T n Daily Tl
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Tuesday, February 23, 1982
Vol. 109 No. 31
Lincoln, Nebraska
Copyright 1982 Daily Nebraskan
Photo by Dave Bentz
Tlie UNL campus looked like something out of a California college catalogue Monday as students fled the buildings in which they had been hiding to enjoy some unusually warm
February weather. There is no reason to believe that the paradise will last, as cooler temperatures have been forecast.
Registration drive
aims at increasing
student voter input
By Eric Peterson
NU football Coach Tom Osborne urged students
to do something about their political dissatisfaction
at a Monday news conference in the Nebraska Un
ion. The conference was called to announce a voter
registration drive undertaken by ASUN's Govern
ment Liaison Committee and the Nebraska State
Student Association.
"Students continually seem to want to have
more control over their destinies and have a more
positive input," Osborne said. But, he said, students
are slow to take the necessary steps to attain that
control, including registering to vote and actually
voting.
The GLC and NSSA will have a registration
booth in the Nebraska and East unions from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. today and Wednesday. Students who wish
to register by mail to outstate communities or vote
by absentee ballot may complete their registration
at the GLC -NSSA booth; students who want to vote
in Lincoln can register at the booth only
Wednesday.
GLC Chairperson and NSSA board member
Nette Nelson said notaries public also will be avail
able in the union so that students can send absentee
ballots for the spring elections.
Osborne said most UNL students can register
here.
ASUN President Rick Mockler said students
have become frustrated with underfunding at
the university level, "and this is our opportunity
to change it." Lowered financial aid is a particular
ly sore point at UNL, Mockler said, adding that
under Reagan administration proposals, no grad
uate student will be able to get a federally-guaranteed
student loan next year.
"You know, you hear a lot of complaints about
students not getting involved and registering to vote,
and ASUN is just adamant that students do get out
and exercise that opportunity," Mockler said.
Student voter involvement will be crucial at the
state level, he said.
"Last year the faculty had to cut salaries 2 per
cent, and at the same time we saw an increase in
enrollment. We just don't have enough support at
the Nebraska Legislature," Mockler said.
NSSA Executive Director Mike Burk said chan
ges in education funding are making it hard for
many students to continue their education.
"Constant support from students is crucial,"
Burk said. "We want to get you to give us that
support because it's one of the best ways you can
influence our legislation."
Nelson said an active group of vocal voters is
necessary to get the government's attention.
"I've worked in government, and I know a va
cuum exists when there isn't any input from
people," she said.
Nelson said the GLC has worked to provide
incentives for students to register in Lincoln.
Election rule decision to be released
The ASUN Electoral Commission will release a decision
today on whether the Real Party violated election rules by
putting up campaign posters before the Feb. 10 date spec
ified in election regulations.
The commission had a hearing Monday afternoon at
tended by Mike Frost, STUPID II presidential candidate,
Kathy Mach, who filed the complaint; Dan Wedekind,
Real presidential candidate; and Tim McAllister, also of
the Real Party.
Frost and Mach originally filed a suit against the Elec
toral Commission in the UNL Student Court, charging the
commission with five unfair or ambiguous practices. The
court dismissed four of the five charges last week and or
dered the commission to have a hearing on. the other
charge, that the Real Party posted signs too early.
McAllister at the Monday hearing said he asked Jenni
fer Fagcr, Electoral Commission director, Jan. 25 if it
was permissible to put up campaign signs and she told him
it was. He said he was prompted to ask because he noticed
that electoral rules said posters could be displayed be
tween Feb. 3 and March 10. Prior to this year, according
to McAllister, the rules said only that posters had to be
down by the day of the election.
He said Fager told him the posters could be displayed
any time prior to Feb. 3, but that there was no guarantee
that posters put up before that date would not be torn
down by custodians.
"She told me point-blank that you could put them (the
posters) up," McAllister said.
Mach and Frost's suit acknowledged that the Real Par
ty followed the commission's directions when posting the
signs. They charge that the commission was negligent in
not informing other parties of this ruling so that they
could also post signs.
In its answer to Mach and Frost's suit, the commission
said that no candidate or party was informed that it was
permissable to put up posters before Feb. 10.
Doug Brooks, a commission member, asked McAllister
during the hearing if, when he talked to Fager, she just re
iterated the rule specifying when signs could be posted or
if she specifically told him he could go ahead and post the
signs.
McAllister replied that Fager had told him it was all
right to post the signs.
Wedekind said if the Real Party is penalized by the
commission, it would not accept the punishment and
probably would appeal to the Student Court.
Council promotes black student unity
By Ward W. Triplett III
Editor's Note: This is the first of stories about the annual
Big Eight Council on Black Student Government. To
morrow's Daily Nebraskan will feature a story on black
campus groups and a story about past mayor of Atlanta,
Maynard Jackson.
The Big Eight Council on Black Student Government,
currently the only such governing body in the United
States, decided at its winter meeting Saturday to form a
coalition with black students from states outside the Big
Eight in order to help spread national unity for black
students.
The council, which has three black students from each
of the member schools, met for the fifth annual confer
ence on black student government. The conference drew
about 350 students to the Iowa State University campus
in Ames, Iowa.
Until Saturday's 6-0 vote, black students from schools
such as Mankato State, Minn., and Emporia State, Kan.,
were welcome to come to the conference, but had no
voting power at the council meetings.
"I have been to conferences where there was talk
about doing this, but nothing was ever done," said Do
reen Charles about opening the conference to schools out
side the Big Eight. Charles was council chairperson and is
a UNL student.
"I think it is defeating our purpose if we don't expand,
for our ultimate goal is a national unity with all black
students," Charles said.
Roles to be decided
She added that the council will decide during its spring
meeting in Oklahoma State what the role of the other
schools will be. Voting privileges at the council meetings
was one of the main arguments about the motion. Aside
from the aforementioned schools, Iowa, Hutchinson Jun
ior College in Kansas, UNO and two other Minnesota
schools sent representatives.
"I don't think anyone wants to be a part of something
they have no power in," said Major Topps, assistant
director of the Mankato State black student organization.
"But we want to work. We come not to take power
from you, but to be a part in what you're trying to do.
For a lot of black students in (predominately) white
schools, the Big Eight is like a dream come true," Topps
said.
"The 10 schools of Minnesota have a state conference
for black students already," Topps said. "What we want
to do, and what the Big Eight should want to do, is begin
pushing this nationally. We would need you in order to do
this," he said.
In other council action, a letter of protest against the
cutting of financial aids was passed after a proposal by the
University of Missouri. The letter, which will be sent to
President Reagan and each state congressman, was signed
by the delegates and chairperson at the conference.
Membership fee proposal
In other action, the board voted down a proposal to
charge membership fees to schools that failed to attend
the conference. Charles said the proposal would have
penalized a school for being poor, which defeated the
whole purpose of the council.
Colorado, the school which sponsored the conference
last year, was still $2,000 in debt from the conference,
and opted not to attend this year. With the Kansas dele
gation missing the Saturday meeting, the vote on the
membership fee ended in a 3-3 tie, which left Charles
to cast the deciding vote.
In the council's final action, members chose Nebraska
to sponsor the 1983 conference. Charles said the confer
ence will place an extra burden on Nebraska because extra
students will attend now that the meetings are open to
students outside the Big Eight.
"Instead of around 300 to 400, with the extra schools
invited and Colorado, we can expect at least 600 to 700
to be there," Charles said.
