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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2000)
Volunteers lend helping hands to programs BY VERONICA DAEHN University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior Keenan McRoberts has just applied to spend two years of his life in Africa. While there, he will live and work with people he has never met, and he will abandon his normal ways of life. He will be working in an animal husbandry program, helping people with large game animals, and improv ing their meat and poultry production. McRoberts, a biochemistry major who will graduate in May, will travel to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. He said he applied for the program because of the experiences it offered. , “I feel it would be beneficial to me, and I think I really could make a differ ence in the country I’d be going to," he said. McRoberts is not alone in his choice of post-graduation activities. Now is the ' time for him, and other UNL students, to apply for such programs. Each year, a multitude of recent col lege graduates sign up for programs like the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and Teach For America. In Teach For America, college grad uates are hired to teach for at least two years in a low-income school district. Kyle Waide, Teach For America spokesman, stressed that program members are not volunteers. They are hired by the school district and paid beginning teacher salaries. Teach For America has a number of UNL alumni and is an important pro gram, Waide said. “Teachers are leading students, set ting goals and investing them in achiev ing those goals,” Waide said. "Teaching is fundamentally a leadership posi tion.” Because of that, Teach For America is competitive in its selection process. Out of 4,000 applicants last year, only 900 entered classrooms this fall, he said. Teach For America looks for appli cants with records of achievement and leadership, and with grade point aver ages of at least 3.4. There are benefits to teaching any where, but Teach For America is excep tionally worthwhile, he said. “Teach For America is fundamen tally an education reform movement for expanding opportunities in low income communities,” he said. "You can have a powerful difference right away.” Nebraska is also home to a number of AmeriCorps members. More than 210 people of all ages and backgrounds are involved in service projects across the state. At least 40,000 people are involved nationally. Bradd Schmeichel, AmeriCorps program director for Community Action of Nebraska, said AmeriCorps programs focus on environmental issues, education, public safety and human needs. Members sign up for a year and are assigned to work on one of many differ ent projects, logging more than 1,700 hours of service over the course of the year, Schmeichel said. ‘Teachers are leading students, setting goals and investing them in achieving those goals. Teaching is fundamentally a leadership position Kyle Waide Teach for America spokesman AmeriCorps members help com munities get things done and grow stronger. They also encourage respon sibility and expand opportunity. When done with the program, members receive $4,725 to help pay for college. AmeriCorps is valuable because it helps people develop an ethic of service and of giving back to the community, Schmeichel said. “It’s an excellent opportunity to develop skills, get great experience, bol ster a resume and get contacts,” he said. Christina Fielder, assistant director of UNL’s Career Services, said her office has relationships with the Peace Corps, Teach For America andAmeriCorps. Students interested in applying for these programs can visit the Career Services office at 345 Nebraska Union, or call the office at 402-472-3145. All three will be at UNL’s annual Career Fair and have on-campus inter views, she said. But not all students would fit into a program like the Peace Corps, Fielder said. “It’s not like going out into the cor porate business world," she said. “There are certain students who fit bet ter than others.” Competition cause of media's hasty election decision POll from page 1 media certainly has the ability to impact the process. For example, he said, the early calls could have discouraged potential voters from visiting the polls because they felt like their candidate was already assured of a victory or a defeat. But, Hopkins said, it is hard to prove the media really did affect the outcome. Debates about the media’s impact and its miscalls are the only certainties that Americans can count on, he said. Anne Boyle, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, agrees that the media have a potential to influence elections. She said the media begin to wield their power as soon as the campaigns begin when they choose which candi dates to cover. Early projections on election night also have the potential to affect elec tions, Boyle said. Echoing Hopkins’ concerns, Boyle said, people can be discouraged from voting if they see numbers that show that their candidate cannot win. Networks still insist on making the early calls, she said, because they are fiercely competitive with each other. “It’s an unhealthy habit,” she said. Boyle said it would be better for the networks to wait until all the polls closed before they started making projections. But, she said, exit polling is sophisti cated and usually correct. Deanna Sands, managing editor of the Omaha World-Herald, said the media doesn’t exert their influence so much on election night. Rather, the media accustom people to immediate and straight-forward coverage. “People are conditioned for a cut and dry answer,” she said. When complicated and ambiguous situations like this year’s presidential election arise, Sands said, the media clash with the public’s expectation to receive fast and simple results. She said The World-Herald avoided these problems by not using exit polls. “We believe the only poll that counts is the voter’s choice,” Sands said. Election night slip-ups and public discontent will lead the media to review the way they covers politics, she said. It is unlikely that the media will change drastically as a result of its elec “People are conditioned for a cut and dry answer.... We will evaluate if we served the people who depend on us for information.” Deanna Sands managing editor of the Omaha World-Herald tion night woes, she said. But the ensu ing conversations on the topic will be good for the media, Sands said. “We will evaluate if we served the people who depend on us for informa tion,” she said. Rick Alloway, a broadcasting profes sor, said the media will evaluate their policies, but the exit polling firms that provide the media with information are the ones who really need to take a look at their practices. The media simply reported the information they received from these firms, he said. Before this debacle, Alloway said, people were very confident in exit polling data. Now, he said, the media may be more “gun shy” when it comes to using the information. Mike Stricklin, a news-editorial pro fessor, said the media will not be as quick to call elections because they want to avoid embarrassment, not because of fear of affecting voter turnout. Nevertheless, Stricklin said, expecta tions in news rooms will rise because the media hates to be wrong. These rising expectations, though, will be tempered by fierce competition among the news agencies, he said. Media outlets will still want to scoop their competition, he said. “The whole situation is such a pres sure cooker,” Stricklin said. Club raid tests no-contact policy with search, seizure of videos BY JOSH FUNK Another legal test of the city's no-contact law was post poned Friday in Lancaster County Court. After hearing three hours of testimony, the court denied Lindsey Obermeyer’s motion to suppress evidence taken in the Aug. 11 raid on Mataya's Babydolls Gentlemen's Theatre Club and continued her trial for several weeks. County Court Judge Jean Lovell ruled that Obermeyer could not question the seizure of videotapes during the Aug. 11 raid because she did not own the tapes. But testimony from police and employees of the 5620 Comhusker Hwy. club revealed that police may have served the search warrant on a group of customers before removing evi dence. Five dancers, six customers and two employees, including club owner John Ways Jr., were cited in August for violating the city’s sexual contact ban. The only convictions to date have come in cases where customers pleaded guilty. This raid was the first appli cation of the city's law banning contact between the breasts, buttocks or genitals of perform ers and customers. The current law was passed in April after Ways obtained an injunction blocking the enforcement of an earlier sexual contact ban. All of the club’s employees testified Friday that they did not see the search warrant until police were packing up to leave the club with five boxes of sur veillance videotapes seized from the club. Lincoln Police Detective Sgt. Jeri Roeder said when she arrived with the search warrant about 45 minutes after the other police, she gave it to Captain Allen Soukup, and he delivered it to a table where several people were sitting. Ways and the club’s head of Impersonator all shook up over missing cape Elvis impersonator William Chrastil may be moving on down to Heartbreak Hotel if he cannot find his missing $1,500 Aloha cape. Chrastil, 42, reported the cus tom hand-made replica missing on Thursday. He has not seen it since a Sept. 19 performance, Lincoln Police Officer Katherine Finnell said. The cape is all white with a red, white and blue eagle on the back. Controlled substance sends two men to jail Narcotics task force officers arrested two men involved with selling crack cocaine Thursday night Undercover officers bought small amounts of crack cocaine from 45-year-old Lee Hatcher, 1637 D St Apt K, twice Thursday, Finnell said. Then another man, Jonathan Ballard, 21, of Omaha, was con tacted to supply more drugs to the undercover officers, Finnell said. When Ballard was searched, police found about one gram of the drug hidden in the man’s rec • x turn. Lee was arrested on two counts of possession of a con trolled substance with the intent to sell. Ballard was arrested for possession of a controlled sub stance. Students asked to assist in making community better University Police would like to know how they can better serve the campus community and they want your help. A feedback form has been added to the police Web site, http://police. uniedu, for students and other members of the cam pus community to comment on the department’s work. University Police Chief Ken Cauble said he hoped people would submit both positive and negative, yet constructive, com ments and suggestions. Any concerns about policing on campus or ideas for improve ment would be welcome. Compiled by Josh Funk security were in police custody in the parking lot outside. The doorman testified that he was in several places during the raid at police direction, and the other security guard was standing near the bar during the raid. Congratulations 2001 Panhellenic Executive Officers Prg$idgpt Cami Shreve Kappa Alpha Theta Vice President Nikki Fulkner Alpha Xi Delta Secretary Becky Bates Delta Delta Delta Treasurer Katie Sup Alpha Omicron Pi Recruitment Chair Stacey Mendlik Alpha Phi Public Relations Chair . Denise Passmore Kappa Kappa Gamma Rho Chi Coordinator Tasha Hunke Gamma Phi Beta 2001 Intrafratemity Council Executive Officers President Brian Magnusson Farmhouse Vice President Mitch Walden Alpha Gamma Sigma Treasurer Jon Kirscher Alpha Tau Omega Secretary Dave Downs Phi Gamma Delta Recruitment Director Scott Lacey Sigma Phi Epsilon V\RENlN* *e lull r "f In.* ' 'Vr“ “fh ill, * *’ A,°By.n, o». r«E w We wHale I 1 I § a =1 -tv w., o. r »rh.rL«'« -'•*• s 1 I pride and prejudice ;,W/S| Lower Level, Nebraska Union Phone: 472-7300 Lower Level, East Union Phone: 472-1746