Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1987)
i LPmh r r H t Ml TfT L February 11, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 86 No. 100 Board gives 'gifted' own space in city union By Amy Edwards Staff Reporter The University Honors Program was granted space in room 345 of the Nebraska Union at the Union Board meeting on Tuesday. This room is currently occupied by International Education Services, which will be moving to 1237 R St. in March. For the past 20-25 years, the Honors Program has been attracting highly motivated freshmen and sophomores wishing to pursue a more structured academic program. According to Patrice Berger, a pro fessor in the History Department and the Director of the University Honors Programs, it was recently felt that these programs did not provide a coher ent honors program for the students. Formal applications were set up for the program in 1986, and 107 honors stu dents chose to participate in the pro gram. The program is set up to allow honors students a chance to identify with one another. As the honors pro gram is now sharing an office with Pre Admissions in the Administration Buil ding, students now have no place to meet. Beth Hansen, a freshman involved in the honors program, feels the space in the Union would improve the program. "As an honors student, I have always been labeled as 'gifted'," Hansen said. "There was never a place for 'gifted' students to meet." Berger said that the conscientious ness of many honors students is a large concern of the program. "Many potentially capable students are not living up to their potential because they were not given the drive to excel," said Berger. "The space would make academic achievement more visible." The office in the Union will not be solely for honors students however. It will also be used as a clearing house for scholarships and internships. The Ne braska Scholar's Institute will have partial use of the office to attract high school students to their program. CFA cuts lobby group, Mives funds to.GLC By Rob Fraass Staff Reporter The Committee for Fees Allocation voted 6-3 not to fund the Nebraska State Student Association and to revoke UNL's NSSA membership. NSSA, which is a lobbyist organiza tion for all but two of Nebraska's col leges, can appeal the decision, accord ing Rob Mellion, CFA chairman. In a CFA subcommittee report on NSSA, the subcommittee gave five basic reasons for severing the university's relationship with NSSA: The university system and state colleges have different needs and inter ests and therefore have conflicting goals. O Support of NSSA by average col lege students is minimal. O The money given to NSSA could be spent on the Government Liason Committee. O The organization has little chance of achieving its goals and objectives. O The CFA committee questions the use of student fees that would go to help other colleges. NSSA director Steve Linenberger argued in support of his organization, asking CFA members not to vote on its past inefficiencies. CFA, however, gen erally felt that the Government Liason Committee could do a more effective job in lobbying the legislature because they could spend more time on UNL's current budget problems. "We have to devote our energies full time to the university's budget cuts, Mellion said. Since GLC will be taking over the job of NSSA (pending appeal), CFA approved a revised budget of $18,717 for the 1987-88 school year. Also, by a 9-1 vote, CFA approved the Nebraska Union's budget which it had rejected earlier. The new budget calls for a reduction in the building opera tions utilities budget by $14,466 and a reduction in the City Union's food ser vice subsidy by $13,895. Daryl Swanson, director of the Nebras ka Unions, named three plans to increase patronage of the union food service, including the hiring of a new food ser vices director, the franchising of the Union Square and converting the Harv est Room into a food court. In other business, CFA voted 9-1 to approve $39,193 in student fees for the Daily Nebraskan. They also approved a $30,620 one-time allocation to aid in the purchase of a computer system. Helping Mdls Mck tine Mbit Newman heads alcohol and drug abuse center By Amy Edwards Staff Reporter Programs of the Nebraska Preven tion Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse at UNL are run by one man Dr. Ian Newman. He has been the program's sole operator since 1985, when the center lost most of its state funding. Yet he continues to develop and test drug and alcohol prevention programs for junior high and high schools throughout Nebraska. People he has worked with de scribe Newman as thorough and skillful with students. But Newman, also director and professor of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, talks more about the programs than himself. The center, run by the state through the university, began as a clearing house to distribute informa tion in 1979. In 1980, curriculum programs were developed to inform students of the dangers of smoking and drunk driving. More than 3,000 students and 1 10 junior-high classrooms have partici pated in a program for the prevention of tobacco use. The program was first used by 18 teachers and revised by the Nebras kan Tobacco Institute. Results from a two-year survey showed that one year later, the program was more effective for students who partici pated for six consecutive days in the revised program than for stu dents who participated one hour a week for six weeks as the course was first taught. The curriculum is based on know ing the physiological consequences of smoking, ways to resist pressures to imoke, ways to break habits and the influences that encourage smok ing. One of the results from this program showed that parents can discourage smoking. Newman said prevention programs work better when parents tell their children not to smoke. "Even when their parents smoke, more kids choose not to smoke when Mom or Dad says no," Newman said. Another program, "Resisting Pres sures to Drink and Drive," is a series of five 15-minute videotapes that show the risks of drinking and .'I tjtii HI! . ;! I I t ! t I ill I ! 1 0 i i i iff ' I . i I A i ' l" Doug CarrollDaily Nebraskan Newman driving, the pressures to become involved in such risky situations and seven strategies to avoid or escape them. The curriculum has been tested with more than 7,000 ninth-grade students. Results from the pilot project show that after seeing "Resis ting Pressures to Drink and Drive," students know more about the effects of alcohol on the body and on behavior. The students report fewer instances of drinking or riding with drivers who had been drinking. The program was produced by Nebraska ETV and 'funded by the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety. The next project the center may work on, if sufficient funds are raised, is an interactive videodisc on resisting skills. The disk would be hooked up to a computer and would create scenarios dependent on the user's reaction. Jean Jensen of the Volunteers of America in Lewellen has worked with Dr. Newman during a presen tation to high-school students and a workshop with teachers on the to bacco curriculum.. The first program, a presentation on how to say no, attracted about half the high-school students from the area. "He has a real way with the kids and is a good presenter. Dr. Newman got into role playing, and really got his ideas across to the students. They took to him," Jensen said. Jensen said Newman was thorough in a workshop with teachers to introduce the tobacco curriculum. I was very impressed with his idea of teaching kids to think ahead, and the skill with which he pre sented it. The teachers around here are using the program and are real happy with it. We feel that it is making an impact on the kids," Jensen said. Newman is originally from New Zealand and has bachelor's and master's degrees from George Wil liams College in Illinois and a doctorate . from the University of Illinois. A replacement, appointment and. nt State work-study bill lives The Nebraska Legislature's Education Committee decided Tuesday to leave in committee a bill to start a state-funded work-study program providing financial assistance and educa tional experience to college students. During the committee's executive session, Omaha Sen. Vard Johnson said the committee should keep the bill alive because it is good and its cost would be "open-ended" senators could decide how much to appropriate to the work-study program. The bill, LB371, is sponsored by Wayne Sen. Jerry Conway. Johnson said the committee should wait until all the bills relating to education are reviewed and heard in public hearings to see if any money remains in the education budget to fund LB371 before the committee decides whether or not to move the bill to the floor of the Legislature. Papillion Sen. Ron Withem, chairman of the Education Com mittee, said after the executive session that the committee prob ably will request a study on how much financial aid is needed for college students in Nebraska. Law would save licenses A law historically designed to protect students from the evils of drink may cause problems for area businesses if a new bill, currently under consideration, is not passed by the state senators. The present law says that no liquor licenses shall be issued within 300 feet of any campus. It prohibits beer licenses within 100 feet. The edge of campus traditionally was considered to be R Street on the south, despite a number of university parking lots and the Temple Building and Kimball Hall, which lie south of R. However, when Lied Center construction began last spring, city officials became concerned that the law would jeopordize the liquor licenses of five existing businesses: Bridges, Chesterfields, Arturo's, Skylight Bistro and Godfather's, and might hamper downtown redevelopment plans, which call for restaurants in the block south of the Lied site, according to Lincoln city lobbyist John Goc. The proposed bill would establish R Street as the south edge of campus. It was approved by the education committee 8-0 Monday. New directors announced Gov. Kay Orr announced the appointments Monday of a Kansan as director of the State Department of Economic Development and three women as otherdepartmental directors. Roger Christianson will move from his position as director of the industrial development division of the Kansas Department of Economic Development to the Nebraska department, where he was deputy director of the industrial development division from 1980 to 1981. Virginia Yueill will move from deputy director of the Depart ment of Labor to director. Anne Beaurivage, a legislative assistant t U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, will serve as director of the Department of Aeronautics. Gage County Treasurer Margaret Higgens will become director of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Orr said Christianson will be known as "the job creator," in accordance with his goal for his post. Christianson and Orr will start working on an economic development proposal to be presented later this month to the Nebraska Legislature, Orr said.