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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1992)
Ty T -• Daily t fx C I/" Cl Y\ ..jsi™ I \CL/1 daixdl L sPH . "■ ■»>' ■" "■«■)' ——____ Jody Price/DN Bret Spainhour, assistant band director at UNL, discusses field maneuvers for Saturday’s football game with John Balcer, senior head drum major. Fine tuning New band assistant hopes to pep up music By Ingrid Youngquist Staff Reporter Working with a nationally rec ognized band program is the most exciting aspect of coming to Nebraska, said Bret Spainhour, UNL’s new assistant director for athletic bands. “When the opportunity to work with and arrange for the athletic groups here arose, I leapt at the chance,” he said. Spainhour will lead the volleyball pep band, the men’s and women’s basketball pep bands and assist the Comhusker marching band. He also wi II assist die concert band. Since arriving at the University of Nebraska - Li ncoln, S pa i n hour al ready has pul in many hours working witn the marching band during its pre season camp and morning rehearsals. Spainhour said he had enjoyed observing how band director John Klocckcr worked with the band. “I give a lot of credit to Klocckcr,” he said. “I will be better as a teacher because of the chance to observe how he handles the band.” In addition to directing the bands, Spainhour said, he plans to do quite a bit of writing and arranging for them. Last year, the men’s basketball band played about 20 songs that he had arranged. Spainhour’s history with athletic band programs can be traced back to his undergraduate college days at Illi nois State University where he was part of the 400-picce marching band. He also had the chance to work with the marching band at the Univer sity of Iowa while he worked on his master of arts degree there. ‘‘Iowa’s band is larger, but they’re not as good," he quipped. Spainhour comes to UNL from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he was assistant director of bands for the past three years. His move to UNL, he said, is the first lime he has gone into a job with out having to fix things. While at Nebraska, he said, he hopes to be a positive influence on the band program. rv .... “In a material sense, I nope to provide quality musical arrange ments,” he said, “and I also hope to affect improvement on an * already very good system.” Spainhour said he hoped to get to know and become friends with the students — to influence them as a teacher and listen to them “as a big brother or a younger uncle.” Another of his goals is to bolster the women’s volleyball and basket ball bands by giving them a bigger selection of arrangements and work ing with them to improve their perfor mance. Spainhour already has written two tunes and fixed the arrangements ot a couple of other tunes to the Chicago show that the marching band will perform at the Sept. 26 football game against Arizona Slate. In arranging music for the bands, Spainhour said, he likes to work with classic rock tunes from the 1960s and 1970s because they arc identifiable, and they have personality. “When you are arranging for pep bands, you are providing an entertain ment commodity for people to listen to,” he said. “It should be upbeat and identifiable and should have lasting value . . . unlike some of the digi talized music you hear today.” Spainhour said he was influenced See SPAINHOUR on 6 Black grad says key to survival is attitude By Chuck Green Senior Reporter A good altitude is your best friend at a predominantly while university; one UNL ; graduate student loW a group of black students. Olga Davis, who is work ing on her doctorate in speech communication, told a group of incoming freshmen and returning students Sunday at the Culture Center that their “attitude will determine their altitude.” “Attitude has become a key to overcoming stereotypes,” she said. “When you show that you’re sure and confident about yourself, people who may be prejudiced will have to stop and think when they come across someone like that.” i^uvisuciivcrea inc spcccn loopcn the Black Student Orientation Pro gram, attended by about 100 students, administrators and faculty members. The Alrikan People’s Union spon sored the program. “I’m not here to sell you a success story or to preach a freshman pep talk,” she said, but to give lips on survival at a predominantly white university. Davis began her presentation with a poem entitled “No Crystal Stair” by African-American poet Langston ' Hughes. She then spoke of the atti tudes black students may face at UNL, and said that a minority student’s college career “is no crystal stair.” Davis said she spent some “very dark days here at U NL” before height ened awareness of multicultural di versity on the campus. That darkness, she said, helped light the way to her success by making her draw strength from the challenge, rather than be come discouraged by it. “If we don T manage our attitude, it will manage us,” Davis said. “If we manage it, it will propel us up those stairs.” Jimmi Smith, director of Multi cultural Affairs, told the students that UNL’s Culture Center could be a source of power for m inorily students. “You own some land on this cam pus,” Smith said, “and that’s what power has always been about: the ownership of land.” Smith said no students were at UNL “to be what you were yesterday, but to see what you can be tomorrow.” Davis agreed. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but overcoming the stereotypes can be a positive thing. But only if we tell ourselves that’s what we’re going to do.” Brrr! Temperatures drop in Burr Hall By Trish Spencer Staff Reporter The word “brrr” is taking on new meaning this fall for students living in Burr Residence Hall on UNL’s East Campus. Last fall, Burr residents escaped hot temperatures by retreating to the hall’s air-conditioned basement or sitting in front of full-power fans, Keith Zaborowski, residence director of the Burr-Fedde complex, said. This fall, thanks to 120 window air conditioners installed in Burr rooms this summer, the basement is deserted and the fans are off. Burr is the next to last residence hall at the University of Nebraska Lincoln to gel air conditioning, Zaborowski said. Ncihardt now is the only UNL residence hall that is not completely air-conditioned. The Piper wing and the TV room are the only air-condi tioned sections of Ncihardt. Love Memorial Cooperative for Women also does not have air conditioning. Air conditioning was installed last year in Fcddc, Zaborowski said. It took 30 UNL employees and S140.000 to install the custom-de signed air conditioners, MikcBorchcr, maintenance manager for the Burr Fedde complex, said. New blinds for the windows also have helped move Burr from the 1950s into the 1990s, he said. Over the past six years, installation of a TV room, a sand volleyball court, a computer room and a kitchen have improved life for students living in Burr-Feddc, Zaborowski said. The additions may be responsible for the long list of female students wanting to live in Burr, he said. This fall is the first time there has been a wailing list of students wishing to live in the residence hall. Mall owner hopes low rent attracts shops to Centrum By Susie Arth Senior Reporter he owner of the Centrum Shopping Plaza is taking a new approach to lure more businesses to downtown Lincoln. Jack Irons, who bought the shop ping center in April, said he had devised a plan to prove to city officials that Lincoln’s downtown was alive and thriving. Thc^lan, he said, is to attract new stores into the Centrum by charging only 10 percent of sales as rent until Christmas. “In this business, that’s pretty much free,” he said. Irons said the plan would ben efit both the Centrum and store owners. The Centrum, he said, would look more attractive to shoppers when it was full of tenants. And store owners would have a chance to make profits in a no-loss silua ~ See CENTRUM on 6