WEDNESDAY! 1 WEATHER: Today- cloudy, a so% chance of rain. South wind 10 to 15 mph. TOldyht- Mostly cloudy. Low 10 to 15. January 10,1996 Student earns trip to Fiesta Bowl By Erin Schulte Staff Reporter ’ v'" Good football picks in an Internet contest earned one UNL junior a free trip to Arizona to be Gatorade’s “cyber-reporter” at the Fi esta Bowl. Chris Garry, a junior advertising major, won a six-week Internet contest to predict the top 25 college football teams in the USA Today/CNN coaches’ poll. As “cyber-reporter,” Gariy attended all the press conferences in Arizona and also interviewed Chris Fowler, anchor of ESPN’s “College Football GameDay.” While in Arizona, Garry tape recorded a daily diary. Gatorade is making a home page for his reports on the pre- and post-game activities and both teams, he said. “I’m a marketing minor. I got to see all the PR (public relations) stuff,” he said. “I might even try to get an internship out of it this summer.” In return for his reporting stint, Garry got six days and five nights at Embassy Suites, two First-class airplane tickets, $500 cash, and various Gatorade clothing and promo tional items. Several thousand people participated in the contest, and Garry beat the second-place winner — a Florida native — by only Five points. Although point totals were shown every week, Garry said he was not informed of the final score until a few weeks after the contest ended. “They made me sweat it out for a couple of weeks. I just Figured the guy from Florida won it,” he said. Gatorade is sponsoring another contest on the Gatorade Cooler site on the World Wide Web this spring and sending the win ner to the NCAA basketball Final Four in East Rutherford, N.J., Garry plans on enter ing that contest, too. “I told them, ‘I’ll see you in The Meadow lands.’” he said. ► Tanna Kinnaman/DN Chris Garry works in the computer lab at Pound Hall on Tuesday. Garry won a trip to the Fiesta Bowl. Nursing bill advanced by Legislature By Ted Taylor Senior Reporter The Nebraska Legislature told nurse prac titioners Tuesday afternoon that they still have to get a note from the doctor before they go to work. -Senators advanced IPIlielSItlirP LB414» which would al LcyioldUliC jow nurse practitioners to perform certain minor medical procedures with out a doctor’ s supervision. But after debating for parts of two days, an amendment eliminating a requirement for a nurse j praciiuonerio gen wo sig natures from doctors be tore practicing, senators rejected it zy-lo. Thirteen senators took the floor during the afternoon to debate the amendment. LB414 was initially a priority bill intro duced by former Sen. Connie Day, Norfolk, before she stepped down because of health reasons. Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln took over for Day on the bill Tuesday, answering sena tors’ questions on the floor throughout the day. After the amendment was defeated, Wesely said supporters of the amendment were up against a powerful lobby. “Physicians are a very powerful group in Nebraska,” he said, “and when they get to gether as a unit, it’s tough to overcome that.” The Nebraska Medical Association, the Nebraska Family Practitioners Association and the Nebraska Pediatricians Associations were a few of the larger bodies that opposed the amendment. Wesely said that because 65 percent of the nurse practitioners are in rural areas, those communities would be hurt most by the Legislature’s latest action. mi mcr .. n UNL delays dial-up decision By Kasey Kerber Staff Reporter OfT-campus students dialing into HUSKERnct through the campus modem pool may breathe a sigh of relief— for now. The University of Ncbraska-Lin coln Information Services has decided to delay its decision to choose a pri mary service provider until late into the semester. With the switch, off campus students would have been charged for the provider’s services. A primary service provider was being considered because of the in creasing number of off-campus calls and the inability to purchase addi tional* modems and lines to keep up with demand. Kent Hendrickson, associate vice chancellor for information services, said the decision was postponed so more information from the vendor candidates could be obtained. “We have requested additional in formation from vendors on their pro posals, but not all of them have re sponded,” he said. Another reason leading to the de lay was a desire for student input. If a primary service provider were cho sen, off-campus students would be charged for the provider’s services. This brought concern fromoff-cam pus students who felt their views were not being reflected. ASUN President Shawntell Hurtgen said, “We’ve been asked to provide input from students on this issue, and we will discuss this issue at our first meeting.” Whether or not a a primary service provider is chosen, the process to a final decision will be a slow one. “We have to look and see if a vendor’s proposal meets our require ments and then decide which vendor would best suit our needs,” Hendrickson said. “Then we would have to run the proposal by the vice chancellors and chancellor for their approval. They might have questions, making this pro cess take even longer.” Hendrickson said the final deci sion would not be made until at least March,^or possibly not even this se mester. UNL direct loan program endangered From Staff Reports Less than a year after the program began at UNL, direct lending for fed eral student aid could be eliminated with the passage of proposed Con gressional reforms. The direct federal loan program, in which Stafford loans come through •the government rather than financial institutions, was launched two years ago at 104 schools. John Beacon, director of scholar ships and financial aid at the Univcr sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, said direct lending began among incoming fresh men last fall and is to be implemented for all students next year. UNL originally applied to be ad mitted to the program as a second year school, Beacon said, to leave time for problems to be worked out. But one current proposal to reform funding for the U.S. Department of Education would scale back opera tion of the program to 10 percent of its current level, he said. Such a cut would eliminate direct lending at UNL and all but the original schools. Beacon said the university had worked hard to make the program succeed, and he would like to con tinue it at UNL. “What’s a little frustrating,” he said, “is that we went into this in good faith. We were told this is the way it was going to be. Schools like us have in vested some time and money into gear ing up for direct loans only to be told it could be yanked from under us with out really giving it a fair shake.” See LOANS on 6 --- oee nurioc uri o New marketing strategy won’t replace Herbie By Julie Sobczyk Senior Reporter The rumor mill surrounding the fate of Herbie Husker as lINL’s mascot has kicked into high gear again over a faxed message from an athletic department official. 9 But take heart, Herbie’s job is still secure — except perhaps as the Huskers’ main fashion model. Rumors of Herbie’s replace ment started when Chris Bahl, director of licensing for the ath letic department, recently faxed licensing companies about a shift in Husker marketing strategy. Now, license requests for Herbie merchandise will only be granted if the ideas are new, Bahl said. “You can only have so many T-shirts with Herbie Husker on them,” Bahl said. “If someone brings me a new idea with Herbie Husker, I’ll use it.” Bahl said the shift in emphasis was not an attempt to subtly get rid of Herbie. “It ’ s not a ploy to phase Herbie out,” he said. “We just want dif ferent products out there; we want to balance the market. “Let’s start using ‘N’ with Huskers,’ ” he said. “We have been licensing Herbie Husker for years. People just keep redoing ideas with Herbie Husker on it.” Bahl said he had received more than 2,000 license requests for Herbie T-shirts, but the designs were too stale. Instead, Bahl said, he would be granting more requests for mer chandise using a black “N” with the word “Huskcrs” over it—the logo he said he preferred. The logo has sold better than Herbie on merchandise such as golf shirts, he said. “I don’t know why Herbie didn’t sell as well,” Bahl said. “Maybe it’s just appeal. Maybe ‘N’ with Huskersjust looked nicer on that type of merchandise.” Other members of the athletic department confirmed Tuesday that Herbie was not being ousted. “He’s staying, as of right now,” said Renee Swartz, yell squad and mascot sponsor. “I’m not speak ing for the future. As of now, it’s safe to say the rumors are false.” Athletic Director Bill Byrne said last fall that he had only tabled the decision to replace Herbie. He was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.