Lied Center
candidates
to visit UNL
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
The two candidates for the director
position of the Lied Center for Per
forming Arts will bring vastly differ
ent backgrounds and experiences when
they arrive on their campus visits in
early September.
Susan Sheppard, the president of
the Grand Opera House in Wilmington,
Del., will visit the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln on Sept. 5.
Charles Bethea, associate executive
director of the Arizona State Univer
sity Department of Public Events, will
arrive <m Sept. 9.
Forthe past 10 years, the two can
didates have been in the same profes
sion, but prior to their current work
their lives took different routes.
Bethea, a native of Arizona, has
worked in fine arts professions since
college. In 1973, after receiving his
bachelor of education in choral music
, ementary school music teacher.
Since 1980,tie has been at Arizona
State University in various positions
at the Department of Public Events and
School of Music. He is not married.
Although he said Arizona provided
him with great professional opportu
nities, he was willing to leave his home
state.
“It’s just sort of a base level curi
osity about new places and new op
portunities,” he said.
Another reason to leave Arizona is
the Lied Center itself.
“The Lied Center has become one
of the new shining stars of the perfor
mance industry,” Bethea said.
The performance schedule at the
Lied in die last few years is “remark
ably similar” to programming at ASU,
he said. He said balance was impor
tant in programming for performing
arts centers.
“I like to take a chance on new art
ists,” Bethea said. “Also, you have to
pay a lot of attention to traditional arts
and performances, to recognize and
honor traditions.”
Bethea said arts and music were not
only his business but also his hobby.
‘I’ve been involved in the perform
ing arts all of my life — it’s hard to
say what other kinds of interests I
have.”
Please see SEARCH on 10
Band in a can
:;i ^ Moleh/DN
CHIUS BAUER, a UNL employee; Evan Brown, a junior psychology major, and Peter DeMarco, a sophomore music major, jam at the
Greenpoint sculpture between Andrews and Burnett Halls Wednesday afternoon. -
Garcia anxious to promote multiculturalisiii
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Ricardo Garcia wasn’t even going
to apply for the director of affirmative
action and diversity job at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Uncoln.
Garcia had never had an affirma
tive action job — didn’t really want
one either. He had spent his 30-year
career in education focusing on diver
sity.
But he got the job using ideas that
most affirmative action officers don’t
use. Ideas like shifting the focus from
compliance to affirmative action laws
to promoting diversity and decentral
izing affirmative action.
Garcia is now just days away from
assuming his duties as assistant to the
chancellor and director of affirmative
action and diversity. He is coming to
Nebraska from the University of Wis
u
What I would like to do is get people
started looking differently at diversity. I
see my job as a catalyst.”
Ricardo Garcia
Director of affirmative action and diversity
consin-Stevens Point, where he was
assistant chancellor for multicultural
affairs. He said he would be on cam
pus Sept. 3.
The words “and diversity” in the
job title initially struck his curiosity.
He called UNL and found that diver
sity was as important in the job as af
firmative action.
After applying and interviewing,
Garcia was selected for the job.
Neva: having been in an affirma
tive action role hasn’t daunted Garcia
or his ideas.
“It’s exciting,” he said Wednesday.
“I am nervous in that I want to do a
good job, and I will.
“And I am nervous in that it is a
big job. But I am not nervous about
taking affirmative action to the next
step.”
The next step fa* affirmative action,
uarcia said, is not simply compliance
with existing laws. It is using affirma
tive action to promote diversity.
"A diverse faculty and 'a* diverse
curriculum is in the best interests of
all students,” he said.
All students must be prepared for
a global work-world now, Garcia said,
and the university should prepare stu
dents to succeed in such a world.
“That’s a skill that you are not just
bom with,” he said. “The university
should be taking the lead in preparing
students for diversity.”
And, Garcia said, a component of
promoting diversity is decentralizing
affirmative action. Decentralizing the
program meant every department on
campus needed to have an affirmative
action plan.
“The whole idea is to create own
ership in the idea that diversity is in
everyone’s best interests,” Garcia said.
Please see GARCIA on 10
around the corner
By Doug Peters
Senior Editor
If you say them just right,
“NASCAR” and “Husker” almost
thyme.
_ Soon, they might be synonyms —
at least that’s what UNL officials hope.
NU Athletic Director Bill Byrne,
Chancellor James Moeser and former
Nebraska football All-America Ttev
Alberts announced plans Wednesday
for the first-ever university-sponsored
race cars in the National Association
for Stock Car Auto Racing.
Alberts approached the Athletic
Department this summer with the idea
of sponsoring a race car in the
university’s name, saying it would pro
vide both revenue and exposure for the
university.
Byrne was intrigued.
Moeser, on the other hand, wasn’t
so sure.
“IthoughtBill (Byrne) was crazy,”
he said.
The cars —- one red, one Mack (for
home and away races, Byrne joked)—
will carry the Nebraska “N” with a
Husker insignia. They also have two
national championship decals, one for
football and one for volleyball.
Alberts hopes to add another for
stock-car racing.
But the sponsorship isn’t just about
winning races, of course, it’s about
money—money from the hats, shirts,
radio-controlled cars and other mer
chandise that will carry the new cars’
Please see NASCAR on £