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Pat Kroese, head of the ASUN subcommittee on services for the disabled, makes his way up the ramp at Farguson
Hall as part of Wheelchair Wednesday.
' Wheelchair tour reveals
. _ ...
UNL administrators
experience barriers
of disabled firsthand
By Katherine Gordon
\ ~ Staff Reporter_'
A 1 though some speaking events were
forced inside because of bad
x weather, the rain did not stop Wheel
chair Wednesday events.
In fact, the freezing rain and wind empha
sized the message that accessibility for dis
abled students needs improvement at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
University administrators and members
of ASUN toured UNL’scampus in borrowed
wheelchairs and got a taste of what it would
be like to be a disabled student.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James
Griesen struggled to make it up the ramp at
the College of Business Adm inistraiion bui ld
ing in his borrowed wheelchair.
“It’s awkward and you worry continu
_ously about sliding back down." he said.
“On such a miserable morning you’d have to
sit there in the rain until someone came
along to open the door for you because the
CBA building’s doors aren’t electronic.
“We were reminded by our (wheelchair)
experience that many routes on campus are
not accessible,” Griesen said.
Patrick Kroese, chairman for the Stu
dents with Disabilities subcommittee, said
he thought the events accomplished what
ASUN wanted.
“Our purpose was to make the adminis
tration aware,” he said. “Administrative re
sponse was great.”
Kroese used a borrowed wheelchair to
illustrate access difficulties to other partici
pants. >
“You have to be pretty strong to wheel
one of those around,” he said.
Kroese had to stop for a break before he
reached his cross-campus destination. Once
on the steep, narrow access ramps, wheel
chairs become even more difficult to ma
neuver and some buildings still don't have
electronic doors, he said.
Dianna Grove, assistant director of Ser
viccs for Students with Disabilities, said the
events were a good opportunity for people to
encounter accessibility problems firsthand.
Grove accompanied wheelchair partici
pants on a tour to Seaton Hall. She said they
could not get in with wheelchairs because of
the building’s accessibility problems.
“It was m iserable cold and people ’ s hands
were slipping on the wet wheelchair rails,”
she said.
Volunteers assisted first-time wheelchair
users by holding umbrellas over them, but.
Grove said, “An actual disabled person prob
ably wouldn’t have that help.”
Grove said she believed the events would
encourage administrators to make accessi
bility improvements a priority.
Randy May, a senior majoring in politi
cal science, braved the rain to help lead
wheelchair tours despite the risk of short
circuiting his electric wheelchair.
May said he took part in the events be
cause he believed they would have positive
results. He said new ramps and elevators in
some buildings were improvements that still
needed to be made if uNL was to be fully
accessible. _
Possibility of
smoking ban
sparks debate
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Where to smoke raised fiery debate
daring an open forum Wednesday in
the main lounge of the Nebraska
Union.
Daryl Swanson, director of the Nebraska
Unions, and members of Union Board heard
comments and questions from students, faculty
and staff — smokers and
non-smokers — about the
possibility of a total smok
ing ban in the Nebraska
Union.
University of Nebraska
Lincoln officials arc re
viewing the university’s
smoking policy and are moving toward smoke
free buildings throughout campus.
That movement had some smokers smolder
ing.
“There aren’t many places on this campus
where we can still smoke,” said Chris Keenan,
a sophomore psychology major.
“I think it’s my privilege to smoke in desig
nated smoking areas. We don’t find this to be
fair that a few people are making decisions —
and they’re mostly non-smokers — that are
going to affect a lot of people," Keenan said.
Lois Goss, a senior history major, said a
smoking ban in the Nebraska Union would
increase outside pollution.
“You’d have smokers sprawled out all over . „
caihpus, throwing their cigarette butts all over
the place,” she satd. *
r‘Then why don’t you throw the butts in the
cans?” someone in the audience inter
Goss did not answer.
Alicia Law, an assistant manager at the
University Bookstore and a smoker for 40
years, said she thought the university was being
hypocritical in accepting money generated from
state tobacco taxes while preventing students
and faculty members from smoking in the
buildings the money helped maintain.
Several students and board members dis
cussed the possibility of a “smoking fishbowl,"
a glass-enclosed area with an adequate ventila
tion system to remove the smoke from the
building.
Colin Theis, union board president, said
such a project would cost about $40,000.
“If students who smoke really feel strongly
about being able to smoke in the union,” Theis
said, “they ought to talk about how to come up
with that kind of money.”
Theis also suggested that smokers smoke
outside, or in buildings off campus, where
smoking would be allowed.
Diane McCashland, a junior advertising
See UNION BOARD on 2
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Happy day s are here again for new AS UN president
By Kristine Long
Staff Reporter _
Three years ago Keith Benes didn’t want
to attend the University of Nebraska
Lincoln because he thought he Wouldn’t
get a quality education at such a Dig university.
But somehow Benes ended up at UNL, and
> he has become pretty comfortable on the cam
' pus he used to disdain.
Today he will officially begin his term as
president of the UNL student body.
Benes, a junior speech communication ma
jor, graduated from Raymond Central High
School, just 10 miles from Lincoln.
In the middle of his senior year, Benes said,
he decided he wanted to attend a prestigious
Eastern school or a smaller school where he
could play football.
In July 1990, Benes said, he was prepared to
go to Bradley University in Peoria, 111.; butafter
attending the orientation he decided he hated
the school.
Benes had no choice but to attend UNL, at
least for a while.
Benes joined a fraternity at UNL and got
| _ T ' 1 1 .
involved on campus by joining University
Ambassadors, tutoring through the multicultural
affairs office, being public relations chairman
for the Interfratemity Council and helping with
AS UN campaigns.
He said he learned that UNL wasn’t such a
bad school after all.
Benes said he believed UNL provides stu
dents with a quality education, provided that
they get involved on campus.
That is one of the reasons Benes wanted to
be president of the Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska and UNL’s student
regent.
“I am just not the type to sit by and complain
that something isn’t going right,” Benes said. “I
like to take my shot at fixing it.”
Benes will have plenty of problems to fix
during his first months in office.
His first challenge will be to reduce the
proposed budget cuts by lobbying legislators
and encouraging students to write letters. He
also is studying the Fund B allocations that he
will vote on at the April meeting of the NU
—
See BENES on 6