King vote divides UNL faculty, students I
VOTE from page 1
it’s the first step in the direction toward
creating a better academic climate for
minorities on our campus,” ASUN
First Vice President Amy Rager said.
ASUN also passed a bill in support
of the proposed fall break.
Gerard Harbison, professor of
chemistry and a member of the
Academic Senate, said many senators
were against the King holiday for
logistical reasons.
“If we have an uneven number of
days in one week of labs, it forces us to
cancel the labs for the entire week,”
Harbison said. “We have discussed
other options, such as putting labs into
dead week. If students really want to
celebrate King’s birthday, are they
willing to have labs into Dead Week?”
Jim Ford, Academic Senate presi
dent, said there were numerous rea
sons behind the senate voting down the
I B1 ■' U- ■-m'H1WW>J1 !•!UJLJ
proposals.
“Many of the senate members
want to do something in celebration of
Dr. King’s birthday, but they just don’t
think taking off work for the day is the
right thing,” Ford said.
Wednesday the Academic Senate
executive committee met and passed a
motion to start a committee that would
plan ways to celebrate King’s birthday,
Ford said.
“The committee is looking at some
other options, such as speakers, music
or in-class activities to celebrate Dr.
King,” Ford said.
Rager said she didn’t know
whether the committee would achieve
its goal in honoring King.
“It’s a noble idea for professors to
say they would have class time to dis
cuss Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but in
reality, I believe very few professors
would follow through with it,” Rager
said.
Instead of in-class activities, Rager
said, ASUN wanted to work with die
Afrikan People’s Union and other
minority student organizations to cre
ate a “civil rights day,” where students
and staff could celebrate King’s lega
cy.
ASUN President Curt Ruwe said
the Academic Senate offered the
opportunity for one student to sit in on
the newly formed committee dealing
with King’s birthday.
However, he questioned if the
committee would have been formed if
it were not for the debate surrounding
the Academic Senate’s decision.
Both the Academic Senate and
ASUN votes will be presented to a
universitywide calendar committee.
The calendar committee consists
of two faculty members from the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
University of Nebraska at Omaha,
University of Nebraska Medical
Center and University of Nebraska at
Kearney.
1 he committee votes on the pro
posals to add a fall break and a King
holiday, and presents its decision to the
NU Board of Regents for its final
approval. A majority vote, including
five of the eight members of the com
mittee, is necessary for the proposals
to reach the regents.
The calendar committee will vote
on the proposals Nov. 17.
Leo Sartori, physics and astrono
my professor and a member of the
Academic Senate and the calendar
committee, said he was disappointed
in the senate’s initial reaction.
“I really expected the motions to
pass,” Sartori said. “I think (the pro
posals) failed not because the senate
was racist, but because they felt there
were better ways to commemorate the
day.”
Sartori said although he still favors
the original proposals, he will vote
against them.
“I have a moral obligation to vote
the same as the rest of the senate,” he
said. “I think with the support of all the
students we may be able to change
some minds through discussion of all
our options.”
Sartori said the feelings of both the
students and faculty members are
taken into consideration, by the com
mittee, when voting.
“The differing opinions is some
Big 12 School
Bosults
Results following the proposed Martin
Luther King, Jr. student holiday. No
school voted for a fall break.
Yes No
University of Kansas [0 □
University of Oklahoma 0 □
Texas Tech University 0 □
Texas A&M University [0 □
Iowa State University □ [0
University of Colorado 0" □
University of Missouri 0 □
Baylor University □ 0
University of Texas 0 □
Kansas State University 0" □
Oklahoma State University 0" □
University of Nebraska □ 0
Jon Frank/DN
thing that we are going to have to wres
tle with,” he said.
To gauge student opinion about the
fall break and the observance of King’s
birthday, ASUN has conducted sur
veys, Rager said.
Of the 439 surveys ASUN had
compiled by Tuesday, 92 percent of
students supported both of die breaks.
Ruwe said ASUN would continue
to survey students and write letters to
regents and members of the calendar
committee. He said ASUN would
sponsor a forum Thursday at 7 p.m. in
the Nebraska Union for students to
voice their opinions on the breaks.
Sartori said the calendar commit
tee also surveyed 52 schools in UNL’s
peer group - schools which are of sim
ilar size and prominence - and out of
those schools, 42 celebrate King’s
birthday as a holiday.
Besides UNL, Iowa State
University in Ames, Iowa, and Baylor
Univesity in Waco, Texas, are the only
Big 12 schools that do not hold classes
on King’s birthday. None of the
schools has a fall break.
“I think if all of those schools man
age to observe the day and not ruin
class-scheduling processes, we should
be able to do so also,” Sartori said.
Other NU system schools have
also been discussing the possible
breaks.
UNK student body President
Bryan Reichmuth said his campus
supports the proposal.
“It’s a national holiday, and so we
figure why not celebrate it?”
Reichmuth said.
Jason Winterboer, UNO student
senate president, said UNO had
researched fall break, and he thought
UNO’s student senate will support it.
He said they have not considered the
King holiday, although he is in “full
support” of both the breaks.
UNMC calendar committee mem
ber Jeanie Ferbrache said only the stu
dents in the nursing and graduate
schools are affected by these propos
als. 'if
Other members of the calendar \
committee are grappling with the deci
sion on how they will vote.
Earl Hawkey, a member of the cal
endar committee and director of regis
tration and records at UNL, said he
would side with the Academic Senate
while considering his vote.
“I weigh the faculty’s opinion
heavier than that of the students,”
Hawkey said. “But my main role is to
represent the campus.”
miwe said ne rnougni me caienuar
committee should consider the voice
of the students.
“I think it’s important for (the cal
endar committee) to weigh the opin
ions of students and faculty at least
evenly, if not more in favor of students.
“We’d have no university without
the students, and of course we’d also
not have any university without the
professors, but in large part, tuitioii
pays the faculty’s salary. It’s very
important for members to keep student
opinion in mind,” Ruwe said.
Leslie Bell, president emeritus of
the Affikan People’s Union, said it was
disheartening that not all members of
the Academic Senate were present at
the original vote.
“This issue is so demanding, it
deserves the recognition of everyone
who sits on the senate,” Bell said.
One-third of the 92 faculty mem- i
bers on the Academic Senate were not
present at Tuesday’s meeting. 1
Bell said that some professors’
arguments against taking a day off for
the King holiday did not “override the
necessity to celebrate the holiday.”
“It behooves us to pay respect to
such a great man. He did so much for a
percentage of the university - for
everyone. He made strides toward ]
understanding equality that helps
everyone,” Bell said.
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Trees totaled by storm j
TREES from page 1
ern and south central Nebraska
counties suffered severe damage
while trees in 20 other counties suf
fered damage from the wet snow
clinging to leaves that still haven’t
fallen.
“It’s the worst damage I’ve ever
seen,” said Gary Hergenrader, a
state forester for 16 years.
The Forest Servic'e said that
nearly half of the trees damaged in
the 18-county area were large trees,
trees that were 17 inches or more in
diameter.
Thirty to 40 percent of those
large trees will require significant
pruning, another 30 to 40 percent
will require major pruning to avoid
safety hazards and the remaining
10 to 15 percent will be removed,
some immediately, some during the
next few years, the Forest Service
said.
But Wurdle said individuals
shouldn’t automatically chop down
trees in their yard just because
they’re damaged.
“Not every one of those trees is
damaged to the point where it needs
to be cut down,” he said. “A lot are
being cut down that quite frankly
do not need to be cut down.”
Said Hergenrader: “Look
beyond the broken limbs.”
The cost of clearing streets and
making public parks safe will be
paid for by public funds, Wurdle
1
Damage
The chart shows the estimated cost
to repair damage to trees caused
by the Oct 26 snowstorm.
HI. Pruning surviving trees
■ Renewal and disposal
of trees and limbs
— J f
said, but since residential areas
were also hardest hit, homeowners
with damaged trees will have to
fork out their own cash.
“For some folks it will be very
difficult to pay for their cleanup,”
he said. “This is not a small prob
lem.
“This is not a good thing at any
time of the year, and certainly not
before the Christmas holiday sea
son.”
But the monetary damage was
nearly secondary, Wurdle said, to
the damage done to communities’
appearance.
“What it’s done to the appear
’ 1
ance of some of our parks and resi
dential areas is serious,” he said.
“We were used to sitting under the
shade of trees planted by our grand
parents.”
But even with huge damage
estimates and the years of work and
tree planting needed to get some
communities looking like their old
selves again, Wurdle still could see
a bright side.
“It’s certainly not a good situa-,
tion, but it’s definitely something |
we can recover from,” he said.
“It looks better now than it did
the day after the storm, and it will
look better a year from now.”
’ 1