January 1 2, 1994
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Legislative
visit
NU President -
elect Dennis
Smith continues
university tour.
Page 6
Wednesday
40/17
Partly sunny with a
chance of light
snow at night.
Vol. 93 No. 80
Professors raise agenda concerns
By Kara G. Morrison
Senior Reporter
Most faculty and staff who
attended a forum on the
university’s long-range
goals Tuesday were there only to
listen.
Two UNL faculty members,
however, questioned the wording
of a passage on foreign teachers
and a lack of specifics in the docu
ment that maps out the university’s
future.
About 100 people attended the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vision Statement and Strategic
Agenda forum Tuesday in the Ne
braska Center for Continuing Edu
cation.
No students spoke at the public
forum.
Chancellor Graham Spanier and
members of the UNL Academic
Planning Committee answered
questions about the list of goals,
which the university hopes to com
plete by the year 2000.
The list of more than 50 goals
includes implementing a general
education curriculum, expanding
technological capabilities, increas
ing awards for excellent teaching,
providing more research opportu
nities, developing the university’s
outreach program and making the
campus “more worker- and user
friendly.”
Khalid Sayood, an electrical
engineering professor and chair
man of the Advisory Committee on
International Student Affairs, told
Spanier he was disappointed that
the plan’s only reference to foreign
students was “in a somewhat nega
tive context.”
According to the vision state
ment, the university will “adhere to
a policy that graduate students
whose native language is other than
English will be permitted to teach
only after they have been tested
and certified as proficient in teach
Gerik Parmele/DN
Graham Spamer talks with David Keith (left), professor of entomology, and Khalid
Sayood, professor of electrical engineering, before an open forum with faculty and
students in the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education.
ing and in the English language."
Sayood said that instead Of fo
cusing negatively on foreign stu
dents, the university needed to rec
ognize them.
He recommended the wording
be changed to “the university will
ensure all instructional staff arc
confident in their classroom and
communication abilities."
Spanier said the statement re
flected a policy that was already in
place and working at UNL. The
statement was included, he said,
because university officialsonstate
wide tours were being told pro
spective students were afraid they
wouldn’t be able to understand their
teachers at UNL.
“We continue to receive reports
that that is still an issue at the
university,” Spanier said.
Spanier said the phrase may be
reworked to be more balanced, but
he said it was important that the
university be responsive to Nebras
kans who had aired their concerns.
“We need to be very positive
about the international focus at the
university,” Spanier said. “On the
other hand, wc can’t ignore con
cents around the state about profi
ciency.”
Sayood later said he was confi
dent that the passage would be
rewritten.
“I’m sure that it was an over
sight and sure I can’t believe they
will leave it that way,” he said.
Pill-Soon Song, chairman of the
See FORUM on 3
Fraternity
sanctions
delayed by
dispute
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter
Disagreements about the word
ing of sanctions against Phi
Gamma Delta Fraternity have
made implementation slow-going.
Fiji national officers have request
ed that some of the sanctions be re
written to show they were suggested
by the officers.
In the meantime, James Griesen,
vice chancellor for student affairs,
said some progress had been made on
the sanction to install a resident assis
tant in the house, but no one had been
hired yet.
Fiji members are on social proba
tion, but Joe Friedman, graduate trust
ee chairman for the chapter, said they
hadn’t had time yet to begin other
sanctions like community service,
alcohol education or membership in
terviews.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln Judicial Board created the sanc
tions in December after Fiji pledge
Jeffrey Knoll fell from a third-story
window of the house. The Judicial
Board ruled that hazing was involved
in the fall.
The sanctions allowed the fraterni
ty to remain on campus if a residence
assistant lived in the house and chap
ter alumni reduced house member
ship to a core group of quality under
graduates.
Griesen said recognizing who pro
posed the sanction was unimportant
to him as long as the overall sanctions
were implemented.
“We’re not going to quibble,” he
said.
See FIJI on 3
Sen. Kerrey endorses universal health care coverage
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Increasing incomes and expand
ing education are key to Ameri
cans affording health care costs,
said U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey Tuesday.
Kerrey, who spoke to a crowd of
S63 health care professionals in the
East Campus Union, endorsed uni
versal health care coverage for all
citizens, as long as they can pay for it.
Kerrey was the keynote speaker
for the Lincoln-Lancaster Board of
Health Annual Meeting.
Often credited for bringing univer
sal health care to the national spot
light, Kerrey said America would end
up with a regula
tory system if
Americansdid not
purchase health
care on their own.
Although he
said health care
was only a prob
lem for low-in
come Americans
who don't have
Kerrey money to pay the
bills, Kerrey endorsed universal cov
erage for all U.S. citizens and the
elimination of the process of proving
one’s age and income.
The most important part of health
care, he said, was that people be treat
ed like human beings.
“The problem that I observe today
in health care is that the providers or
the patients don’t know the costs of
health care,” Kerrey said. He said it
was very important Americans faced
the costs of health care directly.
For example, $450 billion of fed
eral tax money went into existing
health care programs, he said, along
with $ 150 billion in state and local tax
money.
This money came from a 3 percent
mandated tax on 117 million em
ployed Americans.
Kerrey said 30 cents of every fed
eral tax dollar already went into exist
ing health care programs.
He tentatively supported President
Bill Clinton’s proposals for health
care, saying there were sections he
disagreed with, but that it was a step
in the right direction.
Dr. Mimi Fields, a Washington
State Health Care Officer, called Ne
braska a leader in public health care,
moving forward with great progress.
Improving public health is not the
focus of the current health care de
bate. Fields said, but changing the
financing of health care.
Public health, Fields said, was a
more broad-based issue. She said it
encompassed issues like violence and
mental well-being.
She said the future of public health
was changing.
“Nosector of public health is look
ing to the future as business as usual
Fields said.
The answers to America’s health
woes would not come easily, she said.
“I don’t believe there is a single
answer of how something should
work.”
Solution to parking problem headed in UNL s direction
Plan creating spaces
could reduce crunch
By Ann Stack
SlHtl Hopottei
Anew parking system may soon find its
way to the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, creating more spaces and re
ducing internal campus traffic.
On Tuesday, the Academic Senate listened
to a proposal from Kim Todd, a member of the
parking advisory board. She proposed to con
vert UNL to sector parking.
Sectoring parking spaces would divide the
campus into areas based on where people were
located, Todd said. For instance, people work
ing in the union would park near the union.
The board hasn’t yet decided how parking
would be allotted, but spaces could be created
by eliminating reserved spots.
Sectoring also should limit the amount of
driving across campus, Todd said, because
people would be able to park in the sector
closest to where they lived or worked.
However, she said, staff and faculty lots
would remain separate from student lots, and
permit costs could increase. Lots would also be
re-numbered.
Another way to increase parking spaces
would be the addition of a parking garage.
Todd said the Parking Advisory Board was
still in the process of planning a garage, and
several locations were being considered. East
of the Nebraska Union and west of Memorial
Stadium are two possible locations.
In other business, the senate was briefed on
the hiring of a professional advertising manag
er for the Daily Nebraskan advertising depart
See SENATE on 3
New shuttle favors
commuters, students
By Rebecca Oltmans
Stiff Rtportor
new 28-passenger shuttle bus is one of
several ways UNL officials are trying
to make commuting to campus a little
easier this semester.
The new bus and an extension of existing
shuttle service times will help carry more pas
sengers, including students and visitors to the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Tad
McDowell, manager of parking services, said.
McDowell said shuttle hours, extended to
11:30 p.m. on the inner campus, would accom
modate students who studied late at Love Li
brary or the Nebraska Union.
The new route also will be quicker, McDowell
said. The shuttle path will now travel south on
14th Street from Avery Avenue to Vine Street.
Anyone wishing to take the shuttle to any of
the perimeter lots after 7 p.m. can still do so
upon request, McDowell said.
For students not taking shuttle buses, finding
a metered spot closer to campus may be more
difficult.
Several parking meters on City Campus
have had their maximum time limits decreased,
including meters east of the Nebraska Union.
Some time limits on meters have been reduced
from two hours to 15 to 30 minutes.
McDowell said decreasing the meters’ time
limits would help those going to the Nebraska
Union for a short amount of time.
Keith Benes, ASUN president, said he was
concerned about the loss of the two-hour meters
because many students used the spaces for class
parking rather than short trips in and out of
See PARKING on 3