I
Indiana University students protest lack of diversity
From toe Indiana Daily Student
, Indiana University
(U-WIRE) BLOOMINGTON, Ind.
— While most students at Indiana
University will attend classes Jan. 20,
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a core
group of “progressive student activists”
will boycott classes and protest the
university’s “failing” commitment to
diversity, one student activist said.
Junior Ryan Vertner, a protest or
ganizer and editor of the publication
“griot,” said that in addition to the
publication’s support, other groups
would participate in the protest. These
groups include the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, Asian-American Association,
Asian Student Union, OUT, Conscious
OppVessed Unified People and other
nonaffiliated interested students,
Vertmer said.
This week the coalition issued a list
of demands that will improve the “dis
mal reality” of IU’s commitment to
diversity, Vertner said. The coalition
plans to work with the administration
to put the demands through the proper
channels. The group expects to talk to
administrators to find out where to go
and which departments or programs to
work with, Vertner said.
“A key to the process is going to
be talking with administrators to see
how we should go about using the sys
tem,” Vertner said. “We want to make
it clear to the administration what we
want from the beginning.
“They could tell us to usd the proper
channels, and what we would tell them
is ‘Well, you use the proper channels,’”
he said.
And Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, IU
vice president of academic affairs and
Bloomington chancellor, said he had a
productive meeting with some of the
protest organizers. He said he looks
forward to working with them to re
solve this issue.
“I plan to gather information on stu
dent and faculty numbers, as well as
budgets, and meet with them again ei
ther before Christmas cm- shortly after,”
Gros Louis wrote in an e-mail message.
“Much of the discussion was on cur
rent status of some of the proposals. It
was a good meeting.”
Junior Regan Rush, a protest orga
nizer, said these issues need to come
out to the public because the univer
sity made hollow promises about its
commitment to diversity, and also re
cent funding has been disappointing.
For example, the Lilly Grant, which
endowed the university a three-year
grant for $1 million to implement the
Office of Diversity, ran out this sum
mer. The university had promised to
continue the funding. x
But Steve Bidine, coordinator of
diversity programs, said the university
did not keep its promise to match the
funding. The office received $3,000
this semester for programming—not
even enough money to pay for bro
chures to hand out to students at diver
sity seminars. In addition, the office
lost its only full-time secretary. After
June 30,1997, the secretary will work
only part time. He said the university’s
lack of action has caused him to recon
sider coming back to IU in the fall of
1997.
“That is just the petty stuff that I
don’t have the time or the inclination
to deal with,” Birdine said. “I simply
want the opportunity to do the job I
am paid to do. In a campus with about
35,000, you can’t educate people or do
anything with substance or purpose
with $3,000 a semester.”
Vertner said the protest will serve
to find out' what the university really is
going to do, as opposed to what ad
ministrators say they are going to do.
“We have been duped as far as (the
ft
I am appreciative of the fact that students ,
have stepped up and said ‘enough
is enough.’Nothing will change unless
students make it change. ”
Steve Birdine
IU diversity programs coordinator
Office of Diversity funding) goes,”
Vertner said. “(One of the purposes for
the protest) is to truly find out if we’ve
been had. All of this should weed out
the truth versus the fiction.”
Besides disappointment surround
ing the Office of Diversity, other issues
are out on the table, such as implement
ing a support system for Asian-Ameri
can students, said junior Joon Park,
who is involved in the protest as presi
dent of the Asian-American Associa
tion. During the spring semester and
the summer, a minority coalition put
through proposals to create an Asian
American Advocacy dean and an Asian
culture center.
Park said little progress has been
made with the initial proposals.^
With no support system from the
university, students who want to cel
ebrate their Asian heritage must do it
themselves, while African-American
and Latino students have the support _
of their advocacy offices.
Birdine said students putting forth
these demands to the administration is
the right first step.
“I am appreciative of the fact that
students have stepped up and said
‘enough is enough.’ Nothing will
change unless students make it
change,” Birdine said.
American Heart C*
Association-^^
Fighting Heart Disease
and Stroke
Start to Finish Heart Disease
Firm may be hired
to evaluate education
OMAHA (AP) — Nebraskans
will be asked what they think about
plans for statewide academic stan
dards.
The Nebraska Board of Educa
tion is considering hiring
aconsulting firm to conduct eight
town-hall meetings across the state
next year in addition to eight ses
sions with focus groups.
The state board has said it wants
to hear from a cross section of Ne
braskans on the proposal.
The focus groups would be
scheduled during three months in
early 1997, said John Clark, a De
partment of Education spokesman.
The town-hall meetings would fol
low in the spring. The consulting
firm would provide a report to the
state board based on the focus
groups and town hall meetings.
Clark said it’s possible that the
state board, after reviewing the re
port, would revise the standards
before taking final action on them.
The Department of Education
will solicit estimates fromconsulting
firms, including New York City
based Public Agenda Foundation.
Public Agenda had given the
Department of Education a $65,000
estimate in October, but that was for
only four town hall meetings and
four focus-group sessions.
The state board’s next meeting
is Jan. 17. Clark said he was uncer
tain whether the board would be
choosing a consulting firm then.
The state board approved the
draft standards this fall. The intent
is not to challenge local control of
schools, State Education Commis
sioner Doug Christensen has said.
Even though the standards will tell
schools what students should know
and be able to do, he said, it will be
up to local districts to decide how
to put them into practice.
Retired UNL professor
Jack Sosin dies at 68
- By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
Retired UNL professor Jack Sosin,
called one of the most widely published
faculty members in the history depart
ment by a former colleague, died Mon
day of undisclosed causes.
Sosin retired this spring after nearly
38 years at UNL and after publishing
eight books and many articles and re
views in trade journals. Patrice Berger,
a colleague of Sosin’s in the history
department, said that record made him
one of the most prolific writers in the
department while still maintaining a
heavy teaching load.
“He was one of the pillars of the
history department,” Berger said. “He
has done an enormous amount of re
search on colonial American history,
the Revolutionary period, and Ameri
can constitutional history.”
Students, Berger said, often com
mented that Sosin’s classes were ex
ceptionally thought-provoking.
Sosin, who was bom in Hartford,
Conn., received his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees from the University
of Connecticut v and his doctorate de
gree from Indiana University. He came
to teach at UNL in 1958.
After retiring last spring, Berger
said, Sosin was awarded professor
emeritus status, which meant he did not
have to teach classes, but could use his
office space in Oldfather Hall for re
search. And use it he did, Berger said,
as he came in every day after retiring
to work on research.
“He was very consistent in that re- V
gard,” Berger said. “You could Set your
watch by him.
“Jack was exceptionally profes
sional.”
Services for Sosin, who was 68, are
today at 11 a jn. at Roper & Sons Mor
tuary, 4300 O St.
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Professor to give speech
on Singapore's government
From Staff Reports
A professor who was punished for
trying to expose oppressive practices
by the government of Singapore will
be delivering his opinions to the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln today.
Christopher Lingle, a visiting asso
ciate professor of economics at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleve
land will deliver a speech entitled
“Capitalism and Authoritarianism in
Singapore” from noon to 1:30 p.m. in
the Nebraska Union.
In 1994, the Singapore government
charged Lingle with slander after he
published an editorial in the Interna
tional Herald Tribune that alleged
some Asian regimes rely upon a “com
pliant judiciary to bankrupt opposition
politicians.”
In January 1995, a Singapore court
found Lingle guilty in absentia, even
after admitting the government had
repeatedly sued opposition politicians
for libel and forced several others into
bankruptcy.
Vice chancellor search nears end
SEARCH from page 1
During interviews, Moeser said, he
discussed candidate’s pasts as well as
their plans for UNL.
“We talk about them and their ex
periences, and what their perceptions
of this university are,” Moeser said.
“Having the outside candidates come
in, it’s interesting to see what they per
ceive as potential opportunities and
problems.”
On Thursday, Palm met with ASUN
first thing in the morning. She spent
the rest of the day talking with facility,
leans and the vice chancellor’s staff.
Palm said the statewide support of
UNL was evident during her visit, and
die said she was impressed by the em
phasis placed on undergraduate teach
ing.
Palm said two things she would
make priority items if she were chosen
for the job were increasing investment
in the honors program and strengthen
ing interdisciplinary programs.
A candidate will be chosen for the
position in early January, Moeser said.
First penguin
hatches at
Omaha zoo
OMAHA (AP) — It took
three tries for die Henry Doorly
Zoo to hatch a newborn penguin,
but this week was a charm. A
king penguin chick emerged from
an egg in the zoo’s aquarium early
Monday — the first such hatch
ing at the state’s largest zoo.
The baby penguin weighed in |
at 5.7 ounces, a weight not nor
mally reached until five days af- l
ter hatching, said Lisa Jorgensen, s
supervisor of aquatic birds at the > 5
zoo. She said the parents had been
feeding their little one, regurgi
tating herring and serving it in
digestible bites.
Last year’s two king penguin
eggs never hatched. In one case,
the chick died in its shell. The
other egg was broken in a struggle
with a penguin couple referred to ‘
around the zoo as “the rogue
pair.”
A second egg this year was
taken from its timid parents and
is being kept in an incubator in g
anticipation of a Dec. 18 due date.
