Drop-add '
By Joe Starita
Drop,. . .and. . .add. These are three
words students traditionally have embraced
with all the enthusiasm reserved for a two
,week paid vacation to a South Seas leper
colony.
'As semester break wound down and
students geared up for the semi-annual skir
mish along the tabled trenches in the
Nebraska Union Ballroom, the Daily Ne
braskan dropped a reporter behind the
battle lines to confront the enemy.
It was an enemy accused of snuffing stu
dents out of needed classes, of forcing in
nocent freshmen and graduates alike to en
dure long lines and icy stares and of snap
ping out snooty, snotty answers to simple,
gentle questions.
Cleverly disguised as a student, the re
porter marched up to the time appoint
ment card window and asked to get in as
soon as possible, assuming it would be sev
eral days,
, He was given a card to get in
immediately.
Undaunted, he got in a short, fast
moving line and was soon face-to-face with
Joy Boster, who collects the $5 drop-add
fee at the first battle station.
Boster, a veteran of six general registra
tions and drop-add campaigns, laughed and
chatted with students moving through the
line as if she knew them.
battlefield'
quiet this year
"I do know them," she said. "I've de
veloped many friendships with students
coming through these lines.
"Students have told me, 'Well, this is
the last' year you'll see me coming
through here,' but then 111 see them the
next year, and the next year and the next
year."
Boster said she tries to treat students
with a smile and, expressed surprise at how
many return to her line and have
something kind to say to her.
"You have to have patience," she ex
plained. "No matter how many questions
a student may have, someone around here
always has an answer."
The reporter was becoming impatient
at not finding any of the legendary
commotion associated with drop-add and
asked two card-pullers deep in the battle
zone why this was.
Mary Hilley, pulling cards for the Eng
lish department, said drop-add is better or
ganized this semester than at any time in
the past.
"Actually, it's been pretty b6ring," she
said. "It makes the time pass faster if
you're busy, but by Wednesday it'll be
really dead."
Mary Pfeiffer, a co-worker, said one
reason for the lull is that more students
pre-registered this semester. "
"I think they should cut down the num
ber of days drop-add is offered because
there's really nothing for us to do,"
Pfeiffer said.
When there is something to do, Hilley
said, the students have been cooperative.
"The only bad thing for me is having
to tell them a class is closed," she said. "It
makes me feel like a creep."
There would be no hard feelings on
either side if students had more patience
and took time to read the first eight pages
of the class schedule, according to Sandy
Smith and Paulette Tapp.
Smith and Tapp guard the rear flank
amidst a pile of paperwork.
"It's hard on us if students come in here
with a chip on their shoulder," Tapp said.
"We can't drop everything to attend to
-them."
Both Smith and Tapp agreed that better
organization for this semester's drop-add
has eliminated long lines and mass con
fusion. Tony Schkade, assistant director of
registration and records, organizes drop
a$d. He said there are definite reasons for
this semester's success.
"For one thing," Schkade explained,
i4we published a list of all the closed sec
tions before drop-add started. This helped
out tremendously.
Continued on page 9
3
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thursday, january 19, 1978 vol. 101 no. 60 lincoln, nebraska
Daily Nebraskan Photo
A solitary view far from the madden
ing crowds students have long as
sociated with the jungle of drop-add.
r .
? t
'1
Stiff penalties advocated
to curb drunken drivers
- Daily Nebraskan Photo
"Hippies read books with just plain words, no pictures or anything," according to
a Prescott Elementary School student. See story on page 5.
By Kate Gaul
Donna Carter drank a little more than
she could handle Saturday night. When she .
left the bar she was feeling no pain. But
five minutes later, when Donna missed a
red light, she felt the pain. Others also felt
pain-the people who were seriously
injured because she had driven while
drunk.
Donna Carter and her drunken mishap
are fictitious, but the rising statistics for
injuries and fatalities involving drunken
drivers are not.
Nebraska Highway Safety Commission
statistics show that almost 41 percent of
all fatal accidents were alcohol-related.
In Lancaster County, there were 531
automobile accidents involving drunken
drivers in 1976.
State Sen. Patrick Venditte believes
a "get tough" attitude will help curb these
alarming figures. He has introduced a bill
LB223, which would stiffen penalties for
drunken drivers who injure or kill.
Venditte said the problem of drunken
drivers is not taken seriously enough. He
thinks his bill would convince judges they
need "to do more to enforce" the laws, he
Bill defines college relationships, goals
The relationship between NU.the state
colleges and the state's technical com
munity colleges will be defined by state
law if a bill introduced in the Nebraska
Legislature this week passes.
LB846, a result of a three-year legisla
tive study also would define school's roles
and missions.
The intent ,of the legislation is to:
-coordinate state post-secondary educa
tion systems;
-provide for the maintenance and deve
lopment of educational programs and ser
vices for all people in the state ;
-insure student and community access
to comprehensive educational programs;
-limit unnecessary duplication of pro
grams and facilities through planning and
reviewing; .
-encourage long-term academic and fis
cal planning for post-secondary education;
-and to establish a legislative review
process to. Insure that role and mission
statements are updated periodically, and
that schools comply with these state
ments. The bill designates undergraduate educa
tion as NU's first priority. The second
priority would be to continue its research,
graduate end postgraduate programs in
academic and professional areas. The third
priority would be continuing education,
defined as education relating to an indivi
dual's occupation or profession, but not
terminating in a degree or certificate.
The NU Board of Regents objected
at a committee hearing to the statutory
Legislative hearings
The Legislature's Agriculture and En
vironment Committee will hear a bill regu
lating recycling of beverage containers,
LBS 18, and LB821, which authorizes sale
of land previously owned by NU. Both
hearings are Friday at 2 pjn. in room
2230, East Lounge.
priorities tor the University.
The official stand of the regents, read at
a Dec. 12 hearing by Minden Regent
Robert Raun, says "the three basic parts
of the University's mission-instruction,
research and public service-are inter
dependent, and taken together form the
foundation of the University's contribu
tions to the state as a land-grant institu
tion." Waverly Sen. Jerome Warner, co-chairman
of the Nebraska Postsecondary Ed
ucation Advisory Conimittee, which intro
duced the bill, said the proposal would not
substantially change the present NU role
and missions, statement, but would re
strict which programs could receive state
money.
The use of state general fund dollars
for recreational and non-vocational pro
grams, and any other programs or activi
ties In conflict with the NU role and mis
sion assignment will be prohibited if the
bill passes. . '
said. ,
Under Venditte's bill, a first-offense
drunken driver involved in a serious acci
dent could receive up to one year in the
county jail andor a $3,000 fine, a second
offense could result in up to a five-year
term in the state penitentiary.
Municipal Court Judge Thomas J.
McManus declined to comment on any
legislative actions or their effect on the
judicary.
Two Lincoln Police officers disagreed
on the effectiveness of stiffening penalties.
Lt. Peter Larimer, of the Lincoln Police
Department, said he does not think stiffer
penalties are the solution.
Larimer spent about four years in
charge of the police department's Alcohol
Safety Action Project (ASAP), which
attempted to curb the drunken driving
problem by providing remedial anti-abuse
programs for convicted drunken drivers.
Larimer said he was not speaking for the
Uncoln Police Department, but from his
Dwn educated experience.
"A social program, not a punitive one is
needed to solve the drunken driving pro
blem," he said.
Larimer identified two main groups of
drinkers. They are social drinkers, who
indulge on weekends or as a social court
esy, and the problem drinker or alcoholic,
who drinks because of need.
The alcoholic is addicted to a drug,
and his actions are not going to be
influenced by stiffer penalties, Larimer
said. The problem drinker will think only
of satisfying the need , he said .
Continued on page 9
inside
IIIOIUCTtj
UNL's skeletons in the closet: Old
bones mean big bucks page 6
Aloha Uuskcrs: UNL baseball is
headed for a new diainond-the
Hawaiian Diamond Head, .page 14
Ronald McDonald McRots UNL
students McBrains: Student col
umnist Jim Williams looks at fast
food service page 13
