|_suits_ _til_ FRIDAY
How do you spell relief? Who wants candy? February 2
First-year Husker pitchers Christie McCoy and Bow Wow Wow, an 80s pop group that made its mark with
Lori Tschannen look to give staff ace Jenny Voss its rendition of “I Want Candy,” has reunited and will per- WELCOME BiCX,
_ some relief this season. PAGE 7 form at Knickerbockers Sunday night. PAGE 9 Cloudy, colder, high 36.
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 112
Union funds needed
■ UNL will ask for $800,000
increase to complete renovations. ■■■■ilii^^^^^^BB^Jpi
By Brad Davis
Senior Reporter
The director of Nebraska Unions will ask
the NU Board of Regents on Saturday to dig
deep into its pockets to fund an $800,000
budget increase for the Nebraska Union ren
ovation.
Daryl Swanson said the increase was
needed because of a consultant’s miscalcula
tion of the amount of asbestos in the union.
As construction workers began replacing
the air-handling systems in the old part of the
union, Swanson said, they found unexpected
asbestos they hadn’t budgeted to remove.
Originally, Swanson said administrators
thought a $700,000 construction contin
gency fund - an account reserved for
unplanned construction expenses - could
cover the extra removal costs.
But as workers found more asbestos,
Swanson said, it became clear the union
would have to petition the regents for an
increased budget.
Swanson said asbestos removal has been
stopped while workers wait for the budget’s
approval.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln adminis
trators and Swanson are proposing regents
use a reserve surplus from facilities bonds
purchased in the 1960s to fund the increase.
The reserve fund was created from the
excess student fees used to pay off the bonds
that provided money to build campus build
ings in the 1960s: the high-rise residence
halls; the Nebraska East Union; the
University Health Center and renovations to
the Nebraska Union.
Regent John Payne of Kearney said the
regents would have no choice but to approve
the budget request.
To stop construction of a multi-million
dollar project for $800,000, would be ridicu
lous, he said.
If the regents don’t approve the budget
request, Swanson said, the union renovation
project would be stifled.
Because the project is 14 months under
way, the renovation can’t be downscaled.
Instead, Swanson said, “large poisons of it
would go unfinished.” pr
Post-tenure
annual review
considered
By Brad Davis
Senior Reporter
In an effort to ensure tenured profes
sors remain committed to their jobs, the
NU Board of Regents will consider a post
tenure review proposal Saturday.
James Ford, president of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Academic Senate, said the proposal before
the regents both assures quality and pro
tects professors’ academic freedom.
The review operates as a “trigger,”
Ford said, and is enacted only when a fac
ulty member’s annual review shows defi
ciencies.
An annual review evaluates a profes
sor’s contribution to the mission of the
university: teaching, research and service.
Each field of study has its own
requirements related to UNL’s three
pronged mission, and professors are eval
uated accordingly, Ford said.
Evelyn Jacobson, associate vice chan
cellor for academic affairs, said faculty
Please see TENURE on 2
Plans for a plaza and fountain area in the
front of the union would be discontinued.
“It’s not a matter of being for it, it’s just a
matter of you’re going to have to vote and
take care of it,” Payne said. “It’s a problem
that unfortunately won’t go away.”
■ The board will vote on raising the cost
of room and board in UNL’s residence halls
by $165 per year. For a double room with 19
meals per week, the price would go up to
$3,865.
A fruitful craft
Ryan Soderlin/DN
BEN EHLERS, a junior art major, tries to paint an exact copy of Paul Cezanne9* “Apples
and Oranges99 in Richards Hall Thursday evening, the painting was a project for his
Painting 251 class.
Law schools push diversity
By Lindsay Young
Assignment Reporter
Law schools across the county - including
NU’s - are lashing back at recent attempts to ban
ish affirmative action from law school admis
sions.
NU College of Law will hold its annual
Minority Law Day Saturday as part of a nation
wide effort to highlight endangered minority
recruiting programs at law schools.
The effects of setbacks in affirmative action at
California and Texas law schools have led to the
naming of February as National Minority Law
Recruitment Month.
NU College of Law responded by moving
Minority Law Day, which is usually held in the
fall, to Saturday. It will be held at Ross McCollum
Hall on University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East
Campus from 10 a.m. to 1:30 pm.
The month is part of a commitment to diversi
ty and minority recruitment by die Law School
Admission Council, said Leo Romero, Law
School Admission Council chairman.
The Law School Admission Council is the
national organization that produces the LSAT,
administers the LSAT internationally and deals
with law school applicants.
This renewed commitment started after the
council noticed results of Proposition 209, which
amended California’s constitution, and the
Hopwood Case in Texas.
The University of California at Berkeley law
school had only one black student enrolled this
year, Romero said.
Prior to Proposition 209, the school had more
than 10 percent minority students, said Matt
LeMieux, executive director of the American
Civil Liberties Union in Nebraska.
Proposition 209 says government entities can
not show preferential treatment of any kind. This
affects universities, LeMieux said, because they
tend to focus on recruiting minorities.
Please see LAW on 3
ACADEMIC RIGOR:
New freshmen will face high expectations
Editor s note: This week the Daily
Nebraskan will take an in-depth look
at one of the hottest issues in UNL
curriculum: academic rigor.
By Brad Davis
Senior Reporter
Freshmen: Be prepared to work,
because administrators think you’re
pretty smart.
So smart, in fact, that your mean
ACT score increased one point, from
a23toa24.
And you also had to meet harder
admission standards than your prede
cessors - 16 core classes, including
four math classes; at least a 20 ACT
score; and a ranking in the top half of
your class.
With the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s heightened standards,
administrators are counting on this
year’s freshman class - and future
freshmen - to succeed in an academi
cally rigorous environment.
Senior Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs Richard Edwards
said those increased admissions stan
dards, which started last semester,
sent a message to high school stu
dents that UNL is concerned wt&itte
background they bringib'cofltgc* %
“We want to make sure people
understand that they’re coming here
as students,” Edwards said, “that
there’s an exciting life of the mind that
goes on on the campus, and we want
students to be coming here for that.”
Edwards said the university had to
consider its reputation, which could
be improved by rigor.
“With respect to the peer institu
tions, we would probably not be at the
top, or even at die midpoint of com
petitiveness in terms of students - so
we’ve got some work to do there.”
Administrators hope the work will
pay off when the better-qualified
classes reduce UNEs 25 percent drop
out rate between students’ freshman
and sophomore years.
Judy Zohner, a counselor at North
Platte High School, said she didn’t
know if the new standards would
decrease UNL’s high attrition rate.
“I’m not sure they take into
account kids’ work ethics,” Zohner
said. “There’s a lot more that goes into
being a successful college student
than if you’ve just had a higher level
of academics.”
Zohner questioned whether high
school students considering majors in
social service, education or journal
ism needed four years of math before
entering the university.
“I would assume it affects some
kids, because not every kid has the
ability to get to pre(calculus,)” she
said.
But if a student meets UNL’s
requirements, Zohner tells her stu
dents they can get into almost any
school in the nation.
Gary Neuhaus, a counselor at
Millard South High School, said stu
dents who have taken four years of
high school math would be better pre
pared to succeed in college.
But with that better preparation,
Neuhaus said, he wondered if UNL’s
Please see RIGOR on 6
. I - l. -- - ■ J -.11 1 1 — ... i. ■ ■ Ml. ■ ■■■■■■■ .. " 1 " .. 1
on the World Wide Web at http: llwww.utd.edal'DailyNeb
