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May 1, 1989 University of Ncoraska-Lincoln___Vol. 88 No. 149
I ASUN committee hopes to clear up Dead Week Policy
By Amie DeFrain
Staff Reporter
By distributing Dead Week
Policy flyers on campus this
week, a student government
committee will be striving to inform
students and faculty members of the
current policy which has confused
many in the past.
The ASUN Dead Week Policy
Committee’s major goal, according
to ASUN First Vice President Devi
Bohling, is to make the students more
aware of dead week rules.
“The major misconception of the
Dead Week Policy,” Bohling said,
“is that finals can be given during
dead week and finals week if the class
unanimously approves it.”
This is incorrect, she said.
Bohling said the only exams that
can be given during dead week are
laboratory practicals, make-up and
repeal exams and self-paced exams.
Besides declaring that finals only
can be given during finals week, the
policy states that these exams must be
given at the “regularly scheduled
time as published in the Official
Schedule of Classes or at another
time during finals week” that the
entire class has unanimously agreed
upon.
Projects, papers and speeches to
be completed during dead week must
be assigned in writing by the end of
the eighth week of the semester, the
policy also states.
Bohling said few students report
their professors or instructors when
they don’t follow the policy. Bohling
said she believes students don’t re
port professors because they don’t
realize they can.
She said she hopes more students
will fill out the complaint forms at
tached to the flyers and send them to
the ASUN office. The self-addressed
flyers will be distributed to all frater
nities and sororities, residence hall
front desks and in all classroom
buildings this week.
Bohling said that although student
signatures on the forms would be
helpful, they arc not necessary.
Last week, Bohling said, the
ASUN office received five complaint
forms from students.
According to Doug Oxley, one of
the seven members of the Dead Week
Policy Committee, the committee’s
drive to spread awareness of the cur
rent policy was sparked from per
sonal experience.
He said AS UN senators had expe
rienced many violations in their own
classes. Many of which, he said, they
themselves didn’t even report.
‘‘We could count more violations
than what had been reported,” Oxley
said.
An estimated five to 10 complaint
forms, he said, arc received during
the year.
He said a survey conducted by the
Dead Week Policy Committee in
January and February of this year also
hcl ped the com m i ttcc dec idc to ac t on
the problem.
The survey showed that the major
ity of the 486 UNL students surveyed
supported some sort of change in the
current policy. Eighty-five percent
favored the suggested change that
classes on Thursday and Friday of
dead week be eliminated so students
could catch upor review their studies.
According to Bohling, the com
mittee recently developed a proposal
stating its suggested Dead Week Pol
icy change along with other problems
with the policy. This was given to the
first of many committees, the Calen
dar and Examinations Committee of
the Faculty Senate, last Thursday.
However, Bohling said, the ap
proval of the proposal will not take
place in the near future. She said the
Calendar and Examinations Commit
tee “warned” them that approving
the proposal on all levels would lake
approximately two years.
Still, Bohling said, she has high
hopes that the proposal will pass.
“I think that it’s a very promising
plan,” she said.
Sunday at East campus.
Professor joins cold nuclear fusion race
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
A University of Ncbraska-Lincoln chem
istry professor has joined the national
race to achieve cold nuclear fusion
spurred by the announcement of two successful
attempts.
Reuben Rickc said about 60 labs in the
United Slates currently arc trying to mimic the
experiment conducted by Stanley Pons and
Martin Flcischmann at the University of Utah.
In that experiment, Pons and Flcischmann
pul palladium and platinum electrodes in a
beaker of heavy water and applied electrical
current. They claim the energy output was at
least four times greater than the amount of
energy put in.
But Rickc thinks he has a new twist.
“I’m not going to try to duplicate Pons and
Fleischmann,” Rickc said. “. . . There’s no
point in doing that.”
Rickc said he and one assistant began the
experiments about two weeks ago. A second
assistant will start work today, he said.
“Some institutions have as many as 50
people working on this.”
Although Ricke has filed for patents on his
experiments, he isn’t willing to reveal his ideas
just yet.
“I don’t know if anybody has thought of the
particular angles that I have,’’ he said.
Rieke said if he goes public with his hy
pothesis before he is successful, someone else
could patent a similar experiment and possibly
horn in on the royalties.
‘ ‘Lawyers can make very funny decisions,’ ’
Ricke said.
But Ricke is willing to share one aspect of
his experiments. He said he’s looking for more
efficient alloys and electrode configurations.
Which metals he is trying is not public
knowledge, Rieke said.
“If and when we arc successful, we’ll let
you know,’’ he said.
Ricke won’t speculate as to how much his
experiments might cost, but he said he gels
funding through the Office of Research and
Graduate Studies.
He said his laboratory is not equipped for
the experiment, because much of the necessary
equipment hasn’t even been invented yet.
The chemistry department’s electronic and
machine shops have been working to keep up
with the demand, Ricke said.
“We’re having to build new things and
obviously we’re havin'* to invent new things.
We’re having to generate new technology as
we go along.’’
If Rieke is successful and there arc no simi
lar patents filed, he said, the university has
much to gain from royalties.
“It’s a long shot, but should it (the experi
ment) hold up, the payoff to the university
could be incredible,” Rieke said.
“The benefits would be beyond descrip
tion.”
But Rieke is cautious.
“It all depends on how good the patent is,”
he said.
Ricke said he and his assistants will be
working overtime trying to beat other research
ers to new findings.
“There may be some important things hap
pening in the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Until then, Rieke’s experiments will remain
a mystery.
3 possible cases
found off campus
By Larry Peirce
Senior Reporter
o new eases of measles have been diag
nosed at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln since Wednesday, but city and
county health officials arc watching three
“suspect” cases off campus and making
immunization shots more available.
Three people who arc from 19 to 25 years
old have measles-like symptoms, said Carol
Mitchell, communicable disease coordinator
of the Lincoln-Lancastcr County Health De
partment.
If the suspect cases turn out to be measles,
she said, the victims contracted the disease
after the first victim at UNL did.
Mitchell said “no identifiable linkage” can
be made between the suspect eases and the two
at UNL, but officials arc focusing on vaccinat
ing 19- to 25-ycar-old people.
“That age group is most vulnerable,” she
said, because many of them were vaccinated
before 1969.
The department will extend its hours for the
next two weeks at 19 health stations to give
measles vaccinations.
Dr. Gerald Flcischli, medical director of the
University Health Center, said it’s difficult to
tic the suspect cases to the two diagnosed cases
at UNL.
“The timing would say ... there’s another
ease that caused all of this that we didn’t know
about,” he said.
University Health Center officials arc work
ing to get an exact count of students who still
aren’t known lobe immunized after last week’s
See MEASLES on~3
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Burglary, assault prompt
arrests of UNL students
From Staff Reports _,
Six Abel Hall residents were ar
rested in connection with a bur
glary and assault of a Comhusker
Hotel patron which occurred about 1
a.m. Friday, said Lt. Albert Maxey of the
Lincoln Police Department.
Items reportedly stolen included a
briefcase, watch, $ 115 in cash and a ring
valued at $23,000, Maxey said. The ring
and watch later were recovered, he said.
The suspects reportedly attacked a
31-year-old California man after alleg
edly being invited to his room, Maxey
said.
Prior to arresting the suspects, Maxey
said officers observed three of the male
students near a small fire on the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln campus. Offi
cers suspect contents of the briefcase
were being burned, Maxey said.
According to a UNL Police Depart
ment report, university police officers
helped locate the suspects an hour after
the assault occurred.
Five of the suspects were arrested by
the Lincoln Police Department later Fri
day morning and the sixth was arrested
Sunday, Maxey said.
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