commission stresses information gathering
ay Aoeana Lenin
Staff Reporter
As the Nebraska Coordinating Commission
tor Postsecondary Education prepares to enter
uncharted waters, the current commission gave
a few suggestions to keep it afloat.
A report submitted by the present commis
sion to the Appropriations and Education
committees Monday recommended that the
new commission have a means of seeking out
information from institutions to be able to
review programs and coordinate procedures.
Nebraska voters approved a constitutional
amendment in November strengthening the
current coordinating commission, which serves
only as an advisory body.
Bruce Stahl, executive director of the pres
ent commission, said that gathering informa
tion for the present commission to analyze
programs has been largely the responsibility of
Nebraska higher education institutions.
Under present statutes, the commission only
can review what information it receives, Stahl
said, and that information often has been mini
mal.
“We’re suggesting to governing boards in
particular that they take their jobs seriously,”
he said.
Without enough information from institu
tions, Stahl said, the new commission won’t be
able to coordinate decisions.
Because the commission cannot seek out
information, he said, it isn’t able to analyze
what needs to be reviewed.
The report recommended the Legislature
develop a review procedure with the aid of the
new commission that includes institutional input
and reasonable reporting expectations.
It also suggested that senators should not
burden the new commission with legal con
straints that would interfere with the review
process.
Eric Seacrest, chairman of the current
commission, said “program assessment is at a
turning point”
The new commission, under the implement
ing legislation proposed by state senators, would
have the power to approve programs and would
be charged with avoiding duplication of pro
gramsamong the state’s higher education insti
tutions.
“Resolving situations of marginal programs
or unnecessary duplication has been a goal of
the current process,” Seacrest said.
The new commission will be able to deal
with those problems more effectively, he said.
The commission recommended to institu
tional governing boards that degree programs
in which only a few students’ needs are met be
restricted. Stahl offered the example of an
English program that is full at the freshman and
sophomore levels but has low enrollment of
graduate students.
The report also addressed the problem of
programs that do not meet a large number of
student needs, but are still necessary. The
commission suggested that governing boards
find creative solutions to aid inefficient pro
grams without hurting quality or access.
Lesbian poet speaks out about love
By Robert Richardson
Senior Reporter
Poet, teacher, activist and lesbian
Minnie Bruce Pratt said Monday that
her ordeal and troubling family expe
riences have made it important that
she speak out.
“I have seen what happens to people
when their love is criminalized and
they are hated simply because of how
they love,” Pratt said. “And I think
that’s a terrible thing, to hate people
and punish them and construct laws
simply because of how they love.
That’s why I do my work. My work is
about love, not hate.”
Pratt took center stage at the Re
gency Suite in the Nebraska Union to
legitimize her lifestyle in her speech,
“Sin, Censorship and Poetry.”
“We (lesbians) choose to live this
life because it gives us great pleas
ure,” Pratt said.
The Alabama-born lesbian has been
widely acclaimed for her writings about
- ««
/ have seen what hap
pens to people when
their love is criminal
ized and they are hated
simply because how
they love.
Pratt
lesbian poet
-- >f _
her life. Her efforts culminated in
1989 when she received the prestig
ious Lamont Poetry Award from the
Academy of American Poets.
Pratt spoke about divorce from her
husband and not being allowed to see
her two children because of state
sodomy laws that made her lesbian
love a felony and made Pratt an unfit
mother in the eyes of the courts.
Pratt, now 44, began her writing
career, not as a lesbian, but as a mar
ried 19-year-old college student. The
young Pratt believed she should help
her husband, who also was interested
in writing poetry. So they agreed that
Pratt would get her doctorate in Eng
lish to help support her husband in his
writing pursuits.
Forced to make a tough decision,
Pratt eventually divorced her hus
band and chose to lead a gay lifestyle,
which has become one of several
themes of her colorful, explicit po
etry.
She eventually worked out a deal
with her husband for visitation with
her children, but the process was long
and hard. In the end, Pratt said, her
now college-age children didn’t hate
her or her gay lifestyle.
Lied
Continued from Page 1
revenue are not expected to increase
by the end of this budget year, he said.
Goebel said he expects that “little
would happen on the revenue side of
the budget.”
Lied officials have predicted a 43
percent drop in private donations for
next year. But Goebel said he antici
pates that future private funding will
help cover most of the income loss.
He said that despite the projected
income losses, the center will live up
to the public’s high expectations.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to
manage it efficiently.’’
Lied Center Director Robert Chum
bley, who took over that position in
May 1990, was unavailable for com
ment.
Religion
Continued from Page 1
The questioning process is essen
tial, said Scott Pixler, campus minis
ter with the College Career Christian
Fellowship, 1633 Q St.
“God has no grandchildren,” Pixler
said. “Kids have to have a personal
relationship with God that’s not based
on their parents’ Beliefs.”
Brian Kollar, a staff worker for
Campus Crusade for Christ, said many
students are so busy trying to find
fulfillment in other aspects of their
lives, such as drinking, sex or pursu
ing a career, that they don ’ t have time
to consider spiritual aspects.
Other students realize that a rela
tionship with Christ is more signifi
cant than anything or anyone else, he
said. Those students seek spiritual
fulfillment, peace and assurance that
they will go to heaven, Kollar said.
John Hatfield, area representative
for Navigators, said students are flock
ing from mainline denomination
churches and the old, traditional struc
tures.
But Kollar said most students are
looking for a worship service in a
progressive church with upbeat mu
sic and lessons that are application
oriented, not stiff and liturgical.
Pixler agreed, saying, “The thing I
resist most is ritual because it puts
everyone in neutral.”
To attract students, he said, a
worship service should be spontane
ous with participation from the con
gregation.
Pixler said he reaches students by
featuring contemporary music instead
of traditional hymns and using illus
trations in sermons to better relate to
students’ everyday experiences.
Randall said he tries to encourage
students to look at the Christian tradi
tion without turning it into tradition
alism. He said traditionalism is when
the past is emphasized more than the
present.
“Don’t read the scriptures to be
come like first century Christians, but
(to become like) 20th Century Chris
tians,” he said.
Larry Meyer, campus pastor at the
Lutheran Student Center, 535 N. 16th
St., said that for some students the
familiar, traditional service is a com
fort.
When a freshman enters UNL,
everything is new, different and radi
cal, he said. One way students can
regain stability is through church,
Meyer said.
Fundamentalism becomes a popu
lar alternative, he said, because it
provides black-and-white answers to
Christianity.
Hanway said fundamentalism is
attractive because it feels safer to be
told what to do rather than to exercise
independent thinking.
Pixler said he thinks fundamental
ism is rising because it’s correct.
To be a fundamentalist is to be
lieve in the fundamentals of Christi
anity, he said. That includes the idea
that (he Bible was inspired by God
and that Jesus was bom of a virgin,
crucified and raised from the dead, he
said.
“Fundamentalists believe in ob
jective truth,” Pixler said. “The Bible
is not a moral myth but historical
fact.”
Hatfield said attendance at off
campus evangelical churches is ris
ing in the UNL population, while
mainline denominational churches are
losing members.
Randall said attendance figures are
tough to gauge because many stu
dents come and go irregularly. A small
committed core attends regularly, he
said.
Hanway and Meyer said their
congregations have grown in the last
year or two.
Meyer said Protestants don ’ t place
as much importance on going to church
as Catholics do. The Catholic Student
Center declined to comment.
Students may come and go, but
Hanway said he still must be avail
able and make religion attractive when
students decide to drop in.
Official: UNL won’t establish
substance-free dormitories
By Micheise Wing
Staff Reporter
Substance-free residence halls
that prohibit alcohol, drugs and
smoking are available at other
universities but are not planned for
UNL because they may imply a
green light for substance use in
other areas, the housing director
said.
In recognizing substance-free
halls, Doug Zatechka said, UNL
might appear to sanction the use of
alcohol, drugs and tobacco by stu
dents not under the substance-free
contract.
At the University of Michigan,
students in the substance-free pro
gram pledge in their housing con
tracts not to drink alcohol, smoke
or use drugs in their rooms or else
where in the residence halls, ac
cording to an article in The Chron
icle of Higher Education.
Students requesting substance
free housing then are placed on
floors or halls separate from those
who didn’t request the substance
free option.
Zatechka said he wouldn’t want
students who didn’t sign a contract
to think they could use alcohol or
drugs in the residence halls.
‘‘I have minor trouble with the
implication that others can use these
substances” if they don’t sign the
substance-free contract, he said.
Besides, Zatechka said, sub
stance-free housing already has
“been happening for years” at UNL,
because UNL policy prohibits the
use of drugs or alcohol in the resi
dence halls and on campus.
UNL has not yet received any
requests for substance-free hous
ing, Zatechka said, although he
expects to get some requests for
tobacco-free floors.
Zatechka said that although the
substance-free program is not
planned at UNL, the idea has merit.
‘‘It could make some positive
impacts (at UNL), particularly
dealing with tobacco,” he said.
——-POLICE REPORT-1
Beginning midnight Sunday, April $450.
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12:58 a.m. — Bicycle stolen. Smith 10:42 a.m. — Water leak, Lyman
Residence Hall, $30. Hall, $6.
1:18 a.m. — Auto windshield 1:51 p.m. — Stereo stolen from
smashed, 1410 W. Dawes Ave., auto, 17th and Y streets, $749.
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