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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1999)
Regents support use of fetal tissue gEGENTS from page 1— —, say we should not use the body parts beckise we don’t condone the way the person died?” Blank said. Blank said he received more calls from his constituents supporting the research than opposing it. He estimated it was a 15 to 1 ratio. The resolution the regents adopt ed supported Maurer’s efforts to use tissue obtained from miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and stillbirths first in its research. Miller challenged Maurer to form a group of people responsible for find ing ways to secure this type of tissue —from hospitals and medical centers. “Ihave been convinced that while it will be difficult and will take some transition time, there is a good chance that the Med Center can achieve enough first trimester fetal tissue from natural miscarriages and non-elective abortion sources,” Miller said. Maurer told regents future fetal cell research would .go to the Institutional Review Board. Those who came to the meeting opposed to using aborted fetuses showed disappointment after the vote. Members of Lincoln Right to Life, Rescue the Heartland and other citizens protested in front of Varner Hall before the meeting inside began. “Today was a defeat for us, for unborn children and for the pro-lifers of Nebraska,” said Bob Blank, execu tive director of the Metro Right to Life. “We’re very disappointed the university has not seen die issue as an abortion issue.” On Friday, members from pro-life organizations gathered at the Capitol to urge the regents to stop the research. While the regents’ decision wasn’t the outcome pro-life groups wanted, they said they would continue to fight. Blank said the first step for his group would be a press conference Wednesday in Omaha. NU discusses distance education By Kimberly Sweet Senior staff writer NU President Dennis Smith said he. believes there are two forces that will drive the modem university in die 21st century - information technology and demographic diversification. For Smith, die two forces can be put into an equation. The increased use of technology plus the more diversified population seeking college courses equals the need for distance education. That was the premise Smith used to begin a discussion Saturday between the NU Board of Regents and represen tatives from the University ofNebraska system about the future of distance education at the university. Smith pointed out that currently, less than 25 percent of adults national ly hold a college degree. Of those employed, half have taken courses to update their work skills Add to that 15 million college stu dents nationwide, and it is easy to see the market for distance education has the potential to be huge, Smith said. ^ “It’s-evolving into a billiSn-dollar" market,” Smith said. But ifNU is going to enter this mar ket, it is going to have to invest the resources to do so, he said “The bottom line in creating a dis _tance education course is, if you are going to do it right, it is extremely expensive,” Smith said. Faculty, administrators and other representatives from NU talked about what they thought was necessary to develop distance education further at the university. Looking for rewards for faculty to get involved with creating distance education courses was one prerequi site, representatives said. “We’ve got to do more work with administrators for faculty to be recog nized for this type of contribution,” said Arnold Bateman, assistant vice chan cellor for extended education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Looking for the places distance education is in demand is also impor tant, said Beth Bimstihl, associate dean for cooperative extension at UNL. Bimstihl referred to eight students in Valentine who were participating in a distance education nursing program as _|nes||^te of where extended educa “Part of it is being time- and place bound,” Bimstihl said. Being customer-focused is another necessity, said Rod Bates, director of university television. Regent Don Blank of McCook agreed. “It has to be intelligent listening,” Blank said. Doug Patterson, faculty senate president at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, disagreed with the use of die phrase “customer-oriented.” “In the learning process, students are responsible for absorbing the infor mation,” Patterson said. “It is not a product exchange.” Beth Klosterman, a public repre sentative from David City, said it was important not to “reinvent the wheel” when determining what strategy to use to get distance education off the ground. » “It’s not efficient economically in time or effort to do that,” she said. “We need some unity and some structure.” The regents took no action on dis tance education at the meeting Saturday. More time would be devoted to talk ChairwomanNtmcy O’Brien said. Presidential candidate against fetal research By JoshKnaub Staff writer OMAHA - Research using cells from aborted fetuses is a moral issue, Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes told supporters in Omaha on Friday. And, he said, the University of Nebraska Medical Center is wrong to continue using aborted fetal cells for any purpose. Keyes compared nimseit to me bib lical prophet Jeremiah, who foretold destruction and prescribed repentance despite being ignored by his audience. He ended his speech with a plea for those in the audience to kneel and ask for forgiveness from their creator. The second-time presidential hope ful said advocates of “the regime of abortion and the culture of death” pro moted a quick fix for those who would abandon morality. He said the cost was not only the lives of babies killed by abortion but also the moral decay he said resulted from choosing abortion rather than sex ual restraint. “But now, (abortion supporters) have upped the ante,” Keyes said. “They hold out the promise that we will be free from all of these harmful diseases ... All we have to do is give up our princi ples and take the lives of those who we cannot yet see.” He said the United States was mak ing poor moral choices in many areas. The result, Keyes said, was a nation of “moral zombies” who had lost the abili ty to care for one another. “We are sending the message that some lives are worth more than others,” Keyes said. He said choosing to devalue the lives of the unborn forced Americans to doty the morals he said were ingrained in every person. Keyes spoke without notes as he strode back and forth across a makeshift stage set up inside the National Guard armory at 70th Street and Mercy Road. His varying tempo and volume held the rapt attention of the nearly 300 people gathered for his half-hour speech. Keyes reminded the audience that Americans are countrymen because they hold the same values, not because of ethnicity or heritage. He said the challenge of the next century would be to defend those values against “those who would destroy us.” Keyes changed the rally last week from a presidential campaign stop to a pro-life rally after learning about the controversy surrounding UNMC’s research. He did not mention his candi dacy during the speech. UNL senior agriculture education major Phil Erdman was one of about 12 University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu dents who traveled to Omaha to hear Keyes speak. He said he agreed with what Keyes had to say. “He was more impressive in person than he has been in the (televised) speeches and debates I’ve seen,” Erdman said. Keyes did stray from his pro-life message long enough to warn his audi ence that free trade with China would hurt the United States. He said the United States’ relation ship with China should be different than our relationship with Russia. “The Russians wanted our approval. They, in centuries of their history, have wanted to be more Western,” he said. “The Chinese do not want to be more Western.” He said trade with China would give China the resources to build a strong military, one that China would use to challenge the United States. “Up until now, the only thing hold ing (China) back was a lack of money,” he said. “And we’re about to fix that” December 6 to 11.9:00 to 6:00 December 13 to 16.8:00 to 8:00 December 17......8:00 to 6:00 December 18.9:00 to 6:00