ENHANCE files protest
By Sarah Baker
Senior Reporter
The losing party in Wednesday’s
RHA election Thursday attempted
to declare the election null and void,
releasing a list of complaints.
Members of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln’s Residence Hall
Association ENHANCE party sent
out a list of complaints about the
conduct of the opposing ACTION
party and asked for a new election.
ENHANCE’s list of complaints
c edthat:
ACTION’S presidential nomi
nee, Ben Wallace, exchanged
friendly gestures, such as back rubs,
with RJHA Election Commissioner
Keri Stenger.
■ ENHANCE’s election com
missioners were uninformed about
election procedures.
■ RHA Adviser Chuck Rensick
was indifferent when complaints
were filed before the election.
■ The ENHANCE party mem
bers were harassed by election com
missioners while they were legally
campaigning.
■ ACTION supporters tam
pered with ballots.
Wallace said none of the allega
tions were true. '
“I think some of their concerns
have merit,” he said, “but I think the
concerns about Stenger are attack
ing the integrity of both of us.
“Hopefully, people who know
me know I would never attempt to
co tan election like this.”
illace said he had made an
attempt to lighten his friendship
with Stenger over the past few
weeks, and he felt that had been
made apparent.
“I think (ENHANCE) is some
a
Some people think
some of the
concerns are petty,
but when you are
running an election,
they aren’tpetty”
Larry Willis
ENHANCE presidential candidate
one trying to make an issue out of
nothing,” Wallace said. He said the
ACTION party was not preparing a
response.
Kristen Morrow, RHA treasur
er-elect from ENHANCE, said her
party members met with Rensick to
discuss their complaints Thursday
night.
Morrow said the party filed for
proceedings with the election com
mission, which consists of the elec
tion commissioners from the indi
vidual residence halls.
“The commission will hold a
hearing to see if there needs to be
any disciplinary action,” Morrow
said. “We have witnesses that say
the poll workers gave advice to vot
ers, and this clearly slants the elec
tion.”
Rensick refused to comment on
the process, but said that to the best
of Ms knowledge, an RHA election
had never been declared null in the
past.
ENHANCE presidential candi
date Larry Willis said his statement
came in response to concerns the
ENHANCE party had before the
election.
“We wanted to express these
concerns as a total package because
we wanted a fair election,” Willis
said. “We were met with indiffer
ence.
“Some people think some of the
concerns are petty, but when you are
running an election, they aren’t
petty.”
Stenger said her responsibilities
encompass many things, including
making sure the elections are “run
in a fair way.” She would not com
ment further.
Willis said ENHANCE’s main
goal in the process was to keep the
election fair and honest and said he
was not surprised by Wallace’s com
ments.
His statement would appear
natural to me if I had made the same
mistakes he did,” he said. “(The
election) was pretty stacked.”
Willis said the outcome of the
complaints will depend on the deci
sion of Rensick.
“If we have to re-run this elec
tion, we will,” he said.
Wallace said the only thing the
ACTION party is concerned with
now is the rules and the future of the
students in the residence halls.
“I think (ENHANCE candi
dates) want to make sure the rules
are being followed,” Wallace said,
“and I respect that
“However, I think we need to
decide if these complaints are
important enough to get in the way
of what is really important - the res
idence hall students.”
mr eils newWasting
By Josh Funk
Senior Reporter
Paul Peterson, a member of
Associated Retarded Citizens, could
n’t afford his own place until Fannie
Mae came to town last year.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest
mortgage company, made it possible
fofcthe Afcof Lincoln/Lancaster
County to build duplexes for its mem
bers tolivein.
“The independence factor will be
the best thing about having my own
place,” Peterson said.
At a news conference unveiling
the duplexes Thursday morning, offi
cials from Fannie Mae and the other
organizations involved in the project
spoke about what it took to make the
project a reality.
With $392 billion and $710 bil
lion in mortgage-backed securities,
Fannie Mae is the United States’
largest corporation.
A public company, Fannie Mae
was chartered by Congress and
President Franklin Roosevelt in
response to housing-finance prob
lems created by the Great Depression.
Today more than 12 million peo
ple nationwide live in homes Fannie
Mae helped finance.
In the year since Fannie Mae
opened its partnership office in
Lincoln, it has helped make more
than 8,800 Nebraskans homeowners.
It has invested more than $611 mil
lion in housing as part of its
HouseNebraska plan.
“We want to reach out to the
under-served and people with special
housing needs,” said Robert Levin,
Fannie Mae’s executive vice president
of marketing. “Our job is making sure
affordable housing is available to low
and moderate-income families.”
Across Nebraska, Fannie Mae is
doing just that, with projects in cities
including Lincoln, Omaha, York and
Hastings.
“We’ve exceeded our first-year
goals,” Levin said.
A little more than a year ago
Fannie Mae announced its partner
ship with Nebraska and committed to
providing 25,000 Nebraska families
with affordable housing.
Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter
was instrumental in bringing Fannie
Mae to Nebraska, said Steve
Peregrine, director of Lincoln’s
Fannie Mae partnership office.
When Fannie Mae announced it
was opening 25 partnership offices
across the country, Bereuter helped
convince the company to open an
office in Lincoln.
“I knew that Fannie Mae could
make a contribution to Nebraska
housing,” Bereuter said. “I thank
them for their work.”
As competition for Housing and
Urban Development programs
Increases, it is important to find new
housing partnerships, Bereuter said.
The duplex project involved a
number of partners: Nebraska
Investment Finance Authority,
Lincoln City Council, Equity Fund of
Nebraska and the Department of
Urban Development.
“Fannie Mae is the key to these
projects across the state,” Jay Dunlap
of the Equity Fund said.
The news conference concluded
with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a
tour of one of the completed units for
future residents.
Residents will be able to move
into the new duplexes, near 35* and
X streets, in June for $150 a month.
Partnership is what made the pro
ject work, said Tom Kinney, executive
director of the Nebraska Investment
Finance Authority.
“After we identified the problems,
we can come together to solve them.”
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. ' i ” ”, '
UNL’s Web page
given a ‘face lift’
■ The site was redesigned
to be more user-friendly
and to give the university
a fresh image on the Web.
By Jessica Fargen
Assignment Reporter
The university’s three A’s -
alumni, admissions and athletics -
may now be noticed by more peo
ple visiting UNL’s redesigned
World Wide Web site.
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s Web page was changed
to keep it fresh, to make it more
user-friendly and to display the
university’s new nameplate,
administrators said.
Sally Buchholz, manager of
publications and photography at
UNL, said the Web site, which has
been redesigned three times in the
past three or four years, was
changed because people said it was
hard to find information, particu
larly pertaining to those three A’s.
And, Buchholz said, users had
complained that they didn’t know
what button to click on to get what
they needed.
So, athletics, admissions and
alumni were moved to the home
page, and the search button and the
‘What’s New?’ button were moved
to a column on the left side of the
home page.
Two areas from the previous
site that were the most -confusing
or least helpful were the welcome
page and the online resources
page, Buchholz said. It was redis
tributed to other areas because it
was a “hodgepodge of information
that did not make-sense.”
The welcome page is now
clearer and not “such a bottleneck
for links to other pages,” she said.
The small, rectangular box,
containing several buttons leading
information-seekers to various
pages, was changed to a list with
descriptions. Now a viewer can
scroll down to see what major ser
vices the university is offering.
As people surf UNL’s Web
page, they also may notice the new
pictures and descriptions of online
university services.
“Having a Web site change
periodically is something that we
should be doing,” Buchholz said.
Carrie rierce, a junior adver
tising major, said she used the new
site Wednesday to get information
for an advertising project. From
the home page, she clicked on the
alumni page section, which was
not available two weeks ago.
The alumni page is now easier
to find, and students can readily
find out what the Alumni
Association offers.
Pierce said she thinks the page
is classier, and the university’s
image “gives off the feeling of
intelligence.”
Buchholz said she could not
put a figure on the cost of creating
a more user-friendly Web site.
The only expenses were the
staff time that was spent on the pro
ject. She said it took her a couple
months to enter codes and scan pic
tures, but it took a lot longer to
decide how to lay out the page,
choose pictures and evaluate the
information.
Staff from Love Library evalu
ated the old site and gave sugges
tions. Also, Web site information
providers gave suggestions after
looking at a test version.
Julie Swan, a cataloger at Love
Library, said for about six weeks
last fall several staff members test
surfed UNL’s Web page and other
university s’ Web pages to figure
out what worked and what did not.
Donna Liss, director of
Information Systems, said it was
Nameplate
toheadup
new image
By Jessica Fargen
Assignment Reporter
The university’s new Web
page isn’t the only change the
University of Nebraska
Lincoln has made to its image
recently.
An official university
nameplate will be appearing
on some university publica
tions this spring and soon on
all publications, said Phyllis
Larsen, UNL’s director of pub
lic relations.
“We’re working hard to get
a more consistent image
throughout the campus,” she
said.
ine nameplate was created
by a chancellor’s committee to
refine UNL’s image and distin
guish it from the rest of the
University of Nebraska sys
tem.
The new nameplate is the .
word Nebraska in red letters, in
a typeface similar to the Daily
Nebraskan’s front-page flag.
‘The University of Nebraska
Lincoln’ is printed underneath
the heading in smaller black
type.
The old nameplate - which
can be found in the upper right
corner of the current student
directory office phone directo
ry,and other UNL publications
- will be replaced almost com
pletely by next fall.
The university also will use
the header on more booklets
and documents than the old
one. For instance, all admis
sions materials will consistent
ly have the new nameplate.
Larsen said she did not
think the nameplate would
change for many years.
Sally Buchholz, manager
of publications and photogra
phy, said UNL has changed its
nameplate fairly regularly to
freshen up the university’s
image.
Larsen said the university
also was working on a new
logo specifically for UNL.
Implementing and design
ing the nameplate was not that
expensive, Larsen said,
because most publications,
such as the student directory,
were reprinted every year any
way.
Buchholz said redefining
the image of the university was
something that was necessary
to remain fresh.
“I hate to put a dollar value
on it,” Buchholz said, “because
it’s a part of what needs to be
done as a part of our communi
cation missions.”
fairly common to redesign Web
pages because universities have to
figure out what to do with online
services.
Liss said last weekend she vis
ited other university s’ Web pages,
and was surprised to find they
weren’t as nice as UNL’s.
“Ours used to look (like those),
but ours is a little crisper and
brighter now,” she said.
“They just need a face lift now
and then.”