SPDBTS
Husker pilot
Junior transfer Kim Engesser, a former Portland
Pilot, leads the Nebraska soccer team this season
in goals. PAGE 10
A&E
Grateful ’heads
Picture a San Francisco band, just traveling, trav
elin’ free. Saturday night, Zero will keep the kids
dizzy with its energy. PAGE 12
TOURSIAY
September 18, 1997
Umbrella Advisory
Chance of storms, high 88. Cloudy tonight, low 57.
VOL. 97 s COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 18
___
Nelson promises busy end to term
■ The governor’s “Success 2000”
agenda includes support of
distance education and keeping
Nebraska students in the state.
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
Gov. Ben Nelson on Wednesday vowed to
play hardest “during the final two minutes of
the game,” and outlined an aggressive agenda
for his last 16 months in office.
Through his “Success 2000” agenda,
Nelson renewed his commitments to support
distance education, to keep Nebraska college
students working in the state after graduation,
and to develop voluntary statewide academic
standards for grade school students.
Nelson also vowed to reduce income taxes,
increase government efficiency with technolo
gy, expand Welfare to Work programs
statewide, expand health-care services for unin
sured children and the elderly, and improve
crime victims’ services through law enforce
ment.
Nelson, who has been governor since 1990,
is ineligible to run in November 1998 because
Nebraska governors are limited to two terms in
office.
NU President Dennis Smith said he was
pleased Nelson chose to continue promoting
distance education and lifelong learning oppor
tunities statewide.
“I think extended education is a fundamen
tal goal,” Smith said. “It’s one of our priorities.
I think it’s necessary for the economic develop
ment of the state.”
Irv Omtvedt, University of Nebraska
Lincoln vice chancellor for extended education,
also said he was delighted the governor outlined
distance education as a priority.
UNL now leads the state in distance educa
tion efforts, he said, and seeks to coordinate its
efforts with other institutions that provide dis
tance education in Nebraska. Omtvedt said
Nelson has consistently supported developing
distance education opportunities, and he would
be willing to “work hand-in-hand” with the
governor on developing a vision for the future
of UNL’s extended education program.
“The mission of UNL as a land-grant insti
tution is to be the people’s university,” Omtvedt
said, and extending its educational opportuni
ties fits well with that mission.
The University of Nebraska already has dis
tance learning centers in Scottsbluff, North
Platte, College Park in Grand Island, and is
developing a new center at Northeast
Community College in Norfolk.
Please see NELSON on 7
Road
t0Vbetter
future
At-risk students, mentors
connect at ‘Crossroads’
- -
By Kim Sweet
Staff Reporter
Karen Stone started her fresh
man year at UNL with some of the
same bewilderment many freshmen
face because of new faces, large
classes and a barrage of opportuni
ties. But she started her college
career with a special connection.
Thanks to her senior mentor,
Mitch Schreiner, Stone was famil
iar with campus, already involved
in Campus Red Cross, and had an
upperclassman’s advice.
Stone and Schreiner’s friend
ship began with a new program at
the University of Nebraska
Lincoln called Crossroads, a joint
effort of the Student Opportunities
and Service program and Mortar
Board. It recruits at-risk students in
the SOS program and matches
them up with Mortar Board mem
bers. The students in SOS are first
generation college students who
have ACT scores under 24 and
come from low-income families
The mentors and mentees spend
time together buying books, writ
ing e-mail tp each other, attending
monthly Crossroads events put on
by the SOS program and creating
their own activities. How often
each mentor and mentee meet, and
what they do depends on each stu
dent’s wants and needs.
Although monthly Crossroads
activities are planned for the group
of 40 SOS students and Mortar
Board members, it is up to each
group to meet whenever they want,
helping each relationship to grow
We hope that
these freshmen will
strive to be in
Mortar Board
someday themselves ”
Nina Neubert
SOS academic counselor
more personal. \
Briana Hooi, Mortar Board
member and Crossroads coordina
tor, said the program was a perfect
opportunity to provide mentors to a
group of students who didn’t have
any.
“A lot of us in Mortar Board
have been identified as successful
students. Some SOS students aren’t
picked out that way. Our goal is to
use our experiences as the so
called chosen to share the benefits
with those who may not necessarily
be seen that way,” Hooi said.
Mortar Board started
Crossroads as a way to serve stu
dents with its three ideals: scholar
ship, leadership and service. Last
spring the group’s president Brian
Oxley and Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs James Griesen
brainstormed ways that the group
could lend those ideals to other stu
dents and decided they could be
Please see ROADS on 7
Put me in, coach
« Matt Miller/DN
NU SOCCER PLAYERS Lindsay Eddleman, left, and Jenny Benson tease Coach John Walker during a scrimmage
earlier this season. Eddleman and Benson will lead the Huskers against Iowa State at the Abbott Sports
Complex tonight at 7. Please see story on page 10.
I-:I
UNO hopes to construct
new engineering program
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska engineer
ing administrators will present a pro
posal to create a new construction
engineering program and department
in Omaha, although a nationally
prominent construction management
department exists at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
“It’s our intent to see Omaha be a
focus of construction and infrastruc
ture, and we want to drive toward that
end result,” said Paul Seaburg, asso
ciate dean of engineering for the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The new program would better
meet the needs of Omaha’s strong
construction industry by giving con
struction students a strong engineer
ing focus. The construction manage
ment program, which the College of
Engineering and Technology offers in
Lincoln, focuses less on engineering
than management, he said.
Engineering administrators and
faculty have been developing the pro
posal for the new Omaha-based pro
gram for more than three years, and
could send it to the NU Board of
Regents by this spring, Seaburg said.
Seaburg said it was unclear
whether the construction manage
ment department in Lincoln would be
affected by the proposal, but he could
not rule out a change.
About 260 students are now
enrolled in the construction manage
Please see UNO on 6
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