UNL Nisei graduates
gather to give thank*
■y •—n McCarthy
Staff Reporter ” ‘
After about 50 years, Japancse
American graduates met again at
UNL this weekend.
The reunion of about 30 Nisei stu
dents kicked off on Friday at Kimball
Hall with a forum entitled “The Nisei
Experience.”
Nisei, second-generation Ameri
can citizens of Japanese ancestry,
were sent to internment camps dur
ing World War II. In 1942, President
Franklin Roosevelt authorized send
ing 120,000 Japanese Americans to
the camps. Of those, 75,000 were
Nisei citizens.
During that time, the University
of Nebraska was one of the few uni
versities that would accept Nisei stu
dents. In 1942, the university ac
cepted 50 Nisei students.
During the event — broadcast on
Nebraska Public Radio — the former
University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents discussed their lives before,
during and after their time spent at
UNL.
Yuriko Maruyama Adachi, who
attended UNL in 1942, described the
tight living conditions in the
Manzanar Relocation camp in Cali
fornia. While she was in the camp,
her family had to share a large room
with another family.
Kiyoshi George Hachiya, a gradu
ate of the University of Nebraska
Medical Center, said many Ameri
cans were pngudiced toward the Nisei
citizens during World War II.
Hachiya referred to a 1922 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that rejected
the naturalization of Japanese immi
grants because they could not assimi
late to American culture. After the
Pearl Harbor attack, the army classi
fied Japanese Americans as 4-C, or
enemies of the United States, he said.
Tom Saburo Miya, who graduated
from UNL in 1947, said he also faced
prejudice when applying to colleges
to escape the internment camps.
“One university wrote, ‘Because
you’re a Jap, you won’t be able to
go,”’ Miya said.
Miya said UNL was the only in
stitution that welcomed him with an
enthusiastic letter.
Takuro Stephen Nakae, a me
chanical engineering graduate of
UNL who came to the university in
September 1942, said his experience
at the university was invaluable.
Nakae said his time at UNL trans
formed him from an average farm kid
to a sophisticated adult.
“I’m here, mixed with a huge
population, and our main thing is to
try to survive,” Nakae said.
Richard Yukio Morita, who came
to UNL to study biology in 1942, said
he was grateful for the opportunity
to study.
Nakae said the forum was a time
to publicly thank the university for
welcoming the Nisei. Life at the uni
versity was a transformation from
their experiences at the internment
camps, he said.
“It is like coming from isolation,
where you feel forgotten, to a place
where people recognize you and treat
you as an individual,” he said.
Former ASUN leaders
meet, recall past issues
By MUIanU Bnndwt
Staff Reporter
Kent Neumeister remembers a
time when UNL students were repre
sented only by a student council.
The first University of Nebraska
Lincoln student government presi
dent said the council did not effec
tively promote students’ needs, so stu
dents organized a student govern
ment in 1965.
Thus, the Association of Students
of the University of Nebraska was
born.
Neumeister was one of 19 former
ASUN presidents who returned to
campus this weekend for a 30-year
reunion. The past presidents attended
a variety of events such as Friday’s
University of Nebraska Board of Re
gents meeting. They also attended the
Chancellor’s Brunch and the Ne
braska-Kansas football game on Sat
urday.
Neumeister, who served from
1965 to 1966, said the central task of
the first senate was to establish a truly
representative government that had
the power to pursue students’ inter
ests.
“(UNL) never had a student gov
ernment that represented students’
needs,” he said. MWorking out that
relationship was a bis issue.”
One main issue the first senate
faced was a proposed increase in tu
ition rates, Neumeister said. The
university’s budget fell short in 1965,
he said, and administrators tried to
make up the difference by increasing
students’ tuition.
ASUN’s protest of the increase led
administrators to go to the Legisla
ture for the money, said Neumeister,
a law professor at the Creighton Uni
versity School of Law.
“It was one of the first times the
student government stood up to the
administration,” he said. “Student
governments in the past could not do
.it because they didn’t have the power,
legitimacy or credibility to do it”
Christine Scudder, ASUN presi
dent from 1986 to 1987, said budget
cuts were again one of the biggest is
sues the senate encountered that year.
But this time the cuts came from the
Legislature, which wanted to reduce
programs and faculty salaries.
That senate also encountered op
position from the Legislature on the
construction of the Campus Recre
ation Center, Scudder said.
ASUN senators overcame resis
tance from state senators, who
thought that because the university
was undergoing budget cuts, the fa
cility was unneeded, said Scudder, a
development officer with the Univer
sity of Nebraska Foundation.
Petition
Continued from Page 1
board circulated the petition during
the past three weeks.
A letter addressed to UNL engi
neering students that accompanied
the petition listed the following is
sues:
• A college in Omaha, developed
to half the size of the UNL college,
would cost more than $6 million a
year to operate. That figure does not
include the costs to create it.
• NU's budget, already stretched
thin, could not afford the added bur
den of duplicate programs.
• The added pull on the NU bud
get would have negative effects on the
quality of engineering education and
would diminish the value of an NU
engineering degree.
• With the reduced quality of edu
cation, potential students and em
plovers will look elsewhere.
University of Nebraska President
Dennis Smith is expected to present
his recommendation to the regents at
their Dec. 9 and 10 meetings. Smith
will bring with him the report of a
task force charged with developing a
plan that would implement the new
college.
bcnulte said a number of students
who signed the petition were Omaha
natives, but he didn’t know the exact
count. Those students came to Lin
coln because of the quality of the pro
grams, he said.
Now they think those programs
could be threatened, he said.
Tory Sigler, an engineering sena
tor for ASUN, said he spoke with sev
eral regents last week. Sigler said
their approach was cautious.
“They don’t want to make a rash
decision,” Sigler said. “They want to
make sure that the education is still
there for Omaha.” L
RHA allocates money to 3 areas
By Justin Flahf
Staff Reporter
The Residence Hall Association
passed three bills at its weekly
meeting Sunday to allocate money.
One bill, submitted by Pound
President Michael \folerien, allo
cated $300 for the Cather-Pound
Neihardt Complex’s purchase of a
sound system. CPN Complex Pro
grams Director Glenn Gray has
already devoted $1,200 for the
project.
The remaining cost of the
$ 1,800 system will be split between
Neihardt Council and the Cather
Pound government. The sound sys
tem could be used for residence
hall-sponsored dances or other ac
tivities.
The system will be available for
the use of Cather, Pound and
Neihardt governments, but may be
borrowed by other halls.
RHA also allocated money for
the purchase of a helium tank for
filling helium balloons.
Selleck Senator Phillip Cilliers
said owning the $225 tank would
cut RHA’s cost of helium per event
to a $9 refill fee from the $50 rental
price RHA has paid in the past.
Student Action Team chairman
Jeremy Vetter said he was con
cerned the tank might pose a
“health or safety hazard because
people might use it on them
selves.”
But RHA president Kris Larson
told the senate that, if necessary,
the helium tank could be kept in
storage.
RHA also voted to allocate $100
as part of its sponsorship for 1994
Homecoming events.
In other business, RHA is co
sponsoring the Can-It Food Drive
this week.
Volunteers from RHA’s Student
Action Team and from Corner
stone Church distributed boxes
Sunday to residence halls and
greek houses.
These boxes, and any canned
goods that are donated, will be
picked up next Saturday. All do
nations will be given to the Malone
Community Center’s Thanksgiv
ing project.
Janet Reno, U.S. Attorney General:
“I believe it is essential that we recognize and facilitate
the work of these nonlawyer representatives.”
Speaking at an American Bar Association Conference, December 1993
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