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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1990)
WEATHER INDEX Friday, cooler, 60 percent chance of showers, News.2 mostly cloudy, high around 60, northwest wind Editorial 4 10-20 miles per hour. Friday night, low around 40 sports 6 mfd-OOs^ m0Stly SUnny' 3 bit Warmer' high in 1,16 Arts & Entertainment .7.7.8 Classifieds.10 April 27, 1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. 143 Speaker: Gorbachev not keeping all promises By Sara Bauder Staff Reporter Many things in the Soviet Union have changed under Mikhail Gorbachev, but the Soviet president has not kept all his promises for change, said Hedrick Smith, Pul itzer Prize-winning journalist. Smith, speaking to a nearly full house in the Lied Cetner for Perform ing Arts on Thursday, said Gorbachev’s changes have not included freedom of the press, although it has been promised for three years, Smith said. He also said there has not been a loosening up of the market economy. Factories still have to produce what The slate wants, or they won’t get supplies, Smith said. Wages and housing still are determined by the government. People outside the Soviet Union have a tendency to focus on Gor bachev instead of the changes, Smith said. “By focusing on Gorbachev, we miss the incredible sweep of history occurring in the Soviet Union now,” he said. “It’s a process so sweeping, so profound, that it won’t take less than a generation.” He said Gorbachev can accom plish many things because there was social preparation for his changes. That preparation began with Ni kita Kruschcv’s period of reforms in the ’50sand ’60s, Smith said. He said the perestroika movement began with a speech Kruschev made denouncing the harsh policies of Joseph Stalin. The speech was read to everyone in the Communist Party in 1956, includ ing Gorbachev. Smith said the speech was “like an earthquake” and shattered the Soviets’ belief in Stalin. The speech began a “ferment” of social unrest in the Soviet Union, he said. For a while last year, Smith said it seemed change was happening eve rywhere but the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down and govern ment changes occurred in Commu nist-ruled Czechoslovakia and Hun gary. This winter, the Soviet Commu nist Party gave up its monopoly on power, Smith said. In March 1990, non-communists won elections in Moscow and other cities and began setting up their own governments, he said. One great change in the Soviet Union is its citizens have become less fearful of the government, Smith said. He said when he first went there, he tried to report about Kruschev’s death. When he tried to talk to people on the street, they ran away after hearing Kruschev’s name. But when Smith arrived in the Soviet Union in 1988, people gath ered in front of his camera. There were police in the street, but the people spoke out and told him they were worried about the economy and the lack of decent health care, Smith said. “No one was arrested, and it was astonishing to hear what people were willing to say and see what they would do openly in a group of people,” Smith said. Since Gorbachev took power, the Soviet Union has canceled a high school history exam because the old textbook was full of lies, Smith said. He said more than 2,000 churches have been opened, and an ecology movement has stopped the construc tion of four nuclear power plants. Smith’s speech was sponsored by the Coopcr-UNL Forum on World Issues. Businessmen: Alcohol-label bill pointless By Matt Herek Staff Reporter Cocal businessmen said they think pro posed federal legislation to place warn ings in alcohol advertisements will have no effect on the industry. The legislation would require prominent health and safety warnings in all advertise ments for alcoholic beverages. Warnings have been on alcohol containers for a long time, and there have been no changes said Reynold McMeen, owner of Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 0 St. Those who drink arc aware of the responsi bilities and risks involved with alcoholic bev erages, he said. It is common, public knowl edge, he said. Ben Sand, owner of The Watering Hole, 1321 O St., said he didn’t think the legislation would have much effect on his business. ‘‘I don’t read the labels when I drink,” he said. Rich Claussen, account executive at the Lincoln advertising firm Bailey Lewis & Asso ciates Inc., said he doesn’t believe in warnings on advertisements. An issue that has to be dealt with, he said, is on whom responsible drinking falls - the manufacturer or the consumer. Alcohol ads are targeted to adults who can make responsible decisions, Claussen said. Beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch has advertised the dangers of abusing alcohol, he said, especially when driving. Brewing companies arc trying to do as much as they can to advertise responsible drinking, he said. Companies should promote drinking in moderation, he said, but warnings would be stupid from the advertiser’s perspective. The ads would be trying to sell a product and then say mg not to buy it because of the dangers it could cause. That would be counterproduc tive for advertisers, Claussen said. He said the advertising and alcohol indus tries will fight the bill, and he doesn’t think it will pass. “It will be a big mess,” he said. See ALCOHOL on 2 Butf h 'r**l.ir>d Da:'y Nebraskan Wired up for Comstock Freshman Tom Brinkman wires up a fence Thursday afternoon on East Campus in preparation for Comstock XX. Committee omits ‘fighting words’ clause By Pat Dinslage Staff Reporter n‘‘fighting words” clause will not be in cluded among the recommended revi sions to the University of Nebraska Lincoln Student Code of Conduct, the Student Code Review Committee decided Thursday. Several committee members said the com mittee has spent a lot of lime discussing the fighting words provision, but said they thought the addition of the provision to the Student Code needed further study. Phil Gosch, Association of Students of the University of Nebraska president, said there was not enough time left in the semester to exam ine and address concerns of the provision. Gosch said Dick Wood, UNL vice president and general counsel, currently is rewriting the proposed fighting words provision to include some legal concerns that have been made. Committee members, however, said that even if the changes developed by Wood an swered some constitutional infringcmcntqucs tions, they didn’t have time to decide whether to include the provision. Gosch said the Committee’s recommended revisions will make the Student Code clearer to the students. The revisions will clarify, for example, restraints on the students and the process students must go through when brought before the student judicial system. Committee members and ASUN senators Chrisli Ebcltoft, Megan Kim Joann Mountford and Chris Potter will sponsor an ASUN bill containing the Review Committee’s recom mendations at the ASUN Executive Commit See FIGHTING on 2 Court hears testimony over student’s bid for ASUN seat By Robin Trimarc hi Staff Reporter he Student Court of the Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln Iteard testimony Thursday on allowing a part-time student to keep her position as a senator for the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. Sarah Haughron was elected in March to serve as student senator for the Division of Continuing Studies for the 1990-91 school year. She currently is taking six credit hours. According to the ASUN Constitution, students must be registered for at bast 12 credit hours to serve as ASUN senators and must be “regularly enrolled’’ members of the colleges they rep resent Of the 795 students in the DCS program - which recently gained a senate seat for the first time - only seven students are registered full time. But DCS students will have ~~ gag COURT on 2 New plan created to improve teaching By Jannette Bush Staff Reporter Two University of Ncbraska Lincoln colleges have imple mented new evaluation tech niques to improve teaching. Levcme Barrett, associate profes sor of agriculture education, said faculty members from the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Agriculture submitted ?. proposal for a grant three years ago after they decided more than jusf student evalu ations were needed to improve teach ing. After receiving the $ 150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Educa lion, faculty members from the de partments of English, psychology, agronomy and agriculture decided to draft different evaluation plans to fit the needs of their departments. Barrett said that because most people view UNL as a research insti tution, teaching is not emphasized enough. By focusing on teaching, “hopefully that will change,” he said. Barrett said criteria to evaluate teachers vary from college to college. Under the new plan, the English department is evaluating teaching competence by examining the teacher’s personal course plan, the course out line and student evaluations. Frederick Link, professor and chairman of the English department, said the evaluations will help teach ers become better instructors. He said people assume that scholars are great teachers, but “that’s not true, ’ he said. “Teachers aren’t trained to teach,” he said. The psychology department is using formal evaluations, observers, teach ing circles and student evaluations to look at leaching. Observers from the teacher’s area of expertise not only will examine class material, but stu dent picscntalions and tests as well. Daniel Bernstein, associate pro See TEACHERS on 2
