Sigerson will seek seat
on NU Board of Regents
By Chad Lorenz
Staff Reporter ' ~
Andrew Sigerson sat on the NU Board of
Regents three years ago as a non-voting mem
ber. Now, the former ASUN president wants
back on the board, but this time he wants to ofTer
more than just his opinion.
The 1992-93 Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska president announced
this suiraner that he would run for the District 2
seat against Regent Chairwoman Nancy O’ Brien
in next year’s election.
Sigerson, now a law student at UNL, said his
age and his ASUN experience could give him a
better student perspective than O’Brien. Law
school, he said, has given him further insight
into university issues.
“I know how the system works probably
better than anyone on that board,” he said.
Sigerson said he wanted to return common
sense to the board by addressing the quality of
education and lower tuition. The current board
is plagued by inefficiency, he said, and spends
too much time dealing with controversy.
The board needs to put students first, Sigerson
said.
“The university system is the only business
like place that treats its employees better than its
customers,” he said.
Sigerson said running against O’Brien would
be a challenge. In 1990, Sigerson said, O’Brien
‘7 know how the system works
probably better than anyone
on that board. ”
■
ANDREW SIGERSON
Regent candidate
beat Lee Sapp, who outspent her five to one. She
won by running a grass-roots campaign and
meeting her constituents, Sigerson said.
He said he planned to use the same strategy
by involving students.
Sigerson said he hoped to raise campaign
funds from at least 5,000 contributors by the
end of the year. So far he has raised $7,000 to
$10,000 from about 35 contributors, mostly
business leaders.
He will approach taxpayers and students for
contributions as well, he said, because they also
have a stake in the university.
Sigerson said he looked forward to debating
university issues with his future opponents.
Sigerson is set to graduate from law school
this spring, he said, which will give him more
time to campaign.
Speaker tells Academic Senate
UNL must be ready for change
By Chad Lorenz
Staff Reporter
The Academic Senate set its sights on the
future Friday afternoon.
The 1995 senate forum, “Higher Education
in Transition: Who Will be in Charge?” fea
tured futurist Peter Bishop of the Institute for
Futures Research at the University of Houston
Clear Lake.
Bishop said the key question for changingan
institution like a university is, “Is it time yet?”
Changing too soon or too late can result in an
unstable change, he said.
Leaders of an institution must anticipate
change, he said, and discuss possibilities be
cause the future is never certain.
“Futurists are always scanning,” he said.
Bishop said the faculty at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln were the most powerful in
controlling change. And an institution in con
trol of its own change can be a powerful, au
tonomous body, he said.
Bishop, who is chairman of the graduate
program in studies of the future at UHCL,
compared planning for change to a sailor's
warning. The sailor must prepare for a storm
even though it may dissipate or pass by harm
lessly, he said.
“We are sailing into perhaps some turbulent
waters,” Bishop said.
The futurist said embarking on the right kind
of change was as important as the timing.
Incremental change, most common at uni
versities, improves the framework of a univer
sity, Bishop said. Fundamental change alters
the framework.
The problem with incremental change comes
when an institution gets so good at doing some
thing better, it doesn’t try to do it differently, he
said.
Companies such as IBM and General Mo
tors have suffered from this “failure of suc
cess,” Bishop said. Both put off the fundamen
tal change needed toadjust toachangingworld.
“Hills go up, and hills go down, but when
you’re on top of a declining hill, you’re in
trouble,” Bishop said.
Merlyn Nielsen, a member of the analysis
panel fro the forum and a UNL animal science
professor, said he agreed it was dangerous to do
something better in the wrong direction.
“That’s a scary thought, but a real one,” he
said.
Nielsen said it was sometimes wiser to wait
fora sign that change was necessary than to
begin change without a reason.
Leo Sartori, a professor of physics and as
tronomy, said not all change was good. Change
should be justified before it’s pursued, he said.
One senate member said he didn’t want rigid
planning, but the flexibility to be responsive to
change as it comes.
But Linda Pratt, a panel analyst and English
professor, said the university was limited in the
changes it could make. A public institution
like UNL is an inappropriate model of power
because it is controlled by outside forces like
government and taxpayers, not just adminis
trators and faculty, Pratt said.
“We are indeed that kind of complex insti
tution.”
McMenamin
Continued from Page 1
No arrests have been made in the homicide
investigation.
McMenamin returned to her second-floor
apartment after working a lunch shift at
Godfather’s Pizza at 48th and Highway 2 and
was scheduled to return for a 5:30 p.m. shift.
But she never returned to work.
Sarah Bognich, McMenamin’s roommate
and friend since grade school, found
McMenamin about 10:20 p.m. in one of the
apartment bedrooms. ’
Police have declined to say if they believe
the attacker was a stranger or knew McMenamin.
There was no sign of forced entry into the
apartment.
For two weeks, police have been looking for
a blond-haired man who was seen running near
the apartment complex the night McMenamin
was slain. Police have said the man isn’t neces
sarily a suspect, but they would like to speak
with him.
Two knives and four artificial fingernails
were recovered from theapartment,police said.
A large wooden knife, which police believe
could have been the weapon used to kill
McMenamin, was reportedly lying next to the
pool of blood.
McMenamin lived on the third floor of Smith
Residence Hall during her first year of school.
She had not declared a major, according to the
UNL registration and records office.
McMenamin was recognized at the Univer
sity Honors Convocation in the spring. She was
a 1994 graduate of Daniel J. Gross High School
in Bellevue. _
Effects
Continued from Page 1
smaller Midwestern towns that don’t have a
long history of violence,” he said.
Because so few homicides occur in Lincoln,
community members are especially sensitive
and concerned, said JoAnna Svoboda, head of
the Lincoln Police Department Victim Witness
Unit.
“There are safety concerns,” Svoboda said.
“People start feeling uncomfortable, especially
with cases not solved right away.”
Wayne Osgood, an associate professor of
sociology, said that in a community the size of
Lincoln, it was common for the level of fear to
rise above the level of danger. In fact, he said,
most of the country has a false illusion of
danger.
A serious offense makes community mem
bers believe that crime is getting worse, Osgood
said. Many people feel more afraid when it
appears that a stranger committed the crime.
“It’s easy to make a huge swing from feeling
safe to thinking ‘what has become of this
place?*” he said.
'
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