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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1997)
SPORTS Winning ways The Nebraska baseball team snapped a 13-game losing streak, winning two of three games from Missouri this weekend. PAGE 6 B1A & E_ Welcome ‘Return’ “Return of the Jedi,” the final film in the re vamped “Star Wars” trilogy, opened Friday with new scenes and cleaned-up effects. PAGE 8 MON »AY March 17, 1997 At The End Of The Rainbow Cloudy, high 58. Light rain tonight, low 27. VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 122 UNL professors return home from Albania By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter A University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor who remained trapped in Albania until Friday stepped off an airplane and back into America and into the arms of loved ones in Lincoln Sunday night. “I’m very happy to be home,” Harish Gupta said after a series of hugs and warm welcomes. “It’s wonderful to be home.” The professor emeritus of econom ics took nothing but the clothes he wore and a small carry-on case when he escaped an Albania he described as “very scary.” He left by U.S. Navy air lift last Friday morning. Gupta and Diane Hambley, UNL marketing professor, were teaching at the University of Tirana in Albania’s capital last week when the U.S. State Department ordered all Americans out of the country, which had collapsed into anarchy. Both professors booked Friday or Saturday flights out of Albania on commercial airlines, but became trapped in the country after airports closed Thursday. Gupta said he and Hambley “were counting the minutes and seconds” until they could leave the tom coun try, where ordinary people shot ma chine guns from their cars while driv ing down streets in a deadly show of chaos. But Gupta said he hoped the situa tion would improve so he could return to Albania and complete his work. Sang Lee, director of UNL’s Cen ter for Albanian Studies, said Gupta traveled to Albania three weeks ago to teach a 10-week, graduate-level business course at the university. Gupta’s course was cut short when all Americans were ordered out of Al bania Wednesday, Lee said. Hambley, who had been in the country for two years, also left her work and belong ings behind. Albania’s government and economy fell to anarchy after citizens lost their life savings in failed pyra mid investment schemes. Lee said he called the U.S. Agency for International Development in Al bania Monday to make sure teaching could continue and the UNL profes sors were safe. “They assured me there was no problem,” Lee said. “It was calm in Tirana.” Within two days, gunshots kept the professors awake at night, and aH or der in the country had collapsed, Lee said. Every town in Albania spawned its own rebel group, which looted the towns and stole guns from military depots. In the fury, typically calm Alba nians were “shooting their guns like crazy,” he said. Lee talked to Gupta Thursday Please see ALBANIA on 3 Matt Miller/DN SANG LEE (left) welcomes home Harish Gupta, who was teaching at the University of Tirana in Albania when the country fell to anarchy. The UNL professor worked in Albania as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development project, which works with Albanian officials to establish a foundation for a market economy. UNL boasts innovative teaching lab By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter The University of Nebraska-Lin coln has gained one more shining gem in its crown — the nation’s No. 1 cen ter for research of innovative teaching methods. Christy Horn, who co-directs the Center for Instructional Innovation Research with Roger Bruning, said UNL has finished building an ideal lab for testing technology that assists teachers and students. The lab, in the basement of Mabel Lee Hall, includes a multimedia re search classroom, a lab to test learn ing structure and strategy and state-of the-art equipment to assist students with disabilities, she said. \ “It’s not enough to just bring them on campus and let them sit in a class room if they can’t interact,” Horn said. For UNL, the real worth of the cen ter is not the bragging rights for the nation’s premier facility, she said. The center’s true value may lie in Please see CENTER on 3 ^^_I Daniel Luedert/DN FORMER SEN. JAMES EXON, hit wilt Pat Etta and Saa. Bah Kerrey, cut the ribbon Saturday to the mw Exon Center. Research library marks Exon's work By Jim Goodwin Staff Reporter With congratulatory gestures, more than 100 Democrats mingled and remi nisced with former Sen. James Exon Sat urday afternoon at the grand opening of his Lincoln library and research center. Sen. Bob Kerrey, Lt. Gov. Kim Robak and former Exon aides were among those attending the ceremonial homecoming, which also marked Exon’s 26-year public service career. Exon retired from the Sen ate in January. The two-story Exon Center, 985 S. 27th St., houses campaign and senatorial papers and memorabilia of Exon’s two terms as Nebraska governor and three terms in the U.S. Senate. Kerrey said the repository honored a man well known for fighting to maintain a philosophy held important by both Democrats and Nebraskans. “This library is a tribute to his legacy and what we can accomplish through po litical action,” Kerrey said of his professed mentor. “It is Jim Exon’s ideas. It’s his visions that have made him so popular with Nebraska voters.” Exon said he intended fa* the library to tt It's his visions that have made him so popular with Nebraska voters ” Sen. Bob Kerrey D-Nebraska serve as a meeting space for the discussion of government-related issues and as a research center touting the Senate’s worthy merits. “I want to dedicate this to a better history and a better understanding that die U.S. Sen ate is a wonderful institution,” Exon said. Among mementos of Exon’s political career are autographed photographs of Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. A placard signed by Exon’s colleagues from the 104th Congress fills prominent wall space in an upstairs office. The Exon Center also shares planning and committee meeting space with the Lancaster County Democratic Party. It is free to the public by appointment. |f y . . . ... # ‘ i , f Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu / DailyNeb c. i ■ , ~