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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1989)
WEATHER: INDEX Monday, breezy and cold, 30 percent chance of showers, high in low-50s, north winds 15 to 25 News Digest.2 miles per hour. Partly cloudy and cold Monday Editorial.4 night, low of 30. Tuesday, partly cloudy and cool, Sports . 6 high of 50. Wednesday through Friday, partly Arts & Entertainment.9 cloudy with a chance of showers, highs in mid- classifieds 11 50s to iow-60s, lows in 30s. Classifieds.11 Vol. 89 No. 35 Retreat participants make plans for diversity !idy Wostrel Reporter fter 24 hours of brainstorming and learning about other cultures, about 80 University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu faculty and staff went home with a d interest in promoting cultural diver campus. campus representatives were part of iral Diversity II: Breaking through Ra irriers” — a second annual retreat de lo promote interaction and understand tween UNL’s majority and minority s. eat participants, including student on campus and students at large, trav Camp Calvin Crest near Fremont this id, to discuss ways to increase cultural ess at UNL. lie Johnson, a member of the retreat’s planning committee, said she hoped that through the retreat, UNL students could de velop some action plans and strategies, as well as continue programs developed at last year’s retreat The group outlined several goals to be achieved on campus this year, including: con tinuing programming for Developing Realis tic Educational Activities for Minorities (DREAM); increasing knowledge of both the minority situation at UNL, of other cultures and appreciation of other cultures; and creat ing a better understanding of racism. Those at the retreat also discussed creating a “Student Life Affirmative Action Plan,” which they hope will improve diversity on campus. Participants listed many culturally related problems they hoped would be addressed in the plan including: • Reporting and responding mechanisms for students with racial grievances. • Planning for service contributions to ward cultural diversity on campus. • Planning for campus organizations to examine their activities and make them more culturally diverse. • Promoting cross-cultural awareness. • Developing symbols and slogans that allow students to display their commitment to cultural diversity. • Promoting minority student involvement in major campus organizations. ® Recruiting minorities to campus. • Planning for consulting and resource as sistance to groups to become more pluralistic. Planning educational programs. • Developing a liaison between the students and organizations such as the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Minorities. Students proposed several ways to deal with each of these goals, including the possibility of having a meeting of student leaders twice a se mester to discuss problems related to cultural diversity. They also suggested encouraging the Affirmative Action Office and Ombudsman to increase publicity so more racially biased inci dents are reported. They also recommended creating a student advisory committee. The committee would serve as a liaison between the students and the Ombudsman and Affirma tive Action offices. Other suggestions included holding work shops on cultural diversity to sensitize frater nity and sorority leaders, residence hall staff and other student groups, and recognizing mi nority faculty and staff for outstanding contri butions to cultural diversity. Peg Johnson, director of special projects for the vice chancellor for student affairs, said that unlike last year, this year’s retreat was student See RETREAT on 3 Starch boosts decomposition Bdea to help environment I By Lisa Bolin Staff Reporter rw^ wo professors at the Univer | sity of Nebraska-Lincoln are -M. working on a project that could help solve some problems sur rounding waste management. Milford Hanna, an agricultural engineering professor, and Chinna Swamy, assistant professor of agri | cultural engineering, are experiment r ing with injecting corn starch into * Styrofoam products to increase the 1 biodegradability of products. The idea of using starch to aid in decomposition is not new, Hanna K said. Currently, he said, many poly I ethylene plastics, such as garbage I bags, contain 6 to 15 percent starch. Hanna said he first would like to I increase the amount of starch used in I polystyrene products, such as Styro foam, to about 70 percent, jp Hanna said he hopes eventually to I increase the percentage of starch in e polyethylenes as well. Because com starch is a biological material, it has the ability to decom pose in the proper environment, Swamy said. For decomposition to occur, water and oxygen must be present, he said. Adding com starch to synthetics, such as Styrofoam, will increase the surface area of the synthetic, allow ing decomposition to occur more rapidly, Swamy said. The lime it takes for the Styrofoam to decompose depends on the amount of starch added and the conditions ol the environment it is in, he said. Any type of starch can help de composition, Swamy said, but com starch is used most often because it is readily available and inexpensive. Swamy said Styrofoam contrib utes to environmental problems that stem from waste management. It takes several hundred years for Styro foam to decompose, he said. Even though Styrofoam and other plastics make up only 10 percent of all solid wastes, their volume takes up a lot of landfill space, he said. "This nation is exhausting its landfills with slow-decomposing materials,” Swamy said. ‘‘Soon, other landfill areas will have to be found.” Swamy said the product, funded by the Nebraska Com Utilization m| 1 m 111 Vx' hmh ‘This nation is ex hausting its landfills with slow decomposing materials. ’ —Swamy Board, not only will help the environ ment, but will create another avenue for agriculture products. Hanna said they already have applied for a patent for their idea, but it will probably take a few more years before it can be used commercially. INU game broadcast goes smoothly, cable official says By Jerry Guenther Senior Reporter The first-ever pay-per-view broadcast of a Nebraska foot ball game went smoothly, al though the general manager of Lin coln’s cable television company said technicians disconnected the game at some local bars that were illegally i receiving reception Saturday. Dick Bates, general manager of Cable vision, said five Lincoln bars purchased the Nebraska football cable package. ICablevision charged bars $5 for each person their bar could seat for the television package, Bates said. Saturday’s game was the first of three Nebraska football contests in cluded in the pay-per-view package. Bates said Cablevision techni cians drove to bars in Lincoln Satur day lo check if any were receiving the broadcast without paying foi it. In bars where the game was dis connected, technicians gave the bars’ owners a chance to pay for the tele cast before they disconnected it, he said. Bates said although a few Lincoln residents likely also received the tele cast in their homes without paying for it, it is much more difficult lo catch them. Most people seemed pleased with Saturday’s broadcast, he said. “We haven’t really had any com plaints, but I’m sure we’ll probably get some (today),’’ he said. Bobbie Dorn, owner of R.P. Myre’s Sportspage, 813 Q St., said he purchased the television package, but did not charge customers $5 to watch the game. See CABLE on 3 Becky Tegeler, 12, of Irving Junior High, expresses the feelings of some Irving students at an anti-drug rally Saturday in Lincoln. Students, leaders march in rally By Emily Rosenbaum Staff Reporter || v jp with hope, down with * ' 1 I dope’' was the theme promoted by about 175 marchers, most 'of them school children, at an anti-drug rally Sat urday. ‘ Being drug-free isn’t just a phrase we’re trying to support, it’s a lifestyle,' ’ said John Ways of the Lincoln Police Department, co sponsor of the march. Participants gathered on the north steps of the State Capitol and then marched east to 16th Street, south to H Street, then west past the governor's mansion and north to Lincoln Mall. Marchers stopped at the County/City Building where speakers, including Lincoln Mayor Bill Harris, spread the drug free message. Ways called the march a reli gious as well as an anu-dmg inarch. “If you believe in heaven, there's-no drugs there," he said. “So you don’t need them here.” James Davis, a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that co-sponsored the march, said the event was important because the fraternity wanted to show chil dren in the community that not everyone is taking drugs. See MARCH on 3