Thursday
WEATHER:
Thursday, mostly sunny, high near 70 with
winds from the S at 10-20 mph. Thursday
night, partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of
showers, low 40-45. Friday, partly cloudy and
a little cooler, high in the low 60s.
INDEX
News Digest.2
Editorial.4
Diversions.5
Sports.13
Classifieds.15
April 13, 1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 137
i n / ) I
4
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WIttiam L*u«r/Daily Nebraskan
Cinnamon Dokken, an undeclared sophomore, deco
rates her signature with a peace symbol Dokken signed
the banner with more than 40 other people to snow
support for a group of students traveling to “The Great
American Peace Test” in Nevada.
Students rally against nukes
at Nevada test - site protest
By Lisa Twiestmeyer
Staff Reporter
Twelve students left Wednes
day afternoon for a test of a differ
ent nature.
The students are traveling to
Nevada to participate in the
American Peace Test, a protest
against nuclear weapons testing.
Nell Eckersley, one of the trip
organizers, said the 12 students
include eight University of Ne
braska-Lincoln students, three
Lincoln High School students who
are members of Youth for Global
Awareness, and a junior high stu
dent. The UNL student group
Early Warning! organized the trip.
The students parked their van
near Broyhill Fountain before
departing Wednesday afternoon.
They hung a banner on the van for
people to handprint and sign to
show their support for the group.
More than 40 people put their
handprints on the banner.
Nate Woodhams, a senior phi
losophy major, said he put his
handprint on the banner to “show
sympathy and that I wish I was
there.” He said if it weren’t for
previous commitments, he would
be attending the test.
Mike Sorrell, a junior Latin
major, said he is attending the
Peace Test because he is driven by
his conscience.
“Realistically, I don’t think
they’re going to end nuclear test
ing because of us this year,” he
said, “but I have personal reasons
for going. I can’t just sit back and
not say anything or do anything.” '
Eckersley said the American
Peace Test was first held in 1985 as
a protest of the Unites States’ re
fusal to join the Soviet Union in a
nuclear weapons testing ban. The
protest is held each year at the
Nevada Test Site on Nellis Air
Force Range, 22 miles northwest
of Indian Springs, Nev. and 60
miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The protestors will be staying at
Peace City, a campground across
the highway from the test site.
Last year, °he said, about 8,000
people attended the Peace Test.
Many protesters practice civil dis
obedience, she said, or show their
support for those who do.
See PEACE on 2
Phi Mu members ‘devastated’
by handling of reorganization
By Larry Peirce
Senior Reporter
Some active and pledge mem
bers of Phi Mu sorority are
“devastated” by alumnae
handling of the chapter’s reorganiza
tion efforts, according to three of the
sorority’s pledges.
Julie Bebermeyer, Nicole Myers
and Chriss Kifferly said active and
pledge members are “really tom
apart’ ’ and wish alumnae would have
been more open and honest about the
reorganization.
Former chapter adviser Sharon
Ash said Tuesday that the chapter is
being reorganized because of its
decreasing membership and lack of
money to operate. The chapter must
find 50 new members to continue,
Ash said.
Myers said 24 members currently
live at the Phi Mu house at 1125 N.
16th St. Active members will be
given alumnae status and will move
out of the house in May. In the same
month, the national organization will
drop the pledge members.
Phi Mu alumnae are now inter
viewing potential members in hopes
of meeting their quota of 50 new
women by April 22.
The pledges said it is possible that
some active members will not accept
their alumnae status and will fight to
stay active. They would not elaborate
on any plans the actives may have.
Bebermeyer, Myers and Kifferly
are pledge members who decided this
semester not to initiate — become
actives - when they learned the
chapter might be terminated.
Kifferly said the reorganization
was done behind the backs of current
members.
“It hasn’t been carried out well at
all,’’ she said.
Bebermeycr said that contrary to
Ash’s statements Tuesday, Phi Mu
was a successful chapter at UNL and
poor advising led to its downfall.
Ash said Wednesday that alumnae
have tried to work with Phi Mu
members for the last four or five
years to help in programming and
increasing membership.
interview rushccs, Bcbcrmcycr said.
Ash said Phi Mu’s national or
ganization may have told the mem
bers not to wear their letters, but she
didn’t.
“We understand their feeling,”
Ash said. “But we asked them,
‘Would you cooperate’(with the re
organization)?”
Members were told not to discuss
their “eviction” with others, Beber
meyer said, and were told not to
contact new members.
‘Most of our problems are no longer living
in the house.’
—Bebermeyer
Ash said the members have a rea
son to be upset, ‘‘but not everything
comes out the way you want it to.”
‘‘We feel badly for them,” she
said. “I have daughters.
‘‘Are we supposed to lose our
chapter just because these members
are upset?” she said.
Bebermeyer said that in the past
year, current members chose not to
abandon the chapter, carried out an
open rush and tried to overcome the
reputation Phi Mu had.
After their dedication, she said,
active members are being forced to
take alumnae status and move out of
the house.
Actives and pledges have been
asked not to wear Phi Mu letters or
jewelry, she said, and it was sug
gested that current members be
‘‘conveniently gone” on Thursday
and Sunday nights while alumnae
Ash said she never told them not to
talk about the reorganization. It
would have been foolish to tell
members not to talk about it because
“everyone knew about it,” she said.
Bcbcrmcycr said current mem
bers also feel they are being unjustly
punished and are being “excluded
and removed’ ’ because of a situation
that has been developing for the past
four or five years.
“Most of our problems are no
longer living in the house,” she said.
“There is no respect for our per
sonal dignity with this new rush,”
Bcbermeyer said, because current
members are being excluded from it.
Ash said, “No one said they
couldn’t be involved. But why would
they want to be? 1 hat chapter as it
exists now is terminated.”
See PHI MU on 3
(JorA director questions grant law
By Lee Rood
Senior Fdiior
A law requiring students to
promise they arc drug free
before receiving Pell Grants
is a “wonderful idea,” but how col
leges arc supposed to monitor it is
another question, according to the
Director of the Office of Scholarships
and Financial Aid.
The law, implemented March 15,
requires Pell Grant recipients to sign
a statement saying they will not
“engage in the unlawful manufac
ture, distribution, dispensation, pos
session or use of a controlled sub
stance during the period covered” by
their grants.
According to the Chronicle of
Higher Education, Department of
Education investigators soon will
begin spot checking college cam
puses to make sure students arc
complying with the law.
But OSFA Director John Beacon
said he doesn’t understand how his
office or the federal government arc
supposed to monitor the law other
than having students sign the state
ment and prohibiting aid to those who
don’t.
“How arc they going to spot
check? Arc they going to check the
students or our files?” Beacon asked.
3cacon, though, questions
whether the originators of the law
thought a lot about its implementa
tion before it went into effect.
“The idea is wonderful. I embrace
the idea of a drug-free America . . .
but I question the appropriateness of
a financial aid office monitoring the
bill,” he said.
Beacon read the Chronicle article
that says Education Secretary Lauro
Cavazos has offered few specifics
about the bill’s enforcement cam
paign. From what he’s read. Beacon
said, he doesn’t think Education
Department officials know much
about the law’s implementation ei
ther.
“If the people there don’t know,
what do I know?” he said. “What
happens mid-semester when a stu
dent is arrested or convicted for drug
use? Do we recollect their aid or do
we stop future aid?”
The Chronicle article also says
that when Jim Bradshaw, spokesman
for the department, announced the
spot checks over a week ago, he could
not answer most questions about the
spot checks. Those questions in
cluded when, where and how many
checks would be conducted.
However, Bradshaw did say drug
tests would “absolutely not” be
given.
Beacon said the OSFA was told to
implement the law by March 15.
Award notices, expected to be sent
out at the beginning of May, included
boxes for students to check if they
agree with the statement.
“If students don’t check the box,
we won’t issue the Pell,” he said.
Other than that, Beacon said, he is
just waiting to hear from the govern
ment to “see what to do next.”
Senators: Bill would ban sale of non-degradable items
By Natalie Weinstein
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature gave
first-round approval Wednes
day to a bill dial, according to
some senators, would make the state
the first one to ban the sale of certain
non-degradable products.
Sen. Spencer Morrissey of Tc
cumsch said he docs not think LB325
“goes far enough” but will put the
stale in the direction it needs to take.
‘‘Plastics - as opposed to being
the answer to the future -- have now
Legislation receives first-round approval
become a large problem, he said.
LB325, which is known as the
Degradable Products Act, was ap
proved 37-0 with amendments. Prod
ucts, including plastic rings that hold
six- and 12-packs together, plastic
bags and disposable diapers, would
be banned over the next four years.
Sen. Lowell Johnson of North
Bend said the bill will make plastics
‘‘more environmentally benign.”
‘‘We no longer have the luxury of
dumping everything into a hole in the
ground,” he said.
The bill contains three parts:
• By Jan. 1,1991, all plastic rings
connecting beverage packages, such
as six- and 12-packs ol pop, would
have to be biodegradable or photodc
gradable.
• By Jan. 1, 1992, grocery and
shopping bags would have to be bio
degradable, photodegradablc or re
cyclable. By this time, bags for grass
clippings, garbage, yard waste or
leaves also would have to be biode
gradable or photodegradablc.
• By Jan. 1, 1993, all disposable
diapers will have to be biodegradable
or photodegradablc if the Director of
Environmental Control determines
that these diapers are readily avail
able at a comparable price and qual
ity.
Lomparable price is defined at
costing no more than 5 percent above
the average price of non-degradable
products.
Sen. Elroy Hefner of Coleridge,
who sponsored the bill with 10 other
senators, said disposable diapers
make up more than 10 percent of
landfill waste. More than 20 billion
diapers were disposed of last year
that will not break down for hundreds
of years, he said.
A lew senators said they were
concerned that degradable diapers
would not be available by 1993.
Currently, Hefner said, only one
company in Colorado produces de
gradablc diapers. But the manutac
turers of Pampers and Huggics are
close to perfecting degradable dia
pers, he said.
The technology is already here,
Hefner said. The Legislature is just
giving manufacturers a nudge, he
said.
Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln said
manufacturers have not pursued de
gradable diapers because consumers
have not applied enough pressure.
Once the pressure is there, he said,
the companies will respond.
Sen. Scott Moore of Stromsburg
spoke in opposition to including dis
posable diapers in die bill. He said
See PLASTIC on 2
