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COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 94 NO. 33
Chief: Cops
tried talking
with Renteria
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporter
Police are not to blame for failed commu
nication with Francisco Renteria, said Lincoln
Police Chief Tom Casady Thursday.
Casady said Renteria did not acknowledge
gestures or police commands. He also did not
respond to a citizen shouting to him in Span
ish while officers struggled to arrest him,
Casady said. Casady would not comment on
what the citizen said.
Renteria, 30, died Saturday at Lincoln Gen
eral Hospital after a struggle with university
and Lincoln police.
Casady said two of the officers at the scene
had at least some background in the Spanish
language.
Another officer, considered fluent in Span
ish, arrived at the scene 20 minutes after the
initial contact with Renteria, he said.
But the struggle was over within minutes,
he said, and the officer only interviewed wit
nesses.
University Police Chief Ken Cauble said no
university officers were fluent in Spanish, but
some were “conversationally adequate.”
Both chiefs said their departments had a
group of volunteer translators that could be
called when needed.
Cauble woufd not comment on what would
have happened if the UNL officer had been
able to speak to Renteria in Spanish.
Cauble also would not comment on whether
any attempt was made by the University Po
lice to call a translator to the scene.
Friday’s incident has stirred a lot of emo
tions in the Hispanic community and Lincoln,
Casady said. Both the UNL and Lincoln de
partments have received calls ranging from
personal threats to calls of support.
“The problem is that most of those people
are not familiar with all the facts,” Casady said.
“I’m not either.”
Anger toward police has intensified since
the incident, he said. And he said he didn’t
know how police would repair their relation
ship with the Hispanic community.
“We’re feeling bad,” Casady said. “We’ve
worked hard to improve our relationship with
the community, especially with Lincoln’s
Latino and Hispanic community. And they’ve
taken big step back. I don’t know what it will
take to repair that.”
For years, police have operated a booth at
the Hispanic Heritage Festival, Casady said.
This year, police were not invited to opera$$ a
booth at the festival, which is this weekend
Police think they aren’t welcome, he said.
“It really cuts to the quick to be portrayed
as a brutish gang that crawled out from under
neath a rock,” he said. “Right now, it’s wpy
debilitating.” *
Most people in the Hispanic commuitity
who have worked closely with the police have
“either remained silent or had some alarming
things to say” about the incident, Casady said.
“It’s a bit depressing to see that the people
See RENTERIA on 6
Cool beans
Michelle Pauhnan/DN
Dominique German, a French mqjor, studies at The Caffe’ Caper at 13th and Q streets. German aakl she didn’t
like to study in the Nebraska Union because It was noisy and “not personable.”
Coffee shop craze catching on
By Jeff Randall
Staff Reporter
Caffeine may be addictive, but you won’t
find the owners of Lincoln coffee shops
complaining.
Coffee has been growing in popularity
for years, but the real changes for coffee
have taken place in the settings where
people consume it. Coffee houses, a popu
lar tradition for centuries, are making a
comeback nationally and locally.
Within the last seven years, downtown
Lincoln has seen its coffee-house popula
tion grow from one to four.
The Mill, located in the Haymarket at
800 P St., has been open for almost 20 years,
co-owner Dale Nordyke said. As the oldest
coffee house in the area. The Mill has
watched the coffee craze evolve.
“I’d say the interest in coffee shops has
been gradually increasing, especially over
the last six years or so,” he said.
Nordyke said The Mill’s tradition of do
ing its own roasting and packaging of beans
on site always had been a major draw. The
Mill’s wide range of customers has been
another factor for the store’s continued suc
cess, he said.
Competition wasn’t a factor for The Mill
until seven years ago. The Coffee House,
1324 P St., opened in 1987, right around
the time of a national resurgence of coffee
houses.
Mark Shriner, owner of The Coffee
House, said the factors that set his business
apart from other coffee houses included the
daily selection of 16 coffees and the avail
ability of smoking or nonsmoking sections.
He said his customers varied in back
ground, but his regulars came primarily
from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
and surrounding businesses.
Shriner said the coffee craze had a ma
jor influence on his success.
ul would say business has tripled in the
last three years,” he said.
The Caffe’ Caper, 245 N. 13th St., was
the next such store to arrive downtown. Co
owner Jan Havranek said she and her part
ner, Becky Nelson, opened the shop a little
more than a year ago. She said their shop
was unique for the area.
‘‘We have tried to make an authentic
West Coast-style espresso bar,” Havranek
said.
She said she always wanted a coffee shop
but wanted to try something different. She
got the idea from similar shops in Arizona,
California, Colorado and Washington.
“It’s like another world out there,”
Havranek said. “You see places like this
around every comer, but here this is some
thing new.”
The newest entry in Lincoln’s coffee
house race is Le Cafe Shakes, 1418 O St.
Owned by Reg McMeen, Shakes has been
open since May.
Chris Hillier, Le Cafe Shakes manager,
said the major difference between Le Cafe
Shakes and other coffee houses was in en
tertainment.
“We do rock shows on a pretty regular
basis,” he said. “Plus, poetry readings, and
we’re trying to get some live theater in
here.”
Havranek agreed that a driving force
behind the coffee craze was simply provid
ing something to do.
“The love of coffee hasn’t really
changed,” she said. “People have always
loved coffee, but what has changed is the
fact that people are going out to meet people
in a non-alcohol environment.
“A coffee shop is a terrific alternative
for those who are tired of the bar scene.”
Rising tuition may delay graduation for some students
By Chad Lor—ig
Staff Reporter
Economic conditions are forcing
some students to delay graduation,
said James Griesen, vice chancellor
of student affairs.
From the 1984 freshman class to
the 1988 freshman class, it took stu
dents an average of 9.3 semesters —
or about 4 and a half years — to
graduate, not including summer
school, he said.
Those numbers include only full
time, traditional students who have
graduated within six years. At that
time, full-time students only had to
take seven credits per semester.
Griesen said the trend of delaying
graduation was a national one. Ten
to 20 years ago, it was more common
for students to graduate in four years.
Joan Leitzel, vice chancellor of
academic affairs, said increasing tu
ition costs have forced some students
to work while taking classes, result
ing in a reduced class load.
Students work to cover their col
lege expenses, but sometimes they
work or intern in their area of study.
When that happens, Griesen said, the
student actually benefits from having
to work.
“Job experience is added value to
a student’s education that makes them
more marketable in finding a job,”
he said.
Leitzel said the architecture, en
gineering and journalism colleges
commonly recommend internships.
Stan Liberty, dean of the College
of Engineering and Technology, said
some students took fewer classes to
bring up their grade point average.
He said taking fewer classes al
t i I; 1H Ht ft t M 4 H M H f! Hi ? r* 1 i i
lowed them to spend more time on |
each class.
Some students have to delay their i
graduation because they transfer to :
another school. Joe Krause, a com
puter engineering senior, spent two |
years at Kearney before it became a
state university.
He said many of his credits didn’t
transfer to UNL, which will probably !
lengthen his college years to six.
“I would have liked to have been
out a little earlier,” he said.
The transfer was compounded by -
the fact that the engineering college
las the highest credit requirement at
UNL — about 136. Most colleges
-equire about 126 credit hours for
graduation.
Graduating in four years isn't im
possible and might be preferable,
Leitzel said.
Students can graduate in four
^ears by taking summer classes and
entering with advanced placement
credit, she said. Those credits can be
:amed by high school students who
:ake advancement placement tests.
See GRADUATION on 6