Letters to home enlighten more than family
Talk of football games,
racial climate on campus
fills student’s writings
By Rebecca S. Kruse
Staff Reporter
A student’s letters home may be shared
over the family supper table, but one
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln student’s
letters go beyond her family’s table and onto
the newsstands.
Kathleen Hartman, a 21-year-old senior
from Gcring, writes Letters Home, a bi
weekly column in the Scottsbluff Star
Herald.
Her letters arc like many
students’ letters: telling the
folks at home about the
Saturday football game,
talking about the latest
celebrity to visit the
campus or explaining a
- classroom run-in with a
professor.
Teachers and professors nationwide must
revel in their ability to discern who is
prepared and who is not,” Hartman writes. “1
read every assignment I’m given. Honestly, I
do. It just so happens that once in a while it
is impossible to have everything under
control for class meetings.”
Her professor has caught her off-guard,
she explains, and she dubs the event “Ad
vanced Classroom Embarrassment.”
But Hartman uses her training in the
Teachers College to add an educational twist
to her letters. She has written about the racial
climate on campus, explaining the impor
tance of events, such as the Native American
Healing the Hoop celebration, that try to ease
racial tensions.
“Because of all the strife Native Ameri
cans have undergone in the past, Healing the
Hoop is an effort to educate others about
...... Native American perspectives/’she writes.
Even though she aims to educate through
Letters Home,-Hartman, a secondary
education French and English major, said her
main goal was to have fun.
“1 write because I think the Panhandle
residents have no idea what goes on here at
the university,” Hartman said. “I write
hoping to ensnare prospective students.
“But mostly, I write for the fun of it.
Writing is my passion.”
Hartman said she started with the idea of
writing book reviews for children. She
discussed the idea with a professor she had
for a children’s literature class.
That professor is Larry Andrews, English,
Travis Heying/DN
Kathleen Hartman, a secondary education French and English major, writes a biweekly column for the Scottsbluff Star
Herald. Hartman, a senior, is a native of Gering.
-44
I write because I think the Panhandle residents have no idea
what goes on here at the university.
—Hartman
Columnist
Curriculum and Instruction professor of the
Teachers College.
"She look a course wilh me, and as lhai
class was coming to a close, she said she
needed some kind of project,” Andrews said.
“1 knew from ihc things she had written in
class that she would be really outstanding,”
he said. "She’s an excellent writer.”
Andrews offered Hartman two ideas.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you talk to the
V V
newspaper about writing a column about
quality reading for children,’” Andrews said.
‘“If they don’t like that idea, volunteer to
write a column. Call it Letters Home.’”
Armed with her proposals, Hartman
approached the Scottsbluff Star-Herald
editor.
‘i just walked into the Star-Herald and
said, ‘I’ve got this cockamamic idea,’”
Hartman said.
The editor liked Hartman’s second idea.
She started writing her column in September
1992, and her Letters Home appear in the
Scottsbluff newspaper’s Sunday edition
every other week.
Hartman said she had received positive
reactions to her column. People write letters
to the newspaper and call her with story
ideas, and she has even been quoted.
“The dean of the Teachers College quoted
something that I said in a column,” Hartman
said. “That was the biggest compliment of
all.”
Hartman, a Teachers College advisory
board member and an AS UN senator, said
she hoped to continue writing after college.
“I want to write more than anything,” she
said.
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DN getsCFAsupport
for funding increase
Spanier must OK
boost in budget
By Sarah Scalet
Staff Reporter __
The UNL Committee for Fees Al
location voted Thursday night to rec
ommend to AS UN a funding increase
for the Daily Nebraskan, despite a
subcommittee recommendation that
the funding remain the same.
Daily Nebras
kan Editor Chris
Hopfcnspcrger
said the increase,
from $39,200 to
$41,153, was nec
essary to offset in
creasing printing
costs and declining advertising rev
enue.
If the increase is approved by the
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska and then Chan
cellor Graham Spanier, student fees
for the Daily Nebraskan will go from
84 cents to 88 cents per semester.
A subcommittee report, submitted
by Mark Byars and Shawntcll Hurtgcn,
recommended the Daily Nebraskan
alleviate rising printing costs by print
inglhe“Divcrsions”section biweekly,
instead of every Thursday.
The report also recommended that
the Daily Nebraskan employ new or
J different methods of advertising and
develop new markets, in addition to
expanding previous markets.
However, Hopfensperger said
many advertisers published ads in
Thursday papers only because of the
“Diversions" pullout.
If the section were only published
biweekly, he said, many of those ad
vertisers would only buy ads every
other week.
Shane Tucker, chairman of the
Committee for Fees Allocation, said
keeping student fees down was a high
priority.
However, he said, because the
Daily Nebraskan is “greatly used” by
students at a low price, the increase
was justified.
In other business, the committee
discussed the University Program
Council’s 1993-94 budget request, a
decrease of 2 percent from this year.
UPC President Gary Doyle said
that as the largest student-fee user,
UPC wanted to take a lead role in
reducing student fees.
A subcommittee of the Committee
of Fee Allocations will meet with
members of UPC and submit a recom
mendation to the committee next
Tuesday.
Also, the committee voted to rec
ommend that ASUN receive
$143,891, $20 less than its original
request.
The change, a result of a typo,
reduces funding for the Postage and
Quick Copy line in Student Legal
services.