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WEATHER INDEX
Today, mostly sunny and warmer, northwest prtitnriai A
wind 5-15 miles per hour, high in the low 50s. ®.
Tonight, dear and cold, low in the low 30s. bports..5
Wednesday, mostly sunr.y and warmer, high 60- Arts & Entertainment.6
65. Classifieds.7
October 9, 1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 90 No. 31
Greek party T-shirt offends
some Mexican-Americans
By Jennifer O’Cilka
Senior Reporter_ _
T-shirts bearing a sombrero
adorned tequila worm on the
background of the Mexican flag
have offended some Mexican-Ameri
can students.
Florencio Flores Palomo, a junior
graphic art major and Mexican
American student, said the T-shirt is
“a mockery of our ancestral flag.”
The Mexican flag bears the same
red, white and green colors as the T
shirt, but normally has an eagle and
serpent in the middle, Palomo said.
Some people may think the flag is
just a flag, but it is a part of the
Mexican culture he was taught as a
child, Palomo said.
Ryan Downs, president of Farm
house Fraternity, said the shirts were
part of the group’s “South of the
Border” party.
Farmhouse, along with Alpha Chi
Omega and Phi Mu sororities, were
involved in the party, but the shirts
originated from Farmhouse’s social
chairman and the Greek Shop, Downs
said.
The shirts were in no way meant to
be offensive, he said.
“We wouldn’t turn something out
that we thought would offend people,”
Downs said. “From our standpoint, it
was not a shot at Mexican individu
als.”
But, Downs said, the house has
learned from the experience and will
try to avoid similar situations in the
future.
“We had more shirts on order and
canceled them,” he said.
Downs said the house appreciated
the input from the Mexican-Ameri
can students. And, he said, house
members apologized for offending
the Mexican-American students.
Robert Dvrol Jr., vice president of
Farmhouse, wrote a letter to the Daily
Nebraskan apologizing for the shirts.
Palomo said he and seven other
Mexican-A men can students also wrote
a letter to the Daily Nebraskan.
The fraternity and sororities had a
right under the First Amendment to
prim the T-shirts, Palomo said, but he
wanted to let them know the shirts are
offensive.
“They had the right to do it, and
they have the right to do it next year,”
he said. “We just want to tell them
that’s offensive and degrading to the
culture.”
Palomo said he thinks the shirts’
designer was not aware that it would
be offensive.
Anyone may attend Mcxican
See T-SHIRTon 3
*—-*-d---■-1-1-!--Kteh
rhe winning hand
Junior Pat Jilek, left, checks his hand after making the winning shot against sophomore Andy
Sigerson on Monday afternoon at the NU Coliseum.
$1,000 reward offered
Wave of residence hall arson alarms officials
By Adeana Leftin
Staff Reporter_
A rash of fires in the residence
halls is alarming UNL offi
cials.
Eight fires were started in univer
sity residence halls this weekend, said
Sgl. Mylo Bushing of the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Depart
ment.
In Cather Residence Hall, one
outside and three bathroom trash barrels
were set on fire. Abel had four bath
room fires, Bushing said.
Damage to the residence halls has
totaled about S73, he said. The de
struction has been to the paint behind
the garbage cans and to the garbage
cans themselves, Bushing said.
“They got to them (the fires) be
fore there was any real smoke dam
age,” he said.
Bushing said, “Naturally we arc
trying to find out who’s doing it, but
we’re not going to say what we’ll be
doing.”
At this point, Bushing said, no one
has been caught.
“There arc some individuals we
will be contacting,” he said.
Doug Zatechka, director of uni
versity housing, said a flier was dis
tributed to all hall residents to alert
them of the problem and to offer a
reward for turning in the arsonists.
The reward of SI,000 is being
offered jointly through the Office of
University Housing and the Residence
Hall Association.
Now that the students are aware of
the problem, Zatcchka said, they should
work together to catch those respon
sible.
“I’m expecting staff, police and
students working together can give us
a little more than we have now,” he
said.
Zatechka said arson in residence
halls is not a new phenomenon this
year.
Two or three fires were started
earlier in the year, he said, and some
of the fires have been bigger than
others.
“We don’t contrast between a small
fire or a big fire,” Zatcchka said. “A
fire is a fire is a fire.”
Hall residents have not been in
danger, he said.
Zatcchka said that to his knowl
edge, no students have been injured
in the fires.
See FIREon 3
Glasnost allows Soviet couple to explore UNL
By Shelly Biggs
Staff Reporter
TwoSovietcitizensdemonstratcdglasnost
at work during a four-week visit to the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
Vladimir Fridkin, a member of the Acad
emy of Sciences in Moscow, and his wife,
Nadcjda Kisselcva, director of Moscow Radio,
were in Lincoln observing programs relating to
their fields of work, said Radha Balasubrama
man, an assistant professor of Russian in the
modem languages and literatures department.
During their stay, Kisselcva said, she ex
changed tapes of her local Russian radio pro
grams with the university’s KRNU-FM 90.3.
She said she wanted to make contacts with
television and radio stations at U.S. universi
ties to exchange information and ideas for the
future.
Fridkin visited and lectured at the UNL
physics department and exchanged scientific
research with colleagues in his field of solid
state physics. He said he was eager to compare
results of past experiments and to discuss the
future of science with professors.
“There is a very high level of physics here.
I was highly impressed with the Professor
(Frank) Ullman’s lab,” Fridkin said.
The couple visited UNL at the invitation of
Ullman, professor and associate chairman of
electrical engineering and professor of physics
and astronomy. Fridkin said he became ac
quainted with Ullman at an international con
ference in Moscow.
Fridkin is an author of many physics books,
some of which, he said, will be published in the
United States in December. His membership in
the Academy of Sciences is noteworthy be
cause no more than two people from each field
are selected for the academy, Balasubrama
nian said.
“It is a very high honor,” she said.
Kisselcva was awarded the Honorary Ac
tress of the Republic and is recognized as the
creator of theater radio in Moscow.
While speaking to UNL Russian language
classes, Kisseleva said, she answered questions
about all aspects of Soviet life. The students
were interested in the effect of glasnost and the
differences in radio and television before and
after perestroika, she said.
Kisseleva, who runs a variety of radio shows
in Moscow, said radio has changed in the
Soviet Union with the fall of socialism.
“There is so much freedom in broadcasting
now, compared to before,” Kisselcva said through
an interpreter.
Before, she said, people were not allowed to
call into the program to talk on the air. All the
programs had to be pre-recorded, she said.
“Our chairman told us what we should and
should not doon the air,” Kisseleva said. “Now,
we arc encouraged to make up new programs,
and try new things.”
Fridkin said that before glasnost, Soviet
citizens only heard negative things about the
United States on television or through the
newspaper. Now, he said, they hear much more
positive things on a day-to-day basis than the
United States hears about the Soviet Union.
The changes in the Soviet Union are good,
Fridkin said, but there still are a lot of problems
to face.
“There are now more choices and informa
tion provided to us, when in the past there
wasn’t, but there are also long lines for bread
and goods,” he said. Fridkin and Kisseleva
Fridkin and Kisseleva agreed that the new
system is best for Soviet citizens. Before, Fridkin
said, the Soviet citizens weren’t free to do what
they wanted to do, such as read other newspa
Soviet citizens Vladimir Fridkin and Nadejda Kisseleva visited UNL for four weeks
and exchanged research and ideas for the future with students and professors.
pers or travel to other countries.
“We were not free politically or socially,”
he said. “People did not sec socialism in real
ity.”
The changes in the Soviet Union have given
Fridkin and his wife a chance to travel and to
participate in exchanges with colleagues from
other countries.
During the visit, the couple had an opportu
nity to experience a Nebraska tradition. They
enjoyed the enthusiasm at the Nebraska-Min
nesota football game — something very differ
cnt from their country, Fridkin said.
"I could not figure out why one-half of the
citizens of this town would all visit the football
stadium at the same time," he said.
Fridkin said they also enjoyed a visit to the
Lied Center for Performing Arts. In his town,
he said, they do not have concert halls like the
Lied Center.
The Soviet couple will visit Penn Stale,
Princeton and Harvard during their stay. They
will return to Moscow on Nov. 14.