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.
