i SUITS_ MI W INRSnAY Enthusiasm Juicing up Jasper November q, 1997 Nebraska sophomore middle blocker Tonia Frustrated by. the crazies who surround him, Tauke isn’t afraid to let her enthusiasm show on Jasper finds respite in “extraordinary” people he - SBEMS Lke YEARS ShCE It’|Bsn CLEAR or off the NU Coliseum floor. PAGE 7 meets in “Somewhere in Between.” PAGE 9 Cloudy, snow possible, high A3.C§amg tonight, low 27. COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 52 Academic Senate rejects King holiday By Sarah Baker Assignment Reporter The Academic Senate heard a presentation Tuesday about improving conditions at UNL for minorities, and then put itself in the minority by voting down two popular proposals for calendar changes. The votes were against proposals to observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a holiday and to institute a mid-semester fall break. The senate also heard a presentation from the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of People of Color that stressed the group’s strate gy to reduce the loss of minority students. “We are losing minority faculty members as fast as we can get them,” the presentation stated. UNL Chancellor James Moeser said he thought the vote on King’s birthday was an unfortunate action by the senate. “I am sad about the outcome of this vote because it is going to be misinterpreted by die community,” Moeser said. “It is going to be seen as a lack of sensitivity to the diversity in Lincoln. Symbols like this are loudly heard.” Amy Rager, an Association of the Students of the University of Nebraska representative, said UNL students endorsed the changes over- ■ whelmingly. “I just find it really ironic that the senate turned down this proposal after discussing the , climate (for minorities) of this university,” Rager said. “This was one big thing the senate Please see SENATE on 6 r By Sarah Baker Assignment Reporter Months of discussion and numerous rewrites preceded the Academic Senate’s approval Tuesday of a new post-tenure review policy. The senate passed the new policy with a vote that was one short of unanimous. The senate first passed a motion to replace the old proposal with the newly amended pro posal the senate discussed at its last meeting. Chancellor James Moeser expressed his appreciation to the faculty senate at the meet ing. ; “I appreciate both the quality of the debate on the proposal and the decision the senate made on the vote,” Moeser said. “This shows the finest qualities of our faculty.” Moeser said he thought die proposal was a good cme. “I will continue to vigorously support the document without any changes by the Board of Regents, I promise you that,” Moeser said. “I am deeply appreciative of the result of this process. The senate should be proud of them selves.” The purpose of the post-tenure review poli cy is to make sdre that once professors are ' tenured they are still maximizing their contribu tions to the university. The policy also makes sure faculty mem bers are achieving their professional goals, and lets the public know tenured professors are held accountable for their performance. The Academic Senate has discussed the new policy since early last year. The proposal has been through many differ ent stages after faculty senate members dis cussed changes they wanted and the post-tenure review committee rewrote portions of thetlocu ment according to the senate’s discussion, 'pie revised and amended policy is now submitted to the NU Board of Regents for its approval. Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the final document was the result of hard work. “We have confidence in the proposal and we think it portrays exactly what the post-tenure process is intended to be,” Edwards jsaid. “We hope both the faculty and adrninistration can work together to make the system work effec tively.” ^ Rob Shirer, a modem languages and litera -r Please see TENURE on 6 Sandy Summers/DN JOEL WATTS, a Vital employee, paints the outsida of a birdhouse Masker red. Watts and otter Vital employees are involved In aH stages of production for the Nebraska lego bird houses. ! \ r . k : By Kelli Lacey Staff Reporter When 35-year-old Michael ... Rakestraw moved from Grand Island to Lincoln four months ago, his goal was to live independent of his family’s care and work a job of his own, despite his cerebral palsy. He’s found a way to do that with Vital* a company that provides voca tional training for adults with mental retardation and other mental deficien cies. It is a supervised workshop whose clients - and employees - make bird houses and bird feeders colored bright red and emblazoned with the Huskers’ Go Big Red logo. Vital hires people aged 19 and older who have graduated from Lincoln Public Schools. Jobs at Vital are step pingstones for the adults to get connect ed to jobs in the competitive market, said Rob Carter, general manager of Vital. “Our goal is to make it as much like a normal job as we can,” Carter said. Carter said he wants clients to per form their jobs at Vital the same way they would for any other job. “If I don’t come to work every day, I would lose my job,” he said. Some clients at Vital have gone on to jobs such as working in restaurants and cleaning in department stores. Please see VITAL on 12 ■ §1 ge . By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter Nebraska native Paul Carlson, UNL’s associate vice chancellor for business and finance, announced he would leave the university in January to assume a higher position else where. Carlson will leave after 14 years at the University of Nebraska Lincoln to become vice president for finance and administration at Augsburg College, a Lutheran liberal arts college in Minneapolis. Carlson, who was bom and reared in Nebraska, said he accepted the position at Augsburg because of its prestige. Bui he still loves UNL, he said. “The people here are great,” Carlson said. “It’s going to be tough to leave the people, because they’re such dedicated people.” But “I think it’s time for me to be a vice president somewhere,” he said. Carlson said he will face many of the same challenges at his new col lege that he grapples with at UNL. Augsburg, a downtown campus with a 2,700 enrollment, must increase faculty salaries, increase technology spending add solve a high-dolhtr problem with deferred ! maintenance, he said. It sounds like UNL, he said, “except we don’t have chapel every day here ” Also, at the Lutheran college, Carlson can give his time and exper tise back to the faith that has support ed him, he said. Carlson was UNL’s interim vice chancellor for business and finance in 1995, before the university hired Melvin JonesKto permanently fill the position. After tjiat year* Carlson returned to his position as associate vice chancellor, which he had hel