<■ WEATHER Tuesday, rain likely, a few thundershowers, high in the low-40s, gusty east wind 20-30 miles per hour. Tuesday night, low in the upper-30s, 80 percent chance of rain. Wednesday, blustery, 60 percent chance of precipitation, high in the low- to mid-40s. INDEX News.2 Editoria' .4 Spo* ts.5 Arts & Entertainment.6 Classifieds.7 March 6, 1990_University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No.j££ («/ ■ m11 m.-.wmmgm Joe He^nzte Dally Nebraskan A Pottery play . .. Senior Lisa Davis, 23, works on a project for an intermediate/advanced ceramics class Monday in the Nelie Cochrane Woods Art Building. 600 students sign petition Environmental topics course proposed §y Julia Mikolajcik Staff Reporter - Recent interest in ecology and preserving the environment by UNL students has prompted the proposal of a course in environ j, menial topics, according to a Univer - lily of Nebraska-Lincoln professor. The proposed course, Issues in Environmental Biology, would be offered through the School of Bio ical Sciences. Royce Ballinger, director of the I, said the school has wanted to introduce an environmental course for a few years. -4 4 It’s been something that has been an obvious need for a long time. Ballinger director of School of Biologi cal Sciences -9 9 “It’s been something that has been an obvious need for a long time,” Ballinger said, and ... it mis a need in terms of the interest students have in environmental problems.” Ecology Now member Dave Re gan said the organization has gath ered more than 600 student signa tures in support of a three-credit-hour course in environmental education. He also said the organization sup ports any added environmental edu cation courses. The petition and proposal were submitted to the Association of Stu See BIOLOGY on 3 I Candidates exchange campaign criticism By Jerry Guenther Staff Reporter Two candidates for president of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska are exchanging criticism, but deny they are using negative campaign tactics. A pamphlet circulated last week by the VISION party alleges that Government Liaison Committee Chairman Deb Fiddelke is neglecting her GLC duties because of time spent campaigning as TODAY’S candidate for president of ASUN. Monday, the TODAY party coun tered with a pamphlet of its own, addressing what the party says VI SION supporters would like students to believe about TODAY. VISION’S pamphlet, which com pares the party platforms, states “... GLC’s lobbying efforts have been anything but strong. GLC’s member ship has suffered greatly this year, and GLC Chairman Deb Fiddelke has been spending more time campaign ing foF ASUN president than lobby ing for student interests.” Fiddelke said she has seen the pamphlet, but defended her record. “I think this has been one of GLC’s most successful years,” Fiddelke said. 4 4 Anyone who would say otherwise is just trying to put out propaganda for a campaign.” Phil Gosch, VISION presidential candidate, said he read the pamphle before it was circulated and he esti mated that fewer than 100 copies wer distributed to students. Gosch, a GLC member, said it wa• not his intention to “slam” Fiddelke or start a mudslinging campaign by circulating the pamphlet “I’ve been to almost every GLC meeting this year, and there’s nevei been more than 15 or so people ai each meeting,” Gosch said. “Whethei or not that’s because she has beer campaigning for ASUN president 1 don’t know.” Student attendance and participa tion in GLC has not been widespread this year, Gosch said. But Fiddelke said she has worked hard for GLC, especially in attempt ing to get a student-regent vote. She said she organized a meeting of all the student regents and trustees from Nebraska four-year colleges in order to discuss LR239CA — which pro poses restructuring of governance of higher education in the state. At a legislative Education Com mittee hearing on LR239CA, Fid delke said, she represented all seven four-year colleges in the state and testified in favor of the student vote. Fiddelke said she also has met with each member of the committee, and other senators, urging them to support student voles. “I think the record of GLC, and the hard work that anyone who is at all familiar with GLC knows I’ve put into it speaks for itself,” she said. Aside from the pamphlet, Fiddelke said, she doesn’t plan any counterat tacks against VISION. “I’m not going run the kind of campaign that gets involved in throw ing mud at the other party,” she said. Gosch stated that the main point he was trying to get across with VI SION ’ S pamphlet was that hav ing the GLC chairman appointed by the ASUN L president hinders democratic elections. The GLC chairman has won the ; next year 's ASUN presidency three years in a row. “7his constant turnover from GLC chair to president has discouraged other students from running for presi dent,” Gosch said. ‘‘The resources of that office and having the support of the current ASUN administration each year make it vir tually impossible to beat them (the party of the GLC chairman).” Temporary restraining order for Cooper development denied From Staff Reports Lancaster County District Court Judge Paul Merritt Jr. on Mon day denied the petition to place a temporary restraining order on fur ther development at Cooper Park, Sixth and D streets. Merritt said he did not believe the Salt Creek Community Organization’s “application was successful.” He said his decision did not ad dress the issue of the park’s owner ship, which was brought up at Fri day’s hearing in county district court. At the hearing. Miles Johnston Jr., See COOPER on 3 Approximate figures sought Census Bureau tallies regional homeless By Jerry Guenther USpff Reporter Ha ocal census workers arc gearing up for | . “S-Night”-when pockctsof homeless pjB • people on the streets and in shelters na tionwide will be counted more extensively thin ever before, said one census official. SCarol Walker, U.S. Census Bureau district ^|5cc manager, said about 20 census workers w§l go out March 20 to several southeast fibraska areas where people are known to live temporarily. Some of those places include city missions, Ac Salvation Army and spouse-abuse centers. ■ The census takers will start at 6 p.m. that night and work until 6 a.m. the next day, Vplker said, with one break. IfThe southeast Nebraska census region in cludes 16 counties, Walker said, and the work | will be divided into three groups. Because Lincoln has the largest homeless ulation in the area, two groups will be igned to it. Walker said. A cumulative homeless total will not be _l, she said, because it would be difficult ;et an accurate figure. Instead, census takers will count certain segments of the homeless, such as those who live in shelters, tents and on the streets. “Never do we want people to total those figures and say, ‘This is the number of home less people in the United States,”’ Walker said. The U.S. government does not want a homeless total because of the difficulty in coming up with accurate figures, she said. Some people may only be “homeless” fora couple of weeks, while others may be hiding from census takers, Walker said. Nevertheless, census takers will be working harder than ever to try to come up with a more accurate count, both Walker and two regional census workers said. Jerry O’Donnell, coordinator with the Den ver Regional Census Center, said census takers across the nation will be counting people in emergency shelters, on the street and those in vacant buildings. During the 1980 census, O’Donnell said, census lakers counted people in missions and shelters, but only took a casual street count Census takers also have increased efforts this year to work with groups who serve the homeless to get a better count, U Donnell said. Ron Ritschard, media specialist with the Denver Regional Census Center, also said that past efforts to count the homeless never went as far as this year’s “S-Night” will go. “The homeless are becoming more and more of a national issue,” Ritschard said. “1 guess there’s a real need just to get an idea of the size of the problem.” “The estimates vary so widely, depending on who you talk to,” Ritschard said, “any where from 250,000 homeless to 3 million homeless.” According to Ritschard, it is important to get accurate homeless counts for government planning and to help local officials provide services. Steve Janovec, executive director of the Peoples City Mission in Lincoln, said the number of reported homeless people affects some types of federal aid to local government. "I don’t know any of the particular sources because most of our support is local and pri vate,” he said. Janovec said he doesn’t expect any prob lems counting homeless people at the mission. Former university student sentenced for attempted assault From Staff Reports C former University of Nebraska Lincoln student was sentenced Friday in Lancaster County Dis trict L'ourt to 60 days in jail for attempted second-degree sexual assault Steven Ernst 21, a former University of Nebraska-Lincoln student, also was sentenced to four years probation, 500 hours of unpaid community service and restitution to the victim, according to court records. The amount of restitution has not been determined. Ernst’s jail sentence was deferred until 3 p.m. April 9, court rec ords showed. According to police reports, Ernst of Columbus originally was charged with fust-degree sexual assault for allegedly assaulting a 17-year-oW girl Feb. 12, 1989, at Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, 1425 R St. The charge was reduced to attempted second-degree sexual assault after a plea bargain. ... — -.- ■