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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 1996)
Matt Miller/DN BILL MONCE, a senior secondary-education major, rolls the ball during practice at the Nebraska East Union Thursday afternoon. Monce is the team’s No. 3 bowler. UNL bowling teams aim at striking out stereotypes By Josh Funk Staff Reporter The only two Nebraska athletic teams that have not dropped from the top five since 1990 are ready to reach for another national championship. ~ They’re guaranteed a bowl game, but it’s a whole different ballgame—a bowling ball game. The UNL men’s and women’s bowling team wiH begin their season with a tourna ment Oct 18 in Denver. .torcpeatfi Yet back on campus, bowlers risk obscu rity and fight the bowler stereotype — middle aged, overweight and beer-drinking. Rob Renko, a senior criminal justice major and team member, wants to change that image. *T am an athletic guy who works out regu larly and enjoys other sports,” Renko said. “But when people learn that I am a bowler, they don’t believe it.” UNL has a strong bowling program, which attracts the top bowlers from across the nation, Coach Bill Straub*sud.However, the program lacks recognition in Nebraska. Every year, about 75 bowlers send in video tapes and resumes to apply for the team. Fifteen of them are invited to try out with current team members for one of the 24 spots (Hi the team. Straub, a former professional bowler and coach, has coached foe Nebraska teams since 1983. “ “We’ve never been out of the top five with foe men or women,” he said, “and I don’t think that will change this year.” Bowling is now a club sport at UNL, but that could change in the future. The women’s team is scheduled to be brought under foe t Athletic Department hronght into help balance foe gender gap hi spoits, and hopefully the men’s team will be included later,” Straub said. The move to foe Athletic Department could help build recognition and respect for foe teams as well as ease budget concerns and improve travel conditions, he said. “The change would allow us to^ust be players, not fundraisers,” senior elementary education major Brenda Edwards said. “We should be able to hire another full-time coach. How many other sports have one coach for both foe men’s and women’s team?” BtChad Lorenz Senior Reporter University of Nebraska-Lincoln police made two arrests Thursday in connection with at least six on- and off-campus thefts, including the theft of a student’s car from campus last Friday. In addition to the 1986 Buick Regal, police recovered three bicycles, a cellular phone and 43 pieces of car-stereo equipment, Sgt. Bill Manning said. Police started on the case late Wednesday night when Community Service Officers spot ted the car, which was stolen a week ago from a remote parking lot at 17th and Holdrege streets, Manning said. Police found the car parked at a house and assigned two officers to watch it overnight, Manning said. Officers discovered the plates on the car were stolen from a different vehicle. At 1:45 p.m. Thursday, officers saw a man get into the car and drive away, Manning said. They later pulled over and arrested 19-year-old Brian Green for possession of stolen property. Green is not enrolled at UNL. An interview with Green led officers to sus pect a juvenile was also involved, Manning said. Green was taken to Lancaster County jail. Officers went to the juvenile’s house, and his mother gave them permission to search it, Manning said. At the house, officers found bicycles and stereo equipment, Manning said. More property was found at other locations, Cpl. Carl Eastman said, but he declined to say exactly where. The juvenile was also arrested for posses sion of stolen property and sent to the Lincoln Juvenile Attention Center, Eastman said. UNL officers were busy Thursday night log ging the property and matching it with larceny repeats from UNL and Lincoln police depart ments, Eastman said. The recovery could clear at least five lar ceny cases as well as the auto theft, he said. Book targets abuse victims Susan Koppelman is a survivor of domestic abuse. She knows firsthand that abusive relation ships are a dead end. She is using her experience to help battered women escape violent relationship though her book, “Women in the Trees: U.S. Women’s Short Stories of Battering and Resistance, 1839 1994” Koppelman shared her experiences and these of 30 other women who have survived domestic abuse in a speech at die Nebraska Union Wednesday afternoon. “My collections make available women's experiences, history, metaphors, and visions of reality as they have been recorded and portrayed in our short stories from 1826 to the present,” Koppelman said. Koppelman said women neverdeserved to. be battered and violence was never their fault. “Victims are not responsible for the choices criminals make,” she said. Domestic violence is not a problem confined to any particular class, race, ethnic group or lifestyle, Koppelman said, but occurs in all sec tors of society. *'T Although domestic violence is a universal problem, it isn’t always evident because abuse is emotional as well as physical, she said. bccausc you don’t see abuse doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” she said. “People don’t wash their dirty linen in public.” * In me second part of the speech, Barbara Harman, author of the book’s final chapter, read her short story “Happy Ending.” She combined her experiences of physical mid emotional abuse throughout her life. “Women in abusive relationships have all the responsibility and none of the control,” Harman said. She gave advice for people who have a friend in an abusive relationship. “The most important thing you can do is believe her and support her,” Harman said. “She needs to realize that she can survive.” Currently 20 percent of women undergradu ’ ates in a coed university have been battered, Koppelman said. “Many parents are so naive when they send their daughter off to college. They think they are sending her to a safe place,” she said. Christina Brantner, associate professor of ; modern languages and interim director of Women’s Studies, saidUNL’s ability to be forth right about safety was a good step toward a safer campus. “The next step is offering proper awareness to deal with safety issues,” she said. Koppelman also encouraged men to read her book so they can see that there is no justifica tion for battering a women. The author’s speech was co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program and the Rape/ SpouseAbuse Oisis Center. awhile. There are tilings out there that we can’t help.” Thosecnraeajie said, are known as crimes of opportunity—thefts that didn’t require much the opportunities,” be said. "You do tH^best possible.” Officers say they do what they can in stop ping thefts, but as is the case in stopping many crimes, students, faculty and staff need to help. Sgt. Mylo Bushing said common sense would prevent many crimes, especially thefts. Locking residence hall rooms, locking car doors and taking loose items — including re movable car stereos — out of cars are a few things people can do to prevent theft, Bushing said. Please see CRIME on 6
