_- - r —i i
Nebraskan m
Kathy Phillips, a UNL police officer, patrols near the edge of campus. University police jurisdiction ends at the
campus boundary, although city police can call them for assistance.
Misleading numbers
Lincoln’s ‘worst’ areas not so bad, residents, police say
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter_._
On this day, as on most, the hood
was quiet.
Some shouting was going on
between houses; there was a bulldozer
buzzing, but
TU» mostly, it was
quiet
The area that is
known for its big
city atmosphere
and its high crime
rate had perhaps
been given an
unjust reputation.
Capt Jim
Pcschong of the
Lincoln Police Department said he
thought the reputation was undeserved.
“The point is that I don’t know that you
can wind up saying that this is a kid area
of town,” he said. “I don’t think that we
have those in this town.”
And several University of Nebraska
Lincoln students who live in the area
agree.
J.J. Hubbard, a senior criminal justice
major, said he felt safe in his neighbor
hood around 23rd and T streets.
Hubbard said he often went jogging in
the area without feeling nervous or feeling
the need to check over his shoulder every
block.
“The only thing I’ve ever felt threat
ened by was a dog,” he said.
Hubbard said he sometimes saw what
appeared to be drug busts. But he stays
clear of those situations and they never
have affected him, he said. *
Marcus Anderson, a senior speech
communication major, said he didn’t think
the area was unsafe at all.
“I've heard it’s supposed to be kind of
bad, but it’s not,” he said. “I feel safe
because nothing has ever happened to
me.”
Hubbard and Anderson agreed that the
area was populated mainly with college
students who tended to mind their own
business.
The same holds true for one of
Lincoln’s other hoods with something of a
tough reputation — the area around the
state Capitol.
Doug Sebastian, a senior architecture
major, said he felt completely comfortable
in his neighborhood.
Although he has called police two
times for strange activity in the area, he
has never been scared.
“As far as myself, I’ve never been
worried,” he said. “In any area, you’re
going to have to take some sort of
precautions.”
Nichole Lee, a junior mathematics and
education major who lives in the area,
said she often heard stories about how bad
the neighborhood was, but that she rarely
saw anything.
“They say it’s bad, but it’s pretty
calm," she said.
A recent article in the Lincoln Journal
Star identified the areas as among the
highest in both violent and property crime
rates.
The lowest crime rates were reported in
southeast Lincoln.
The Malone area had a total of 67
violent crimes and 362 property crimes in
1991. The violent crimes included three
See CRIME on 3
UNMC chosen
as testing site
for new HIV
treatment drug
Combination of AZT, ddi
stops reproduction of virus
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter_
The National Institutes of Health has
selected the University of Nebraska
Medical Center as a test site for a new
combination drug that could stop the HIV virus
from reproducing in the cells of people infected
with the virus.
Working with an organization of doctors
and researchers called the AIDS Clinical Trial
Group, NIH selected the University of Minne
sota Medical Center to administer the testing of
the drug. UNMC is a subunit of the the Minne
sota facility.
Dr. Susan Swindells, chief of UNMC’s AIDS
clinic, said she had received many phone calls
from people all over Nebraska and surrounding
states who were interested in volunteering for
the test of the new drug combination.
Swindells said she had a list of 65 prospec
tive patients for the study, which could begin as
early as this summer.
“I’m always pleased that people with HIV
who live in Nebraska can get access to experi
mental treatments,” she said.
Oftentimes, she said, people in the Midwest
are left out of the testing of new drugs because
much of the research is done at major facilities
on die East and West coasts.
She said the publicity the new combination
drug had received helped attract people to the
study.
Yung-Kang Chow, a Harvard medical stu
dent, came up with die idea for the new drug
which combines AZT and ddl — drugs cur
rently used to combat AIDS—with a third drug
called pyridinonc.
In laboratory tests, the drug combination has
stopped the AIDS virus from reproducing.
“It looks very good in the test tube,” S windcl Is
said.
The drug combination currently is going
through safely testing, she said. When that is
done, it will be ready for human testing.
“I think the combination could be very
useful.” But, she said, “There’s more exciting
drugs coming down the pipeline.”
Swindells said drug companies were work
ing on combinations that could be much more
potent than Chow’s combination.
Hoffman-LaRoche, a drug company based
in Minnesota, is working on a drug that inter
feres with the way HIV viruses reproduce in the
cell. When the drug is acting on a virus, S windelh
said, the virus produces harmless offspring.
She said combining this drug with AZT anc
ddl, drugs that tend to block HIV virus repro
duction, could be “very effective.”
Minority classification laws need updating, officials saj
By Juliet Osaka
S*f Ffoorter_
For Yen Nguyen, being a mem
ber of the Minority Summer
Research Program at the Uni
versity of Nebraska Medical Center
was not easy.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese student
majoring in nursing at UNL, is not
considered a minority student because
she is Asian American.
Nguyen, who has lived in the
United States since 1980, said she
applied last summer for the eight
week research program open to any
college junior interested in the medi
cal Held.
Nguyen said that when she was
placed on the waiting list, she under
stood that she would only get a spot if
the 25 openings were not filled by
minorities with protected class status,
she said.
“It was so frustrating," she said,
“knowing that Native Americans,
African Americans and Hispanics
would be accepted before I was, be
cause they were not Asian.”
Nguyen received a spot in the pro
gram, but Ronald Ross, associate di
rector of affirmative action and diver
sity programs, said Asian-American
students recently had “become more
enlightened” to these kinds of prob
lems.
Asian-American citizens do not
have protected class status because
they were not denied economic op
portunities in the past, Ross said.
The federal government decides
which minority classes are protected.
te said, and have decided to handle
he Asian-Amcrican issue case-by
asc.
But Yenbo Wu, program coordi
lator for UNL’s International Affairs,
aid he thought the federal govem
nenl was not looking at all Asians.
For example, in the 1960s and
arly 1970s when the government
lecided which classes would be pro
ected, the Japanese and Chinese were
uccecding financially in the United
»tatcs, Wu said.
But now, different social and eco
lomic conditions exist, he said. These
lew conditions have contributed to
ess success for Asian Americans.
“The whole picture is different,”
Nu said, “but the laws are not.”
Helen Long Soldier, Native Ameri
:an and Asian counselor in the Multi
The whole picture is different, but the laws are
not
> —Wu
program coordinator for UNL International Affairs
. 'Ml .11 I I. A tk “
Cultural Affairs office, said the laws
needed to distinguish between Asian
American and Southcasl-Asian
American students.
The Southeasl-Asian-American
students, such as Laotians, Vietnam
ese and Cambodians, are the ones in
need of support, Long Soldier said,
yet they cannot receive this support
because thev are not considered an
“underrepresented minority.”
“It’s hard to believe they’re not a
minority, especially in the Midwest,
w w
but that’s what the government says/
she said.
Nguyen said she agreed that there
needed to be a distinction betweer
Asians.
“Specific Asians are very poor,’
Nguyen said. “Sure, China and Japar
are rich countries, but the others are
not as prosperous.”
Nguyen said although the process
she went through to reach the pro
gram was difficult, she would rccom
mend it to anyone.