Monday
December 4,2000
Volume 100
Issue 70
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
Daily Nebraskan
Though the violence still
irks, review of ‘Fight Club’ is
■ii n Hi I , . .raliif
retnougnt
In Arts/5
Huskers advance to
NCAA Sweet 16 after a
five-game win over South
Carolina
In SportsMonday/16
The semester-long student
artist series draws doses
with a look at the art of the
written word
In Arts/5
Election doesn't remove veil from court
BY GEORGE GREEN
When lawyers for George W.
Bush and A1 Gore squared off
inside the Supreme Court on
Friday, the rest of America had
to wait outside to learn how the
punches fell.
Early last week, the court
denied requests from C-SPAN
and CNN to televise the pro
ceedings.
The struggle to feed the
court battle live into homes has
pitted ambitious journalists
against a court that values its
privacy.
Bruce D. Collins, C-SPAN’s
general counsel, said he felt the
media deserved access to the
court’s sacred chambers
because of the importance of
the arguments occurring inside
its doors.
“It is difficult to conceive of
any other oral argument before
the court more deserving of the
largest possible audience than
this one,” he said.
Collins said seeing and hear
ing the court work live could
greatly enhance the public’s
knowledge of this typically
obscure institution.
But Kathy Arberg, a spokes
woman for the court, said it has
never allowed cameras to
breach its courtroom and it felt
that it didn’t need to start now.
“A majority of the justices
decided to adhere to the past
practices,” she said.
John Bender, a news-edito
rial professor who specializes in
media law, said he was not sur
prised by the court’s decision.
He said the electronic media
do not have an automatic right
to plaster courtroom images
across television screens.
The media have a right to
cover courtrooms with
reporters under the First
Amendment, Bender said.
But beyond giving reporters
seats in their chambers during
proceedings, the court has no
other legal obligation to the
media, he said.
"There's no right, except
when a jurisdiction creates
one," he said.
Essentially, Bender said,
each state decides how it would
like to regulate media coverage
of its courtrooms.
Some states allow near com
plete coverage, while a few
states still bar cameras com
pletely, he said.
In Nebraska, Bender said,
justices let cameramen cover
appellate courts, including the
Supreme Court. But, he said, the
state doesn’t allow the media to
televise criminal court proceed
ings.
Despite a staunch rejection
from the Supreme Court,
Bender said, in the past the
media have convinced some
federal courts to toy with the
idea of filming courtroom pro
ceedings.
Bender said the media made
headway on the issue during the
early 1990s.
But, he said, when the O.J.
Simpson case landed in the
headlines for weeks on end, the
public and courts grew tired of
struggling with the media.
It would be a very educational opportunity for
the general public
Larry Walklin
broadcasting professor
“The Simpson case killed
the issue,” he said.
John Gruhl, a political sci
ence professor, said the
Supreme Court, in particular,
has always viewed itself as being
outside of the political and pub
lic arena.
As compared with the leg
islative and executive branches
of the government, which feed
on media attention, the judicial
branch tries to avoid cameras
and reports whenever it can,
Gruhl said.
Bender said the court values
its privacy so much that court
lore says Justice Anthony
Kennedy came across tourists in
the court who didn't recognize
him as a justice and approached
him merely because they want
ed Kennedy to take a photo of
them.
Those days, though, will
come to end, Gruhl said.
Please see TAPES on 7
$20,000
will buy
seat at
alum club
BY SHARON KOLBET
Groundbreaking for the
Nebraska Alumni Association’s
Champions Club began Friday.
The two-story pavilion
located at 701 N. 10“* across
from Memorial Stadium is
scheduled to be completed in
time for the opening of the 2001
Nebraska football season.
But before you start making
plans for a pre-game soiree at
the new club, you might want to
check your bank account bal
ance. A 25-year membership
will run you $20,000.
Despite the steep entry fee,
the alumni association main
tains the new facility will be a
boon to the entire university,
not just those who can afford
the membership fee.
"It’s a building project that
will benefit everyone,” said Ed
Paquette, executive director of
the Nebraska Alumni
Association.
“The Alumni Association
gains more space and the uni
versity gains more parking.”
A surface lot containing 400
parking spaces will surround
the facility. The lot will be for
members only on game days,
while providing the university
with additional parking for stu
dents and staff during the week.
me Aiuiiuu /vssociauon wiu
manage the Champions Club
using the space for events
exceeding capacity at the Wick
Alumni Center.
"In the past, we had to turn
people away because we just
didn't have enough room at the
Wick Center.” Paquette said.
The Champions Club will
help alleviate this problem by
Please see CLUB on 7
Derek Lippincott/DN
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING: Angie Ferrell pushes her one-year-old daughter, Taybor, with Kay Ferrell, left and Jenni Butler on Sunday at SouthPointe
Pavilion. The Ferrells and Butler, from Marysville, Kan., said they normally do their Christmas shopping at the last minute but decided to make the trip to
Lincoln Sunday because of the nice weather.
Culture
Center
plans OK'd
■ Interim Chancellor Perlman approved a
recommendation to move ahead with project.
BY VERONICA DAEHN
Chrystine Russell, a freshman who works at
the Culture Center, said she understood why a lot
of students never come to the center.
The building that houses seven University of
Nebraska-Lincoln minority student organiza
tions is located at 333 N. 14 St in what used to be
a Presbyterian church.
It's too far off campus for students to come,
Russell said. Russell said many students don’t
realize the Culture Center is part of the university.
But UNL is taking strides to solve the problem.
Interim Chancellor Harvey Perlman approved
a recommendation from the Academic Planning
committee Wednesday to move ahead with plans
for a new Culture Center, said James Griesen, vice
chancellor for student affairs.
The new center, which would nse three stones
and span 30,000 square feet, would be built onto
the east side of the Nebraska Union.
Though nothing's final at this point, the next
step will be formulating a project statement for
the facility, Griesen said. A project statement
describes the cost, size and other details of a proj
ect.
Griesen said that could be done next semester,
but he might not submit it to the Board of Regents
until next fall.
The board must approve the project before
work can begin.
Students and workers in the Culture Center
have been asking for a new facility for a number of
years.
The current center has problems with heating,
air conditioning and ventilation.
It’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the
summer, Russell said.
Griesen said some upper rooms can’t even be
used because of the temperature extremes.
Another concern is the lack of handicap acces
sibility of the main floor. This limits some stu
Please see CENTER on 7
Election protests continue
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawyers for A1 Gore and
George W. Bush slogged through a
second day of testimony about
chads, voting machines and the
vice president’s pleas for a
recount, while GOP running mate
Dick Cheney said Sunday it’s time
for Gore to concede.
Democrats talked about the
possibility of a gracious exit from
the presidential contest, but
declared, “It's far from over.”
As a Florida circuit judge
promised a speedy resolution to
Gore’s historic election protest,
the vice president braced for the
next round of legal action and
attended church, where he heard
a sermon titled, “A Time for
4*
Waiting.”
It was an apt metaphor for the
longest, closest presidential con
test in 124 years. Gore, testing
Americans’ willingness to wait as
he exhausts his legal options, con
ducted an interview with CBS’s
“60 Minutes” as part of a personal
ized public relations blitz.
“At the end of the day, when all
processes have taken place, if
George Bush is sworn in as presi
dent, he’ll be my president. He’ll
be America’s president,” Gore
said.
Nearly a month after Election
Day, Cheney led a herd of Bush
and Gore allies to the Sunday
news shows. “I do think that it’s
time for him to concede,” he told
NBC. “So far, he’s chosen not to do
7 can assure you that
the vice president,
when the time comes,
will concede in a very
gracious way.
Warren Christopher
Gore lieutenant
that - to pursue other avenues -
and clearly that's his prerogative.
But I think... history would regard
him in a better light if he were to
bring this to a close.”
Gore allies said he won’t con
Please see ELECTION on 7
Supporters of
George W. Bush
shout at Al Gore
supporters
Friday in front of
theUi.
Supreme Court
in Washington
D.C.