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friday, march 17, 1978 vol. 101 no. 88 lincoln, nebraska
Treaty ratified despite Nebraska vote
The United States ratified the first of
the two Panama Canal treaties by a 68-32
vote Thursday afternoon.
Nebraska Senators Carl Curtis and Ed
ward Zorinsky voted against ratifying the
treaty.
The ratified treaty concerns canal neu
trality following the year 2000 when it
would be under Panamanian control.
The second treaty, which the Senate
now is debating, would establish the pro
cess for turning the canal over to Panama.
Zorinsky was one of the last senators to
decide how lp would vote on the treaty.
He decided early Thursday morning, he
said.
Zorinsky told President Carter in a
meeting at the White House early Thursday
that he could not support the treaty be
cause he did not feel the treatly adequately
assured United States military presence in
Panama after the year 2000, he said.
Zorinsky was heavily lobbied by the
President and members of his Cabinet, but
he said he did not receive any offers of po
litical tradeoffs from the President.
"Jimmy Carter is an honorable, profes
sional man," Zorinsky said. "He never
made any offers to me."
Zorinsky also was concerned about the
emphasis placed on preventing another
plebiscite in Panama when amendments
were discussed.
"So much emphasis was placed on the
feelings of the people of Panama, I don't
feel it was an equal treaty for the people of
the United States," Zorinsky said.
Regents to set
student officer
requirements
The NU Board of Regents Saturday will
vote on a recommendation to set eligibility
requirements for student government
officers.
The academic affairs subcommittee is
recommending that the regents approve a
plan to require that student government
candidates have a minimum 2.0 grade
point average and not be on academic or
disciplinary probation.
If the regents accept the recommenda
tion, student government officers and can
didates also will have to be enrolled in at
least six credit hours on that campus and
have completed 24 hours of credit during
the two years prior to the year they seek
election.
The candidate will have to be elected by
a majority of the students voting in the
election rather than a plurality vote.
The regents also will be asked to
approve budgets for renovation of the
Theatre Arts Building and the College of
Architecture.
The board also will decide whether to
rehire former UNL women's basketball
coach George Nicodemus who was fired
last May.
The meeting will be 12:30 Saturday at
Regents Hall.
A jinside
mOQM
Concern arises over canning coolers:
UNL Housing office decides to
assume refrigerator leasing, .page 7
Baldwin beats odds: Playwright
Baldwin scores his lucky one in
10 page 8
Nicodemus may bounce back to
coaching: Columnists urge regents
to rehire former UNL women's
basketball coach page 10
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Daily Nebraskan Photo
Sen. Edward Zorinsky
Zorinsky said he favored a new treaty
which modernized the United State rela
tionship with Panama. He said the current
treaties are "quite a bit of a one-way street
in favor of Panama."
A great deal of "armtwisting" to vote
for ratification was based on not embarras
sing the U.S. presidency, Zorinsky said.
This required considering the effect of
the treaties' defeat on the office of the pre
sidency and President Carter's ability to
deal with nations of the world, Zorinsky
said.
"I really voted for what I thought was
really in the best interests of the United
States," Zorinsky said. "This was the
toughest decision I have had to make and I
wanted to take all the time I had to make
it."
The ratified treaty contained the so-called
"leadership amendment" which assured
the, right of the United States to keep the
canal open and defend its neutrality and
gave U.S. warships the right of expeditious
passage during an emergency.
Treaty ratification requires approval by
two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes.
St. Pat's quenches
dry holiday season
All St. Patrick's Day needs is a
Santa Claus.
It has all the makings of a holiday,
if everyone would observe March 17
with the zest of December 25.
St. Patrick's Day already includes
celebrations, traditions and commer
cialism. All that is necessary is a reason for
celebrating the day if you are not
Irish.
The University Bookstore is
helping give St. Pat's Day holiday
status by selling cards and party
goods. Cindy Grashorn, supply
manager, said employees took all the
green things they had in the store
and displayed them .
Continued on Page 6
Latest microcomputer offers maxi uses
By Randy Essex
The micro is in. The maxi and the mini
still serve their purposes, but it is the
microcomputer that will bring computers
into popular use, according to a UNL
professor.
Sharad Seth, associate professor of
computer science, predicted that within
10 years microcomputers will be used in
homes to serve a variety of functions,
including helping with finances, taxes and
shopping.
Seth and several students recently com
pleted a microcomputer laboratory in the
basement of Ferguson Hall. The micro
computer fits in a drawer the size of an
aveiage desk drawer, and the computer's
"brain" is smaller than a package of gum.
Funded by a $13,100 grant from the
National Science Foundation, the
computer is being used as an educational
tool by Seth and others. Seth said there
are other microcomputers already used at
UNL in the physics, electrical engineering
and psychology departments.
Seth said the new computer has been
programmed to play chess with students,
and is used in basic and applied research,
suth as controlling exact oven temperature.
"The first computer in 1945 took up
several small rooms with its processor
(brain), while ours is very small, and is
more capable," Seth said.
Cost, has been reduced along with size.
The cost of the microprocessor is between
$10 and $20 Seth said.
'The real expense in computers is in
things like video display terminals and the
chassis," Seth said. "There is a $585 home
computer available now."
Home computers could save homeow
ners work, Seth said.
"Shopping done through the mail now
could be done by a home computer
hooked up to a larger computer in another
place," Seth stated.
He explained that a shopper could
choose from several items flashed on a
home video display terminal by punching
the code number of the desired item into
the home computer. The shopper would
then punch in his or her account number
and the store's computer would put the
item on the shopper's bill.
Major auto makers are looking into
computer ignitions, Seth said.
He added that computers have been
programmed to create sentences from their
"knowledge" of the language.
"It then can seem like the computer
really has a personality," Seth said.
Entertainment will be a major use of
computers in the future, Seth added, citing
home video games as contemporary
example.
The computer in Ferguson Hall is used
to acquaint computer science students with
the microcomputer, Seth said.
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Photo by Bob Pearson
Cheerleaders a-bound with enthusiasm
By Gail Stork
Nervous smiles bounced above the
high kicks of the six UNL Yell Squad
finalists Wednesday as they tried to
pom-pon and dance their way into the
two spots open on next year's squad.
Of the almost 50 girls who started
practicing Feb. 22, 28 continued the
daily exercise and instruction routine"
until preliminary tryouts Tuesday.
Wednesday's finalists performed
without a hint of the previous three
week's sore muscles and occasional
frustration in mastering "the step,"
footwork in one of the squad's routines.
In saddle shoes and shorts, the girls
completed two routines for judges and
the audience gathered in the Mabel
Lee Hall gym to cheer on their favorite
cheerleader.