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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1968)
O fjiljiyjiThe r?T !-'" Wednesday, September 18, 1968 Vol. 92, No. 5 P Biafra student solicits Unless relief comes in the next few months the entire nation of Biafra will face annihilation by starvation. An effort to do something about this situation was brought to the University campus by James Bob Achebe, an Illinois Institute of Technology graduate student from Biafra. Achebe was in Nebraska to heip co-ordinate a relief fund being organized in the state by various religious organizations. It is part of a national ''Keep Biafrans Alive" campaign. "We are going to students at Nebraska's colleges because we think they have the capacity to get things done," Achebe said. He suggested that some kind of Biafran relief organization needs to be organized to raise money for the starving Biafrans. Achebe hopes that non-African students become involved in the campaign so that it becomes a "real study in humanitariaaism." According to John A. Anaza, an economics graduate student from Biafra at NU, there are eleven other Biafrans on campus. His group is willing to participate in such a campaign, he said, but he wants the student body to generate response. "The students, generally, are not as familiar with the situation as they should be," Anaza said. "We will try to hold discussion sessions to give them background on what has happened in my country. But we want them to organize the ac tual relief fund drive." In Omaha, a dance has already been organized to raise funds for the campaign; Lyle Skinner, president of the Skinner Macaroni Co., donated 500 cases of macaroni products to the Biafran cause. And an account has been opened at the National Bank of Commerce to handle any funds raised in Lincoln. Now all that is needed in Lincoln is response, Achebe said. "Unless food is sent at the rale of one thousand tons per day," he continued, "five million Biafrans are doomed to die of starvation within the next three months. I would hope that students on cam pus would realize that their help is needed." Anaza compared the situation to the one in Vietnam: "If students are concerned about genocide there, I would think they would show concern in Biafra also." Achebe discounted the widely held notion that food was not get ting into the country itself. A phone call was placed to the New York headquarters of the Catholic Relief Service, one of the inter-denominational participants in the campaign, on Friday, Sept. 13. The office reported that 13 flights had taken place that day, and that 215 tons of food had been flown in during the past week. "The food is getting in," Aehebe said. "We just need more of it." At this point, though, no campus - J i KM, i ' A it - organization has taken the challenge of the Biafran situation, Anaza said, but he is willing to get students active in the drive. John Anaza, Biafra native and NU grad uate student hopes to enlist University aid in a drive to help his homeland. Benefits include reduced travel and program rates . . , Un iversity now ASUN is paying $21 this year for a trial membership in the National Student Association (NSA). Student government executives promise that the student will begin reaping the benefits of the membership, okayed in student elections last spring, "soon." Those possible benefits include: OPPORTUNITY to take a student-discount-rate tour of Europe. OPPORTUNITY to buy a life in surance policy at reduced rates. FREE NSA calendars with capsulized information about the University campus. CHANCE to join a special student discount record club. FREE toothpaste, shaving cream, hairdressing and so on in a proposed saturation distribution of these products on campus by ASUN. POSSIBILITY that ASUN may book big-name entertainers or speakers at reduced cost through an NSA service. Most of these special programs won't be available on this campus just yet, according to Bob Zucker, ASUN's NSA coordinator. ASUN still needs time to organize the "7 r, f ! " ,'? sentinel of freedoms stands watch He plans to speak at Thursday's Hyde Park session to explain Biafra's attempt to gain in- dependence. programs and distribute literature on them. But ASUN senators and executives are moving ahead with the NSA in other areas. Seven senators and executives including President Craig Dreeszen, attended the annual NSA congress held at Kansas University in August. Dreeszen said ASUN executives are "most excited" about the NSA's new Center for Education Reform, an information exchange . i T , - A . 4 ft , .J . it ' . " ' m - Y 4 r5 ill ! ! " - ntMiMiaaar mmit0f - - - - wiir ''' irml C And on the left we have . . Campus Students meetine to nreanize a campus action group elected Phil Medcalf temporary chairman and launched three projects Mondav night.. About 50 people gathered for what was billed as the organiza tional meeting of Students for Peace and Freedom, but they agreed early that they didn't want to be identified as Students for ' 5 "a t over the tower on the plains. v.r aid "I hope, then, we can find the students who are willing to work for my starving countrymen," Anaza concluded. NSA agency to keep member schools informed about student government achievements on other campuses. The center can provide schools with the nuts and bolts plans of successful student movements on campuses all over the country, Dreeszen said. The center is funded by a three year $315,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. Many NSA programs are paid action Peace and Freedom. MEDCALF SAID the group re jected the Peace and Freedom label because many of the members want to see the organization more closely linked with the campus than with the Nebraska Peace and Freedom Party. The choice of a specific name i ,; .'V f " 1 .,t . s ... i ' ' ' 3 MiiiiiiiiMiiMiiiTiiMjfiiHiifiiifiitiTiiiiiiiiiiij(iifiiiiiiiiiiMiifiitifiiiriiiiitiMJiiiifiiriifiriirirtiiiriiiiitmiiritrt5 (Residential college! I decision imminent I Action on the proposed residential college at the University is imminent, ac cording to Dr. Merk Hobson, vice-chancellor and Dean of Faculties. The Board of Regents will receive a formal proposal concerning the experimental college probably in two weeks, Hobson said Monday. HOBSON WOULD n o t comment on the exact con tents of the formal proposal, but, he said, it is essentially the same as the Centennial College Committee report submitted on the matter last spring. That committee was created by Chancellor Clifford Hardin in September, 1967, to study the feasability of a residential college. The com mittee forwarded its report to Hobson in March, 1967. A formal proposal was not completed until recently. The committee envisioned a college selecting several hundred volunteer undergraduate students. The proposal hinges on group participation. The measure does not depend entirely upon faculty and students living together, although that is desired by many. This "live together-learn together" concept has in trigued college educators throughout the country who are looking for solutions to problems posed by the tremendous size of many trial member for by private foundations and government grants. In the past NSA even accepted funds from the CIA. There are 250 member schools which pay dues of $21 to $280 a year, depending on enrollment ASUN's dues go up to $280 next year, providing the University decides to keep the membership after this trial year. DREESZEN said NSA "reflects the campuses that are its mem bers, and that includes everything group organize for the group was left for the se cond meeting set for next Monday night. Dave Bunnell, one of the organizers of the meeting, opened by stating, "This will be an organization that is not dogmatic, that is democratic, that embraces all of the ideologies on the left." Bunnell and John Hughes, members of the campus Students for a Democratic Society last year, were the announced organizers of Monday's meeting. Bunnell indicated that he hoped the new group would move away from the SDS image. 'SDS HAS never been very suc cessful (on this campus) because Choir serves to promote Greek system The University's first all-Greek choir, composed of 35 students, will promote the Greek system in Lin coln and on other campuses, ac cording to its organizer, Dan Goodenberger. The group is currently practicing two nights a week and will pro bably perform sometime in Oc tober, Goodenberger said. No con certs have been scheduled yet. Choir members are personally paying for music and other ex penses. The group will charge for concerts and eventually plans to become self-sustaining. Terry Eggerichs will direct the choir. universities. While many of the porposed college's features have been attempted at other schools, Hobson said no school has had quite the same objectives as the University, HOBSON REPORTED that the proposal must yet be discussed informally with Hardin and the Board of Regents before any official action is taken. Present plans call for In itiation of the experiment next year, Hobson revealed. He thinks that goal is at tainable. While University administrators act on the proposal, Dean C. Peter McGarath and other officials from the College of Arts and Sciences are seeking financial support from various .founda tions. Hobson stressed that while foundation support Is desirous, it Is by no means contingent to the operation of an experimental college. "I am heartily in favor of continued effort by the University to accomplish its educational mission. We have hardly scratched the surface in understanding human learning," he commented. NOT EVERYONE learns the same way, he continued. In a large University, there is such i diversity of interests . and talents that one format can never serve everyone. from Berkeley to Briarcliff." The full-time national staff, all former students, is decidedly liberal to radical, Dreezen said. "All of the people in the national office are pretiy sophisticated about handling student problems," he said. The University is a member of the Iowa-Nebraska region of the NSA and is the largest NSA af filiated school in the region. Zucker was elected regional chairman at a summer meeting. SDS has come off very dogmatic,,, he said. He cited several possible goals the group could work for including organizing dormitory residents to ask for changes in dorm operation, educating the University com munity about New Left politics and establishing a student government. Bunnell also said the organization "must seek to unite black and white students against the ad ministration." He said he hoped for an action organization. "It is not enough te give a damn," he said, "It Is a time for action." The group made plans for action on three projects: WRITING a constitution in order to become a recognized student organization. RAISLNG funds to aid Ernie Chambers' campaign for the Omaha School Board. ORGANIZING ..a Midwest Regional Conference on Movement Politics to be held on camnus Sept 27-29. IIIIIIIIIIUIIilllliUIIIII(lflll!!m!l!lllllllllllll(lllllll!tlllllUI!S 1 "Student; for Hamilton" I I will hold an organizational I Johnson, press secretary. I meeting Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska 1 Union, according tn Rnrfnpv s "The purpose of the meet- 1 I ing is to attract and orga- 1 1 nize students and faculty 1 who support Bruce Hamil- 1 ton, New Party First Con- s i gressional District Candidate for Congress, and those who 1 wish to see all of the issues i s discussed by all of the candi- I dates in the upcoming Con- 1 1 gressional election," Johnson 1 continued. iiiiiiiiiiuiii!iiuiiiiiiiuiiiiiiii!iiiiiuinuiimnii!nmuuii3 1 I:- - . .... "m .