WEATHER INDEX
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percent chance of morning thunderstorms, north- Editorial.4
west winds 20-30 miles per hour, gusting to 40 sports 8
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October 17,1990_ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 90 No. 37
Alcohol issue
is addressed
by candidates
By Sara Bauder Schott
Senior Reporter
Student groups should have equal access
to alcohol permits for special events on
campus, a candidate for the NU Board
of Regents said.
Dick Powell said he does not think access to
alcohol permits should be denied to students
just because some groups’ members are under
the legal drinking age.
James Griesen, vice chancellor for student
affairs, said the university alcohol policy is
based on age, not on whether people are stu
dents.
A request for an alcohol permit must list
how many people will be present at an event
and how many of those arc under 21 years of
age, Griesen said. The university looks care
fully at the ratio of legal-age to under-age
people attending the event, he said.
Powell said that when a responsible student
group requests a permit, careful monitoring
would be needed to ensure that minors do not
drink.
“I firmly believe that they will know they
arc in a fishbowl,’’ Powell said, and will be
scrutinized carefully at the event.
See ALCOHOL on 6
Lunch for two Dav"1 F,NMO" D“"v Nebraska'’
Jeongkuk Kim, pursuing his doctorate in accounting, enjoys his lunch Tuesday afternoon next to the bronze
sculpture “Floating Figure” in Sheldon Memorial Sculpture Garden.
UNL vies for minorities with attractive offers
By Adeana Leftin
Staff Reporter
When computer science and
engineering Professor Joseph
Leung was scrutinizing his
options for university employment
this year, UNL passed the inspection
with flying colors.
Leung, chairman of the Depart
ment of Computer Science and Engi
neering, said the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln “made me a very at
tractive offer.”
Leung was looking at other uni
versities, but UNL offered him the
position of chairman and an annual
budgeted salary of S112,950.
You-Kuan Zhang, a new research
hydrologist at UNL, said UNL of
fered him a salary 10 percent to 20
percent higher than other universities
did.
‘‘The position now is more attrac
live and the salary is competitive,” he
said.
Attracting minority professors such
as these is a constant struggle, said
Robert Furgason, vice chancellor for
academic affairs.
“We are always in a bidding war.
We want to be as competitive as we
can,” he said.
Nationally, universities arc vying
to fill their positions with minority
professors. In many instances, these
professors are templed with pay in
creases, research funds, or positions
for spouses, an article in The Chron
icle of Higher Education reported.
“For qualified minority professors,
there is a greater opportunity than
non-minorities simply because of the
numbers,” said Brad Munn, Affirma
tive Action officer at UNL.
“We arc severely lacking in the
numbers of black, Hispanic and Na
tive American faculty,” Munn said.
He said 8.3 percent of the 1,525
faculty members at UNL are minori
ties, with 15 blacks, 18 Hispanics, 3
American Indians and 90 Asians.
So, when positionsopen, Furgason
said, administrators try to fill them
with minorities “wherever possible.”
“Each college and department has
a minority recruiting plan,” he said.
UNL recruits minorities through
advertisements in journals, minority
organizations, personal contacts and
other institutions, Furgason said.
Candidates arc offered certain perks,
such as finding jobs for spouses, Fur
gason said. But, he said, those bene
fits may apply to any potential faculty
member.
When deciding between two equally
qualified job candidates, Furgason said,
ethnic background can be the decid
ing factor. But he said he did not think
that non-minority candidates have to
be more qualified than minorities do.
"Every ease is indi vidual,”hc said.
Furgason said that, as a whole,
minority professors at UNL arc not
paid more than non-minorities.
“I don’t think you can make a
generalized statement about that,” he
said.
To increase the number of avail
able minority professors, Furgason
said, universities arc trying to en
courage minority students tocontinue
through graduate school so they will
become possible candidates.
UNL is in a catch-up position as
far as attracting minority faculty,
Furgason said, because UNL has low
numbers of minorities compared to
other universities.
One reason UNL has a hard lime
attracting minority professors, Fur
gason said, is that Lincoln docs not
have a large minority support group.
"It's kind of a ease of the chicken
and eggs,” he said, because a support
group requires minorities to develop,
but professors will not come to Lin
coln without one. UNL is becoming
more successful in attracting rflinori
tics, Furgason said. Since July 1,1990,
UNL has hired 52 tenure or tenure
track faculty members, eight of whom
were minorities.
Furgason said he thought having
minority professors will attract more
minority students.
ALhough the Chronicle article
mentioned concern that universities
want minorities just to look good,
Furgason said he didn't think that was
the ease, either at UNL or nation
wide.
“Most universities have a true
commitment to cultural diversity,”
he said.
Personal interaction important
English teacher addresses realities
By Adeana Leftin
. Staff Reporter _
Barbara DiBemard’s goal is to give a
voice to those who have been repressed
through history while being aware of
realities.
“I would like to see myself become even
more aware of realities,'’
said DiBemard, an as
sociate professor of
English.
In her 13 years at the
University of Nebraska
Lincotn, DiBemard said,
there has been a radical
change in her teaching,
her field of interest and
her research.
“I'm completely different,” said DiBemard,
who wrote her dissertation on James Joyce, and
now is involved in women’s studies. “1 teach
classes now I never had the chance to take.”
DiBemard attributes the change to author
Tilly Olson. Shortly after arriving at UNL,
Olson was given an honorary degree by the
university. DiBemard thought she should read
something by the author, w-hom she did not
know of.
DiBemard read “Silences,” containing the
I essay “One in Twelve.” It told of the low
R
percentage of women writers whose works
were being taught, read or even published.
One particular statement stood out to DiB
eniard: “You who teach, read women writers.”
DiBemard thoughtOlson was talking to her.
She looked at her own curriculum and no
ticed that she only required one book written by
a woman.
“I started to read women writers — all I
could gel ahold of,” she said.
Books by women authors weren’t being
read — not because they were bad, but because
their form was different, DiBemard said. Women
wrote about their day-to-day lives in diaries
and journals and male publishers and teachers
couldn’t relate.
“I think it’s important to include women in
the curriculum,” she said, “and I’m in a posi
tion to do something about it.”
DiBemard said that since she’s been at
UNL, the English department has broadened
its vision, loo.
“We definitely have a greater variety of
courses: more women’s courses, ethnic courses,
and film and plains studies,” she said.
DiBemard said she’s retrained herself to
teach those courses.
When she came to UNL, she said, her stu
dents all sat in rows.
“I would ask questions; if no one responded,
I talked or went on. 1 thought it was a discussion
class,” she said.
Now, DiBernard said, her classes sit in
circles, talk to each other in small groups to
generate ideas, keep a journal and read aloud.
“There’s a lot more interacting,” she said.
DiBernard said students feel better about writ
ing after a journal. And because she responds to
all of them, she said, it’s important to the
students to know that someone is listening.
“It’s killing to do 150 journals a week, but I
think it’s worth it,” she said.
“I run into a fair amount of cynicism from
students who feel problems of the world are too
big to impact. What can they do to matter. I just
feel like everything we do matters. Sitting in
circles matters.”
Two years ago, DiBernard attended a class
in which the subject of women as sex symbols
was raised. Deep into the argument, she said, a
woman in a wheelchair stopped the discussion
and reminded the class that it wasn’t speaking
of her experiences.
“1 realized I was still able to make invisible
the experiences of a whole group of people,”
DiBernard said. “I want to become aware of
women’s experiences different from mine.”
DiBernard does consider herself a feminist.
See DIBERNARD on 6
ASUN to vote
on its stand
on amendment
By Jennifer O’Cilka
Senior Reporter __
Chill up for student government
consideration tonight opposes a
state constitutional amendment
that would strengthen the powers of the
Nebraska Coordinating Commission for
Postsecondary Education.
Phil Gosch, ASUN president, spon
sored Government Bill No. 3, which urges
UNL students and Nebraska voters to
vote against the proposal Nov. 6.
Gosch said he thinks LB1141, the
amendment before the voters, has state
wide merit.
“For many years, observers of higher
education have felt there is a need for
greater coordination,” Gosch said.
“Amendment 4 has the potential to pro
vide that”
But, Gosch said, Association of Stu
dents of the University of Nebraska sena
tors need to look at the issue from the
Sse ASUN on 7