I
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Lg^ '-tz in low places What the duck? February 2,1998
Kansas rorwaras Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce 18th annual Avoca Quackoff was, as usual, a
combined to score 30 second-half points as the hectic whirl of waterfowl, alcohol and general GlMNMNM
_J Jayhawks put away NU 82-71 Sunday. PAGE 7 mayhem. BACK PAGE Cloudy, flurries, high 38
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 92
■ UNL offers deferments
and job-finding assistance,
but more may be needed.
By Brad Davis
Senior Reporter
Help for Asian students swim
ming in a sea of financial crisis may
not be the life preserver some UNL
administrators think.
Merlin Lawson, dean of interna
tional affairs, said the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln would grant
Asian students with financial prob
lems two-month, penalty-free
deferments of their campus bills.
He said UNL would also assist
students in finding on-campus work
and pay for students’ applications
for off-campus work permits.
But Soongoo Hong, president of
the Korean Students Association,
said two-month deferments would
not help most Korean undergradu
ate students because Korean finan
cial markets are not expected to
rebound for four or five months.
Cheryll Benois Marie, president
of the Malaysian Students
Association, agreed and said defer
ring university bills until June
would allow her to work during the
summer to pay what she owed.
Because immigration laws
restrict international students from
working more than 20 hours per
week during the school year, stu
dents make most of their money in
the summer, when they can work 40
hours per week, she said.
“We use the money we make
from working the 20 hours for cost
of-living expenses,” Benois Marie
said, “and ourjiarents send us the
rest for (tuition) fees.”
Now, because of the devaluation
of Asian currency, Benois Marie
said, it’s as if her parents are putting
two children through school.
Lawson said UNL administra
tors also would consider scholar
ships and loans to assist Asian stu
dents who qualify.
The scholarship proposal, which
Lawson said he was presenting to
administrators today, could grant
lower tuition rates to the 421 stu
dents possibly affected by the crisis.
The proposal calls for tuition
rates that are more than Nebraska
resident tuition and less than out-of
state tuition.
Although Hong said he appreci
ated UNL’s efforts with the defer
ment plan, he said loans would best
help students with financial prob
lems.
Lawson said his scholarship
proposal was an emergency action,
and would not preclude any further
help by the university. But Romin
Lay, a freshman from Ujung
Pandang, Indonesia, said many
international students consider get
ting scholarships nearly impossible.
“A lot of times we see that only
Americans can get scholarships,”
Lay said. “But if they say that we
can also get the scholarship, then
we will study hard to keep our GPA
___ M
up.
Lay said a permit to work off
campus, instead of a scholarship,
would help him and other Asian stu
dents.
“But we don't know for sure if
the government will give us the per
mit,” Lay said, “It’s all up to the
government. If (the university) can
help to make sure we get a permit,
that would be wonderful.”
Lawson said his office would
lobby U.S. Immigration offices on
behalf of the students effected,
along with instructing the students
how to complete the permit request
forms.
“The university benefits consid
erably by the presence of interna
tional students on our campus,”
Lawson said. “It’s a humanitarian
gesture to step in and do what we
can to insure they wouldn’t have to
interrupt their educational program
in Nebraska.”
- ' •• -• .vv -\. -u. * .* • ****•
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Jonathan Hougitton/DN
£ HUIHUA HUANG and flaming Zhang do a traditional Chinese dance to the song “In the Land ef Nope" during
Saturdays Chinese New Years’ celebration. The event, held in the Nebraska Union, drew more than 500
people.
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By Kim Sweet
Staff Reporter
Both the traditional, mallet
driven rings of a dulcimer and the
electronic beats of modern
Chinese pop songs echoed from
the Nebraska Union Saturday
night.
The mix of old and new sounds
celebrated the end of the Year of
the Buffalo and the incoming Year
* of the Tiger during the 4,696th
Chinese New Year celebration.
Though it was only the fourth
I' annual celebration held by the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chinese Scholars and Students
Association, President Fuming
Zheng said the event, conducted
entirely in Chinese, was a success.
“It went much, much better
f than I expected,” he said.
The outlook for the on-campus
«
! 1
celebration seemed less positive
during its planning stages, Zheng
said. He said he knew putting on
the event would be costly, but
CSSA had no money.
So Zheng asked the University
Program Council to sponsor the
event. When UPC refused, Zheng
started writing letters asking for
support from potential sponsors
across Nebraska and the nation.
When Zheng felt most con
cerned a lack of funding could
cancel the event, checks began to
arrive.
The Chancellor’s Office con
tributed, and International Affairs
donated two times more money
than it usually provides. The
Chinese Embassy in Washington,
D.C., gave $700 so students from
China could celebrate one of the
biggest events of the Chinese year.
Local Chinese restaurants
helped too, by agreeing to reduce
the cost of catering, and Pepsi pro
vided beverages.
Meanwhile, CSSA members
began selling tickets at prices $1
higher than last year. They recruit
ed prospective attendees from all
over Nebraska, calling people they
knew in other cities, including
Omaha and Norfolk.
The students asked contacts to
come and to bring all of their
friends, Zheng said.
And they did just that.
One group of Americans
trekked in from Norfolk and per
formed a Chinese song for the
audience.
“We have had several Chinese
students in our home,” Becky
Walters, one of the Norfolk enter
tainers, said. “We decided to come
down. The Chinese New Year has
so much meaning for them.”
The Chinese New Year, the
first day of the lunar calendar,
marks the first day of spring and is
associated with starting anew.
Because the celebration is
known as a time for family and
friends to reunite, cooking large
amounts of food is part of the
Please see NEW YEAR on 2
science day helps nurture student interest
By Marissa Carstens
Staff Reporter
Chocolate-covered crispies, yummy
hummers and spicy bug crunch tempted
dozens of elementary-school children as
they scrambled for the bug-filled treats this
weekend in Morrill Hall.
A few tiny noses crinkled at the thought
of swallowing a honey bee or a mealworm
laced snack bar.
But a few bites later, some said, “Hey,
this is good.”
Edible bugs were just one of many pre
sentations given during Science Saturday, an
annual event designed to rouse children’s
interest in science.
Seventeen scientists representing the four
University of Nebraska campuses conducted
presentations that brought in a museum
record crowd of more than 3,200, said Kathy
French, a Nebraska State Museum program
coordinator.
Many of the children attending the event
left with smiles on their faces and a willing
ness to relive their favorite exhibits.
Courtney Powers, a first-grader at
Rousseau Elementary, said her favorite event
featured a professor submerging objects in
liquid nitrogen and shattering them.
During the presentation, Diandra Leslie
Pelecky, an assistant professor of physics at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, sub
merged an elastic O-ring to demonstrate a
contributing factor in the Challenger space
shuttle explosion in 1986.
One O-ring used as a seal on the
Challenger failed after being exposed to cold
temperatures overnight, she told her audi
ence.
Leslie-Pelecky then snapped the ring into
a dozen pieces.
Megan Scherling, a first-grader at
Humann Elementary, also saw the nitrogen
presentation.
But her favorite was listening to her little 1
brother Jared’s heartbeat through a stetho
scope, she said.
Please see SCIENCE on 3
Chris Bendet/DN
!M CARR, a UHL chemistry professor, demon* V*
strates the colors heet (nice teres when
exposed to comm os household chemlcalSa
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