◄sports
Deceiving
record
Missouri more
than capable of
upsetting
Comhuskers,
Osborne says.
Page 7
Vol. 93 No. 44
Friday
68/35
Partly sunny and
warm today. Saturday,
morning clouds,
becomming sunny.
Warm again Sunday.
Cold War finds new life at UNL
Political science
students simulate
former rivalry
By Matthew Waite
Staff Reporter
The Cold War is not over.
It’s still being played out
— in a University of Ne
braska-Lincoln classroom.
Everything from the Bush ad
ministration to that little tattoo of
the Korean Peninsula on Mikhail
Gorbachev’s head is alive and well
in Political Science 466, Pro-Sem
inar on the Cold War.
The class simulates the Cold
War. Students take on the roles of
major players in the U.S. or Soviet
government, including Bush,
Gorbachev, Dick Cheney, Colin
Powell and Boris Yeltsin.
“People have been really get
ting into their roles,” said Jared
Wittwer, a senior news-editorial
major who pi ays an American jour
nalist in the class.
Wittwer said many of the stu
dents were taking their roles seri
ously. Some have walked out of
class, and others have screamed
insults at each other.
Chad Meyer, portrayer of Amer
ican Dennis Ross, recalled an event
in which a member of the Soviet
team walked out.
“(A class member) was upset
because the whole American side
was laughing at what she was say
ing,” Meyer said. “So she said, ‘I
feel I’m not getting any respect
from you guys,’ and then got up.
And as she lefl, poured water on on
one of the Americaas. It’snotknown
if it was intentional or not.
“But in the end there was a
group hug.”
William Lauer/DN
Nicholas Taylor, left, an exchange student from Yorkshire University, England;
Andrew Ringgold, a senior international affairs major; and Christopher Barden, a
political science graduate student, discuss strategy during their a political science
class about the cold war.
The class requires the two teams
to formulate proposals on issues,
such as human rights and the future
role of Eastern Europe.
The teams present their sides in
class to be debated later. The teams
then choose a presenter for each
point and negotiate a compromise.
A compromise must be reached
before the class ends.
Wittwer said the instructor, po
litical science professor Ivan
Volgyes, was part of the reason he
took the class.
Dan Rezac, a senior finance and
international economics major who
plays Gorbachev, said the class
was different from others he had
taken at UNL.
-44
I think there are a
lot of
misconceptions
that Americans
have toward a
communist system.
— vo,
UNL senior international
business major
—-ft —
“It’s one of the few times I have
ever had a class that motivates you
to go out and research the material
no! because you have to, but be
cause you want to,” he said.
Rczac said the debates created a
rivalry between the teams. But out
side of the class it’s a different
story; students leave the classroom
as friends, he said.
But the unusual classroom tech
nique isn’t what makes the course
special. Rather, students from vary
ing backgrounds and areas of study
make up the Cold War soldiers.
Students from Japan, Sweden, the
United Kingdom, Vietnam and
Germany take part in the class.
Some students served in the mil
See COLD WAR on 2
Spanier, Byrne back gender equity cause
Editor's note: This story is the last
in a weeklong series that explored
how Nebraska athletics has been—
and will be — affected by the
NCAA's implementation of gender
equity.
By Tim Pearson
sink* ffsportw
While other universities are
cutting opportunities for
male athletes to achieve
fender equity, Chancellor Graham
panier said, UNL will achieve equi
ty without going that route.
“I’m very supportive of the gender
equity movement nationally, and
we’re very committed to it at the
University of Nebraska," he said.
“What we’re seeing around the coun
try is that some people are trying to
reach gender equity goals by closing
down men’s sports or reducing oppor
tunities for participation among men.
“We think that’s the wrong ap
pruacn.
Spanicr said the
right approach
■was for the uni
| versity to expand
^opportunities for
women.
EQUITY
we rc making
sure women ath
letes have all the
same opportuni
ties as men,” he
said. “We want to see that their schol
arship arc at the same level and that
they nave the same access to training
facilities.”
Spanier said the athletic depart
ment was doing a good job of trying to
achieve gender equity by adding wom
en’s soccer. The addition of women’s
soccer in the fall of 1994 will bring the
number of men’sand women’s teams
to 11 each.
“We’ve been successful ” Spanier
said. “We added women’s soccer, and
now we have an equal number of
men’s and women’s sports.
“And we think we’re contributing
to gender equity.”
The university’s efforts to find a
coach for the program also will test its
commitment to gender equity.
Nebraska has four women in top
coaching and administrative positions
in athletics.
Athletic Director Bill Byrne said
the university wanted tohircawoman
to coach the soccer team.
“Our preference would be to hire a
woman,” he said, “as long as they
have the proper qualifications. We
want somebody who we feel can build
a nationally competitive program."
But the athletic department judges
coaches based on their qual ificat ions,
not their gender, he said.
Last summer, Dan Kendig was
hired to coach the women’s gymnas
tics team.
Byrne said athletic department of
ficials hired a man to fill the position
because they couldn’t find a woman
matching Kendig’s qualifications.
“Our preference in those cases is
See EQUITY on 8
Selection of
Bjorklund’s
jury keeps
Sidney abuzz
By Dionne Searcey
Senior Reporter
A jury of five men and seven
women was selected Thurs
day in a western Nebraska
town where talk this week has cen
tered on a murder trial 350 miles
away.
Four alternates — all women —
were also selected to serve for Roger
Bjorklund’s trial, which is scheduled
to begin Monday in Lincoln.
Bjorklund, 31, and Scott Barney,
24, are charged in the slaying of Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln student
Candice Harms of Lincoln.
Bob Moore, a reporter with The
Sidney Telegraph, said the town was
buzzing with conversation about ju
ror selection.
“There s quite a bit of talk around
town,” Moore said.
Moore, who has covered part of the
juror-selection process, said juror se
lection didn’t happen every day in
Sidney. The last time Moore remem
bered the town of Sidney talking about
a murder trial was about 10 years ago,
he said.
The entourage of five attorneys,
three security officers, a judge, a bai
liff, a court reporter and one man
accused of first-degree murder has
caused a stir in Sidney, he said.
Moore said he didn’t think jurors’
views would be tainted because of the
attention the case has been given in
Sidney.
Talk has focused mainly on jury
selection, he said, and not on the
details of the case.
“People wonder who is a part of the
jury selection process,” he said.
The 12 jurors and four alternates
were chosen from a pool of 83 poten
tial jurors.
Moore guessed most Sidney resi
dents knew at least six of the candi
dates in the jury pool.
“The final 12, most people
wouldn’t know,” he said.
And. he said, Sidney residents have
not studied the details of the case.
“People here just regard that as a
murder back east,” Moore said. Al
though articles about the case appear
in the local newspaper, “people prob
ably don’t get past the headline,” he
said.
Even Moore, a reporter who cov
ered part of the juror-selection hear
ings, didn’t know much about the case
a few weeks ago, he said.
“1 knew the name Bjorklund, but I
didn’t know if that was the victim or
the (alleged)perpetrator,” Moore said.
See JURY on 3
Pre-med, insurance students await health-care results
Most stay with major
despite Clinton’s plan
By Shane Tucker
9tuH naportar__
Members of Congress may worry about
the effects of Clinton’s health-care
proposalson the medical profession,
but many UNL students with medical school
plans aren’t fretting yet.
“I don’t think itrs going to hurt the medical
profession,” Greg Alberts, a UNL senior biol
ogy major who plans to go to medical school,
said.
Alberts said he thought some students might
alter their career goals if the changes were
sweeping, but he said the health-care proposals
wouldn’t affect his decision.
Changes in the medical profession as a result
of the reforms are expected to include:
• Directing patients toward general practi
tioners to limit medical costs. Such a proposal
would move patients away from specialized,
highly technical facilities, including university
medical centers.
• Increasing the number of general practi
tioners to 50 percent by limiting the number of
residencies in specialist fields.
•Increasing the number of nurse practitio
ners and physician assistants by raising the
number of federal programs providing them
with assistance.
Kristi Weinberger, a junior, first-year nurs
ing student, said she was encouraged by the
proposal's focus on nurses.
Demand for nurses, Weinberger said, is
See MEDICAL on 6
Small insurance firms
hit hardest by plan
By Steve Smith
Senior Reporter
NL students looking for jobs in the
insurance field and their professors are
among the many people awaiting a
decision on health care reform.
Students looking for work in the insurance
field could face an unrcceptive market in light
of Clinton’s proposed health care reform, espe
cially if they are looking for employment in a
smaller firm, one UNLprofessor said.
George Rejda, a professor of insurance and
economics at the University of Nebraska-Lm
coln, said small insurance companies would be
hit hardest by the president’s proposal.
But because the health-care debate is in its
early stages, the effects on job-seekers were
difficult to nail down precisely, Rejda said.
Rejda said there were no concrete numbers
to deal with at this time.
“It’s hard to speculate on a topic with num
bers being pulled out of the air like they are,"
Rejda said. “But it’s pretty clear that jobs will
be lost.”
Rejda said a recent report estimated that, if
passed, the reform package would eliminate
anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 jobs.
“That’s a very small percentage in a country
of 120 million workers,” Rejda said. “Still, the
loss of jobs in the insurance industry will hit
smaller companies hardest.” '
Rejda, an economics professor who special
izes in insurance policy, said he discussed the
See INSURANCE on 6