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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1990)
<^\3 WM / NebraIkaN Bell resigns as chairperson By Kara Wells Staff Reporter In an effort to ‘ ‘concentrate more on myself,” Rodney Bell,chair person of the UNL Gay/Lesbian Alumni Association has decided to resign. *TAflcr seven years with the uni versity, it’s time to take care of my self,” he said. Bell said he would like to go on to graduate school or find a job in hu man services counseling gays and lesbians. ‘‘I am very satisfied with what 1 have done. It’s just overwhelming to look back,” he said. Bell came to the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln in 1983. He be came a member of the Gay/Lcsbian Student Association and served as its president from 1985 to 1987. “There was a lot of fear when I came out in 1985. I was scared to speak up for the rights of gays and lesbians,’ ’ he said. As the chairperson for the alumni association, Bell actively worked toward equality for gays and lesbians at UNL. Bell said the alumni association currently provides a network for fac ulty, alumni and students. Until 1983, the alumni association was solely a social support group, Bell said. In 1985 it became more of a resource center. The association houses a library as well as a telephone line, Bell said. “It is very small at this point, but it’s still a beginning,’’ he said. Bell said the university is at a good point in dealing with homosexual issues. Sexual orientation classes have been added to the curriculum at the university, and sexual orientation is a key point in the university’s sexual discrimination policy, Bell said. This policy sets a precedent that discrimination will not be allowed by the staff and students at UNL, he said. Although the university has made progress, Bell said he still feels it needs to deal with homophobia and AIDS more effectively. He said the possibility of homo phobia workshops and more educa tion in the classrooms would help to increase understanding and possibly ease discrimination. UNL needs to work toward educating students about these issues, he said. Michelle Paul man/Dully Nebraskan Jim Schultz, a senior computer science major, tests in the ShekJon Sculpture Garden Tuesday momma. Schultz is taking an art history class during the first five-week session. Michelle Paulman/Daily Nebraskan Rodney Bell Bell said he has been urging James Gricscn, vice chancellor for student affairs, to do something about these problems, but “they’re ignoring me at this point.” Bell said his personal philosophy, See BELL on 5 UNL hosts health care seminars By Mark (Jeorgeff Stiff Reporter For the second consecutive summer, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s department of International Student Affairs is hosting a scries of rural health care training seminars for 20 nurses from Guatemala. Jean Aigncr, executive dean of international student affairs, said the seminars, which last until July 1, cover a broad, intensive learning experi ence in health care delivery and lcad ership/tcaching skills. “Public and private sanitation, water hygiene, food nutrition and sanitation, denial health, basic first aid, child care and communicable diseases” arc areas covered in class instruction and visits to local health care institutions, she said. Other areas of instruction include professional development of information, such as public speaking and teaching skills. The colleges of home economics and agriculture provided teachers for the varied health care instruction, she said. “We arc providing the opportu nity for the nurses to relay the task of health care needs assessment that arc critical to the rural communities in Guatemala,” she said. Seminar program coordinator Barbara Muchisky said the nurses arc knowledgeable in their technical expertise and arc the only health care providers in rural areas. Aigncr said that Muchisky devel oped “Experience America," a pro gram in which the students visit health clinics and homes for the aged through out Nebraska with trips to Ogallala, Scottsbluff and Chadron. Jose Badillo, a UNL graduate stu dent who worked with the program last summer, said the students love Lincoln and the UNL campus but arc homesick for their country and fami lies. Most of them arc from the rural areas, he said. “They work in rural areas back home, accomplishing everything from janitorial work, paperwork to selling bone fractures and surgery, with not much government support and re sources to hire more people," Badillo said. Candidates prepare forelection By Cindy Wostrel Staff Reporter ith primaries out of the way, candidates for the NU Board of Regents now arc gearing up for November’s election. The candidates who were elected in May’s primary elections seem enthusiastic and willing to spend the necessary lime on the job , said Board of Regents Chairman Don Blank of McCook. “I’ve met them all, and they all seem like very capable people,” he said. Four candidates ran in the District 1 race, and District 2 had seven can didates, the most running in a district since 1982. In primary elections, the two candidates in each district who gain the most votes continue on to the November elections. Dick Powell and Charles Wilson led the Lancaster County primary and Lee Sapp and Nancy O’Brien led the Douglas County primary. In Novem ber, voters will elect one candidate from each of the two districts. Blank said he found it encourag ing that so many Nebraskans filed for regents candidacy this year even though the positions might have been elimi nated by the Nebraska Legislature. When the candidates filed, they were unsure how the Legislature might restructure the governance of Nebraska higher education, and the positions for which they applied on the board might have been eliminated. In earlier interviews with the Daily Nebraskan, regents candidates stated their views on certain education-re lated topics. Powell, a 44-ycar-old self-em ployed optometrist, said he supports a stronger post-secondary coordinating commission with power over plan ning, definition and academic pro grams and coordination of role and mission although he said he was unsure if he supports the Legislature’s pro posed changes in Nebraska's higher education system. Wilson, a 51 -year-old cardiologist, said he agreed with the Legislature’s restructuring proposal, saying it was “almost lo the word’’ the same pro posal that he had given to Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion in December 1987. Sapp said he supports increasing the governing power of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission lor Postsccondary Education because, “evidently the majority of the people want it," and legislation should be directed at that majority. O’Brien also said she supports the Legislature’s restructuring proposal, and said the effectiveness of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsccondary Education depends on the caliber of those appointed toil.
