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Diversions: Return from
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Sports: Women bea»
Oklahoma State. —Page
13.
Anti-compact petition draws criticism
By Victoria Ayotte
Staff Reporter
A petition drive to withdraw Nebraska from
the five-state low-level radioactive waste
compact has drawn criticism from Jim Neal,
public in formation officer of the Department of
Environmental Control.
Neal said the petition could have serious
legal repercussions.
“We do not believe getting out of the com
pact is in the best interests of Nebraskans,’’ he
said.
Neal said Nebraskans could get out of the
compact “if they’re really willing to pay the
price.”
Neal said withdrawal from the compact
would result in a higher cost to Nebraskans,
because Nebraska must take care of its waste
cither by joining a compact or having its own
waste dump.
The initiative petition was filed Tuesday by
the Nebraskans for the Right to Vote Commit
tee.
The petition seeks to repeal LB200, which
committed Nebraska to join the five-state
compact.
The committee also wants to give Nebras
kans a vote in deciding where the waste site
would be located, said Sam Wclsch, executive
director of the committee.
The committee will need more than 38,000
signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, said
Allen Bccrmann, Nebraska secretary of state.
Wclsch said the committee plans to start
collecting signatures after a press conference
Friday morning in the State Capitol.
Neal said the committee members started
the petition because they don’t like the idea of
taking radioactive waste from other states.
One of the repercussions could be that
Nebraskans would have to pay for the site, but
other states could also use the site, he said.
“The people that started the petition are well
aware of the facts and arc not concerned about
the repercussions,” Neal said. “It’s ‘get out of
the compact at any price.’”
Norman Thorson, University of Nebraska
Lincoln law professor and chairman of Gov.
Kay Orr’s special task force on radioactive
waste, said he believes the committee really
wants to get out of handling the waste at all.
“That would be clearly unconstitutional,”
Thorson said.
Thorson said it is not clear what the penalties
would be for withdrawing from the compact,
but the worst would be that Nebraska would
have to pay its share for the regional facility and
also pay for the state facility.
Wclsch said he thinks officials are exagger
ating the penalties.
Thorson said the compact also has agreed
that Nebraska would have local control since
whatever city the site was proposed to be
located in would have the power to reject the
waste site.
Wclsch said the committee began designing
the petition last summer, but really started
working on it after Nebraska was chosen Dec.
15 as the location of the waste site.
AS UN names new senators
By Lee Rood
Staff Reporter
Senators of the Association of
Students of the University of Ne
braska argued whether the organiza
tion is truly representative of the stu
dent body Wednesday night after
appointing nine new senators.
Some senators at the meeting
questioned how fairly non-Greek
students were being considered for
the organization.
Of the 42 people who applied for
the nine positions available on the
senate and the one position on the
I Intercollegiage Athletics Committee,
26 people were members of the Greek
system, 16 were not.
Five Greek members and 4 non
Greek students were appointed sena
tors, and a non-Greek female athle te
was elected to the athletic committee.
Senior Brad Katz, speaker of
AS UN and chairman of the appoint
ments board, said he “would swear on
a stack of bibles” that the people
chosen for the positions by the board
were the most qualified.
Katz said he realized that AS UN
was already Greek dominated, but it
was difficult to get non-Greeks to
apply.
The root ol the whole problem is
that Greek houses tell members when
positions arc open, Katz said. Unfor
tunately, that doesn’t happen at the
residence halls, he said.
Senate members have tried in the
past to solve the representation prob
lem, Katz said, but they haven’t found
a solution.
Andy Pollock, ASUN president,
said Greek-domination is the worst
reason for non-Greek students not to
apply.
The best way for non-Greeks to
change the system is to become in
volved, he said.
In other busi ness, senators decided
that members of the Committee for
Fees Allocation would no longer be
elected in ASUN elections, but ap
pointed by the ASUN appropriations
board and approved by the seriate.
Senate members said only two of
six people elected to CFA board for
the 1987-88 school yeararestill there.
By appointing CFA members,
students with interest in the organiza
tion would be chosen, instead of
people with little interest, senate
members said.
Navy to recruit minority youth
U.S. Navy working to attract minorities for officer-level jobs
By Anne Mohri
Senior Reporter__
U.S. Navy officials are trying to
recruit minorities as officer candi
dates this semester, a naval recruit
ing district sponsor said.
Cmdr. Mike Leppcrt, a naval
recruiting district sponsor, said that
during and before World War II, less
than 1 percent of naval officers were
minorities.
A luncheon, scheduled in the
Nebraska Union, was sponsored by
the Naval Recruiting District. Sev
eral university officials attended the
luncheon.
Ensign Jay Stockwell, a liaison
for minority affairs, said university
representatives were invited be
cause it is important to inform
people who influence students.
The Navy would like to increase
the percentage of black officers to 7
percent and Hispanics to 4 percent
by 1992, he said.
Marty Ramirez, a counseling
psychologist at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln Student Center,
said, Affirmative Action and Spe
cial Services made promises to
mend the problems minorities were
having in the military in the 1960s.
“Lo and behold, it’s 1988 and
things haven’t changed that much,”
he said.
Eight members of the U.S. Navy
and one member of the Marine
Corps spoke Wednesday to about 25
UNL minority students about the
opportunities available lo them at
the officer level.
Ramirez said minorities have a
negative attitude toward the mili
tary because most minorities have
had to serve in the infantry. As a
college graduate, he was placed in
the infantry during the Vietnam
War.
“Affirmative Action and the
military’s efforts to recruit more
minorities to the officer level arc to
be applauded, but they are not
enough,” Ramirez said.
“The commitment is there ver
bally, but in action, there is a big
gap,” he said. “The commitment
must be stronger.”
Gene Crump, Nebraska assistant
attorney general, said Affirmative
Action gives minorities an equal
opportunity to compete for jobs.
Stockwcll said Affirmative Ac
tion legally forces employers to
look at a person’s job qualifications,
not his or her race.
Several minorities praised the
opportunities the Navy offers.
Lt. Wick Paul said the Navy paid
SI00.000 for his education. Paul
graduated from the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis in 1980 and
became an instructor pilot after
completing flight school.
Paul said through the Navy, he
has traveled and experienced vari
ous cultures. He said the Navy was
exciting and gave him responsibili
ties.
Lt. Frank Gren, minority affairs
coordinator, said he is “going to sell
the Navy hard because it is a super,
super program.”
A representative of the minority
officer recruiting effort is scheduled
to visit with UNL students in the first
week of April.
Gren said the Navy is looking for
minorities with a 3.0 grade point
average or better. Students can re
ceive! 1,100 a month from the Navy
besides scholarships while attend
ing school.
J.p. r.n,*ifv Hy.hii^kun
Crump