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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1989)
■m -r* DflliV «g Nebraskan WEATHER: Thursday, cloudy and cold, 40 percent chance of snow, high in the upper-20s, northeast winds 5 to 15 miles per hour. Thursday night, cloudy and cold, low in the low teens. Friday, mostly sunny and not as cold, high in the mid-30s. INDEX News.2 Editorial.4 Diversions.7 Sports.15 Classifieds.18 ■ uecemper /, 1989___ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No.<S^ IROTC rule banning homosexuals prompts few protests locally i By Victoria Ayotte f Senior Editor Hi -- I* f ta i hough the University of Wis I consin recently has experi enced controversy over a pol - m icy barring homosexuals from ROTC I programs, UNL officials said they ■ have not heard many complaints * about the policy’s application at i Nebraska. The University of Wisconsin Fac I ulty Senate voted Monday for a reso | lution suggesting removing the | ROTC program from the campus if it does not change its policy barring homosexuals by 1993. Lt. Col. Robert Jacobson, com mander of UNL’s Army ROTC pro gram, said the issue has not been a “serious problem” here. “I really don’t think it’s caused a major disturbance,” Jacobson said. ‘Even the state ment from the Faculty Senate at Wisconsin is actu ally characterized as an effort to send a message to the Congress and the Penta gon.9 - Row son Jacobson said he has received an inquiry from a gay-lesbian group on campus wondering if homosexuals were allowed in the program. It is military policy to bar homo sexuals from the ROTC program, he said, although homosexuals may take ROTC military courses for college credit. Those applying for entrance to the ROTC program sign a statement that they have not committed homosexual acts, Jacobson said, which is the basis for the military to know who is a homosexual. Vice Chancellor for Student Af fairs James Gricsen said he has not had any complaints about ROTC’s policy. ASUN President Bryan Hill ap proached him, he said, about possible student concerns regarding the pol icy. Hill brought the situation to NU Vice President and General Counsel Richard Wood, who said he had not heard complaints about ROTC’s pol icy, according to Joe Rowson, NU director of public affairs. The university, Rowson said, op erates ROTC programs at UNL and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. ROTC has “traditionally been a pro gram the university wants to offer to students.’’ The ROTC rule banning homo sexuals does not violate any univer sity or Nebraska policies, he said, and change in ROTC policies probably should be at the federal level where that policy was made. “Even the statement from the Faculty Senate at Wisconsin is actu ally characterized as an effort to send a message to the Congress and the Pentagon,” Rowson said. Steve Thomlison, AS UN general studies senator, said he also is con cerned about the controversy this topic could bring to campus and thinks change in the policy should be made at the federal level. “You can’t punish someone for something they don’t have control over,” Thomlison said. “I think it would be a great shame if the ROTC program were to be removed from UNL.” Thomlison said he has not heard any complaints about the policy at UNL. David Whitaker, chairpcrsoh 'of the Committee Offering Lesbian and Gay Events, said he also has not heard complaints about ROTC’s policy. The policy is a potential issue on campus, he said. “I think it will be a while for this university to get to the point of doing something like that (Wisconsin’s action),” Whitaker said. Rodney Bell, chairperson of UNL’s Gay/Lcsbian Alumni Asso ciation, said he has written three let ters, one to each ROTC department on campus, inquiring about their pol icy on homosexuals. Bell said he and other students are concerned about the policy, al though it has not been a real campus issue yet. “It’s totally unfair,” Bell said, “because there is no evidence that homosexuals are any more or less of a security threat. “People need to know that this is happening.” Bell and Whitaker said ROTC prohibits homosexuals because they say they are a security threat and can be blackmailed. See ROTC on 6 l...■ - ■ - 1_uE_2_ ■ IBM ..MHBft David Hansan/Daily Nebraskan Southeast Community College maintenance worker Todd Miller takes a break from cleaning up soaked ceiling tiles. The tiles fell throughout the college Wednesday after the roof developed leaks. Physical Plant Director Bob Aguilar estimated between $300,000 and $500,000 in damages. ASUN complies with UNL policy Anti-discrimination bill passed By Jana Pedersen Senior Reporter The Association of Students of the University of Nebraska passed legislation Wednes day that brings ASUN and all UNL student organizations into compli ance with the University of Nebraska policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. After ASUN passed a bylaw amendment to add sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination clause, gen eral studies Sen. Steve Thomlison initiated a motion to bring up a bill on emergency status. The bill included a provision giving student organ iza lions until April 29, 1992, to change their constitutions to comply with the amended bylaw. Last week AS UN postponed ac tion on the bylaw amendment until such a bill could be drafted. Senators had ■stressed concern that all stu dent organizations’ constitutions would be nullified unless legislation was passed giving them time to com ply with the amended bylaw. While presenting opening com ments on the emergency legislation, Thomlison said AS UN should adopt the bill to prevent problems from developing since the bylaw amend ment was passed. “I think this bill will allow them (student organizations) to satisfy all the requirements in a timely man ner,” he said. When another senator objected to the length of time granted before student organizations must make constitution changes, Thomlison said the 1992 date was necessary because student organizations may remain inactive for two years before they are dissolved. He said AS UN must allow inac tive organizations more than two years to comply with the bylaw be cause they may not meet for that length of time. See ASUN on 6 uemanas ouua stress Counseling offered to graduate students By Roger Price Stiff Reporter To alleviate stresses that many graduate students face, the University of Nebraska-Lin coln is developing a model program for counseling graduate students, said the UNL vice chancellor fori graduate studies and research. John Yost said juggling family, work and school concerns causes a lot of stress for graduate students. The Counseling Center, located in 226 Administration, with the help of the Graduate Studies office began to offer one-on-one counseling services for graduate students this fall, Yost said. The graduate counseling program also has offered a seminar on procras tination, he said. Yost said his office started to pro vide funding for a graduate assistant to help in the counseling center this fall. Linda Brockbank, a doctoral stu dent in counseling psychology, is serving as the graduate assistant for the 1989-90 school year in the gradu ale counseling program, Yost said. She is working with Marly Ramirez, a psychologist at the counseling cen ter, and Roger Bruning, associate dean of the graduate college, to ex pand the counseling program, he said. Yost said he expects the counsel ing program to receive grants next year because very few other schools arc even looking at graduate counsel ing. Currently, the only additional funding for the program is the gradu See COUNSELING on 6 Vote expected in January Congress may ask student papers to limit alcohol ads By Michelle Cheney Suff Reporter_ Some members of Congress have fa vored legislation that would encourage college student newspapers to refrain from running alcohol advertisements that glamorize drinking. An amendment to the much-touted drug bill passed by the U.S. Senate encourages college newspapers not to print advertisements that encourage irresponsible or illegal alcohol comsumption. Originally, the amendment would have re stricted all federal funds to state-supported colleges and universities if their student news papers printed such ads. The original amendment, proposed by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., also would have prohibited alcohol companies from sponsoring events on university campuses. This amend ment passed in the Senate Oct. 3. However, after reexamining the first amendment, Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., intro duced a less restrictive version of the amend ment that encouraged newspapers not to run the ads, but did not require withholding federal funds to those that did, said Keenen Peck, an aide to Kohl. Peck said he and Kohl agreed with the amendment’s goal of curbing alcohol abuse and underage drinking, but thought Binga man’s amendment violated free-speech rights of the student newspapers, universities and alcohol companies, Peck said. Peck said ads that solely announce price and product are not the types the amendment aims to curb. But advertising should not encourage irresponsible or illegal drinking, he said. Ads such as Budweiscr’s “This Bud’s for you” promotion encourage such irresponsible be havior, Peck said. The revised amendment also says that a university will not lose its federal funds if an alcohol company sponsors an event. Advertis ing of these events, however, should be re stricted to just advertising the sponsor and should not advertise drinking, the amendment says. For example, Peck said, an ad that says “Come to the Stroh’s Jazz Festival” is accept able but “Come drink Stroh’s beer at our jazz festival” is not. The Senate passed the revised amendment in October. The bill and amendment is sched uled to be voted on by the House when it reconvenes in January. Although the amendment is modified, Peck said, he and others arc not in total agreement with the amendment. Peck said he thinks abolishing advertising is an ineffective way of reducing alcohol abuse. He said the focus should be on educating the public instead of banning ads that deal with alcohol consumption. He said consumption is not the problem, abuse is. Peck said another problem with the amend mcni is that il docs not specify which student newspapers arc included. He said some student newspapers arc totally independent of their universities and receive no funds from them at all. He said some of these independent papers rely on alcohol advertis ing, and if alcohol ads were banned, the papers would go under. Peek said it would be better to have an inde pendent paper that got revenue from alcohol ads, rather than a umvcrsity-fundcd-and-con trollcd newspapers with no alcohol ads. In the 1989-90 school year, the Daily Ne braskan received 6 percent of its total budget from student fees, according to Dan Shattil, general manager of the newspaper. Shattil said the rest of the operational costs of the paper come from advertising. He said a very small percentage of ad reve nue comes from ads glamorizing alcohol and he has never had any complaints about alcohol ads that have been printed.
