Greek Row may see historical registry Thesis topic raised issue —--- > > By Kasey Berber Staff Reporter It started as a master’s thesis more than a year ago, hut in 40 days it might just becOipe a piece of history. Greek Row, an area encompassing almost all UNL fraternity and sorority houses, is one step from becoming a nationally-recognized historic district. Greek Row includes 35 fraternity and sorority houses and other buildings on or near City Campus. Bill Callahan, National Historic Register coordinator in Lincoln, said Greek Row had excellent chances for approval because of its detailed pro posal —a necessity for National Park Service approval. “The explanation is critical,” Callahan said. “The person putting the proposal together must keep in mind that final approval will come from a few people in Washington who might not even be able to point Lincoln out on a map.” If the National Park Service does approve the recommendation, it would be because of Justin Van Mullem, a former UNL student now living in Cali fornia. Van Mullem was working on his master’s thesis for community and re gional planning when the idea first oc curred to him that Greek Row could be recognized as a historic district. While a few individual fraternity and sorority houses had been recog nized, Van Mullem said the district as a whole had a unique architectural his tory. After formulating his thesis, Van Mullem began a year’s worth of re search eliding with a drafted nomina tion of Greek Row for inclusion as a historic district. “The majority of the work was in the research,” Van Mullem said. “For each house, I tried to find the original architectural drawings.” Van Mullem compared these draw ings to current fraternity and sorority houses to see if any major renovation or construction had altered the origi nal building. While some houses had undergone changes from their original condition, Van Mullem said nearly all houses qualified for the historic district. Greek Row has an interesting ar w The person putting the proposal together must keep in mind that final approval will come from a few people in Washington who migfd not even be able to point Lincoln out on a map.” Bill Callahan National Historic Register coordinator chitectural history representing several styles and periods of architectural de sign, Van Mullem said. Many of the houses display period revival, Van Mullem said, and copied earlier styles of architecture. Competition also contributed to Greek Row’s uniqueness, he said. “A fraternity would build a house and another fraternity would pop up and build its house more impressively,” Van Mullem said. This aspect of competition was ap parent in the dates the houses were constructed, Van Mullem said. Most fraternity and sorority houses were built within eight years of one another. Van Mullem said he knew he would be gone before his plans came to frui tion. “I knew it all along,” he said. “When I came up with the proposal, I made sure it was a nomination. Other wise it could have taken me four years for me to get my master’s.” But Van Mullem said he hoped stu dents would leam from his effort. “For me, it’s important that people realize that a history went along with these houses.” NU regents to vote on buying mainframe By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter The NU Board of Regents will vote on two campus improvement projects Saturday morning, both with price tags of more than $500,000. A more powerful mainframe com puter for the University of Nebraska Lincoln and renovations to the Univer sity of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha will be considered at the 8:30 meeting in Varner Hall. The proposed $560,835 computer for UNL would replace the current IBM mainframe purchased in 1992, according to a proposal by Melvin Jones, vice chancellor for business and finance, and Irvin Omtvedt, interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. The current computer often runs at 90 percent of capacity at peak times and serves as both a research and e mail server for more than 4,200 UNL users. According to the proposal, the new computer would facilitate a strong web server for UNL, which soon could top 1 million hits per day because of dis tance education and other electronic university initiatives. The proposed UNMC renovations would cost $592,060 and include up dating inefficient work stations for staff and improving lighting conditions in the Level 7 West Oncology/Hematol ogy Special Care Unit. Other agenda items for today in clude: ■ A 4 pan. meeting of the Busi ness Affairs Committee in Varner Hall to discuss the UNL modem pool. Student Regent Eric Marintzer said he regretted that the meeting will be too late to stop UNL from losing free off-campus access to the modem pool Feb. 1. But the meeting could bringup future plans for the modem pool, or justify the loss of service, he said. ■ A 3 pan. meeting of the Genoa! Affairs Committee in Varner Hall to discuss student financial aid at UNL. ■ The election of 1997 officers of the NU Board of Regents at the Satur day morning meeting. Law& Order Child neglect Two children were placed in protective custody Wednesday when police officers found them liv ing in squalor. When officers arrived at 2821 N.W. Sixth St., they found the house in which the two children were liv ing did not have running water be cause of frozen pipes. It was littered with dirty clothes and dog feces. Several windows had been broken out and the glass was lying on the floor. Police arrested Carl Wheeler, 28, and Kathy Wheeler, 31, for child neglect. The children, an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, were taken into protective custody. Burglary A computer hard drive and key board were taken from Andrews Hall by someone University Police said they believe had keys to the room. Language lab instructors told police that the computer parts had been taken between Thursday and Monday, when the lab was closed. Officers could find no signs of forced entry, UNL Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing said. That has pointed of ficers toward someone with a key to the room, he said, which was locked at the time of the burglary. The keyboard and hard drive were valued at $1,270. Ironically, Bushing said, someone stole the monitor that was attached to the now-stolen hard drive and key board. HBAacTosa^^gi Hi special^^H (C^ m2 Micro-Import Draws r BBtti— Jl