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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1998)
—n 11 maae—Ljasa sm m,——^mi — " Nikki Fox/DN PHYUSS STONE, from South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation, explains Native American culture at the F Street Recreation Center. Powwow reaffirms strong American Indian heritage POWWOW from page 1 children to remember that their strong heritage does not make them inferior. ^-“We eafl do anything we want tenths^. Sftyfte'rsftidi ,^‘ We are Lakota. We are smart people.” Stone displayed a full table of items she brought from her tribe and pointed to the object she felt most proud of: a long, red sand stone pipe wrapped in white leather and decorated with beads.“The most important thing to us is our pipe,” Stone said. “It is a part of our lives. It is a part of ..■ v>, our spirituality.” Lakota people use the pipes to pray, she said. Stone said someone once asked if she hung pipes on the - wall for decoration. “How many Bibles do you see hanging on the wall?” she said. Like Bibles, pipes are sacred objects, not decorations, she said. All Nebraskans should appre ciate American Indians, Stone said, not only for the benefit of her and her people, but for their own. “We, the Lakota, are great people,” she said, “special people because we are Lakota.” Amendment proposes to ban discrimination PROPOSAL from page 1 federal mandates. They said they had testified in philosophical oppo sition to preferences and set-asides, in general. Several opponents disputed Witek’s assertion that the proposal would preserve affirmative action. Alfonzo Whittaker, executive director of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, said the language in Witek’s bill would be satisfactory in a color-blind society. But Nebraska and the United States have not yet reached that goal, and racial prejudice lingers, he said. “To pretend racial and gender bias does not exist doesn’t make it disappear,” he said. “Affirmative action is necessary to counter the effects of past as well as ongoing discrimination.” Whittaker cited a recent U.S. Department of Labor study which found only six cases nationwide of bona fide reverse discrimination. Meanwhile, he said, affirmative action programs have allowed some minorities opportunities they had been denied by years of discrimina tion. “This would be akin to throwing away one of the major cures while allowing the disease to go unchecked,” he said. Michael Combs, a pastor at Lincoln’s Mount Zion Baptist Church and professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the propos al mirrored historical attempts to prematurely claim racism had ended. “In saying we have created a color-blind society, we have actual ly created an all-white society,” he said. “This is clearly about exclud ing blacks. “Let us not say we have eradi cated racism too soon.” The proposal also could harm UNL’s attempts to recruit minority students and faculty, said Ron Withem, a lobbyist for the universi ty. Currently, there is no danger that the university would discrimi nate against a white student while it recruits minorities, Withem said. There’s no need for a solution because there is no problem, he said. After the hearing ended and the packed hearing room cleared, the committee took no action on the bill. £FA raises union budget Increase does not meet amount requested By Jessica Fargen Assignment Reporter The CFA approved a 3.5 percent increase in the Nebraska Unions’bud> get Thursday, significantly less than die 9 percent requested. v ^ But students can expect that per centage to change again before fait The Committee for Fees Allocation’s decision also: ■ makes cuts in requests for more Student Involvement resources. ; ” ■ continues tobacco sales in the unions. ■ limits use of the proposed union art gallery to student exhibits. ■ keeps revenue from an ATM lease in the union’s fund rather than the university’s general hind. This reduced the union’s request ed budget of $2,152,253 to $2,042,633. CFA members held no discussion on their stance on tobacco sales and voted unanimously both on this mea sure and the bank lease. Continuing tobacco sales would provide about $31,000 of the union budget. * The committee also cut money from the art gallery in the new union. Director of Nebraska Unions Daryl Swanson had asked for mopey to pay for traveling artwork and extrh staff to guard it. CFA members decided to cut costs by showing student work rather than bringing exhibits to the gallery. Some CFA members said die $20 increase in student fees for union ren ovations was already steep, and using student fee money for professional art with several art galleries already near by did not make sense. 1 Others said that if the union is going to have an art gallery, it might as well be used to its full potential. “If we do this I think we should do it well,” said Mike McQuistan, a CFA member. Swanson said a gallery with only student exhibits may be empty more often because of the lack of staff and time to change exhibits every couple weeks, which would look bad for the union and provide no “continuity.” But Megan Wigert, a CFA mem ber, said it did not make sense for stu dents to incur the extra cost this year if it could wait until next year. “You don’t go out and buy a whole new wardrobe - you buy a piece at a time,” Wigert said. Wigert’s opinion also applied to the Student Involvement budget to pay for increased services to the 300 percent larger facility they will have. Student Involvement Director Marilyn Bugenhagen said students would benefit from increased hours, which takes more staff and money. Currently, the office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but Bugenhagen wanted to keep the office open until about 10 p.m. as well as on weekends because it would fit student schedules better. CFA recommended that Student Involvement phase in the hours next year and close around 7 p.m. until a need is identified. Student Involvement also lost money budget ed for the staff to keep longer hours. The committee did not cut the budgets of the Culture Center, Women’s Center or East Campus Administration or from die projected utilities costs necessary to heat and cool the new 55,000 square foot addi tion. Budgets were not set for the University Health Center, Nebraska Unions, Campus Recreation Center, Daily Nebraskan, University Program Council and Association of Students of the University ofNebraska. Marlene Beyke, development director for ASUN, said Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs James Griesen will soon have a “conversion ratio” to help figure out how student fees will be affected by the 1,060 fewer students enrolled at UNL this year. In fall 1996,23,887 students were enrolled at UNL. In the fall of 1997, 22,827 were enrolled. Besides making up for fewer stu dents, the numbers may change when salaries are considered as staff mem bers move up the administration lad der. The union has the option to appeal at CFA meetings on Thursday and Feb. 24. After that, appropriations bills for each fee user are presented to the ASUN senate, where again, appealing is possible. ASUN will vote on each budget, but President Curt Ruwe has the power to line-item veto; the senate can overrule with a two-thirds major ity. After ASUN votes, Griesen will take the ASUN-approved budgets to the chancellor, who has the power to make changes to the budget. The NU Board of Regents then votes on the final budgets. RHA plans movie at Abel Hall, toga party for Neihardt Hall ByIevaAugstums Assignment Reporter If you’re living in the residence halls and have nothing to do, then the UNL Residence Hall Association has some activities for you. Wednesday is movie night in Abel Residence Hall. All residence hall stu dents are invited to attend die showing of “Hoodlum” in Abel’s 24-hour study lounge at 7 p.m. *• Matt Knobbe, Abel Hall president, said Abel Hall government will be giv ing away water guns to those who attend. The free water guns are a promotion for the campus-wide assassins game RHA is planning for later in the semes ter, he said. If water isn’t your thing and dressing up is more your style, pull off those bed sheets andjoin the greeks fora toga party. On Thursday Neihardt Residence Hall is turning back the clock and trans porting residence hall students to Athens, Greece. “People always say we (residence hall students) are geeks and don’t know how to have fun,” Nicholaus Yager, a junior math and pre-medicine major, said. “This is now an opportunity to be wild and have fun.” The dance will be held at 8 p.m. in the Neihardt Residence Hall Blue TV Lounge. ; Diversity in Hlstoiv Editor's note: Each day during Black History Month, the Daily Nebraskan will teH the story of a minority who made an important contribution in (qi America’s history. " . <^TV Because the poor, black Michigan railroad worker learned mechanical engineering as an apprentice and (£^p^ developed the first lubricator for steam engines; Because he later invented and patented other lubricators for items including air-brake pumps, Clocomotive cylinders-and engines, slide valves and dope cups and heavy oils; >3^ Because his lubricants became industry standards I feL* for steamships on the Great Lakes, trans-Atlantic /•S-r liners> stationary engines, locomotives and heavy | < machinery in factories; J /S4-n Because he invented and patented the folding ironing board, folding scaffold support, buggy top support, tire treads, lawn sprinklers and a vehicle . wheel tire; Because his more than 40 patents brought in millions of dollars to his investors^ but he died a relatively poor man in 1929; Elijah McCoy is recognized as one of the foremost engineers and inventors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose prestigious products came to be known as "The Real McCoy.” Presidents' letters posted 1 on Internet WASHINGTON (AP) - For Presidents Day the Library of Congress posted 8,000 letters on the Internet written by George Washington, including one to his mother during a hairbreadth escape from death in battle. “I luckily escaped without a wound, tho’ I had four bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me,” he wrote. In Washington’s time bad roads and other hazards made mail delivery uncertain. So people often kept, copies of their letters in a “letter-book.” - jnow us e-maii mat sometimes disappears* swallowed by a com puter glitch. Guy Lamolinara, who publicizes material the Library of Congress posts on die World Wide Web, thinks people who send letters by e-mail should keep printouts. “We probably won’t have cor respondence as complete as some we have from earlier times,” he said. Presidents Day celebrates the birthdays of both Washington and Abraham Lincoln. .■ On Felx 4, four of more than 26,000 papers in the library’s Lincoln collections went online. Among them is a first draft in his own hand of the Emancipation Proclamation, written more than five months before he issued it Sept 22,1862. The new Lincoln material will be made available with a gift of $1 million from the Jones Family ; Foundation of Fond du Lac, Wis. Washington’s letters are being financed with a $1 million gift from Reuters news agency. Later, letters from Thomas Jefferson and other presidents will be put online. They can be found through the library’s home page, www.loc.gov.