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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1989)
WEATHER Thursday, doudy and windy with 30 percent chance of rain, high in upper 50s, S winds 10-20 mph. Thursday noght, cloudy, 30 percent chance of showers with low in conditions with chance of showers Saturday and Sunday. Cooler Monday with a chance of showers. INDEX News Digest.2 Editorial. 4 Diversions.5 Sports.13 Classifieds.15 ftprii 6,1989__University of Nebraska-LincolnVoi. 88 No. 132 Legislature advances bill changing formula By Natalie Weinstein Staff Reporter The Nebraska Legislature gave first-round approval Wednes day to a bill that some have called a battle between private and public post-secondary institutions for financial aid money. LB6S1 would allow the cost of an institution to be considered when awarding State Student Incentive Grants. SSIG funds are used to fill ihe unmet costs of attending college. Since private institutions cost more to attend than public ones, some opponents have argued that under this bill private schools wouldend up with more money and public with less. Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion said the bill, which was approved 26 0, will clarify, not change, how SSIG funds are distributed. SSIG funds are not aid to public or private schools, Withem said. "It’s aid to students,’’ he said. Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha, the bill’s sponsor, said LB6S1 is "not a threal to anyone.’’ No one can determine whethei private institutions will receive any more money than they do now, Hall said, but "there is potential for a shift.’’ When the bill was brought before the Education Committee in early March, private institutions supported it. Public institutions, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, opposed it An amendment to the bill, which Withem said answers the concerns of the public bodies, was approved by senators Wednesday. Part of the amendment allows part-time students to be eligible for the funds. The bill originally allowed only full-time students to receive the grant money. Withem said the amendment also alleviates the concern that poor stu dents at public institutions would not be placed ahead of middle class stu dents at private institutions. The original bill stated that awards would be made solely on the basis of unmet need. Some feared that the unmet need for a wealthier student at a private school would be greater than that of a poorer student at a public school. Therefore, a wealthier student could have received the money in place of the poorer student. The amendment requires the Co ordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education to take stu dents’ financial resources into con sideration. The commission also may set an income level over which a student no longer would be eligible. Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln said he has suspicions that the bill is more than a clarification of the cur rent statute. Private institutions have tradition ally felt they can do what they want without government interference, Wesely said, but in recent years have wanted more public aid. They need to watch for the “strings attached to the money” if they want to stay inde pendent, he said. According to the Legislative Fis cal Office, the state matches federal money approximately one-to-one for SSIGs. In the current fiscal year, Nebraska received $521,000 from the federal government and appro priated $550,000 from state funds. Nebraska did not match the fed eral SSIG funds for the private insti tutions until two years ago when the federal government told the state it would have to do so to continue in the program. Once this change took place, Hall said, the private and public institu tions began to show interest in the wording of the statute. Supremacy language studied By Larry Peirce Senior Reporter Even though white supremacists don’t belong to a unified national group, leaders of individual groups are sophis ticated and know how to use language to fight for their cause, according to research done at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln. Roger Aden and Matt Sobnosky, two gradu ate speech communication students who re searched the use of language by white su premacists for post-graduate projects, agreed that there is no centralized group. For a year-and-a-half, Aden studied cable TV programs produced by white supremacists for community access channels. He said “pockets” of white supremacy groups are active across the United States, but no single organized group exists. Aden used his informa tion in writing his doctoral dissertation. For his masters thesis in 1986, Sobnosky researched the Aryan Nation Liberty Net, a computer bulletin board service used by su premacists. He said about 75 different groups share the same belief in white supremacy. “It’s hard to say ‘they,’” when talking about white supremacists because there is not just one group, Sobnosky said. The Aryan Nation, based in the northwest ern United Slates, has proposed the creation of a separate all-white nation in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, Sob nosky said. Aden said the groups differ in what they do and believe. For example, he said, some arc more prone to violence than others. He also researched printed material distributed by white supremacists. When he began his research, Aden said, he thought of white supremacists as people who shouldn’t be taken seriously. What he found changed his mind. They don’t appear to be different from the usual politically involved American, he said. “That’s the real scary point,” Aden said. “They arc people who firmly believe ‘Chris tian whites’ deserve to have a higher place in society. “These people are very serious about their beliefs. They arc very astute at using language to make it seem not as threatening.” Supremacists use language strategies to make it seem as if they represent American ideals, he said. “In my mind they arc just the opposite,” Aden said. Some white supremacists argue that the U.S. government has been infiltrated by Jews, and that civil rights laws arc evidence that white people arc discriminated against, he said. Other supremacists don’t think their beliefs threaten other races, Aden said, but “behind the scenes,” they are not averse to violence. Aden said one supremacist coined the word “racialist” to compensate for the bad image associated with the word “racist.” According to the word’s inventor, Aden said, a racialist loves his or her race, while a racist hates other races. See RESEARCH on 3 Helping students to beat math anxiety is goal of session, instructor says By David G. Young Staff Reporter For years, Cindy Schneider avoided bal ancing her checkbook at the end of the month. She avoided adding the cost of groceries at the supermarket. In restaurants, she avoided calculating the tip. Schneider was one of the many people who avoid math: a victim of math anxiety. Schneider, a senior English major, said she finally decided she could no longer avoid math. Her math requirement was one of two classes remaining before graduation. She decided to seek help. Helping students with math anxiety is the goal of a pre-session summer course sponsored by B.i. Wheeler, a psychology graduate stu dent who also has a degree in secondary mathe matics education. Math anxiety, which Wheeler said usually starts around 4th grade, has more to do with the way math has been taught than with the subject matter itself. “Elementary school teachers are afraid of math,” she said. “Instead of learning it them selves, they teach math the way they were I taught. Many creative elementary school teachers get very uncrcativc when they teach math.” Secondary math teachers tend to be “fact oriented, rigid and introverted,” Wheeler said. Many students get turned off to math be cause of these rigid leaching methods, she said. People who are very intelligent can develop a psychological block that makes them insist that they can’t do math, she said. While many people experience the problem «of math anxiety, about 60 percent are women, she said. Wheeler said she has tutored four times as many women as men. “For many women, it’s a sexual identity issue,’’ Wheeler said. “Most of us were told that (math) was something for boys to do, and you weren’t supposed to do it. In fact, if you did, there was something wrong with you as a little girl.’’ Wheeler said many women who are afraid of math are “perfectionists who don’t like to get anything wrong.’’ In these cases, math is usually the subject where a woman gels her first B in school. This leads to math avoidance, she said. This is part of the problem that led Schnei der to avoid math. “I remember in 3rd grade when we had to figure out one of the extra story problems at the end of the chapter,’’ Schneider said “1 re member that I had a red dress on. I remember that the teacher had a brown outfit on. I remem ber everything about the moment and being so upset, and the teacher saying, ‘It’s not that hard.’ That was terrible.’’ See MATHon! New ASUN President Bryan Hill takes the oath of office as it is administered by outgoing President Jeff Petersen. Hill wants student involvement By Ryan Sleeves Staff Reporter Bryan Hill said he wants to do the impos sible, or at least the highly improbable, during his tenure as AS UN president. Hill, who was inaugurated Wednesday night, said he wants University of Nebraska Lincoln students to get involved and have confidence in student government. That goal is nothing new for AS UN mem bers. During the past 10 years, Hill said, stu dent leaders have constantly tried to involve students in AS UN’s affairs. But apathy always seems to prevail, he said. “It just seems that students, at least in the 1980s, aren’t interested in student govern ment,’’ he said. To try and do what past student leaders couldn’t, the new executive officers said they will encourage non-greek appointments, im prove communications between the Associa tion of Students of the University of Nebraska and students and try to minimize tuition in creases. Hill said one of his goals, aimed at gaining credibility with students, is to testify in favor of more state money for UNL to reduce UNL’s reliance on tuition. UNL relies more on tuition and less on state aid than it did in the past, he said. In recent years, tuition has constituted about one-fourth of UNL’s instructional budget, Hill said. State support made up the rest, he said. Today, tuition accounts for about one-third of the instructional budget, he said. Instructional costs at UNL’s peer institu tions are supported with a greater percentage of stale money, Hill said. “We’re moving in the wrong direction,’’ Hill $aid. A proposal to increase next year s tuition by 5 percent is “not that bad of a deal,’’ he said. Inflation requires the increase, Hill said, and Gov. Kay Orr has proposed a 21 percent in crease lor UNL’s overall budget Hill said he will remind senators and educa tional officials about the tuition burden. He said ASUN’s Government Liaison Committee will lobby for more state support if the current trend doesn’t change. “An issue like this shows students that their student government is concerned about them, ’ ’ he said. Jon Bruning, second vice president, said one of ASUN’s foremost goals is to determine problems students face and to let them know what student leaders are doing about them. To reach this goal, he said, ASUN will establish a student-complaint hotline, appoint non-grecks to ASUN positions, and interact frequently with other campus organizations. Bruning said the Appointments Board must recruit non-grecks and minorities to ensure all groups are represented in student government. He said ASUN should try harder to interest non-greek students in government positions. “I know they’re out there,” he said. “It’s just getting them to apply is the problem.” ASUN will continue to hold Residence Liaison Committee meetings, he said, to attract input from residence hall and off-campus stu dents. The meetings were plagued by low at tendance last semester. Bruning said he and Devi Bohling, who was inaugurated as first vice president, also will attend meetings held by campus organizations, such as Panhellenic, Interfratemity Council and the Residence Hall Association. Bohling said ASUN must lead by example to gain student respect. Bohling, who enforces rules that guide senator participation, said senator apathy has hurt ASUN’s credibility in the past. Senators who don’t attend ASUN and com mittee meetings regularly will be dismissed, she said. “They’ve got to be aware that it’s not a lenient process,” she said.
