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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2000)
sr iM/y Nebraskan ■ NU Soccer’s ‘Great WaT Printmaker challenges defense is the result of steflar Sheldon viewers to defenders, butitts also a total image behind the object team effort lnArts/6 In SportsWeekend/10 New pact regulates research BY VERONICA DAEHN An USDA settlement announced Wednesday could affect research on small animals at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. But Interim Vice Chancellor for Research Don Helmuth said the decision wouldn’t affect researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture said their decision to draft a rule regarding the use of rats, mice and birds in research was the best choice for all involved. Under the current Animal Welfare Act, large, warm-blooded animals must be given a minimum standard of care and treatment. The settlement came from a lawsuit that was filed by an animal rights group, which had sued the USDA to include small animals in the act. Because rats, mice and birds will now be _• included in the list of protected animals, the USDA will require “We’re researchers to keep records on already in t*1086 animals, creating more .. paperwork. complianc NU Medical Center e With Associate Vice Chancellor David iTopiA Crouse said the extra paper UoUA\ work could discourage some regulation researchers from undertaking S if not projects because of the time it ' ' „ takes to keep the extraxecords. above. The agreement is more of a paperwork hassle than an ani Don Helmuth mal welfare issue, Crouse said. interim UNL researchers already research vice keep exact records of what ani chancellor mals they use, Helmuth said, so ““——— agreement is not a concern. “It will not have a material effect on us,” Helmuth said. “We’re already in com pliance with USDA regulations, if not above.” Helmuth said USDA officials would now need to inspect the rats, mice and birds as well as the other animals, so periodic USDA laboratory inspections might take longer and the labs may be more closely scrutinized. Research on rats, mice and birds is a small part of what UNL does, Helmuth said. Most researchers at the university deal with domestic farm animals. But with increased funding from the National Institutes of Health, UNL’s research on small ani mals will increase, he said. Susan McAvoy, USDA spokeswoman, said the USDA agreed to a settlement with the animal rights group, Alternatives Research and Development Foundation, so the USDA would still have a say in how the rule was written. Please see USDA on 3 At race talk, color is more BY LAUREN ADAMS Red, yellow, black and white are simply colors. But the Campus Dialogue on Race, held Thursday at the Culture Center, looked beyond the colors and at the key issues involving race relations on campus. The panel discussion, led by Assistant Director of Student Involvement William Olubodun, focused on the conditions that influence race rela tions. This is the second year the forum has taken place. Chuck van Rossum, special assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs, said the motiva tion to start the dialogues was to improve race rela tions on campus. The university also started the dialogues to meet new requirements instated by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, van Rossum said. Riley has asked all public universities to dedi cate one week in October to focus on multicultural education. “Our program last year focused on moving beyond the rhetoric,” Olubodun said. "Listening to one another's personal stories at the forum last year gave us new understanding of the issues we face.” This year’s focus was one of action. “We want to keep the momentum going on improving relations on race," Olubodun said. Panel members said students, faculty and staff need to look past their differences. “We do need to embrace differences," said Stan Please see RACE on 3 • £ v BY BRIAN CARLSON Editor’s Note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories examining the views of Senate candidates Ben Nelson and Don Stenberg. Today’s issue: Social Security. For hiany college students, Social Security may be the farthest thing from their minds. When they do think about the issue, they may be cynical. At a town hall meeting in Kansas City, Mo., in 1998, President Clinton cited a poll showing younger voters thought they were more likely to see a UFO than receive all their promised Social Security benefits. Although that may overstate the matter a bit, the future of Social Security indeed is in question. And it is a potent political issue, both in this year’s presidential race and in Nebraska's Senate race between Democrat Ben Nelson and Republican Don Stenberg. Because the number of retirees is growing faster than the work force whose payroll taxes pay current ben efits, Social Security will start to run out of money in 2015, according to the Social Security Administration. Without reforms, the program will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2037. In that year, today's 22-year-olds will be 59 and approaching retirement. Following the leads of their party’s presidential candidates, Stenberg and Nelson have proposed strikingly different Social Security plans. Like George W. Bush, Stenberg wants to allow younger workers to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in private accounts. Like A1 Gore, Nelson opposes that idea and prefers to extend Social Security’s solvency by using funds from the federal budget surplus. Social Security is funded on a pay as-you-go basis, with workers con tributing payroll taxes to fund current benehts, then receiving a pension at retirement based on their lifetime payroll tax contributions. The payroll tax is 12.4 percent on the first $68,400 of income, with half paid by the employer and half by the employee. Stenberg said the government should pay all the benefits promised to those at or near retirement. But under his plan, younger workers would have the option of investing a portion of their payroll taxes in pri vate investments. Private investments - stocks, mutual funds or other options - would yield a much higher rate of return than the 2 percent average annual yield for U.S. Treasury securi ties, where Social Security funds now are invested, Stenberg said. “I trust the American people to make those investment decisions," he said at a joint appearance with Nelson in August. "I don’t think we should condemn a future generation of Americans to a 2 percent return on their Social Security taxes." Along with Bush and Stenberg, 7 don’t think we should condemn a future generation of Americans to a 2 percent return on their Social Security taxes” Don Stenbnrg Republican Senate candidate U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., sup ports the proposal. U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., co-sponsored a simi lar proposal in 1998 along with retir ing Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D N.Y. But Nelson opposes a partial pri vatization of Social Security. Although he said private investment should be encouraged, it should not be done as part of Social Security reform, he said. By allowing workers to invest a portion of their payroll taxes, the gov PleaseseelSSUESon3 Assistant Director of Student Involvement William Olubodun hugs Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before Mfiime's lecture at the Nebraska Union. Olubodun pro vided the intro ductory remarks for Mfiime's lec ture. Derek Lippincott/DN NAA CP: Issues cut across race ■The national group's leader says students must work to shed the stereotype of being political jokes. BY CRYSTAL K. WIEBE The national leader of the NAACP says politicians view young people as “politi cal chumps." To dispel that view, Kweisi Mfume, the president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, urged UNL students i at a speech Thursday evening to become leaders. “It’s a rather astute crowd that I’m speaking to,” Mfume said at the Nebraska Union auditorium. “But with that seat comes responsibili ty ... Being a student is not just a joyride. It really is about trying to close the gap.” The gap Mfume is talking about is the gap between what people say and what they do. While the American flag is respected by billions of people all over the world as I r “the last symbol of freedom," Mfume said “in many respects we are still not yet one nation.” Mfume said racism is something that divides America even today, but as a representative of the NAACP, he said racism is not just a black and white issue. “We believe that colored people come in all colors,” he said. Mfume stressed that many issues that are typical ly viewed as “black issues” are actually American issues. He said Confederate A flags displayed in the South are “insults to veterans who died to give that flag mean- • mg. Mfume said the effects of hate crimes are also not restricted to blacks. He said perpetrators of hate crimes have an attitude of “you’re different, so we take it upon ourselves to kill you." “Hate crime is not a black issue, it is an American issue,” Mfume reiterated. Noting high rates of can cer, Diabetes, HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular disease in • M African Americans and Latinos, Mfume called inad equate Healthcare some thing that “begs for coali tion.” Mfume said decreasing these problems would help lower the “threshold of pain that is tearing (these) com munities apart.” Regaining a sense of community is important, Mfume said. “If we lose that sense of what we think is community, we lose much of what has Please see SPEAKER on 3 v