Staci McKee/DN
Walter Centuori, a UNL Italian professor, said that he understood the difficulty students have learning a
different language, because he had to learn English when he immigrated with his family to the United States at
age 10.
Coming to America
Italian professor says he expected cowboys, Indians
By Nicole Sheets
Staff Reporter
In 1950, the Centuori family boarded
the boat in Naples, Italy, that would
take them to their new life and home
in America.
Excitement, amazement and confusion
abounded as the family
sailed into New York —
its first time in the
United States.
This experience
became a memorable
and life changing event
for Walter Centuori,
associate professor of Italian at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
At age 11, Centuori and his older
brother, mother and father moved away >
from Italy because of economic problems.
Upon arrival, Centuori spoke no English,
but he said he was able to adapt to
American life.
“I was excited and baffled to come to
America, and I loved it here right away,"
Centuori said. “I had envisioned America
as being all cowboys and Indians from the
movies I had seen and couldn't wait to get
here."
Centuori remembered being confused
by the furor over baseball and football
because soccer and biking were the main
-4*
My pockets were always
filled with candy. I
couldn’t help but love
America.
— Centuori
Italian professor
-f* -
sports in Italy. But he said he enjoyed the
abundance of candy and ice creamr~both
rare delicacies in Italy.
“My pockets were always filled with
candy,” Centuori said. “I couldn’t help but
love America.”
From New York, Centuori and his
family moved to Brooklyn, then to Long
Island and finally settled in Philadelphia
where he attended his remaining years of
grammar school and high school.
By growing up in an Italian ghetto in
Philadelphia, Centuori said he learned
quickly about the American way of life.
“Being the youngest in my family, I
learned English the fastest and became the
translator and interpreter for the rest of
my family,” he said.
After high school, Centuori moved to
Philadelphia City, Pa., where he attended
college at St. Joseph University. Centuori
received his bachelors degree in philoso
phy and French with a minor in English
literature.
One year after his college graduation,
Centuori returned to Italy. He attended the
University of Naples, and five years later,
he received his doctorate in Italian
i literature and graduated cum laude.
Centuori said he first was inspired to
become a teacher by one of his professors
in Italy.
After graduation Centuori returned to
America. He was offered a position as a
professor of Italian at several different
schools. He chose UNL in 1967 and has
remained ever since.
“I had a limited knowledge of Ne
braska and still envisioned the cowboy
and Indian scene,” Centuori said. “I found
this scene alluring, though, and the
mystique of the Midwest brought me
here.”
More than 25 years later, Centuori is
UNL’s sole professor of Italian. He
teaches the basic classes of Italian 101
through 302 as well as an independent
study program.
Centuori said he did not mind being the
only Italian professor, and there were
several benefits to it.
See CENTUORI on 3
UNL parking
permit fees
to increase $4
Funds generated to be used
to repair, pave lot surfaces
on City and East campuses
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter
The fee for basic parking permits at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln will
increase 8.7 percent for the 1993-94
school year and another 8.7 percent for the
1994-95 school year.
I During a March 11 meet
ing, the Parking Advisory
Committee, following the
B^^ guidelines of an AS UN reso
lution, recommended the in
gPxfWrelcreasc m Park>ng fees to the
°^‘cc °f v‘ce chancellor
for business and finance, said
Tom Johnson, chairman of the committee.
The original AS UN resolution called for the
fee to go up no more than $5, which was
calculated to be an increase about 7.5 percent,
Johnson said.
He said thecommitlee stayed within ASUN s
recommendation, but the $4 fee hike approved
by the committee was accurately calculated to
be an 8.7 percent increase.
None of the three student representatives
appointed by ASUN attended the March 11
committee meeting, Johnson said.
John Goebel, vice chancellor of business
and finance, has approved the recommenda
tion, said Paul Carlson, interim business man
ager for the office of business and finance.
Next year’s fee for a basic permit will go up
from $54 to $58. The increase is expected to
generate about $79,000 worth of extra revenue
for UNL’s Parking Services during the next
year and $158,000 the year after that, Johnson
said.
Much of the extra money generated will be
used to expand parking at both City and East
campuses, he said.
A proposal for City Campus, which would
have to be approved by the NU Board of
Regents, would call for the building of a new,
225-space lot southeast of the Beadle Center
near 19th and R streets at a cost of about
$200,000, he said.
A proposal for East Campus, he said, would
add 195 spaces to an existing lot near the Law
College, and would cost about $160,000. This
proposal also would need the regents' approval.
Johnson said some of the money raised by
the rate increase would go toward repairing
deteriorating surfaces and paving gravel lots.
Thecommitlee intends to let UNL’s Parking
Services have a free hand in deciding where
work needs to be done, he said.
“We want to allow the parking office the
freedom to work where the most concern is
being expressed,’’ Johnson said. “If they had to
follow rigid priorities, their hands would be
tied.’’
He said the Parking Advisory Committee
would meet again on April 8 at East Campus to
review the parking problems that need to be
addressed, and to elect a new chairman.
Credit card abuse problem for students, officials say
•By Michelle Leary
Senior Reporter_
Leslie Douglas, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln senior,
came to Lincoln two years
ago with almost $5,000 worth of credit
canl debt.
Douglas, a sociology major, said
when sne started using credit cards,
she had a job. The income helped pay
off her four local department store
cards, a Spiegel’s catalog card and a
Visa card.
Douglas said she would buy gifts
for otters, along with clothes and
other odds and ends.
Bank accounts good alternatives for building credit history
“Whenever I got into trouble or
felt sad, I would charge things,” Dou
glas said. “I’d buy a couple of outfits
and then I’d feel real happy.”
It took Douglas about two years to
charge her credit cards to their limits,
she said.
“Now I can’t afford to pay them
off,” she said.
So Douglas turned to her mother
for financial assistance. Now she isn’t
allowed to use the cards.
“(My mother) told me that 1 can’t
charge another single dollar,” she said.
Douglas’s problem is not unique.
Counselors, professors and financial
aid officers said the practice of credit
card abuse by college students was a
growing trend.
John Breckenridge, a counselor at
UNL’s Counseling and Psychologi
cal Services, said that although his
office had not received many visits
from students seeking counseling for
credit card abuse, the problem was
rising.
’’There is no doubt in my mind that
students are abusing credit cards,’’
BrecKcnnagc saia.
“Many students do misuse their
cards, but it isn't a problem students
present to us," he said.
Breckenridge said credit card
troubles were usually an auxiliary
problem to some serious psychologi
cal problem, such as alcoholism or
gambling.
“Credit cards make it easier to get
money for these types of compulsive
behaviors for a while," he said. “But
the card limit does eventually get
reached."
Kim Benning, a junior interna
tional affairs major, said it took her
only five months to accumulate a
credit card debt of $2,500.
“I got the cards when I was a
freshman and I went crazy,” she said.
Benning has two Visa cards and
two department store credit cards.
She said she bought clothes and often
used her cards for cash advances to
pay her telephone bill.
“College students are poor and they
always need cash advances,” she said
“But the interest kills you.**
See CREDIT CARDS on 3
