Friday
October 25,|996
Fraternity, sorority leap
for donations to charity
By Kasey Berber
Senior Reporter
Lambda Chi Alpha and Gamma
Phi Beta jumped at the chance to
raise money for United Cerebral
Palsy of Nebraska.
And they plan to keep jumping
for 104 hours.
The greek houses hope to raise
$15,000 for the charity in what they
have called the largest UNL philan
thropy ever.
Fraternity and sorority members
from both houses are participating
in a “Trampoline-a-thon”, which
started at 6 a.m. Thursday and will
not end until 2 p.m. Monday.
Switching jumpers every 20
minutes, members will jump con
tinuously on a giant trampoline dur
ing the four-day span.
The trampoline was donated by
Wal-Mart, the main sponsor of the
event. Lighting equipment for night
shift jumpers was donated by Mid
west Sound & Lighting and
SESCO.
John Zymola, vice president of
Lambda Chi Alpha, said each
bouncing member gathered dona
tions from businesses and individu
als.
“We’re up to about $10,000
right now,” Zymola said. “We’ll
probably make even more around
the time of the football game.”
He said bouncing fatigue was
not a major factor because of the
20-minute shifts.
“I did start it up this morning
though, and jumped for 40 min
utes,” Zymola said. “It can get pretty
tiring.”
Zymola said the jumping will
continue for the entire 104 hours,
rain or shine.
Matt Miller/DN
LAMBDA CHI ALPHA fraternity and Gamma Phi Beta sorority are raising money for United Cerebral
Palsy of Nebraska by jumping on a trampoline for 104 hours outside of the Lambda Chi Alpha house
on R Street. Freshman Ben McKenzie and senior elementary education major Colleen Cooney put in
one of their five 20-minute shifts Thursday morning.
Testing, l-fc-3
Jts Calderon/DN
ROBERT BECKER sits in the tractor’s cab during its testing on UNL’s East
Campus. The East Campus Tractor Ifest Lab is the only of its kind in the United
States. The employees there examine nearly every type of tractor manufactured.
Please see story on page 3.
Thomas feels at home
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
OMAHA — Clarence Thomas had no am
bitions to be a U.S. Supreme Court justice, but
five years after he started the job, he loves it.
Thomas, speaking to the Nebraska Bar As
sociation Thursday, said that after enduring a
bitter confirmation hearing, he was faced with a
more daunting task — his first week on the job.
After being appointed by President George
Bush, Thomas faced a bitter confirmation battle.
He faced a barrage of sexual harassment accu
sations and was confirmed by the Senate by only
two votes.
Thomas, who handles cases from the Eighth
Federal Circuit Court, which includes Nebraska,
said he needed a month to recover from the hear
ing and the surrounding media circus.
Instead, he was given just days.
Thomas was appointed during a Supreme
Court term, which he said is unfair to the court
and the nominee.
“It is extraordinarily difficult to catch up,”
he said. “You’ve got to move along, you’ve got
to keep up.”
Thomas had just a little more than a week to
get ready for hearing cases in the nation’s high
est court.
The first problem he encountered, he said,
was he had not been sworn in as a judge, even
though he had been confirmed by the Senate.
Without being sworn in, he could not hire staff
and get access to information he needed to pre
pare for cases.
“The reason I needed to be sworn in was
simple: I had work to do,” he said.
After arranging to be sworn in by the Chief
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, William
Rehnquist, he started to get ready. The next task
was his office.
“When you get there, you wonder about ev
erything,” Thomas said. “Where to get coffee.
Where do you get pencils. All the little things.”
Thomas had one week to get ready for four
Please see THOMAS on 8
Physics class to pave way
for ‘paperless’ classrooms
By Kasey Berber
Senior Reporter
In this physics class, you’ll never need a text
book, graphing calculator or lab notebook.
You might not even need a pencil.
A new “paperless” physics course will com
bine multimedia technology with a physics cur
riculum to create a classroom environment
where textbooks, notes and written exams will
no longer be necessary.
Starting spring semester, special sections of
Physics 211 and its corresponding lab, Physics
220, will be offered to students wishing to take
part in the paperless course.
Because oFihe limited number of comput
ers available, the course will be limited to the
first 24 students who enroll.
Robert Fuller, professor of physics and as
■ ~ v
. C *. 5c-,.
tronomy, will teach the course and its lab.
He said development of the course began
nearly five years ago, when a $1.5 million grant
from the National Science Foundation led to the
development of a CD-ROM containing 19 phys
ics textbooks.
“We then asked: ‘What if you could actually
use this CD-ROM instead of a physics text
book?”’Fuller said.
Fuller said the idea was extended to include
the development of a multimedia physics class
room with eight Power Macintosh 7600s.
Fuller said he hoped students of the course
would learn how to use new technology for re
search, in addition to simply learning physics.
The university has invested $40,000 in the
lab, with another $40,000 coming from a Na
tional Science Foundation matching grant.
Please see PHYSICS on 6
