Woods displeased with students’apartheid attitudes
By Diana Johnson
Senior Editor
While more than 50 people milled
outside the Avery Hall Reading
Room Wednesday, Donald Woods
talked to a packed room of mostly
journalism students and professors
about what he has learned about ra
cism and apartheid since he left South
Africa 10 years ago.
Woods, the
former editor
of die Daily
Dispatch in
South Africa,
was banned
from the coun
try following
his escape in
1977. An anti-apartheid supporter, he
frequently wrote critical editorials
against South Africa’s white govern
ment and exposed the murder by
government police of black leader
Steven Biko.
Woods, who is currently on a five-'
week lecture circuit, said he has vis
ited the United States biannually
since his escape. Woods now lives in
London with his wife and five chil
dren. He is head of the Lincoln Insti
tute in London, which provides
uncensored information about South
Africa.
During his visits, the author of
“Biko” and inspiration of the movie
“Cry Freedom” said he has contin
ued to see a “strong vein of ideal
ism” among America’s youth.
Although students have the poten
tial to be a nine on a l-to-10 scale,
Woods said, their attitudes toward
apartheid rank a three.
Today’s students maintain the
same idealism as any previous gen
eration, he said, but a vacuum of
apathy currently exists.
Woods said he has witnessed a
regression during the last decade, a
return to normality before the Civil
Rights Movement of the 1960s. The
number of uprisings supporting
South African divestment on cam
puses has decreased since he first
began visiting the United States,
Woods said.
But the conditions in South Africa
have worsened since censorship laws
have increased, Woods said.
Last year, 242 violent clashes
occurred between black and white
factions, he said. In South Africa, 27
million blacks and other non-whites
are ruled by a government elected by
5 million whites.
But Woods said neither South
African citizens nor the rest of the
world were aware of that because of
censorship laws. The foreign press no
longer are allowed in the country, he
said.
The South African government
now has 46 censorship laws, he said.
Four have been added since he left the
country.
The first law states that the gov
ernment has the right to shut down
any newspaper or publication at any
time, he said.
“After that,” he said, “1 don’t
understand why they need to go any
further”
U.S. citizens should continue to be
leery of any information released
from South Africa, he said.
When asked what he thought of
recent reports about Wir.nie Man
dela, Woods said he is unsure that the
reports are true. Mandela is the wife
of the jailed anti-apartheid leader
Nelson Mandela and has been ac
cused of allowing a young man to be
murdered at her home.
“I’m immediately suspicious
when the government suddenly
makes it easy to gel information
when all along they have tried to
prevent you from gelling that infor
mation,” Woods said. “I would treat
it (the Mandela reports) with great
caution.”
American journalists should lg
See WOODS on 6
Bill offers incentive grants to nurses
By Larry Peirce
Senior Reporter _
Several state senators at the
Nebraska Legislature agreed
Thursday that LB357 is needed to
attract people to the nursing pro
fession, but disagreed on how in
centive grants should be allocated
to nursing students.
isgiSHP
LB357, a nursing incentive bill
sponsored by Sen. Arlene Nelson
of Grand Island, would provide
financial support to encourage
people to train as nurses, in an
attempt to relieve the state’s short
age of nurses.
As it stands, LB357 would pro
vide $500 to qualified students
with financial need, after they
have completed 30 hours of nurs
ing college credits. A limit of
$500,000 per year would be placed
in the incentive program.
The bill also would provide
$1,000 for a person with a bachc
lor s degree in nursing who com
pletes one year of work in a hospi
tal or nursing home in a Nebraska
community with less than 10,000
residents.
Debate on the bill began when
Sen. Stan Schellpepcr of Stanton
asked Nelson if recipients of the
grants would be required to work
in Nebraska after finishing col
lege.
Nelson said that about 94 per
cent of nursing graduates stay in
the state, but that the bill would not
ensure that incentive recipients
would.
Schellpepcr attempted to attach
his incentive bill, LB520, as an
amendment to LB357. Under his
amendment, full-time nursing stu
dents could be reimbursed for up to
$2,000 per year for each year of
nursing college they complete.
Part-time students could receive
up to $1,000 per year.
Students who agree to practice
in rural areas could be reimbursed
up to $ 1,000 for each year they are
full-time students, or $500 for each
year they are part-time students.
His bill would limit the number of
students who could enter the pro
gram each year to 100 participants.
His amendment also would
lower the program’s limit to
$400,000 per year, and provide
funds to help increase the number
of nurses who can teach nursing.
Sen. Jacklyn Smith of Hastings
said Schellpeper’s amendment
would “strike the guts of the bill
(LB357)’’ and put LB520 in its
place.
Nelson said Schellpeper’s
amendment wouldn’t help rural
hospitals because it doesn’t help
enough nurses.
“Wc need 500 nurses,” she
said, and the amendment gives
“too much to loo few.”
Sen. Lorraine Langford of
Kearney opposed Schellpeper’s
amendment because hospitals in
Buffalo and Hall counties, each
with more than 50,000 people,
would be excluded.
Smith asked Nelson and Schell
peper if they would try to find a
compromise between the two bills.
The Legislature adjourned be
fore a vote was taken on the
amendment.
RHA plans second open forum
By Jeff Beals
Staff Reporter
The Residence Hall Association
decided Thursday to schedule a sec
ond All-Residence Hall Open Forum
addressing the issues of visitation
hours, alcohol problems and condom
machines in the halls.
The location and time for the open
forum have not yet been finalized,
said J. Matt Wickless, RHA Senate
speaker and coordinator for the
event. RHA required that it be held
prior to Tuesday, March 21.
Cara Hansen, RHA treasurer, said
the open forum provides many resi
dents with a chance to speak their
opinions.
Wickless said a similar open fo
rum held last fall was successful.
“We need more programming
this semester,” he said. “(The open
forum) would indeed take care of
that.”
Profs unhappy with decision
4 4«i i * * l :ii »» r* i . _ i : j
PROFS from Page 1
Bleed said LB340 allows arche
ologists to study only those sites that
arc non-burial domestic sites, but
does not define what those sites are.
Bleed said he also opposes LB340
because it punishes “serious profes
sional researchers,” does not treat
unmarked graves of Euro-American
and Native American equally and
does “nothing to site looters who
have no professional affiliation.”
Svoboida said the reason he wrote
the bill supporting LB340 was be
cause hi: had followed the legislation
since its inception and he feTt it was
uiv, lAAiui uni. j vuutAid di.M; .xuu
that, as he understands it, Nebraska
Indians, including the Nebraska In
dian Commission, were not con
sulted while the alternate bill was
being written.
Svoboda said ASUN senators had
more than two weeks to investigate
the issue and lhal information on
LB691 was provided to them at
Wednesday’s meeting.
Svoboda said both professors arc
welcome to express their opinions at
the next ASUN meeting.
“The process is an open one for
anybody who has something to say, ”
he said.
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