Nebraskan
Correction
A Monday story erroneously
reported the increase in room
and board for students new to
UNL. Costs actually will
increase $150, $5 of which will
go to the Residence Hall
Association. Returning
students will not experience a
change in costs.
*4 A&E
Movie
review
'Philadelphia'
fails to take a
firm stand on
issues.
Page 6
January 18. 1994
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 93 No. 84
California quake inflicts death, destruction
At least 27 people
killed in disaster
From The Associated Press_
LOS ANGELES—An earthquake devas
tated the sleeping suburbs of the San
Fernando Valley Monday, crumpling
freeways and apartment complexes and hurling
fireballs through cracked and flooded streets.
At least 27 people were killed.
Thousands of terrified residents fled their
homes onto darkened sidewalks and “a tidal
wave of walking wounded” were sent to hospi
tals.
Fourteen people died in one apartment build
ing near the epicenter of the quake, where still
more victims were feared in the rubble from the
third floor’s collapse onto the second.
Firefighters searched for any other victims.
Most of the building’s residents were stu
dents at nearby California State University,
Northridge. The quake, which measured 6.6 on
the Richter scale, was felt from San Diego to
Las Vegas.
A handful of motorists were briefly trapped
in tons of concrete rubble as overpasses on three
freeways buckled, severing Interstate 5, Cali
fornia’s main north-south highway, and Inter
state 10, the nation’s busiest freeway.
The quake derailed a freight train carrying
sulfuric acid and briefly closed Los Angeles
International Airport. Telephone service was
lost throughout the region and power was dis
rupted as far away as Canada.
“The whole street was on fire. Even the tall
palm trees were burning. It was a very frighten
ing experience. We lost everything. We have
nothing, but nobody was hurt. We’re all safe,”
said A1 McNeil, whose home in Granada Hills
was destroyed by fire.
Sirens wailed as smoke from building and
gas main fires drifted across the valley, 20 miles
northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Firefighters raced to rescue people believed to
See EARTHQUAKE on 2
California natives
shaken by news
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter
After a four-hour wait Monday morning,
Abdul Muhammad learned the only thing
a California earthquake did to his family
members was give them a shake.
Muhammad, a junior human development
and the family major from Compton, Calif.,
said his mom called around 11:30 a.m. to tell
him that she, his sister and two brothers were
OK.
“She said it wasn’t too bad,"Muhammad said
Muhammad said his family lived about 45
minutes south of San Fernando Valley, where
the earthquake, which measured 6.6 on the
Richter scale, hit at 4:31 a.m. PST Monday.
Attempts to call his family earlier, he said,
were delayed by a recording that reported phone
lines were down.
Jeff, Marc and Mike Adolphus — triplets
from Los Angeles — also spent most of Mon
day morning on the phone to friends and family
members who felt the quake.
The triplets, freshmen at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said they had several family
members, including their mother and sister,
living in Los Angeles.
“I talked to my girlfriend and my mother this
morning,” Mike Adolphus said. “Everything
seems to be OK.”
Jeff Adolphus said he was grateful that the
earthquake didn’t happen any later.
“Monday mornings, my mom travels on the
Santa Monica Freeway at 6:30,” he said. “If it
had happened just a few hours later, my mother
would have been on that freeway.”
This quake wasn’t the first for these Califor
nia natives.
Although Muhammad said his house had no
more damage than broken pictures and glasses,
it had stood with the family through four or five
See REACTION on 3
Fong Woon Lai, left, talks with Marilyn Stadler, right, while eating dinner at the ^Ppnminn qmdenta
and about 130 other Lincoln families help foreign students through a program called Lincoln Friends of Foreign Students
Home awav from home
Program gives foreign students friends in Lincoln community
By Kristine Long
Senior Editor_____
Although she was a foreign
exchange student in high
school, Cecile Guillard need
ed a home away from home when
she decided to attend graduate
school at UNL.
She needed a place to get away
from campus, someone to call in
case of emergencies and someone
who wanted to share her French
culture.
Cindy and Dave Piester of Lin
coln gave her all that.
The Piester family met Guillard
throuch the Lincoln Friends of For
eign Students program that match
es University of Nebraska-Lincoln
foreign students with families in
the community. The families meet
with the students at least once a
month, sometimes forming lifelong
friendships.
The program benefits not only
foreign students, but Lincoln fam
ilies as well, giving them a chance
to learn about other cultures.
“It’s good for foreign students
to have contacts within the c ity and
outside the university,” Guillard
said.
Marilyn Stadler, president of
Lincoln Friends of Foreign Stu
dents, agrees. That was one of the
reasons the program was started.
Stadler said the program, which
began more than 30 years ago, grew
because residents saw that foreign
students were in need of a friend
away from home.
Stadler matched Guillard with
the Piester family.
The Piester s two children,
Molly and Andrew, were studying
French in high school at the time
Guillard signed up, so the family
decided it would be a good match.
Since that time, the family has
been linked with two other stu
dents, another from France and one
from Malaysia, for shorter periods
of time. The family has invited the
students to dinners, taken them to
zoos and concerts and enjoyed long
conversations with them.
The Piester family also shared
American hoiidays, such as Thanks
giving and Halloween, with their
students.
“For foreign students, it’s the
best way to really get close to the
American culture, Guillard said.
And the learning goes both ways.
Cindy Piester said she had
learned so much aoout oiner cul
tures from her foreign friends.
“I’m real interested (in other
cultures),” she said. “That’s why
I’m doing it.”
Her son Andrew, a junior at
Lincoln Southeast, also has learned
from the students.
He said having discussions with
foreign students had made him re
alize the world was a lot different
from Lincoln.
“It’s nice to know it’s not all this
way,” Andrew Piester said.
Friends of Foreign Students plac
es 150 foreign students with fami
lies each semester. About 130 Lin
coln families are active in the pro
gram.
The group also plans three or
See FRIENDS on 3
Speaker
clarifies
King’s aims
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
More than 75 people gathered
in the Nebraska Union Mon
day to hear the record set
straight on the teachings of Martin
Luther King, Jr.
George Garrison, chairman of the
black studies program at the Univcr
I sity of Nebraska at Omaha, addressed
I some criticisms about making King’s
birthday a federal holiday.
uarnson cu
ed Sen. Jesse
Helms, R
N.C., a past
critic of this
holiday, as
saying King
was a commu
nist.
1929-1968
Rather, uar
rison said,
King called
communism
Christianity’s
most formida
ble foe, an ide
ology that removed religion from so
ciety. King wrote that all Christians
should fight communism, Garrison
said.
Garrison said King exemplified
three concepts on which America was
based — America is a constitutional
democracy, America is civilized and
the majority of Americans claim to be
Christians.
“Dr. King was well aware of the
philosophy on which this country was
formed,” Garrison said. “Dr. King
operated inside the system, not out
side the system.”
King used his rights given to him in
the Bill of Rights—and confirmed by
Abraham Lincoln — to promote
change, he said.
Garrison said King was responsi
ble for more change in racial politics
in America than any other person in
the last 30 years.
“(Thirty years ago), there was a
diabolical system of segregation that
rivaled South Africa,” he said. ‘‘(King)
struggled hard to give meaning to the
Constitution ... and America’s ideal
claims (of equality).”
Out of respect for Christianity and
civility, King taught non-violence,
Garrison said.
“Dr. King tried to make this nation
live up to the idea that it was a civi
See KING on 3
