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Today, mostly sunny and
warm, with highs in the upper
80s. Friday, more of the
same. .
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JefT Haller/DN
A gush of rush
Sophomores Jennifer Dawson, left, Lesley Brandt, Gina Radicia and Melissa Stubben get soaked in Broyhill
Fountain Tuesday after getting their pictures taken for sorority rush. '
Bush may need strong boost to win
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
* Staff Reporter__ _
President Bush should get a jump in popu
larity from this week’s Republican Na
tional Convention, but it probably won’t
be enough for him to overtake Bill Clinton’s
lead in the polls, a UNL professor said.
“I don’t think anyone is
suggesting it will be the
magnitude Clinton has re
ceived, or that it will erode
Clinton’s lead,” said John
Comer, a political science
professor at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Historically,Comer said,presidential nomi
nees have received a boost in the polls follow
ing their party’s political convention. But sev
eral factors may prevent Bush from receiving
as big of a boost this year.
Conflicts in the patty over abortion, taxes
and Vice President Dan Quayle may over
shadow the president’s nomination and lessen
his post-convention boost in the polls, he said.
“It may not be the kind of bump we’ve seen
in the past,’’ he said.
Comer said that although he didn’t expect
Bush to overcome Clinton’s lead immediately
after the convention, he thought the race would
be close.
“I think all the indicators point to a Clinton
win,” he said. “But don’t underestimate the
power of the presidency or of George Bush to
make this a very close race.”
Comer said an important clement of the race
might be people’s evaluation of Quayle and
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Al
Gore of Tennessee. He said research indicated
that the vice presidential nominee could deter
mine as much as 3 percent of the vote.
“In a close race, that can be quite a bit,” he
said.
Votes from supporters of former independ
ent presidential candidate Ross Perot also could
influence the race, Comer said, but it is loo
early to determine which candidate they will
support.
During the Democratic convention, he said,
Clinton and Gore were able to take advantage
of Perot dropping out of the race to appeal to
the Texan’s supporters. However, he said, those
voters may not vote Democratic in November.
Comer said he was surprised by Perot’s
decision to drop out. He may have withdrawn
because he disliked the intense media scrutiny
presidential candidates arc under, Comer said.
“Politics, as they say, isn’t bean bag,” he
said. “I think it was a little more painful than he
anticipated.”
New program
to guarantee
general skills
of graduates
By Lori Stones
Staff Reporter
The university stands behind its students,
and it will prove that to potential em
ployers with the new UNL Guarantee
Program.
“The university guarantees that its gradu
ates will possess the basic skills reasonably to
be expected from graduates of their degree
program at the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln,” Chancellor Graham Spanicr said at a
press conference this week.
If an employer finds a UNL graduate to be
deficient in basic skills within one year of
graduation, UNL will pay for the graduate to
take care of the deficiency. Spanicr described
basic skills as those skills obtained through a
general education, which includes writing,
communication and an appreciation, sensitiv
ity and tolerance of issues such as diversity.
He said basic skills in a major can be defined
by a few examples: A lawyer should know how
to write a legal brief; a business graduate
should know how to write a business proposal;
and a journalist should know how to write a
story.
employers wno una a graduate witn a acn
ciency will notify the dean of the graduate
college or Joan Leitzel, the new senior vice
chancellor for academic affairs. Those offi- .
cials will assess the deficiency, Spanicr said, .
and work with the employer and graduate to
decide what educational assistance will be
provided.
The program, which lakes effect in Decem
ber, was started to send a message to employers
that UNL students arc good, he said. Strength
ening admission standards in the future also
would help UNL project this image, he said.
Although the program was not officially
announced until Tuesday, Spanier said, some
discussions with community businesses have
shown a favorable response to the program.
“There may not be any takers,” he said.
“They may remedy the problem among them
selves. The university will learn something
from this.”
The guarantee stales that graduates arc not
required to know everything in their field. It
also stales that UNL is not responsible for
deficiencies based on a student’s selection of
classes. And it doesn’t guarantee the employ
ment success of any student, Spanicr said,
because success depends on personal as well as
basic skills.
UNL is the first university to offer a pro
gram that applies to the whole university. Prior
to this, guarantee programs existed only at
teachers colleges.
Welcome Back UNL Students!
UNL student found guilty in
fatal slaying. Page 3
Fast-food restaurants replace
Union cafeteria. Page 8
Coliseum construction almost
finished. Page 12
CONSTRUCTION
Inside: Sports and Arts & En
tertainment Sections
INDEX
Opinion 4
Classifieds 16
1 UNL tackling students’ parking problems
Long lines gone,
but gripes remain
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Students accustomed to spend
ing hours at the Bob Devancy
Sports Center to buy a parking
permit can enjoy a few extra hours of
sleep this year.
Gone arc the tire
some days of roll
ing out of bed at 6
a.m. to stand jn a
seemingly endless
line, submitting an
automobile regis
tration form, then
waiting for more than an hour to re
ceive a permit for campus parking
lots.
Because of a new bar code on the
rear-view mirror hang tag, students
will be able to get (heir permit! quicker
— probably in less than a minute per
student, said M ike Cacak, manager of
UNL Transportation Services.
“Last year, I walked through the
sports center and saw 400 people in
line and thought 'There’s got to be a
better way to do this,”’Cacak said.
Windshicld stickers no longer will
be included with the lag, and students
will need their ID cards to speed the
process of buying a permit.
Permits will be on sale today and
Friday at the sports center from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. They will be available at the
UNL Police Department next week.
An annual permit for campus resi
dents and commuters, which will be
valid until next August, will cost $54
for students, staff and faculty; $33
will buy a permit for one semester.
A reserved-parking permit will cost
$205-$270 annually depending on
whether it’s a five- or seven-day-a
week permit. The new remote lot/
night permits will cost $17.
Cacak said he was urging students
to buy permits early because there
was a limit on the number available.
During the last two years, UNL
-T <
Parking Services sold an unlimited
number of commuter lot permits. This
year, however, the Parking Advisory
Board authorized the sale of 95 per
cent of the 5,126 annual permits, Cacak
said.
“Personally, I don’t agree with the
policy of placing a limit on the num
ber of permits sold,’’Cacak said. “But
that’s the way it is, and that’s what
we’ll have to work with.”
Although the window stickers and
long waits for permits will be gone,
complaints about the lack of parking
spaces probably won’t be, said Paul
Carlson, interim business manager
for business and finance.
“We work very hard to accommo
date students, and we do the best we
can, but there will always be some
complaints,” Carlson said. “Students
want to park as close to class as pos
sible, and they can’t always do that.
But that doesn’t mean that parking
stalls aren’t available.”
Cacak said students who parked in
the remote lots, located near the sports
center, arc served by a shuttle bus to
i
DaHy Nebraskan
and from campus, which lakes about
12 minutes per circuit.
“There were limes last year, at any
lime of the day, when I would drive
by these lots and see 300 or 350
empty parking spaces,” Cacak said.
Some spots that won’t be there,
See PARKING on 6