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Council formed to help recruit minorities
By Shawn Hubbell
Staff Reporter
Despite efforts to improve minor
ity recruitment at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, minority students
have made up only 5 percent of enter
ing freshmen in the past few years,
said James Gricscn, vice chancellor
for student affairs.
The reality of the situation has led
Griesen to create yet another council
to deal with the university’s minority
recruitment problem.
Despite the creation of the
Chancellor’s Commission on the
Status of Minorities in October 1987,
last week Griesen formed a Minority
Recruitment Council for UNL.
But some UNL officials agree that
this problem is not new and won’t be
easy to remedy because of connected
problems and issues.
Officials say a lack of minority
faculty members, an unwillingness to
finance minority programs, and the
special needs and questions of minor
ity students all play a part in UNL’s
low percentage of minority students.
In a letter sent to college deans last
Thursday, Gricscn and UNL Chan
cellor Martin Massengale asked the
deans to appoint a representative
from each college to serve on the
commission.
Representatives will also be se
lected from several administrative
offices in the university and from
within the community.
Gricscn hopes to have the commis
sion functioning this spring.
“Our society is based on principles
of equality,” Gricscn said, “and we
have, for whatever reasons ... some
historically embarrassing ... under
representation of certain minority
groups in the univers *y.”
Griesen said he believes poverty,
ignorance, racism r id lack of oppor
tunity for blacks is directly related to
the nation’s incorrect behavior in the
past. He said affirmative action is
needed to try to undo past wrongs.
If the university truly subscribes to
the principles of the society, he said,
“we have to bring about that equality
of access and opportunity.”
Paul Miles, special assistant for
minority affairs in Gricscn’s office,
said minority students often lack in
formation about the university sys
tem and financial matters, which
hinders recruitment.
Miles, a 1986 UNL graduate with
a major in speech communication,
works directly with high-school mi
nority students in Lincoln and Omaha
to attract them to the university.
After speaking with officials from
Omaha Public Schools and other Big
Eight universities and Nebraska mi
nority leaders, Miles said minority
recruitment at UNL is at the “bottom
of the heap in the Big Eight.”
For the most part, Miles said, the
minority students he deals with arc
the first of their family to attend col
Icgc. He said many of them do not
know how to get Pell Grants, selected
scholarships and student loans.
“Everything that seems so general
to white students is not so general to
minority students,” Miles said.
One of the challenges in recruiting
minorities, Gricscn said, is to capture
students when they arc younger and
excite them about pursuing profes
sional career possibilities. But “when
you grow up in an environment that
isn’t full of hope and opportunity, it’s
hard to develop hopes and opportuni
ties,” he said.
Jimmi Smith III,director of Multi
cultural Affairs at UNL, said chang
ing attitudes toward the purpose of
college in black communities have
complicated the issue even more.
In the 1960s, Smith said, black
communities were in the process of
growth and change. Blacks told their
children the kinds of careers the
community needed and they went off
to become doctors, lawyers, dentists
and teachers, Smith said. Black com
munities used to emphasize the need
of the community more than individ
ual needs, he said.
Now, Smith said, the trend is indi
vidualism.
Smith said that not knowing what
the community needs makes it diffi
culty for many minority students to
return home after graduation because
they arc unsure their skillsarc needed.
Regardless of how minority stu
dents excel academically or athleti
cally, Miles stresses the importance
of higher education.
Although athletics can open the
doors for some minority students, he
said, they need to be aware that a
sports career can be short-lived and
should seek a well-rounded educa
tion.
“If we train them just to be ath
letes, that’s all they’ll know,” said
Miles, a former Nebraska I-back.
See MINORITY on 3
Future Huskers?
Hundreds ot young basketball players filled the Coliseum gym last weekend as YMCA and the Downtown Lincoln
Optimists Club was host to the seventh annual YMCA Midwest Invitational. George Hoggins, president of the club,
said 208 teams from five states competed in the two-day tournament, which consisted of boys and girls from the
fifth through 10th grades. Other games were played at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln High School and
Southeast High School.
’ Wolff to speak at UNL
on curriculum today
By Jamie Pitts
Staff Reporter
Robert Paul Wolff will speak today on “The
Closing of the American Mind” at the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln’s Wick Alumni Cen
ter.
The UNL Teaching Council is sponsoring
the discussion by Wolff, professor of philoso
phy at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, from 3 to 5 p.m.
“The Closing of the American Mind,” writ
ten by Allan Bloom, stales that the social and
political crisis of 20th-century America is re
ally an intellectual crisis.
Wolff criticized Bloom’s book in the Scp
tember-Octobcr issue of Academe.
Wolff will address issues raised by Bloom’s
book that directly affect UNL’s curriculum,
said Dclivec Wright, a member of the Teaching
Council and director of the Teaching and
Learning Center.
Fredrick Lucbke, professor of history and
director of the Center for Great Plains Studies,
said Bloom’s book stimulates public debate on
public education.
“Something as important as education in a
democracy needs constant scrutiny,” Luebkc
said.
Bloom suggests that college curricula
should consist of the classics, Wright said.
Wright said the teaching council asked
Wolff to speak after reading his review, in
which Wolffdisagrces with Bloom’s ideas. The
council also asked Wolff to speak, she said,
because the book is widely read and deals with
courses UNL students should be taking.
After Wolff speaks, she said, students and
faculty members are welcome to voice their
opinions.
Wright said she hopes the program will
stimulate thought, discussion and reflection on
J issues raised by Bloom’s book.
Roskens urges funding package approval
By Bob Nelson
Senior Editor
University of Nebraska President
Ronald Roskcns made a plea to Ne
braskans Saturday to “vigorously
support” the proposed University of
Nebraska funding package now be
fore the Legislature.
Roskcns said the package, which
includes an 8 percent increase in fac
ulty and staff compensation and a $4
.million allocation for research en
hancement, “could make a very real
difference to the future of Nebraska.”
Lei me stress mat we stand at a
very important point in the history of
this university and this state,”
Roskcns told the NU Board of Re
gents.
Roskcns said the university’s
highest priority is the 8 percent in
crease in faculty and staff compensa
tion for 1988-89. The second major
component, he said, is a $4 million
research cnhancementallocation that
is part of a five-year research en
hancement package proposed by
Gov. Kay Orr.
Roskcns said $ 1.95 million will be
used to finance additional biotechnol
ogy research and a> l .33 million win
be used to finance engineering, physi
cal sciences and computer sciences
research. Water-quality research
would receive $200,000, and deci
sion sciences would receive
S300.000, Roskcns said. Decision
sciences use computers to solve so
cial and business problems.
Roskcns said legislative approval
of the enhancement program would
be a major step in improving the
university’s research capabilities.
“We believe that these funds
would allow us to make a quantum
leap torward, propelling the Univer
sity of Nebraska back into the very
front ranks of the nation’s research
universities,” Roskens said.
Roskcns said the research en
hancement proposal stemmed from
the recent attempt by Nebraska to
secure the U S West research and
development center.
“Simply put, the governor realized
that university research infrastructure
shortcomings were a key reason why
the state of Nebraska was unable to
compete effectively for. . . projects
like the U S West facility,” Roskcns
said.
i nc u b west contract was
awarded later to Colorado.
In the area of biotechnology,
Roskens said, the money could be
used to study ways to control infec
tious diseases through the production
of vaccines, the application of mono
clonal antibodies and the use of mo
lecular probes for viruses.
Roskens said engineering research
could be developed to improve insec
ticide and other chemical applica
tions. Also, laser meteorology re
search could be used to determine
dangerous dust levels in grain eleva
tors more efficiently, Roskens said.