Cameras capture craziness of Barney’s ballyhooed bout
By Alan Phelps
Senior Reporter
A media circus pulled into the Nebraska
Union Ballroom Wednesday with a purple di
nosaur in the center ring.
University Program Council’s much-bally
hooed “Barney Bash” attracted almost 300
students to beat up on the fictional children’s
" idol. As participants tore their way through
stuffed animals, almost every blow was cap
tured by some camera or reporter.
“I feel complete. I feel whole,” said Jason
Howell, a senior criminal justice major, as he
tore stuffing from a Barney doll. “It’s good to
kill little, stupid, purple animals.”
The glare of the television lights and cam
era flashes shined brightest on the bashing
table, where students took turns destroying
stuffed Barneys — and eventually the tabic
they sat on — with rubber mallets.
The sacrifices were recorded by represen
tatives of the syndicated tabloid news shou
“Hard Copy,” many local television stations
The Associated Press and area newspapers.
After students entered the ballroom at noon
they flooded to displays run by UPC volun
teers. Along with the mallet table, Bamej
bashers could toss balls at plastic Barneys
drill Barney pictures with darts, take swings a
a Barney pifiata or view a “dead” Barney lyinj
in a small coffin.
The main event, a mock fight between stu
dents dressed as Big Bird and Barney, cnde<
with a knockout punch by the bird.
Keith Benes, Association of Students at the
University of Nebraska president, dodged a
rubber ball someone threw at a plastic Barney.
“I think this is great,” he said. “A bunch of
non-ccnsored college fun.”
As the crowd moved from table to table, a
student clutching a purple stuffed-animal pelt
marched near Benes.
“You skinned him, you heartless bastard,”
Benes said.
At least two students weren’t as hyped to
hit Barney. Ann Koopmann, a graduate educa
tional psychology student, stood with her
friend, Wendy Leonard, near a table serving
purple Barney punch.
“Barney represents good values we need to
teach our children,” Koopmann said, holding
a “Go Barney Go” sign.
“It’s a sad day when they bash Barney,”
said Leonard, an adult education graduate stu
dent.
While Koopman and Leonard watched the
melee, Travis Fox, UPC events director, spent
most of his time talking with reporters.
“It wasn’t meant to be a political state
, ment,” he said to one reporter. “Nobody can
refute Barney’s message,” he said to another.
r “But the purple dinosaur, that’s negotiable.”
During a break in the bashing, Fox called
[ the event a success.
; “I never expected we’d sacrifice a table,”
he said. “Everybody got really hammy for the
■ cameras and things. The media definitely made
1 it a lot more than it potentially could have
been.”
Travis Heying/DN
Kirk Smith, a sophomore pre-dentistry major, takes a swing at an
inflated Barney punching bag Wednesday afternoon during
“Barney Bash.”
ASUN passes bill in favor of UNL general education plan
By Matthew Waite
Staff Reporter
After almost two hours of de
bate, the Association of Students
of the Universi
ty of Nebraska
voted to pass the
general educa
tion require
ments bill.
Elizabeth
Grobsmith. as
sistant vice chancellor for academic
affairs, was present to answer the
many questions senators had about
the university’s proposal.
Grobsmith said the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln currently had
requirements for graduation, but
there was no uniformity to them,
which surprised some officials.
“When Chancellor (Graham)
Spanier came here in 1991, he ex
pressed great concern that we are
one of the few universities without
a general education plan,"
Grobsmith said.
Grobsmith said some UNL stu
dents graduated without ever go
ing to the library, the Lied Center
for Performing Arts or the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery. She said
UNL needed a general education
curriculum to prevent students
from missing cultural opportuni
ties.
Grobsmith said the 30 credit
hours of required courses could be
overlapped with existing courses.
The requirements will not be
instituted unless individual colleg
es consent, she said.
Grobsmith said she hoped the
plan would be approved by the
end of the semester.
ASUN President Keith Benes,
who drafted the bill to support the
new requirements, said part ot tne
university experience was to learn
how to think. He said the require
ments needed to be part of each
college.
Bcnes said the program provid
ed enough flexibility and ambigu
ity to avoid limiting any college’s
curriculum.
Both senators from the engi
neering college opposed the mea
sure, saying they could take only
18 credit hours outside their col
lege. They said they could not meet
all the graduation requirements in
me pian vvimuui tailing liiuic eiass
es.
After two failed attempts to de
lay action on the bill, it was amend
ed by General Studies Senator
Mark Byars.
The amendment said the plan
would be implemented if funds
were identified in advance to cov
er any costs incurred in the imple
mentation. Byars said additional
changes in current classes could
require more funding.
The amendment was passed and
the revised bill was passed by a
vote of 19 to 8.
Shows abroad let singers
communicate through music
By James Goodwin
Staff Reporter
his semester, UNL junior
Lance Hedlund learned he
could communicate in a for
eign country. And he doesn’t even
speak the language.
The general studies major went
with the University Singers to the
Czech and Latvia republics Sept. 15
27 for the Prague Spiritual Music
Festival and the Riga Dirnd Choral
Festival.
During a mixer with singers from
other countries who participated in
the festivals, Hedlund said he had an
experience he’d never forget.
“There was a half circle of Nor
wegians and a half circle of us just
standing around a candle singing back
and forth to each other,” he said.
“Stated simply, music is a common
language.”
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
music professor Jim Hcjduk, who di
rected the group, said the University
Singers split their 13-day tour be
tween the republics’ capital cities of
Prague, in the Czech Republic, and
Riga, Latvia.
Singing groups from Latvia, Nor
way and Italy also performed at the
festivals, he said.
The 31 students who took the trip
originally were scheduled to go to
the region two years ago, but couldn t
because of a lack of funding, Hcjduk
said.
The trip, which cost about $1,400
per student, eventually was paid for
with combined monies from UNL’s
School of Music, the College ot Fine
and Performing Arts and the stu
dents themselves.
Although the Europeans enjoyed
the University Singers entire reper
toire, Hcjduk said, they especially
liked the group’s performance of an
African-American spiritual.
“If we were to go again, I’d defi
nitely program more spirituals ... and
some decent arrangements of Ameri
can folk songs, although those are
— 44
The Latvians were
very friendly and
helpful. They had a
profound respect for
their country and
were very eager in
sharing it with us.
— Cope
senior, women's studies
major
- 99 -
few and far between.”
Hcjduk said the audience also en
joyed the singers’ performance of a
piece written to commemorate the
death of John F. Kennedy.
“Kennedy is still generally revered
in Europe,” he said.
But the audience wasn’t the only
group to enjoy the experience.
Robin Rowc-Wigdahl, a senior
business administration major, said
she enjoyed seeing the sights ol
Prague, especially St. Winslow
Square.
But Rowc-Wigdahl said Prague’s
citizens attracted her most to the city.
“They were just a very genuine
people,” she said.
Melba Cope, senior women’s stud
ies major, said the the Latvians gave
the group a similar welcome.
“The Latvians were very friendly
and helpful. They had a profound
respect for their country and were
very eager in sharing it with us.”
In addition to getting acquainted
with the Latvians and Czechs, the
Singers met and spent time with oth
er choirs, including ones from Italy
and Norway.
Thursday the University Singers
will present a public slide show about
their experiences abroad and perform
a Norwegian piece they learned on
the trip.
The free performance will take
place at 2:30 p.m. in the Westbrook
Music Building.
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