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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1987)
Home for the harvest Students working on family farms carry two full loads, but they say it's worth it By Christine Anderson Staff Reporter BURR — University of Nc braska-Lincoln students Nathan and Suzanna Watcr mcicr study agriculture. They live it, loo. Like many UNL agriculture stu dents, the Watcrmeiers travel regu larly from school to the farm. Both arc full-time students. Along with attending classes, studying and taking exams, the Wa tcrmeiers harvest crops, operate a custom fertilizer business on their family's farm near Burr and work at a family-owned grocery store. Nathan, a sophomore in mechani cal agriculture, said he travels to his Otoe County home about twice weekly. Suzanna, a junior majoring in agribusiness, said she goes home nearly every day. During harvest season, Nathan said he works 30 to 40 hours a week. Nathan said at times working on the farm and attending school is tough. But it hasn’t hurt his grades. ‘It’sagood break," he said. Work ing outdoors on the farm is a change of pace from school, he said. Ted Hartung, dean of the UNL College of Agricul ture, said many UNL stu dents go home from school to work on the farm. Hartung estimated that “one-third of the students arc very active during the harvest period.” Most of the students who travel home frequently to harvest live about 150 to 2(X) miles from campus, he said. Doing both farming and studying doesn't seem to hurt students’ per formances at school, Hartung said. These students have to be “tough time managers” to make sure they keep up with school while they farm, he said. Many agriculture professors say they expect some students to miss a few classes during planting and har vest seasons. Rick Waldrcn, associate pro lessor of agronomy, said some students may miss classes because of harvest. of a problem. “I deliberately schedule exams on Animal science professor Ted Wednesday,” he said, because some Doanc said many students leave students cither leave early on week- school on Thursdays to spend three or ends or return late Monday. four days harvesting. Waldren said he knows students Students are responsible for get arc needed at home. “Coming from a ting their work done, he said. “They larm, I can understand that. make their own judgments — they “As long as the homework gets know- what their limits are.” done,” Waldren added, it’s not much On one typical Thursday after f J \y> CO £ $ >* '5 Q <0 o noon, Nathan and Su/anna left cam pus life behind, traveling to their 600 acrc farm about 35 miles away. Nathan fixed a door on a gram bin w here hundreds of bush els of corn arc stored. He harvested much of the grain this fall. Across the field, Su/anna planted w inter w heat. “There’s nothing they can’t do,” said their father, Junior Watermeier. “Between the two, they could run the farm, grocery store and the fertilizer business.” Junior, an Otoe County commis sioner, said Nathan planted all 600 acres of crops last spring while at tending school. And he also operated the commercial fertilizer business. This year, he fertilized about 3,000 acres for nearby farmers. Along with farm work, Suzanna helps her parents run a family-ow ned grocery store in Burr. She orders shoes, garden supplies and seed for local customers. On her way home from Lincoln, Suzanna often picks up canned goods, meats and other foods to stock the grocery’s shelves. MC he does more than 1 realize,” said her mother, Marlene. Su/anna not only slocks the store with supplies, but also docs much of the paperwork. Nathan and Su/anna, like many UNL students, are still devoted to their family’s farm. But that's only part of it, Junior said. Working to gether has also kept the family close, he said. “I don’t know w hat I'd do w ithout them,” he said. Nathan Watermeier (tar left) finishes loading a truck with corn harvested that day. Suzanna Watermeier (left) helps unload corn into a stor age bin. Justice chosen for his past and 'intellectual curiosity' B) Kip Fry Slaff Reporter Gov. Kay Orr said Dale Fahrnbruch’s judicial experience was not the only factor in her deci sion to name him to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Orr announced Fahrnbruch’s appointment at a Friday press conference. A district-court judge for the past 15 years, Fahrnbruch was the only applicant with judi cial experience. He will replace William Hastings, who was pro moted to Supreme Court chief justice by Orr in September. “1 was impressed with his over all background and character,”Orr said. She added that she appreci ated his “intellectual curiosity” and that he loves what he does. Fahrnbruch, 63, who has ap plied for the Supreme Court twice before, said a mild heart attack he suffered earlier this year should not hinder his performance. He said he feels better than he has in 20 years. Fahrnbruch said he has never smoked marijuana, and Orr did not ask him that during the interview * - - -———— — process. Orr said she has never smoked marijuana, bul she said she w asn’t sure if that information should be exposed. Fahrnbruch is a graduate of L.incoln High School and has re ceived degrees from both the Uni versity of Nebraska-1.incoln and Creighton University Law Col lege. He also has experience as a reporter and city editor for the Lincoln Journal. Orr said she didn't know if it would have been more popular to name a woman to the court. In other business, Orr said she is not really concerned about the possible storage of low-level nu clear waste in Nebraska. While Nebraskans may sec the dump as a risk, she said, there is also a risk in drinking water, crossing the street and driving down the highway in Nebrasl a Neb aska has a responsibility to help solve the waste problem, she said. South Carolina has had similar dumps for the past 30 years, she said. The governor of South Caro lina has told her there have been no problems, Orr said. Candidate 'speaks to the future' Dukakis hopes to imitate JFK By Dave Weber Staff Reporter Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis vowed to inspire youth in a speech to 50 colleges nationwide and 15 University of Nebraska-Lin coln students Friday afternoon by way of a closed-circuit broadcast. The Dukakis campaign has gath ered momentum in universities across the country because “he speaks to the future,” said Aricla Gross, an election assistant in Boston. Massachusetts itself has 120 colleges. Two hundred campuses in 40 stales have active campaign committees, but only those with the appropriate satellite equip ment could receive the broadcast from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. “Like JFK inspired my generation, 1 hope I can do the same for yours,” said Dukakis, governor of Massachu setts for nine years. Many, including students who gathered at the Nebraska Union, got a chance to ask Dukakis their questions. Pete Castellano, a state coordinator of the youth campaign, dialed for about 15 minutes before he got through. In response to Castellano’s ques tion about Dukakis’ financial aid pol icy, Dukakis said he would “end the annual assault to Pell Grants and loans which we’ve been getting every year from the current administration and institute tuition waivers in public col leges and income withholding.” Dukakis said income withholding would be the automatic withholding of a small percentage of a student's income after graduation to pay back the loan. The money then would be put back into a revolving fund to be used for new loans and assistance. Dukakis said the United Stales should not be committing itself to a trillion-dollar Star Wars proposal “when the Treasury doesn't have two nickels to rub together.” “We don’t want to nuclcari/c the heavens at a time when we are finally h ginning to make some beginning progress toward a reversal of the nu clear arms race hereon earth.” he said. “I want the U.S. to abide by its own ABM treaty.” NSSA seeks reunion with UNL's ASUN NSSA from Page 1 organization and then set the student fee amounts. The organization has $25,000 in reserve from “underspend ing the budget," Me Morrow said. That money will be put in a trust fund to use for some of the organization’s over head expenses, he said. Me Morrow stressed the impor- i tancc of having a statewide lobbying agency solely for higher education institutions in the state. ( I “I think it’s very important that i students work together in a statew ide | advocacy group,” he said. “The stu i dent opinion isn't even going to be I :onsidcred if a siudent group isn't here to say it.” Ilg said he thought ASUN’s .hanees for voting to join NSSA were jretty good since the major reasons for caving the organization in the first Mace tfie Legislative AssemlMx uul the student-fee amount have veil changed. Education, empathy, honesty stressed at AIDS forum NETV from Page 1 A member of the audience asked what the single most important tiling each person could do m their profession to make a signilicanl difference in the AIDS epidemic by the year 2000. Wagencr said the church should locus us concern on compassion for AIDS patients rather than on morality* Carvclh agreed that compassion, honesty and openness are essential. Several other panelists stressed the impor tance of education. Shugrue said calm, reasoned education would slow the spread of AIDS. Wright said high-risk groups should be educated about the dangers ol infection. Wesely said people should be educated to slop high-risk behavior through responsibility, confidential ily and compassion. Owens-Nauslar said teachers should have current information to give students straight forward answers. Wcscly said AIDS victims will realize their social responsibility and be honest about the disease if they are treated with compassion and shown that people care about them. People who have been tested positive for the virus should warn partners of the possibility of contracting AIDS, he said. “It's a tough situation,' Wesels said. "1 :ould be w rong, but my gut reaetion is is to test voluntarily." \Vesel> said that ilsoluntarx testing doesn 't w ork, mandators testing mas lias e to be imple mented. Mosseser. it mandators testing were used first, he said, fewer people would admit to lias mg the disease. •