Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1989)
NebraiskaN_ ttA_» ■ IB_ Comtta N*bratk*r Mirk McVicke?, East Campus landscape supervisor, and his assistant Tom Dobbs check the angle lor the tree’s cabling ; : system. tDoctor’s stressed patients ' cured with saws and cable By Cotta* L. Sheehan ; If; Saftiof Rdm>».- :;-g • -V '• i Mark McVicker talks about how he assists Ms patients when they're under a lot of stress, then turning around, he picks np a saw and walks toward hut latest patient. Instead of a white coat and jtetiioacope, McVicker's uniform includes a hardhat and saw. His pi stressed patterns are trees. ; McVicker, the landscape | supervisor for die University of NefaraskaJUncola Ham Campus, I pattsea before climbing into the s^fwnai bockcu s'. v y " He points to theatres* cracks on > m Current patient, a common backbenry in front of the Agricul ture Commumcatiofts building. ffBat than common hackberry i isn't so common. It is currently the second largest common hack berry in the state. The tree's large size has caused the fitting ana stress, McVieker said. "We took some of the weight off by trimming the tree, then we'd use cables m the treetop for support," he said. McVieker said the high strength aircraft cables can with stand about 12,000 pounds of 4*fbe cables give support tut- I der heavy winds but stiU allow the,; oelto sway in a natural way/* McVieker said,.iy-Ath % . /. Whde pointing to om of his * cured patients located near the BagUuioo^llcViidters^dpeople J only tKHi x thCCtew installing (ItC | came, not the cable itself K • Blast injures one UNL cleans explosion mess ny aara isauaer Suff Reporter Officials are still working to clean up traces of radiation and chemicals in a lab where a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student was injured by an explosion July 12 at 2:30 a.m. Sheng Shijie received a cut on her chin and got radiation in her hair while conducting an experiment in volving radioactive materials in Hamilton Hall. Sheng was otherwise uninjured because of the precautionary meas ures she had taken, according to Larry Grimm, UNL radiation safety officer. Grimm said Sheng was wearing a lab coat, gloves, a lead apron, goggles and a mask. “She was well protected,” he said. Grimm said the radiation in the experiment was not as dangerous as the chemical. The radiation came from carbon-14, which Grimm said gives off very little radiation. Grimm said it was the chemical, not the radiation, that set off the ex plosion. George Sturgeon, vice chairman of the chemistry department, said the chemical Sheng was using is very touchy and unpredictable. Called aiazomethane, the chemical can be set off by scratches on the glass of a beaker, he said. Sturgeon said that although the diazomethane had been stored for about two years, there is no scientific evidence that its age was a factor in the explosion. Sheng contaminated both the hall and the women’s bathroom on the 7th floor of Hamilton after the explosion. Grimm said he already has cleaned the hall and bathroom of radiation. He said he will clean the contaminated iab as soon as he re turns from a conference in Colorado. “We have a big mess to clean up and it will take a couple of weeks to do it,’’ he said. Grimm said one problem with cleaning up the radiation comes from contradicting information about what cleaning products to use. He said clean-up crews must avoid using cleaning products that will react negatively with the chemical. After the explosion, Sheng was taken to Lincoln General Hospital where she tried to wash the radiation out of her hair. She was unsuccessful because the diazomethane had bonded to her hair, Grimm said. As a result, Sheng had most of her hair cut off, Grimm said. Although the haircut probably wasn’t necessary, he said, Sheng had it cut for safety reasons. Grimm said the radiation wouldn’t have permeated the scalp and the chemical "probably wouldn’t have.’’ Sheng will take urinalysis tests for several months to be sure that she did See EXPLOSION on 2 in.. ..1,1,11 .11.. .. .III .MWI.I —.—1 Plane crashes SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) * A United Airlines DC* 10 airliner carrying 298 people exploded and crested hi a Mil of ftoe Wednes day while trying to make an emer gency landing m Sioux City. There were reports of survi vors, tinted said. The plane experienced "com plete hydraulic failure” before the crfcsb, Federal Aviation Ad* ministration spokesman Fred Far* The plane was on a flight from Denver, with an eventual destina tion of Chicago. A witness, Mark Smith, said he could see survivors walking away from the crash. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the crash occurred just after 4 p.m. Multi-Cultural Affairs program receives $140,000 federal grant By Diane Brayton Staff Reporter The University of Nebraska Lincoln recently received a $140,000 federal grant for a program that will provide tutoring and career and academic counseling for low-income high school students. The Upward Bound Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, works through colleges and universities to reach area high school students, said Jimmi Smith, director of UNL’s Multi-Cultural Affairs. The program will increase the numbers of low-income students going on to college by working within the Lincoln community, Smith said. “We’re going into a partnership with Lincoln public schools," he said. The population targeted for the program includes low-income high * school students. Preference is given to under-represented students, such as racial minorities or women. Students who are the first in their family to attend college also are eli gible. All students involved in the program must show an educational need. Educational need means the stu dent needs "extra supplemental as sistance in order to complete their secondary program and go on to col lege," Smith said. Besides offering tutoring and counseling, the program will make internships more available to disad vantaged students, Smith said, and it will teach them networking skills. Smith said he also wants to use the program to inform the public about the students’ achievements. He said the public often doesn’t recognize the accomplishments of low-income stu dents. "A number of low-income stu dents are prevented from taking ad vantage of higher education because of social conditions," Smith said. "Those populations are not perform ing up to their potential." By offering this assistance, UNL will be able to give low-income high school students motivation to stay in school and encourage them to attend post-secondary institutions. Smith said. Colleges and universities nation wide are eligible for the grant, mak ing the process a competitive one. Smith said. “We have very compelling prob lems in Lincoln that require extra resources to combat,” he said. “We also have resource people who can,as a team, work to overcome the problem, especially for the mi nority and female population,” he said. Although the grant is a start, Smith said, * ‘ it doesn ’ t even begin to scratch the surface of need.” “We need to use community re sources to make it stand a ghost of a chance,” he said. Because of the limited money available, UNL will be able to start the program in only one or two area high schools, he said.