ir' UmvemJty of Nsbraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. 28 . 1 " - 1'» ■1 — ■ .—« " ' ASUN forum looks at gangs, drug scene By Jsnt Pedersen Senior Reporter An ASIJN forum on drugs and gangs in Lincoln ended Wednesday night before pan elists could respond to all students’ questions. After almost two hours of discus sion, Paul Miles, forum facilitator and University of Nebraska-Lincoln special assistant for minority affairs, stoppednne question-answer period. He encouraged students to find other ways to get involved. ‘ ‘There’s a lot of activity going on around here,” Miles said. ‘‘It’s up to you to take the leadership. My motto is, ‘The future iscoming and it’s up to you to decide where it’s going.’” Devi Bohling, first vice president of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, said she or ganized the forum to determine if there was a drug or gang problem in Lincoln and how it could be solved or prevented. Allan Curtis, Lincoln police chief, said that although cocaine use is the biggest drug problem in Lincoln, he would let individuals decide for themselves if a gang problem exists here. “We do have one group here that calls themselves a gang,’ * Curtis said. “But we don’t have the turf battles. At this point, we haven’t had any inner-gang violence. We haven’t had drive-by shootings. We haven’t had people organizing strictly for selling narcotics firom that gang.” After taking all those circum stances into consideration, he said, it’s up to individuals to decide if gangs are a problem. Curtis said the public’s fear of pngs is a bigger problem than gangs forming because scares promote a “terrible form of racism. ’' People transfer that scared feeling onto others who aren’t involved in gangs, Curtis said. “They say, ‘If I see a black man and he’s wearing red, then he must be • a gang member,'" he said, Ben Gray from KETV television station in Omaha, said a lack of pub lic knowledge contributes to institu tional racism which is the basic prob lem behind minorities' need to join gangs. "Gang members, for the most part, don't want to be gang mem bers,” he said. Gang members who arc degraded in public schools or discriminated against during job interviews have nowhere else to turn, he said. "They want to be treated with the same dignity and respect that the majority of the community is treated with," he said. But because there are few other opportunities for inner-city blacks to earn money, he said, they may turn to selling drugs. Although there are some “high rollers" who become rich from sell ing drugs, he said, not all gang mem bers want to be involved with the drug trade as many people believe. “The vast majority of gang mem bers who sell drugs don’t sell drugs because they want to be involved m the drug trade itself. It's a matter of survival," he said. Another widely held rumor, that gang members slash women’s ankles and then rape them as pan of gang initiation, also is false, Gray said. He said most gang members he knows wouldn’t rum their nice clothes by hiding under cars, waiting to rape a white woman when many white women already are attracted to them. But improving public awareness about gangs is only a small step in combatting the bigger problem of institutional racism, Gray said. He said he hopes Lincoln city offi cials take a more resourceful ap proach to combatting drugs and gangs than Omaha officials have. SeeToflUM on 3 UNL loses Hispanic students to Wyoming I By Cindy Wostre) H Staff Reporter I TV ispanic students in the Pan * Si handle region of Nebraska ■ A JL may be going to the Univer 1 shy of Wyoming rather than the Uni > I versity of Nebraska because of the I stronger emphasis IJW places on I reenuting minorities. ■ This worries Hispanic students on jS the UNL campus, said Frank San jjehez, the president of the Mexican 9 American Student Association. * ‘We’d like to see more Hispanic ■students (at UNL),” Sanchez said. He said ihe University of Ne 9 braska-Lincoln is losing students ■from western Nebraska to UW, and ■that not enough is being done by UNL V recruit more Hispanic students. “Hopefully ..Sanchez said, ■r’they (UNL officials) will recruit ■better out in the western part of Ne Sanchez said MAS A members HK^cnt into high schools in western ■[Nebraska last year on behalf of UNL. Hie said that this year they may visit Bhigh schools there again along with ■Affirmative Action, ^particularly in ■cousbiuff where there is a high per centage of Chicano students. According to 1980 census statis Mics, there were 28,025 Hispanic ■Nebraskans out of a total state popu Bationof 1^69,825, which is 1.8 per* Bent of the total, However, in the 11 ■ouncy Panhandle region, Hispanic Nebraskans totalled 6,430 or 6.55 percent of a total )x>pulation of 98,244, according to 1980 census statistics. Mexican-American Conrad Cas taneda, a UNL junior from Scottsbluff, said that UW is “kicking our butts” when k comes to recruit ing Hispanics and other minorities. He said that when he was in .high school, UW bad special counseling sessions in Scottsbluff for Hispanic students. UW Admissions Counselor Becky Aspiund said that UW makes one recruiting trip through Nebraska, but focuses recruiting on western Ne braska because it is geographically closer. Currently, 270 of UW’s 10,660 students are from Nebraska, Recruitment and Retention Committee compiles a list of minority students in the places recruiters visit, Aspiund said. The admissions office then sends those students a copy of 9 viewbook and a newsletter which comes out three times a year, she said. The newsletter includes information on projects that UW’s Minority Affairs Office is working on, she said. The Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee (hes to ensure that Hispanic and other minority stu dents receive the information they need to make a wise choice of higher education, Aspiund said. “Minority students don't have the same resources (as other students),” Asplund said. “(Their) parents often times don’t have a college educa tion.” The fact that they lack a college education is significant, she said, because college-educated parents can better help their children apply for colleges. Two years ago the committee applied for and received money from the Hearst Foundation, she said. Since then they have applied for money each year to continue the committee's work. Asplund said UW has established an endowment fund to provide schol arships to Hispanics and other mi norities. The fund has about $35,000 now, and Asplund said idle hopes to raise the amount to $100,000. The UNL Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid does not have any records compiled of how much schol arship money has been awarded to Hispanics, according to director John Beacon. He said, however, that if UNL is to keep more Hispanics and other minorities, it must nave more scholarship money. “In general terms, if... our mis sion is in fact to keep and maintain minorities in the state of Nebraska or attract minorities to UNL... we need more scholarship funds - money specifically designated for (minori ties),” Beacon said. Paul Miles, special assistant for minority affairs at UNL, said that over the past few yean, UNL has given mote minority scholarships to f 1 >n