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Space capsule trade decision postponed
By Adeana Leftin
Senior Reporter
and Dionne Searcey
Senior Editor
The University of Nebraska
Board of Regents voted Fri
day to table a decision to
exchange the Apollo 009 capsule until
its December meeting.
The university *
had announced
Wednesday that
u>c craft, which Regents
was used in a sub- ^
orbital test flight
Feb. 26, 1966,
would be traded to the Kansas Cos
mosphcrc and Space Center in Hutch
inson, Kan., in exchange for space
artifacts valued at $1.5 million.
Max Ary, director of the cos
mosphcrc, said he is confused by the
regents’ decision because he has a
signed copy of a trade agreement.
“I’d think a signed contract would
determine that a trade would be made,”
he said.
But J.B. Milliken, University of
Nebraska corporation secretary, said
the contract is not valid until it re
ceives the regents’ approval. Univer-'
sily policy states that the regents must
approve all contracts exceeding
$100,000 in property, he said.
Milliken said he did not know if
Ary could take legal action if the
regents decided against the trade.
Bill Splinter, interim vice chan
cellor for research and dean of gradu
ate studies, said the university wants
to keep the capsule but can not afford
the $200,000 to $400,000 cost to
renovate it or to build proper storage
for it.
Since NASA donated the craft to
UNL in 1972, the craft slowly has
deteriorated from exposure to the
elements, Splinter said.
-yy
“It was as if we left one of our
elephant skeletons on the mall,” he
said.
Ary said that if university officials
continue delaying plans to restore the
Apollo 009, the space capsule could
become damaged beyond repair.
Another Nebraska winter could
destroy the space capsule, Ary said.
“Whoever ends up with the re
sponsibility to restore the craft must
do it within weeks,” he said.
Millikcn said campus officials are
concerned about the condition of the
craft and won’t attempt to keep the
capsule unless it can be repaired.
At the board meeting, Regent
Margaret Robinson of Norfolk said
the artifacts offered by the cosmospherc
could not take the place of the cap
sule.
“This is a piece of history that we
should keep on our campus,” she said.
Robinson said the university should
attempt to raise money to restore and
properly house the Apollo before giving
it up.
Ary said the cosmospherc is the
only facility that has ever success
fully restored a spacecraft similar to
the Apollo 009.
Because of the university’s delay
in making the trade, he said, the cos
mosphere has already lost two grants
that would finance the restoration.
— 44
Whoever ends up with the responsibility to restore the craft must do it within
weeks.
Ary
director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
Speaker
says racist
beliefs
on rise
Denial of racism sustains
racism, professor says
By Wendy Mott
Staff Reporter
he resurgence of the belief in white
supremacy is not the delusion of a
— crazy black woman but a reality,
an author said Saturday in the Nebraska
Union.
Bell hooks, a professor of English and
women’s studies at Obcrlin College in
Obcrlin, Ohio, and the author of several
feminist books, addressed an audience of
about 250 people in her speech “Gender,
Race, and Representation” sponsored by
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln’s
Women’s Studies department.
Claims by both white and black people
that racism and racist assaults no longer
exist only serve to perpetuate a racist soci
ety, hooks said.
Hooks said she studies the representa
tion of whiteness in the black imagination.
Although no official body of black
academics or anthropologists has been
formed to study the black idea of white
ness, she said, black people have shared
See HOOKS on 3
Regents delay
plans to buy
new computer
for records
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter_*
fTTlhe University of Ncbraska-Lincoln must
■ shelve until next month plans to sc’ck
bids for a new student information
computer system.
The NU Board of Regents, after sitting
through an 8-hour meeting, decided Friday to
postpone discussion on the
UNL proposal for a new # j
student information system
until December. ffipriPfltft
But progress was made r»vyvl 119
toward revamping the uni- ; V
versity’s computer system
with approval for the pur
chase of a new mainframe computer for the
entire university system.
The S2.5 million mainframe system will
replace the current mainframe used by all
University of Nebraska campuses.
“The (current) mainframe is running at about
95 to 100 percent capacity,” said James Van
Horn, associate vice president for administra
tion. “Red-line on a computer is 90 percent.”
Van Horn said the integration of the Univer
sity of Nebraska at Kcamcy into the NU systcrti
pul a strain on the mainframe, which contains
the university-wide accounting system; the
human resource system, including payroll and
See COMPUTER on 3
Robin Tnmarchi/DN
Bell hooks, a professor at Oberlin College, talks about her study of
whiteness in the black imagination at the Nebraska Union Saturday
night..
Senator says loan plan needs support
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter
University and student support
is needed for a proposed di
rect federal loan program that
could allow “lens of thousands and
possibly hundreds of thousands of
more people to go
to college,” said
Sen. Paul Simon,
D-III.
Simon said in
a phone interview
last week that his
proposed Income
Dependant Education Assistance
program, which has stalled in the
Senate, needs collegiate support.
“If we can get the higher education
community and students behind it,
there is a good chance (of passage),”
he said.
The IDEA program, which Simon
engineered with Sen. David Durcn
berger, R-Minn., would change the
student loan system to eliminate banks
Funding, centralization of program
might be problems, UNL official says
as ihc link between the government
and students. In the IDEA system,
students would be granted loans di
rectly from the government instead of
from banks, and would make their
payments to the Internal Revenue
Service following graduation.
Any student would be eligible for
an IDEA loan, regardless of income.
Beginning in the 1994-95 academic
year, students could receive up to
$6,500 a year for their first two years
of school, and $8,(X)0 a year for their
last two years. Graduate students could
receive up to $ 11,000 a year.
John Beacon, director of admis
sions and director of scholarships and
financial aid at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln, said he philosophi
cally supports direct loan programs
but has reservations about Simon’s
proposal.
“If il’s going lo pul more money in
the hands of students, I would be in
favor of it,” he said.
But Beacon said he is concerned
about several administrative aspects
of implementing a direct loan pro
gram.
Losing the ability to deal with the
loans locally is one problem, he said,
because it would be more difficult for
students to work with the federal
government than with lending insti
tutions.
“It’s just not as localized,” he said.
Funding is another issue, Beacon
said, because about 9,300 lending
institutions nationwide provide money
for student loans.
If the government steps in and
takes on that responsibility, he said,
“where will (it) gel the money?”
The IDEA plan, if passed, would
be pari of ihc rcaulhorization of the
Higher Education Acl. The Senate
Labor and Human Resources Com
mittee has approved the Higher Edu
cation Act but not the IDEA plan.
Simon said he now plans to intro
duce the bill as an amendment to the
Higher Education Acl when it comes
up before the full Senate. That proba
bly will happen in early January, he
said.
The primary opposition to the bill
has come from the banks that would
be eliminated from the student loan
system, Simon said. Opposition has
also come from Secretary of Educa
tion Lamar Alexander.
“Interestingly, (Bush administra
tion officials) originally talked about
it,” Simon said, “and obviously they
got scared off by the banks.”
The president’s support is still
possible, though, Simon said.
“If we pass a good strong bill, 1
don’t think the president will want to
veto it a year before an election.”
China mission produces
progress. Page 2
NU speeds to victory. Page 3
Buzzcocks resurge with life.
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