Report: Nebraskans marrying less, living longer
Women still outlive
men by several years,
thanks to lower suicide
and homicide rates and
healthier lifestyles.
From, Staff Reports
Nebraskans are marrying almost
twice as much as they’re getting di
vorced, and they’re living longer to
enjoy it, according to Nebraska’s 1995
vital statistics report.
Last year, 12,351 marriages took
place compared to 6,262 divorces.
Both figures are down from the 1994
and are below the national average.
Nebraskans are living an average
of 74.8 years. Men lived to an average
of 71 years, six months longer than the
previous year, and women lived to an
average of 78.4 years, seven months
longer than the previous year.
Women continue to live about eight
years longer than their male counter
parts because or their lower rates or
unintentional injuries, suicide, homi
cide and infant deaths. Women are also
less likely to smoke.
Heart disease continued to be the
leading cause of death among Nebras
kans and was responsible for one out
of every three deaths. Lung, breast and
prostate cancer were next, followed by
strokes, pneumonia, accidents, chronic
lung disease, diabetes Mellitus, Ath
erosclerosis, Alzheimer’s Disease and
suicide.
AIDS was the fifth leading cause
of death for males ages 15-44.
Deaths totaled 15,216 against
23,221 births. The number of births in
creased last year for the first time since
1990.
It included an increase from 1994
in the number of multiple births. The
number of sets of twins went from 274
to 366 sets of twins. The number of
sets of triplets bom in the state went
from 13 to 20.
Even with the increase in births, the
birthrate fell to the lowest in
Nebraska’s history — 14.4 births per
100,000 residents — because of an
increase in the overall population.
Source: Nebraska Department of Health
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Alma mater captures UNL spirit
ALMA MATER from page 1
spirit of the University of Nebraska,”
Chesnutt said.
Flowing and hymn-like, the new
alma mater will touch people the way
other Nebraska songs can’t, Chesnutt
said.
“We have great pep songs and fight
songs, but we haven’t had anything
that speaks to the soul,” he said.
“That’s part of going to college, too.”
The alma mater will represent a
much different genre than the slew of
fight songs usually pumped out at foot
ball games.
“It’s dignified, stately, and easy to
sing,” Moeser said after hearing the
music for the first time this week.
“It will give people goose bumps
when they sing it,” he said. “The song
is sentimental and glorifies the univer
sity.”
Davis said the song had three
verses, each one representing a differ
ent facet of UNL — tradition, campus
life, and the university philosophy.
“The very first thing the student
body sings is ‘Nebraska,’ Davis said.
‘That’s the key hook.”
Finding just the right lyrics for the
three verses took some research, Davis
said. He said he talked to campus his
torians and the chancellor, as well as
people he met on campus.
The campus-life verse, he said, will
reflect the romance of college, with
references to kissing by the columns
and Ivy Day.
“The whole notion of going back
to college in the fall is very romantic,”
Davis said.
School colors and other well estab
66
We have great pep songs and fight songs,
but we haven’t had anything that speaks
to the soul. That’s part of going to college,
too.”
Rod Chesnutt
UNL marching band director
lished UNL symbols will be incorpo
rated into the versa dealing with tradi
tions, |*s<
words'?*:
Davis p
when writing the alma mater.
“It has to withstand the test of time,
so I’m not going to write a pop-sound
ing tune that’s current at the moment,”
Davis said. “I chose a hymn structure
called ‘strophic song,’ or a verse-cho
rus format.”
Alma maters, which don’t quite fit
into the high-energy aura of football
games, do fit in during two times,
Chesnutt said. They are traditionally
played before or after the national an
them, to give honor to country and
school, or after the game is over.
The marching band will send a re
cording of a practice run of the alma
mater to Davis, who will then add syn
thesizer and four-part voice scores be
fore the piece is rehearsed all together,
Chesnutt said.
The UNL groups and Mannheim
Steamroller will have only a few
chances to practice together before the
this week!
Moeser and Davis have navigated
die same musical circles before. In die
1960s, while Davis was playing the
cymbals with the University of Michi
gan marching band as an undergradu
ate, Moeser was there finishing up his
doctoral degree in musical arts. The
two did not know each other at the
time, Moeser said.
Davis plans to release the alma
mater on a compact disc single, with
profits going to UNL.
But this Chip Davis song will have
a longer shelf-life than a compact disc
recording. Alma maters have staying
power, and that’s another reason Davis
wanted to write it.
“It’s a real honor to compose some
thing that’s going to be around for a
long time,” he said.
Pastor served diverse groups
DOERR from page 1
he was not the driving force behind
the often controversial activities.
He says he was merely acting like
a Christian.
“I felt we needed to be open to
the groups on the edge of things,”
he said. “One of the callings of the
Christian community is to be open
and supportive of those who have
no voice.”
Doerr did more than open his
heart and mind to these groups, he
opened the interdenominational
ministry’s campus headquarters,
Commonplace. The ministry took
^ijMhe University Child Care
Organization, the Nebraska Civil
liberties Union and the Draft In
formation Center when others
turned their backs.
Commonplace housed these di
verse groups for 14 years, until the
building was sold to the Nebraska
Union for development of the new
UNL Culture Center. The sale,
Doerr said, was one of the best ac
tions he’s been involved in at UNL.
Prior to the sale in 1985, the
Culture Center, located near Ne
braska Hafl, was condemned. Eth
nic minority groups searched for a
new location to house their organi
zations but the searches, Doerr said,
were unsuccessful and frustrating.
“The blacks and Hispanics were
gefting very angry and were ready
to quit,” he said. “But I said to them
that if they asked if our building
was for sale, they might be sur
prised at the answer they would
get.”
Within 1 1/2 years, the Presby
terian-owned building became the
new Culture Center and UMHE
moved its organizations to Corner
stone at 640 N. 16th St.
“In that way, we’ve had an im
pact on ethnic and minority orga
nizations, on campus,” Doerr said.
Doerr said the main lesson he
hoped he had given the students
was an understanding of religion.
“Following Jesus does not mean
being deeply religious,” the pastor
said. “The center of religion is car
ing for the earth and the people on
it.”
He said that was how he wanted
to be remembered.
“I would like to be remembered
as someone who cared about the
university and the lives of those at
the university who want a good
education and justice on campus,”
he said.
Doerr’s last official act on cam
pus will be Sunday’s sermon at the
September Service of Celebration
and Dedication for the New Aca
demic Year. The service is 7 p.m.
at Cornerstone and open to the uni
versity community.
There will be a reception at 3:30
p.m. today honoring Doerr at the
UNL Culture Center and a banquet
at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Ne
braska East Union.
Some UNL fraternities, sororities face fire-code violations
tUUa prom page 1
no house has ever lost its occupancy
permit.
Anderson said she usually received
copies of violations but was not di
rectly involved. The greek house cor
, porations are responsible for repairs.
“The fire-safety people deal with
the unit, but if I can be helpful, I do
it,” she said. “We do not want any un
safe places for students to live.”
Neither do house corporations.
Jon Snare, who is <mi the board of
trustees for the Phi Gamma Delta fra
ternity, said the bulk of die problems
at Fiji centered on the building’s age.
Most of the repairs have been to up
date an old structure, he said.
Phi Gamma Delta is concerned
with fraternity house safety, because
the fire in North Carolina involved one
of their chapters. Snare said alumni
planned to upgrade safety.
“If our house is full... we budget
for things like (safety upgrades),” he
said. “There are filings that come along
that need to be fixed.”
But Anderson said the structures
are not solely to blame. Students’
hands are not clean when it comes to
fire codes, she said, because students
are responsible for the immediate care
of their houses.
When fraternity or sorority mem
bers prop open a fire door with a brick,
it’s a fire code violation. When too
many plugs end up in a socket, it’s a
fire code violation.
Such actions might seem insignifi
cant, but Schoen said it doesn’t take
much for a fire to take a house.
A fire started by a cigarette dumped
in a trash basket can destroy most of a
house in as little as IS minutes, he said.
In six minutes, people in the house
could die from heat and smoke.
“You could be down the hall and
never know there’s a fire raging down
the hall until it’s too late,” Schoen said.
If a house is up to code, with closed,
self-latching solid-core — not hollow
or panel — doors and working, fire
doors, most of the fraternity or soror
ity could be spared, Schoen said.
“What we can’t get through to these
people is that’s why those solid-core
doors are there,” he said. “It’s to keep
that fire contained.”
With no sprinkler systems in the
houses, Schoen said, greek houses
have to rely on doors and building con
struction to contain a fire long enough
for fire fighters to respond.
“We’ve got some fraternities and
sororities that are just fabulous,” he
said. “And we’ve got some people that
don’t have the money and are really
difficult to deal with.”
But Snare said alumni are kicking
money back to the house for repairs
but they’re not in the black yet.
“We’re trying to comply, and we’ll
be in compliance when they next in
spect,” he said.
Some fraternity members say prob
lems in their houses are not house
problems, but rather individual prob
lems in personal rooms.
Greg Hand, president of Phi Delta
Theta, said the list of violations for
their house was long, but it was a list
of things that could easily be fixed.
Problems in Phi Delta Theta mostly
include too many extension cords and
blocked doors, Hand said. Other vio
lations, on the last inspection, included
bikes in a hallway and a lawnmower
stored inside, he said.
“These are things that I didn’t think
about until I moved into a fraternity,”
Hand said. “It was like this in my par
ents’ house.”
Phi Delt underwent renovations six
years ago, Hand said, and the construc
tion was shoddy. He said the house has
had to fit the house with more outlets
and install new lighted exit signs.
Hand said it was the poor construc
tion that may have driven Phi Delt’s
violation numbers up. He said he
wasn’t surprised to be op a list of
houses with a history of violations, but
that it didn’t bother him.
“I feel safe living here. I don’t have
any problems living here.”
Schoen offered to sit down with
house corporations and members to tell
diem about violations and what needs
to be done. But he offered little hope,
saying it was hard to get the right in
formation to the right people.
The increased awareness of fire
code violations at fraternity houses
across the country has not spunedany
new inquiry at UNL, Anderson said.
“It has been an issue at Nebraska
U
I don’t have any
problems living
here.”
GbegHand
Phi Delta Theta president
ever since there has been a code hoe,”
Anderson said. “It’s not something
new to this campus and to this state.
We’ve always been conscious of safety
and security.”
What much of the problem boils
down to,-officials said, is money. Fire
doors cost money, solid-core doors
cost money, and in some houses,
money is tight.
“I can understand if they are hard
up for money,” Schoen said. “But if'
you just consider die value of die house
itself.
“Ask the people in North Carolina.
You can’t rebuild that house.”
