ri- Daily
Wednesday, Sept. 1,1982
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 82 No. 9
Issnie, intersection Mocked by trains' big wheels
By Laurie Moses
Administrators met Tuesday to determine what action
should be taken to resolve the problem of occasional
block of the 14th Street intersection by Missouri Pacific
Railroad cars.
Ray Coffey, UNL manager of business and finance,
said he would work with legal counsel and the city as soon
as possible to enforce an ordinance which prohibits block
ing an intersection for more than 10 minutes.
According to Terry Kubicck of the Nebraska Public
Service Commission, the Missouri Pacific Railroad agreed
to draft a design for a pedestrian overpass, but he has
never seen a copy of the design.
"I have tried to contact the railroad, but they will not
talk about it. They have simply not carried out a gentle
man's agreement, Kubicek said.
Joe Begley, manager of Missouri Pacific Railroad, said
UNL chosen host
for '83 conference
of black students
By Janet H.Chu
The UNL Afrikan Peoples Union will be the host of the
1983 Big Eight conference on black student government
Feb. 19 and 20.
Each year, the Big Eight Council on Black Student
Government organizes a major conference which is hosted
by one of the Big Eight schools. According to James H.
Smith, director of Multi-Cultural Affairs, the council is a
standing body of elected representatives of the Big Eight
schools. Its responsibility is to monitor and advocate
issues that pertain to the quality of black education at Big
Eight insitutions.
"Through the traveling conferences, students have a
chance to look at and compare campuses and to observe
what kind of support systems they have (for black stu
dent education)," he said.
This year's conference will feature workshops that are
designed to help students with problems they may bring
from their own schools.
Smith said it is not uncommon for black students to be
confronted with coldness and impersonality in pre
dominantly white institutions. He said there is also a lack
of social stimulation because these communities are not
minority oriented.
"These workshops will educate black students about
positive things to do to combat racism," he said.
Arnette Hubbard and Tony Brown, the principal speak
ers at the conference, will discuss the legal system and
mass media as they pertain to black students.
The conference will feature the first "Miss Black Big
Eight Pageant" which will involve pageant queens from
each campus.
Another feature is the Gospel Extravaganza, which will
emphasize the spiritual part of educational development,
he said.
"At every Big Eight conference, we've had spiritual
stimulation. All too often at conferences, the spiritual
part is left out," Smith said.
He said this project should be a community effort,
starting with the university administration. The
community outside UNL should make contributions and
private charitable foundations should be willing to
contribute, so the Nebraska-hosted conference is a
success, he added.
"In financially supporting the conference, Lincoln will
make money by providing hotel and food services, as well
as entertainment, to nearly 500 students who will travel
to Lincoln."
Although it is aimed at black students, the conference
does not exclude non-blacks from participating, Smith
said. He said other racial minorities seem to count them
selves out automatically. Smith said the conference is an
academic symposium in which any interested person can
take part. He encouraged the community to participate
and discover some of the thoughts and goals of black
students.
Because schools outside the Big Eight have participated
in past conferences, the council is considering formally
including otfier institutions.
"In three or four years, there may be a national black
student government organization formed," Smith said.
that he wasn't aware of any lingering problems.
"We thought we had resolved this problem last school
year. We have been running our trains at night or (during
the day just) four cars at a time. I don't think there are
any problems," Begley said.
Coffey said the railroad is blocking the intersection on
14th Street for 20 to '50 minutes. A city ordinance
requires that no railroad block an intersection for more
than 10 minutes.
"Students are crawling between the cars in order to get
to class on time. This is very dangerous. I'm hoping that it
doesn't take an incident of someone getting hurt to get
this thing resolved," Coffey said.
"The engineer of the train should be ticketed for
blocking an intersection. The only ones who can do mis
now are the city police. One thing that could be done is
to allow the university police to ticket the engineer.
"We had a phone call yesterday (Monday) from an
employee of another railroad company informing us there
are alternatives to building up air pressure for brakes other
than waiting and blocking an intersection," Coffey said.
This is what we need. We need the public calling us with
tips or suggestions on getting this thing resolved.
"I am hopeful that we can get this resolved. How soon
can we, though, is too early to tell. The residence halls
and Residence Hall Association will work together, he
said.
One thing Coffey suggested was that students docu
ment times when the intersection is blocked.
"The students are the ones best able to document
what's going on. This would help in presenting cases for
enforcement of the law," Coffey said.
"I don't know why Missouri Pacific is doing this. There
is space in the yards and to the west to hook up the cars,"
Kubicek said.
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Staff Photo by Dm Bnt
A worker at the State Fairgrounds labors under the sun to construct a booth for the fair that begins today.
Culture Center mom possible
By David Creamer
The Nebraska Culture Center, a branch of the Nebraska
unions, is looking for a new location.
Daryf Swan son, director of the unions, said a new lo
cation is being sought because of the poor location of the
present Culture Center, 1012 N. 16th St., and the deter
iorating condition of the building.
Ennio Quevedo, activities coordinator for the Campus
Activities and Programs office, said Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs Richard Armstrong suggested exam
ining the feasibility of Terrace Hall, 425 University Ter
race Hall, 425 University Terrace, as a replacement. The
building currently lis being leased from the university by
Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
Such a study would determine the cost of renovating
and operating the building, as well as the savings created
by abandoning the present location.
Student fees fund the Culture Center so much study
and assessment must go into the project before a move
can be made.Swanson said.
Last semester a task force was set up to check into the
feasibility of relocating.
According to a Culture Center task force memoran
dum, the needs of the black, Chicano, and native Ameri
can student communites for special gathering places like
the Culture Center were used to evaluate alternative sites.
The task force also explored possible sources of funding
for recommendations.
Quevedo headed the task force last semester and is now
working on the feasibility study of the piviMe sites,
Swanson said.