Disability program needs
more student volunteers
By Russell X Willranks
StaffReporter
Many students find taking notes and
reading textbooks tedious, but students
with disabilities can find those tasks
sometimes impossible.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln has a program designed to help
those students, but it needs volunteers.
The program, Services for Students
with Disabilities, gives students with
disabilities the opportunity to pursue
their college goals through the use of
technological and academic services.
Marie Ward, director of Services
for Students with Disabilities, said the
service was available for any student
who has a disability or requires spe
cial accommodations. The names of
the students who need assistance are
kept confidential.
Services include providing note
takers, test accommodations, interpret
ers and taped textbooks for those who
qualify. SSD needs volunteers to take
notes and transfer books onto audio
tape.
“There are a large number of stu
dents who are visually impaired or have
severe reading disabilities, so they can
not read their textbooks,” she said.
SSD receives help from organiza
tions such as Recordings for the Blind
and the Nebraska Library Commission,
which provided 45 books on tape. Vol
unteers are needed to make up die rest.
“This semester, we are looking at a
total of 78 books that we need volun
teers to read,” Ward said.
The SSD tries to match the inter
ests of the volunteers with the needs
of the program.
‘We are looking for anyone who
has the time to read,” Ward said. “What
we try to do is have volunteers come
in and take a look at what is available
and try to match them up with some
thing that is of interest to them.”
One of the volunteers said she
thought she got as much out of the pro
gram as the people she had helped.
Evlyn Donaldson, a retired French
and English teacher who has read SSD
books for six years, said she enjoyed
her readings in history, anthropology,
philosophy and modem religion.
She said people were too intimi
dated by volunteer work and did not
realize what they could get out of it.
“Personally, I think that I have re
ceived a free education and I did not
even realize it at the time,” Donaldson
said. “When you are reading aloud for
someone else to comprehend you tend
to absorb more.
“Many people wonder why I do
this, why I dedicate my time to help
ing others. I just tell them that I hope
that someone would do the same for
me if the situation was reversed.”
UNMC chancellor resigns
UNMC from page 1
said Aschenbrener made the deci
sion that was in the best interest for
the medical center.
“There was this major disagree
ment, they could not reconcile and
the medical center was paralyzed,”
Miller said. “She did the right thing
because this leadership dispute was
hurting the medical center a lot.”
Miller said university adminis
trators think “very highly” of
Aschenbrener, but some UNMC
faculty did not like her vision for
the center. He said some doctors
may have personally disliked
Aschenbrener’s administrative
style. “Alotofdoctors,those28
plus more, disagree with where she
was taking the medical center,”
Miller said.
The option of a partnership with
Alegent may even still be feasible,
he said. UNMC faculty didn’t nec
essarily think the partnership would
be bad, Miller said, they just thought
it needed more study.
“A lot of them said, ‘Things are
going too fast. Yes, we need to
change, but we can wait a while
longer,’” he said.
Smith, who did not return phone
calls Tuesday, said in a statement
Friday that he would pick an interim
chancellor soon.
Miller said he hoped the new
chancellor will continue in the di
rection Aschenbrener took.
“The vast majority of her deci
sions were right,” Miller said.
William Bemdt, vice chancellor
for academic affairs at UNMC,
agreed that the new chancellor
should move ahead with exploring
partnership options with medical
groups such as Alegent.
“The concept is not something
anybody disagrees with, but we
need to explore other options as
well,” Beradt said. “That’s where
the professional disagreement
arose.”
Katen-Bahensky said UNMC
needed to get past all the arguments.
■ “I hope we can mend the fences,
because we’ve been delayed from
doing our real work for a number
of months,” she said.
Even after all the disagreements
about Alegent, Aschenbrener may
still have laid out UNMC’s future.
“She set very clear direction for
the organization,” Katen-Bahensky
said. “She’ll be greatly missed, but
some other lucky organization will
have her leadership in the future.”
Name is only change for former LT&T
By Sarah Baker
StaffReporter
Wondering where your phone bill
is? Haven’t seen that familiar envelope
in your mailbox? Well, don’t think
you’re off the hook.
The local telephone company, for
merly known as Lincoln Telephone and
Telegraph, recently changed its name
to Aliant Communications.
Lela Kelliher, LT&T commumca- ]
tions specialist, said the company had
to consolidate eight identities.
“We had eight small divisions
through the company, all with a differ
ent name. It was confusing for our cus
tomers, so we decided to change to one
single brand name, Aliant Communi
cations.” i
Kelliher said some customers were i
concerned that the company had i
changed more than just its name.
“The company didn’t change i
lands, and no organizational changes
were made either,” she said. “The only
change made was the name.”
Customers of Aliant saw the change
mi their Aug. 26 bills. The bills fea
ured a new Aliant Communications
ogo, but the same Lincoln address.
The company notified customers of
he change in late July through inserts
n their bills. If customers weren’t liv
ng in Lincoln at that time, they could
Ind out through billboard, radio and
elevision advertisements.