Activist offers challenge
Speaker addresses
changing roles
of gays and lesbians
By Swm McCarthy_
Staff Reporter
National Coming Out Day ended
at UNL Tuesday night with a chal
lenge from a gay rights activist to
obliterate the proverbial closet.
Toric Osborn spoke in front of
about 300 students, faculty and visi
tors in the Nebraska Union Ballroom.
The speech, sponsored by the Univer
sity Program Council, lasted more
than an hour and was followed by a
question and answer session.
Osborn, an activist for almost 30
years, spent 22 of those years out of
the closet. She emerged as a national
figure for gay rights in April 1993
when she served as a media spokes
woman during the march on Wash
ington for lesbian and gay rights.
During that year, she also met
with President Clinton to discuss gay
issues. She directed two major gay
organizations: the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force and the Los An
geles Gay and Lesbian Community
Services Center.
During the speech, Osborn dis
cussed the role gays and lesbians have
in history and in society.
“This is an extraordinary time for
gays and lesbians in society,” said
Osborn, “Virtually every institution
in the 1990s is grappling with
homophobia.”
Osborn called the time between
July 1992 and the present a cataclys
mic period. She referred to the period
as “Stonewall II” because gay and
lesbian issues were put on the Ameri
can social agenda.
Gay rights issues were first put on
the social agenda in the 1960s. she
said.
In the late 1960s, police raided
Slonewail, a New York City gay bar.
The event became a rallying point for
homosexuals.
Four factors brought gay and les
bian issues to the forefront of national
attention, Osborn said. The first fac
tor was Clinton’s presidential vic
tory. During the election, Clinton
publicly courted the gay vote, she
said.
The second factor, she said, was
the rise of the right wing, which gave
gays and lesbians a wake-up call. The
third factor was the rise of thousands
of gay and lesbian support groups.
The final factor was AIDS and its
effect on communities.
During the speech, Osborn talked
about homophobia and the difficul
ties of coming out of the closet. Osborn
said homosexuals must have courage
when facing parents and peers.
“There’s nothing more free than
coming out of the closet,” Osborn
said.
New group to handle ticket jam
By John Fulwldw
Staff Reporter
A second parking appeals com
mittee is being formed to handle the
backlog of ticket appeals, said UNL's
parking manager at a Parking Advi
sory Committee meeting Tuesday.
Tad McDowell said the addition
would give students more opportuni
ties to schedule their appeals.
The backlog of appeals has been
caused by the infrequent meeting of
the appeals committee. Time con
flicts between committee members
have made meeting times difficult to
arrange.
The advisory committee also dis
cussed the upcoming annual campus
safety walk. The walk is designed to
improve campus safety for students
and faculty who walk on campus late
at night.
Representatives from the advisory
committee, university police and other
groups will walk the campus at 4 a.m.
on Nov. 12. The walk is scheduled for
a time when all building lights will be
off.
During the walk, the group will
look for poorly lit areas on campus
and for overgrown bushes and trees
that could conceal assailants.
Daryl Swanson, committee chair
man, said he planned to invite repre
scntativcs from the Women’s Center
because of the importance of night
time safety to women.
The committee also reviewed pro
posals to improve existing parking
areas.
The committee denied a proposal
to pave the rock lot east of Cather
Pound Residence halls. The group
said the $670,000 cost of the project
was too much.
Another rock lot north of Harper
Schramm-Smith also will not be paved
because of a possible city project to
build a bypass there. The bypass will
relieve traffic congestion on 16th and
17th streets.
Libraries to reduce periodicals
By Chad Lorenz _
Staff Reporter
Cuts will have to be made in the
number of periodical titles in UNL’s
libraries, the library dean told the
Academic Senate on Tuesday.
“I’m not thrilled to be here to talk
on this topic,” Kent Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson said the rising infla
tion on periodicals would cause the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln li
braries to cut 1,500 periodical titles
from its collection in January 19%.
The inflation on serials, such as
medical and political science jour
nals, has driven up their prices an
average of 11 percent each year for
the past five years, he said. The li
braries' budget for materials has in
creased only 2.4 percent.
Hendrickson snowed a graph indi
cating that the price of the periodicals
increased at a greater rate than medi
cal and higher education costs.
The increasing inflation on peri
odicals resulted from fluctuations of
the dol lar in Western Europe, he said.
And UNL libraries spend more than
half of their serial budget on serials
from Western Europe, Hendrickson
said.
“They’re price-gouging us to
death,” Hendrickson said of Euro
pean publishers.
Hendrickson's solution is to cut
$350,000 worth of serials in January
1996. The subscriptions are paid
through the end of 1995.
The libraries will offer Journal
Express to compensate for the loss of
materials, Hendrickson said. UNL
faculty members, staff and graduate
students can have articles not avail
able in UNL’s libraries sent to them
through the service within three days.
Hendrickson said he still would
seek additional library funds to cover
the rising costs of periodicals.
The long-term solution to serial
inflation, however, is to get publish
ers in Europe to control prices, he
said.
“There’s not enough of us... argu
ing about this.”
ASUN may ask for lobbying effort
From Staff Reports
ASUN senators will discuss a bill
at its meeting tonight that would di
rect the Government Liaison Com
mittee to lobby against the creation of
a separate engineering college at
UNO.
Andrew Loudon, president of the
Association of Students of the Uni
versity ofNebraska, said the bill would
tell GLC members to convince the
University ofNebraska Board of Re
gents and Nebraskans that a separate
engineering college at the University
ofNebraska at Omaha was not needed.
Stylish slapstick!
SCAPiNO '
October 6-8 & 11-15
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
CALL 472.2073
THEATRE ARTS & DANCE
BOX OfFICE: TEMPLE BUILDING, I2TH4R STREETS
UNIVERSITY Of NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
If the bill is passed, Loudon said,
GLC will conduct letter-writing cam
paigns and make phone calls during
the next six weeks to regents in west
ern Nebraska and in Lincoln.
Loudon said he wanted to provide
regents and their constituents with
information about the cost of a new
engineering college, the lack of state
funds to pay for it and the need to
avoid duplication of programs.
GLC members have a lot to ac
complish before NU President L.
Dennis Smith accepts a report in mid
November from the engineering task
force, Loudon said. The task force is
creating a plan for implementing an
engineering college at UNO if the
.regents decide one is necessary.
Loudon said GLC members must
stress how the quality of education of
engineering students would be af
fected if a separate college was cre
ated.
“Now that we see how the issue is
coming to a head, we will make sure
that the regents and the people of
Nebraska know how (engineering)
students and their parents feel about
it,” he said.
Student Organization Conference
October 22 on East Campus
October 23 on City Campus
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
For more information contact
Office of Student Involvement
200 Nebraska Union
Blaze a trail to sucess and register today!
Gerik Parmele/DN
Scott Roower, a music education major, takes flyers
condemning homosexuality from people.
Day
Continued from Page 1
“We want to affirm who we are and
' encourage others to come out ”
National Coming Out Day is
just an extension of the civil rights
movement, Pavao said.
“By having us here, we’re here.
We’re not on TV and in the news
papers, and we’re not dressed in
leather or dressed as drag queens,”
Pavao said.
Robert Anderson, a senior po
litical science major, approached
the microphone and leafed through
a book of gay and lesbian poetry,
searching for the poem he wanted
to read.
“I ’ m gay; I’ve been here for four
years,” he said.
Although he said he expected
more people to come, he said the
event would have a positive effect.
“We want to show gay and les
bian people that we have a voice.
We can talk,” Anderson said.
He said National Coming Out
Day should show people who were
afraid to disclose their sexuality
that they had support.
“We want to reach out to our
‘family’ in the closet,” he said.
V i
" 3
5 f
® s.
C (A
t- o
* i
o> £
f u)
.E (o
^ *■
C0
i •
« <D
co a
I *
c <0
CO C0
cc *
o ?
5 2.
o to
CL,
Imagine a Job Where
You Get Paid to
• leam about grassroots organizing and the citizen's
lobby movement.
• talk to members of non-profit organizations about critical
environmental and consumer issues.
• help build organizations into larger, more effective lobbying
groups that can win on issues
• work in an office environment that is professional, progressive
and stimulating.
Join a 20 year old national firm that works exclusively
with citizens lobby organizations. We need sharp,
articulate individualstoworkfiillorparttimeevenings
and/or weekends $7.00 hr. weekdays,$8.00 hr weekends.
Great benefit package and training provided.
For an interview, call Mon. thru Fri., llam-3pm
476-1010
