WEATHER INDEX
Wednesday, periods of showers and some thun
dershowers, high in the upper-30s to low-40s, New8.z
east wind 15-25 miles per hour. Wednesday Editorial.4
night, occasional showers, low in the mid-30s. Sports.7
Thursday, 30 percent chance of morning show- Arts & Entertainment.9
ers, becoming partly doudy, high in the low-40s. Classifieds.11
[darch 7,1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. 11$ 115
plank says endorsement
pot conflict of interest
[despite senator’s doubts
5y Jennifer O’Cilka
itaff Reporter
Dk on Blank of McCook, NU
I Board of Regents chairman,
w said he doesn’t think his en
lorsement of a candidate for the U.S.
louse of Representatives is aconflict
>f interest
After deciding not to run for the
louse of Representatives, Blank
endorsed state Sen. Rod Johnson of
Sutton in the Third District race.
“The first thing you get asked if
you’re not running is who you’ll
support,’’ Blank said.
But Sen. William Barrett of Lex
ington, who also is running for the
[Third District seat, said he questions
the wisdom of a regent endorsing
anyone in a contested primary elec
tion.
Barrett, speaker of the Nebraska
Legislature, said he doesn’t know
whether Blank’s endorsement will
affect the university.
But because the university depends
a lot on decisions made in the Legis
lature, Barrett said, he doesn’t know
whether Blank’s decision was right.
As an individual, Blank should
have the right to endorse any candi
date, Barrett said.
Blank said he would find it more
surprising if he did not endorse a
candidate because of his close ties to
the race. In 1974, Blank ran for the
same seat, but lost in the Republican
primary to U.S. Rep. Virginia Smith,
who has held the office since then.
Smith is not seeking re-election.
Three other candidates are run
ning against Barrett and Johnson.
Blank said he “seriously consid
ered” running for the position again,
but declined nomination because he
wasn’t as excited about the prospect
as he was in 1974.
“It really puzzles me to think this
would be an issue, with my history of
involvement in the race,” Blank said.
After talking with several other
candidates for the seal, Blank said, he
decided that Johnson was the worthi
est candidate.
Johnson said he doesn’t think
Blank’s endorsement will affect the
university or any program related to
it.
None of Nebraska’s senators would
use their positions to "get back” at
Blank for the endorsement, Johnson
said.
4‘We all know what we have to do
as state lawmakers,” he said. “That
is to set aside goals to serve the stale
as best as we can.”
Celebration closes doors,
vlans to auction assets
*
By Pat Dinslage
Staff Reporter
<
The “Celebration” is over.
The disco bar closed its
doors in Gold’s Galleria, 1033
O St., for the last time Sunday night,
said Richard J. Butler, bankruptcy
trustee for the bar’s owner. Celebra
tion, Inc.
The business had been “holding
its own and paying off past debts”
since Butler assumed control of the
corporation in August 1987, Butler
said. Since the beginning of 1990,
however, the business began operat
ing at a loss.
The bar “wasn’t paying its way
and was digging a deeper hole for
itself,” he said. Butler decided to
close down the business and sell as
sets at auction.
The auction, scheduled for March
26, will sell the stereo system, al
bums, lights and other assets. Money
from the sale will go to the bar’s
creditors, Butler said, but he does not
expect to take in enough money to
pay all creditors.
After the corporation that owned
the bar filed bankruptcy in December
1986, the plan was to either sell the
bar as an operating business or by
piecemeal auction, Butler said. He
was appointed by the Federal Bank
ruptcy Court as trustee to oversee the
corporation’s liquidation.
When Butler assumed control of
the corporation, the business “had
nothing to sell - everything was leased,
even the toilets," he said. By remain
ing in business, the corporation was
able to buy everything from the leas
ing vendors, and “have something to
sell," he said.
Butler put the bar on the market in
the summer of 1988. No buyer has
been found, despite the business’
profitable operations. Butler said he
doesn’t know why the bar has not
been bought
UNL student dies;
incident still under
police investigation
From Staff Reports
A hospital official said Tuesday that
a resident of Abel Residence Hall
has died. A Lincoln Police offi
cer said the UNL student was found
hanging from a railroad pole at 18th and
W streets at 11:28 a.m. Friday.
John M. Connolly, 24, was transjxnted
from the scene to Lincoln General Hos
pital, said Lt. David Beggs of LPD.
The incident still is under investiga
tion, Beggs said, but the evidence does
suggest suicide.
Connolly later was transferred to Mary
fanning Memorial Hospital in Hastings,
Beggs said.
A spokesperson at Mary Lanning
Hospital said Connolly died there, but
would not release any other information.
Student angry at racist society
Gholson condemns violence as solution to cultural retardation
By Pat Dinslage
Staff Reporter
L L~W ’man angry man,” says
41-year-old Walter
Gholson, an “Afro-cen
tric,” poet, playwright, puppeteer,
author and University of Nebraska
Lincoln news-editorial major.
Gholson, soft-spoken but intense,
is angry at “the hypocrisy of the
world thinking it can’t change, even
if it observes that what’s going on
is injuring a lot of people. It’s not
the ‘can’t,’ it’s the ‘won’t,’” he
says.
For more than 20 years, Gholson
has used his poems, puppet shows,
music, plays and community or
ganization efforts to help under
privileged children and adults “find
a way out of the biases created by
the racist, white-male-dominated
American society” that resists
change.
He shares his experiences from
the inner cities and Vietnam in
hopes of enlightening his listeners
about the experience of being black
in America.
A majority of my poetry has
been given to me by people who
didn’t have the words for what they
were feeling — the frustration,
apathy, anger and low self-esteem.
I just put (die feelings) in words, in
a poetic format that could be under
stood universally,” Gholson says.
In his rcrformanceSt thgj^nger,.
playwright and producer uses
musical introductions, costume and
character changes. He has given
three readings of his poems since
coming to Nebraska in August 1989
with his wife, Joyce Joyce, a UNL
English professor.
He performed for the Afrikan
Peoples’ Union during Black His
tory Month and at the Nebraska
penitentiary. He also read some of
his poems during an interview on a
local television program.
Gholson says one of his favorite
poems, ‘‘Blues for Pvt. Asa Mar
tin,” tributes a friend he met while
serving in Vietnam as a helicopter
door gunner. Gholson wrote the
poem with the recurring line, ‘‘1
write the blues, ’cause it’s sad but
true,” after Martin was shot by his
sergeant during an argument over
America’s right to be in the war.
Gholson’s book, ‘‘Blues in the
Black Community,” contains a
selection of poems from his own
observations and experiences in
Vietnam and in black ghettoes on
David Fahteson/Dsiiy Nebraskan
Gholson
the East Coast. The book is waiting
for final revisions before being
published this summer.
Gholson believes his experiences
can benefit the black culture.
“People have to have the cour
age to accept the reality of how
stifling (the system) is,” Gholson
says.
In his poems, Gholson talks about
how that stifling “hurts, but it
doesn’t stop me from pursuing a
career as a journalist and commu
nity organizer.”
See GHOLSON on 6
Non-traditional students endure challenges
Carri Koetter
Staff Reporter
No one ever said going to college was
easy.
But it’s even harder for students who
have to support three kids, work 40 hours a
week and pay off a mortgage — not to mention
that the last time they were in a classroom was
more than 20 years ago.
According to many non-traditional students
at the Univcrsitv of Nebraska-Lincoln, those
arc the kin* i s of situations they are faced with
every day.
Barb Dodge, a 37-year-old widow and sopho
more secondary education major, said fitting in
and making friends were the most difficult
situations she faced when she was a freshman
in 1987.
Traditional freshmen, she said, have an
advantage because most live in residence halls
or greek houses and have a built-in support
system of friends.
“When I first came here, I didn’t know
anyone,” Dodge said. “My first semester I ate
lunch by myself every day. In fact, sometimes
the only person 1 talked to outside of class was
the person giving me my hamburger.”
Fitting into the classroom setting also was
more difficult than she expected, Dodge said.
She recalled walking into her first class in more
than 20 years and being mistaken for the in
structor. Being called “ma’am” became the
norm.
Dodge said she feels more comfortable in
the classroom now that she has been at UNL for
three years. She said she makes a greater effort
to make friends with younger students.
“The only time 1 feel sort of out of place,”
Dodge said, “is on Fridays when everyone is
talking about going to what parties and bars. It
would seem sort of corny for me to talk about
going to my kid’s program or doing laundry.”
Dodge also said she found support in the
Adult Student Network, an organization for
UNL students 25 or older. The group, she said,
is more more of an emotional support and
information system than a social club.
The group meets for lunch from 11:30 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. every Wednesday in the Nebraska
Union. Dodge, the organization’s president,
said the meetings usually consist of informal
discussions and guest speakers. Speakers from
the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid,
the Women’s Resource Center and the Admis
sions Office have spoken to the group, she said.
Andy Gueck, 39, said the Adult Student
Network helped him make the transition from
Western Nebraska Community College in
Scotlsbluff to UNL two years ago.
Non-traditional students, he said, don’t have
the same network of information as traditional
students. That makes it difficult to know where
to go with problems.
Gueck, a senior biology major, said getting
used to classes with 300 students was the big
gest adjustment he had to make coming to
UNL.
Sometimes being accepted by younger stu
dents also is a problem, he said. Traditional
students tend to dislike older students, he said,
especially at the beginning of the semester.
Gueck said that’s because non-traditional
See COLLEGE on 3