Officials consider required curriculum
Plan would apply
to undergraduates,
transfer students
By Shelley Biggs
Senior Reporter
dministralors at the University
of Ncbraska-Lincoln are work
ing on a plan that would re
quire students to complete a uniform
general education curriculum before
they graduate, an official said:
Joan Lcitzcl, UNL vice chancellor
for academic affairs, said the plan
would require undergraduate students
to take a minimum of 20 hours of
outlined course work by the second
semester of their sophomore year.
The program is designed to ensure
that students are more well-rounded
when they graduate, Lcil/.cl said.
“The plan was developed because
we realized that not all students were
getting a strong program vwithin their
majors,” she said. “Under the pro
posed structure of general education,
students will be receiving a coherent
whole.”
The curriculum is designed for tra
ditional students, Leitzel said, but
provisions also will be worked out for
transfer and non-tradilional students.
The tables that transfer students
use to determijie if their class credits
will transfer to the university will
have to be reworked as a result of the
new course curriculum, Leilzel said.
UNL is prepared to work closely with
community colleges and other uni
versities, she said.
The university already offers some
of the required courses, Leitzel said,
and could meet current requirements
for majors.
A college committee will be pri
marily responsible for making rec
ommendations to the university com
mittee about any new courses needed
to implement the plan. The commit
tees will be formed soon, she said.
Leitzel said the administration
would run a pilot program next year
and begin the requirements with the
1994-95 school year.
One-time monies will be used to
develop new courses, Leitzel said, but
ongoing funds also will be needed to
track enrollment changes that occur
once the curriculum is in place. She
said she did not know what the cost of
the program would be.
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MB
Scoti Maurer/bN
Jeff Walling/DN
Richard Carper, an AIDS activist, speaks at the Union Wednesday night.
No immunity
Activist says AIDS will affect all
By Virginia Newton
Staff Reporter
Richard Carper, a nationally known
AIDS activist, told a group of UNL
students and members of the com
munity Wednesday night that AIDS would
touch each one of them.
Carper, whose visit was sponsored by the
Gay/Lesbian Student Association, spoke in
front of a group of about 30 people at the
Nebraska Union. He has appeared on
“Donahue,” “20/20” and has authored a
book about AIDS.
His goal Wednesday, he said, was to
inform students about the dangers of AIDS
and to make them aware of its implications
for society.
“My focus is to try to get the student
population to Acknowledge and understand
that HIV is their problem,” Carper said. “A
lot of people have never met somebody with
HIV.
“HIV is going lo touch every social ele
ment of our society from the president, to the
director of health, to the board of trustees of
campus, to the student population, to the
faculty that should be giving accurate infor
mation out,” he said.
Carper, a former heroin addict, was diag
nosed with HIV in 1986. He had a blood
transfusion in 1984, before testing blood for
the virus became common.
Carper said he could have contracted
HIV through cither intravenous drug use or
the blood transfusion.
Long after people should have learned to
lake precautions, Carper said, many are still
making the mistakes that lead to contracting'
the virus.
The reason, he said, is that politics is
preventing people from getting the informa
See AIDS on 6
Close campaign sparks
jump in student support
By Jeff Zeleny
Staff Reporter
As the November presidential election
gets closer, President Bush and Bill
Clinton arc scrambling to gain voters’
support, and more college students are helping
them.
Interest in the upcoming election has doubled
the membership of College Republicans and
Young Democrats, two political organizations
at the Uni versity of Nebraska
Lincoln.
Robert Sittig, a UNL po
litical science professor, at
tributed the high campaign
interest to the close race be
tween Bush and Clinton.
Students need to pay at
tention to the presidential campaign,even though
candidates arc not making a specific appeal to
Nebraska students, Sittig said.
Suzanne Lipscy, a senior meteorology ma
jor and president of the Young Democrats, said
students realized the importanceol politics this
year more than ever before, and that they were
ready for a change.
The economy is the big issue for students,
Lipsey said.
“Friends arc graduating and not getting jobs;
it’s hitting closer to home,’’ she said.
Trent Steele, a junior secondary education
major and president of College Republicans,
agreed that the economy was slow but said the
president was not to blame.
“I don’t think problems of the economy and
jobs can be pinned on one man,” he said. “It
isn’t that his ideas aren’t working; they just
haven’t been tried.”
The two groups endorse parties, not candi
dates, and they will help local campaign work
ers promote their parties’ messages.
S teclc said Col lege Rcpubl icans would cam -
paign by telephone and by foot. - :
- “It’s fun volunteerstuff, not just grunt work,”
he said.
Students who want to support either Bush or
Clinton can join one of the groups formed to
promote each candidate.
Students for Bush became an officially rec
ognized student organization in January after it
received approval from the Association of Stu
dents of the University of Nebraska.
About 50 people have expressed interest in
the group, said organizer Kristine Hubka, a
senior political science major.
Patrick Adams, a junior political science
major and coordinator of Students for Clinton
Gore, said he expected AS UN to approve the
Democratic group this week.
“Students for Clinton-Gore gives people
beyond party lines who arc fed up with the
status quo an opportunity to participate,” he
said.
“People our age are feeling the impact of a
failed Bush policy; they want change and
progress.”
But Steele said he thought most college
students supported Bush.
Students notonly identify with Bush’s goals,
such as his concern for education, but they also
trust and like the president, he said.
ASUN to advise committee
By Angie Brunkow
Staff Reporter __
A SUN will play an important role in
making Nebraska a leader in
multicultural education, one official
said.
Jim Kubik, staff coordinator of the Nebraska
Legislature’s multicultural education commit
tee, said he wanted to use ASUN senators as
advisers to help the committee spread
multicultural awareness.
Kubik said the Associa
tion of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska had
gained a “soft spot” in his
heart because it was instru
mental in getting LB922
passed last spring.
; The bill, sponsored by
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, requires Ne
' braska secondary and elementary schools to
^ develop and implement multicultural educa
tionprograms.
Tne programs would not add new classes or
*
tcacncrs to tnc scnooi, out wouta require scnoois
to integrate multicultural programs into exist
ing curriculums.
Kubik said AS UN President Andrew Sigerson
was one of the f irsl to come out in support of the
bill.
Sigerson lined up several speakers to testify
at the public hearing before the Legislature last
spring.
Kubik said the vast student support over
whelmed the Legislature and led to the bill
being passed more quickly.
He said he would like to report his ideas to
the senate and get senators’ reactions, and he
said he expected their candor and honesty,
i “I can’t think of a better group than right
here,” he said.
Sigerson said being chosen as an advisory
body to the multicultural education committee
was a tremendous achievement for AS UN. He
said it gave the senate a voice in multicultural
education across the state.
He said he thought students often came to
See ASUNon 6
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