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Sports
Husker basketball assistant
interviewed for coaching
job, page 7
Arts & Entertainment
Lincoln band Kusi Taki
performs happy music, page 9
March 7, 1995
: Travis Heying/DN
Miss America 1995, Heather Whitestone, examines her crown while Miss Nebraska Jennifer Love gets a peek.
Whitestone, who is almost completely deaf, spoke to a crowd of about 250 in the Union Ballroom Monday night.
Miss America shares STARry attitude
By Chad Lorenz
Staff Reporter
Miss America Heather Whitestone has
the nation seeing stars.
Her speech, “Anything is Possible,” pro
moted her platform for the STARS pro
gram, an acronym for Success Through
Actions and Realizations of your dreams.
The University Program Council spon
sored Whitestone’s speech at the Nebraska
Union Monday evening. Two hundred-fifty
people attended to hear the hearing im
paired spokeswoman.
The 22-year-old Miss America from
Alabama delivered her speech orally while
interpreters signed the lecture to deaf mem
. bers of the audience.
Her STARS program, which she said she
developed with help from family and friends,
emphasized five points for achieving the
impossible. Each step represented a point
on a five-tiered star, she said.
The first point was positive attitude,
which, she said, came from her heart and
mind.
. “My attitude is really important to me,”
Whitestone said.
The second point was having a dream.
Whitestone said education was the key to
making most dreams come true.
The third point of her STARS platform
was having a willingness to work.
The fourth point was facing up to one’s
problems. Whitestone said problems
shouldn’t stop someone from reaching their
goals, but teach them.
The fifth point is having a close support
team. Whitestone said her family stood by
her the most and guided her through her
hearing difficulties.
Whitestone said she developed deafness
as a young child. Her doctor prescribed a
medication for a serious illness she suffered
from at 18 months of age.
The medication damaged her hearing,
she said, causing complete deafness in one
ear and only 5 percent hearing in the other.
Her mother realized her daughter had
hearing problems when she dropped a load
of pans on a tile floor and Whitestone
continued playing as if nothing happened,
she said.
By using her STARS techniques,
Whitestone said she improved her ability to
communicate and eventually realized a
normal life was possible.
Whitestone wants to spread the message
for the hearing impaired to overcome their
disability, as well. ^
Whitestone said she travels more than
20,000 miles a month to give her STARS
lecture.
Spanier
declines
job move
By Jeff Zeleny
Editor
Chancellor Graham Spanier was being eyed
last week as a prime contender for president of
the University of Washington in Seattle, the
Daily Nebraskan learned Monday.
However, it is believed Spanier turned down
the offer, according to sources close to the
Washington presidential search.
bpanier retused comment
to the Daily Nebraskan. He
said through a spokes
woman that he would nei
ther confirm nor deny that
he was once a candidate for
the position. However,
Spanier said he is not a
candidate now.
Qnanior He W“* n0t ^ next
spanier president of the University
of Washington,” said Phyllis Larsen, UNL
director of public relations. “His policy is not
to comment on media speculation about his
employment status.”
NU President Dennis Smith’s name ap
peared. on a Washington University list of
people who nominated presidential candidates
for the university. The list was released to
members of the Seattle media through the
Freedom of Information Act.
However, Smith told the Daily Nebraskan
he did not nominate Spanio^or the Washing
ton position and was unaware of such a list.
Spanier came to the University of Nebraska
Lincoln from Oregon State University in 1991.
During his three years in Nebraska, Spanier
has promoted what some characterize as a
social agenda. He also has been praised for his
commitment to diversity and for building a
stronger Lincoln campus.
Washington President William Gerberding
will retire in June. The search for his replace
ment, which has been shrouded in secrecy,
began about one year ago.
Sources familiar with the search said some
candidates were interviewed secretly by UW
regents in locations outside Seattle. Those
sources said Paul Skinner, chairman of the
Presidential Search Committee, interviewed
candidates in Idaho and San Francisco.
Spanier’s travel itineraries for the last two
months list no trips to Seattle. However, he did
attend a conference in San Francisco on Feb.
10-13, according to the itineraries.
About two weeks ago, an 18-member presi
dential search committee said it finished the
selection process. But sources said the com
mittee reconvened on March 1, after the status
of a top candidate — reportedly Spanier —
changed.
See SPAN1ER on 6
NU Micron lure threatened by budget reduction
CorpNet training
faces indirect cuts
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
One of the selling points the Uni
versity of Nebraska is using to lure
Micron to Nebraska is under die threat
of being indirectly cut by the Ne
braska Legislature.
CorpNet, a program administered
by NU providing on-site job training
for Nebraska businesses, would be
indirectly cut by an Appropriations
committee preliminary ten percent
reduction in the Nebraska Educa
tional Telecommunications budget.
Jack McBride, the general man
ager of Nebraska Educational Tele
communication Services, said Mon
day that with the preliminary cut,
funds for a more than $80,000 fiber
optic conduit between Lincoln and
Omaha would be eliminated.
Along that conduit, he said during
budget presenta
tions before the
Legislature’s Ap
propriations com
mittee, several
programs are
transmitted —
one of them is
CorpNet.
LEGISLATURE «« said
that the cuts be
fore the committee now were made
because there was no other way to
continue the business of public tele
vision and radio.
“We can’t rearrange or reallocate,”
he said.
Lee Jones, NU Provost, testified
before the committee, saying that the
bill that created the conduit contained
language making the bill a high pri
ority for funding. He asked the com
mittee to restore the funds for the
conduit. ;
After the hearing, Jones said
CorpNet was definitely one of the
selling points NU was using in the
Micron deal.
“Without that fiber optics link to
Omaha, we wouldn’t be able to con
tinue the CoipNet program,” he said.
NU Administrators touted the pro
gram in a Feb. 22 press conference in
Omaha. NU President Dennis Smith
said of the university’s role in the
Micron deal that it would offjgr on
site training in chemical engineer
ing, materials processing or any other
area the university had expertise.
Nebraska lawmakers have been
trying to lure the Idaho-based Micron
and its plan to build a $1.3 billion
micro chip plant. The Legislature
passed the last of three economic
incentive bills Feb. 27 attempting to
bring 3,500 jobs to Nebraska.
According to McBride, CorpNet
would not be the only educational
program to go with the conduit. Sev
eral other programs on the conduit
essential to Omahaand Lincoln nearly
forced the committee to reinstate the
funds, he said.
McBride also said that the Ne
braska Public Television signal that
originates in Lincoln was sent along
the conduit. Without it, Omaha would
be without Nebraska public televi
sion, he said.
Also on the budget cut list were
funds expanding the NEBSAT pro
gram.
The program, Jones said, broad
cast classes via satellite from all the
NU campuses and many of the com
munity and state college campuses to
classrooms around the state. He said
that the current NEBSAT system was
nearing saturation.
The Appropriations committee
will hear testimony on the budgets of
all state agencies until March 21.
After that, the committee will go into
executive session to finalize deci
sions about the budgets.