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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1988)
INDEX * WEATHER: Monday mostly sunny, | News Digest.2 | breezy and warn, high in the mid to upper 80s Editorial.4 with S winds at 15-25 mph Monday night, Arts «& Entertainment.... 11 ' pally cloudy, low around 50. Tuesday, partly Sports.7 sunny and warn, high in the mid 80s. Classifieds.15 __ *» ^—■——■" ■ i in i i ■■ i ,i i ——— i ■ -in ■— September 26,1988 University of Nebraska-Lincoln_ Vol. 88 No. 20 Petersen vetoes bill, ASUN misinformed By David Holloway Senior Reporter A SUN President Jeff Petersen said he vetoed legislation Friday that would have given $500 to the “Do It Sober” program because the student senate had been misinformed about the bill. The Association of Students of the Univer sity of Nebraska passed the bill 13-7 on Sept. 21. The “Do It Sober” program is co-sponsored by Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Pi Beta Phi sorority, Residence Education and the Univer sity Health Center. Petersen said he vetoed the bill in executive session because ASUN was told the Residence Hall Association would also sponsor the “Do It Sober” program. “I found out Thursday that RHA wasn’t going to sponsor the program,” Petersen said. Petersen said he believes ASUN should never support anything that is just greek -spon sored because ASUN represents the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a whole. Petersen said he plans to find out where ASUN was misinformed and for what reasons. • I m still in full support of the ‘Do It Sober’ program,” Petersen said, “but in mv own opin ion, AS UN passed the bill with the idea that RHA was also sponsoring the program.” Tyler Correll, general studies senator who wrote the bill, said a lack of communication caused the misinformation. Correll said Jerry Hoffmann, coordinator of the “Do It Sober” program, had not intention ally misinformed him by saying RHA was also sponsoring the program, because he had no idea that RHA was not. Hoffmann said the “Do It Sober” committee had an understanding that RHA had been con tacted. Only Residence Education, a division within the Office of University Housing, had been contacted, he said “It was a lack of communication by the ‘Do It Sober’ committee concerning the RHA,” Hoffmann said. Shari Kliptenstein, programming coordina tor for Residence Education and RHA adviser, said she has been meeting with Hoffmann since last spring concerning the “Do It Sober” pro gram. She said Hoffmann apparently assumed that she was representing bom RHA and Resi dence Education during their meetings. She was only representing Residence Education, she said. Hoffmann said he thought Kliptenstein had been representing both groups. “We assumed that she was representing Res. Ed. and RHA,” he said. “But she didn’t tell us and we didn’t ask. It was a lack of communica tion on our part.” Hoffmann said RHA president Larry Koubsky supported the “Do It Sober” program. “As of Friday when I met with Larry, he said he is 100 percent in support of the program,” Hoffmann said. Hoffmann said Koubsky plans to bring the “Do It Sober" program up at the next RHA meeting to sec it RHA will approve donating to See VETO on 5 * \ Cultural diversity to be celebrated By Victoria Ayottf Senior Reporter A week for “Appreciating Cultural Di versity” at the University of Nebras ka-Lincoln will be Oct 3-9. t James Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs, said planning for the event began last spring at a meeting of the Student Affairs Executive Council. “The primary focus of discussion was the lack of interaction between the white and tittnority students,” Griesen said. “Minority student involvement in the major campus or ganizations is almost non-existent.” Griesen called together a group of students and staff to look at the issue of diversity on campus and begin planning a strategy to recog nize and appreciate diversity. The Student Affairs Executive Council has planned 10 workshops, which will be led by two consultants, Jenny Laster and Linda Weiner of Massey Enterprises of Chicago. Massey’s pri mary focus is on minority issues, said Peg Johnson, director of special programs in Griesens office. Johnson said the workshops will be given to student groups including the Afrikan People’s Union, Native American Student Association, Mexican American Student Association, Viet namese Student Association, foreign represen tatives, Interfratemity Council, Panhellenic Association, the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, Residence Hall Asso ciation, University Program Council and black greek organizations. Some groups will combine during the work shops, she said. Three workshops also will be given to in vited faculty and staff, two of which are being sponsored by Robert Furgason, vice chancellor for academic affairs. Griesen said the workshops will address “the problem of making minority students feel more a part of this campus community. “There is not integration of majority and minority students on this campus,” Griesen said. “In fact, we are a segregated campus — they don't feel equal and we’ve got to do something to break that down.” Griesen said the week will culminate in a retreat at the Gretna 4-H camp Sept. 8-9. Four students from each organization and an equal number of faculty and staff have been invited. “We hope to gel in a serious discussion that weekend about getting a series of programs started,” Griesen said. Griesen said he is looking forward to the weekend. “It’s going to take time to build our minority status, but we must start with something,” he said. “I’ve got my fingers crossed.” enrollment increases Student interest spurs expansion in language department By Angie Beiriger Suff Reporter Students’ awareness of the need to communicate ideas with peoj^ggf foreign coun tries is reflected intWgrow ing enroll ment of modem language courses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said Helmut Planner, chairman and professor of the Department of Mod em Languages and Literatures. ptvanner said enrollment in mod em language courses is up about 10 percent. He said an increase in mod em language enrollment is also a national trend. UNL offers courses in 10 lan guages. Students can mayor in Span ish, French, German and Russian, Pfartner said. Portuguese, Czechoslo vakian and Italian can be taken as minors. The other three, Japanese, Chinese and Lakota Sioux are two year programs oiicnng no degrees “Good job prospects are offered in these non-traditional fields," Pfanner said. Non-traditional languages are languages besides French, German and Spanish. “Most students take them to round out their degree. It isn’t uncommon to have a business major taking Japa nese or a political science major tak ing Russian," he said. Other than job prospects, students take non-traditional Languages be cause they are usually more challeng ing than traditional languages or because they have an interest in their own ethnic heritage, he said. Courses on the culture of these countries art also offered. Students taking non-traditional languages make up only about U percent of the more than 3,000 stu dents enrolled in the language depart ment. Out of 46 instructors in the department., six teach all the courses in the non-traditional languages. Pfanner said lie would like to see UNL’s language program expand. Currently there are two Russian pro fessors, one of which will be retiring soon. A replacement has been found and Pfanner said he would like to conduct a similar search to find a Czechoslovakian professor. Right now, a lecturer teaches Czech. Enrollment is up in both Italian and Japanese, he said. A second section in Italian was offered this year for the first time in the university’s histocy. Similarly, some students wanting to take Japa nese were turned away because of limited class space, he said. The department was recently granted another instructor which enabled them to add another section in Japanese. Japanese is usually of fered alternately whh first year Chi* nese. Next semester could be the lust time both will be offered at the same time, he said. ‘ The overall program is solid,” Pfanner said. “There are good rela tionships between professors and stu dents. The classes have a maximum of 30 students so the professors and students really get to know each other.” Pfanner said that he would like to see the department expand, not only in the number of sections offered, but also in the number of languages avail able. Pfanner said he would like to offer sections in such languages as Arabic and Korean. “It’s hard to say if there's an inter est in these languages,” he said. “If there was an intersct, it would proba bly be in cooperation with business or economics. Saudia Arabia is an eco nomic force in the world. Korea is an up and com mgpoweralso.lt s impor tant for people to know what to ex pect.” There are no plans to set up these programs, though, he said. <rlt’s not easy to start up a new program,” Pfanner said. "We’d have to start small and build up before you can get a solid teaching program. We need professors to get the program going. It’s a very difficult process.” Pfanner said he thinks the univer sity has the potential to be one of the best multi-section language depart ments in the country. “I’ve been the head of the depart ment for two years,” he said. “In that time, we’ve hired four or five new instructors each year. Wc have hired four new instructor s for next year. It’s a great plus to hire so many new people. It adds considerably to the strength of the department,” he said. m • 4, A
