wolf, a gay rights activist, and others like him have pushed for the university to grant health-care benefits to gay and lesbian domestic partners for years. But with Tliesday night’s pas sage of the amendment that will ban gay and lesbian marriages, domestic partnerships and civil unions in Nebraska, Wolf said he was worried domestic-partner benefits would no longer be legal But Wolf and fellow UNL English Professor Barbara DiBemard need not be worried University General Counsel Dick Wood told the Daily Nebraskan on Thursday that Initiative 416 would not affect die university's offering domestic partner benefits. wniie max is a pius ior sup porters of die benefits, the initia tive will hurt the university’s hir ing practices, Wolf said. “It may not manifest itself in ways that are particularly visible,” he said. “But if I were looking for a job, I’d drop Nebraska off my list of places to even apply to.” Said Interim Chancellor Harvey Perlman: “This will be viewed by some people as Nebraska not being an open, wel coming state.” The initiative won't have an immediate, direct effect, Perlman said. But it will have long-term impact "I don't expect we’ll stop hir ing,” he said. “But there’s a likeli hood that some individuals who would have applied here may now not apply here.” DiBemard said she was disap pointed in the passage of Initiative 416 and that it won by such a large margin. Nearly 450,000 Nebraskans voted for die initiative. Just under 190,000voted against it DiBemard said the oppo nents of the initiative didn’t have enough money or time to educate everyone in the state. “There wasn’t enough money to run the kind of media cam paign our opponents did,” she said. “If Nebraskans really under stood the issue, they would have voted against it” DiBemard agreed the initia tive would hurt recruitment at UNL But she said the fact that domestic-partner benefits were not offered to faculty and staff members at the university now Please see BENEFITS on 5 Bob and Fran Brauerof Seward watch election cover age at Circuit rity,61400St Americans are still waiting for the results of Tuesday's elec tion, which hinge on Florida's popular vote. Scott McOurg/DN Recounts, revotes, Palm Beach and politics: Race chaos reigns THE ASSOCIATED PRESS George W. Bush’s lead over A1 Gore in all-or-nothing Florida slipped beneath 300 votes in a suspense-filled recount Thursday, as Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts claiming “an injustice unparalleled in our history.” The Bush campaign was considering recounts in two other close-vot ing states. Chaos reigned. It may take weeks to untangle the thicken ing legal and political webs and determine the nation's 43rd president. "The presidential election is ... on hold,” said James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state in Bush’s father’s administration brought in to protect the Texas governor's interests. Gore wants a follow-up recount in four Florida counties and perhaps a new election in the Palm Beach area - ideas the Bush camp said amounted to “politicizing and distorting” the electoral system. Amid a campaign-style flur ry of charges and counter charges, Gore Campaign Chairman William Daley said his party will support legal actions by voters and support ers who say a confusing ballot may have led them to vote acci dentally for Reform Party candi date Pat Buchanan. “We’re raising some very serious questions, and legal actions will be taken,” Daley said at a Florida session with Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state acting as Gore’s recount consigliere. The Bush campaign fired back by staking its own claim to a Florida victory and question ing Gore’s motives. Still, Republicans eyed recounts else where in case Gore prevails in Florida, raising the specter of a lengthy, multistate battle. "One of the options that they seem to be looking at is new elections. Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day; it does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome,” Bush Campaign Chairman Don “It’s very difficult to believe there were 19,000 people who were dumb enough to vote twice for president in one place ” John Cavanaugh Omaha Democrat who served with A1 Gore in Congress Evans said in Austin, Texas. John Cavanaugh, an Omaha Democrat who served with Gore in Congress in the late 1970s, said a resolution was a long way off. He said the recount showed Gore's votes in Florida were sig nificantly undercounted on election night. For example, Gore had a net gain in 36 of the 62 counties he won, for a net statewide pickup of about 1,500 votes. He said the state should manually recount the ballots to identify any irregularities. “Something is amiss here, and they have to find out what happened,” he said. Almost certainly, he said, many of the 3,400 people in Palm Beach County who voted for Pat Buchanan, and a large percentage of the 19,000 people whose ballots were invalidated because of double voting, intended to vote for Gore. “It's very difficult to believe there were 19,000 people who were dumb enough to vote twice for president in one place,” he said. Cavanaugh said, though, that he would favor a new vote in Palm Beach County only in “extraordinary circumstances.” Chuck Sigerson, chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party, said Bush and Gore each should pledge to abide by the results of the recount. “It’s time for A1 Gore and George W. Bush to be states men,” he said. “This should not go to the courts.” He said both candidates should follow the lead of Richard Nixon, who chose not to challenge his 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy despite evidence of widespread voter fraud* in Chicago. Claims that confusing bal lots caused thousands of Gore supporters to vote incorrectly, he said, are “absolute baloney.” “The fact of the matter is, we all play by the same rules,” he said. “If you screw up the ballot, that's tough.” Both sides dispatched dozens of lawyers and political operatives to Florida and geared up fund-raising drives to finance what is exploding into a post-campaign recount cam PleaseseeRACEon6 Dean candidate touts visiting-artists plan BY VERONICA DAEHN The final candidate for dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts spoke to UNL faculty members at the Lied Center on Thursday. Raymond Tymas-Jones, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts at Ohio University in Athens since 1998, said he was interested in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because of the places associated with its fine arts college. Places such as the Lied Center for Performing Arts, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and the Center for Great Plains Studies offer a special opportunity for cooperation, he said. “Few other schools have what this institution does,” Tymas-Jones said. "All of these wonderfiil, cultural organ izations ... provide an expanded expe rience, which can make this a win-win for everyone involved." Since Tymas-Jones began at Ohio, he has implemented several programs emphasizing the importance of inte grating departments of a college of fine and performing arts into one unit fit 1998, he created an interdiscipli nary visiting artists’ fund that paid for visiting artists of all fields - including music, theater, dance - to come to the university and work with students of different departments. It is critical for a college of fine and performing arts to bring in artists, Tymas-Jones said, because it strength ens and extends the faculty. In 1999, he began an annual convo cation that brought together students from all departments in the college on the first Friday in October. The convocation helped bring all students in the college closer, he said. “It’s great to sit in a room together and look around at the people who are there learning, studying and celebrat ing the arts,” Tymas-Jones said. A dean needs to be a facilitator, he said - one who’s always looking for opportunities for success. If chosen as dean at UNL, lymas Jones said, he would be the college's spokesman and would articulate the goals of the college to the upper administration and die community. It is important for a college of fine and performing arts to reach the entire university, he said. And the best way to do that is through performances. “We are obliged to serve the citi zenry of Nebraska," Tymas-Jones said. "(Performances are) a part of the uni versity’s charter.” Higher educational administration graduate student Rachelle Winkle was the only student on the selection com mittee that chose the dean candidates after Richard Durst left to become the College of Arts and Architecture dean at Penn State University in University Park, Pa., last February. Winkle, who was an undergraduate music major, said the dean needed to be a spokesperson who would pro mote the college on a national level. That’s the only way to continue earning money for die college, she said. Winkle also said the new dean should interact more with students. “A lot of times that doesn’t happen,” she said. The Final Four The following are the four finalists for dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Giacomo Olivia University of Florida Gainesville, Fla. David Orr Belcher Southwest Missouri State University Springfield, Mo. Kathleen Rountree Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, La. Raymond Tymas-Jones Ohio University Athens, Ohio Melanie Falk/ON Journalism dean decides against leaving Nebraska BY VERONICA DAEHN Will Norton, dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, has decided to stay at UNL - for now. Norton was one of three candidates for a dean position at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. But he withdrew from consideration for dean of its College of Journalism and Mass Communications, said Tom Simons, University of Nebraska-Iincoln spokesman. Norton, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, has served as dean at UNL since 1990 and holds several prolific national positions. A move would have marked the 12th administrative departure at UNL in the past yean Mike Goff, chairman of the advertising depart ment, said he was pleased Norton decided to stay but said his withdrawal from South Carolina’s dean search Please see NORTON on 3
