SPORTS
Running back
After sitting out last season with a pelvic injury,
DeAngelo Evans will attempt to earn the No. 1
I-back position next fall. PAGE 7
Ajj
To the rafters
Saturday night, Knickerbockers will bring a full
package of rock 'n' roll with two concerts featur
ing four different bands. PAGE 9
FRIDAY
April 17, 1998
Hace Sol
Mostly sunny, high 60. Partly cloudy tonight, low 34.
VQL- 97_COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 142
tiu ■niinri . . . . ,.. . . Lane Hickenbottom/DN
tim ALVAREZ, surrounded by four of the students he advises, has responsibilities that extend beyond his
Teachers College academic advising duties. He is adviser to three groups: Mexican American Student
Association, Future Educators of Color and Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity. He also helps with the college’s
equity committee and the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of People of Color.
Adviser overcomes odds
Editor's note: In honor of
Chicano Awareness Week, the Daily
Nebraskan is profiling Chicano
leaders at the university and in the
community’ who want to make a dif
ference 'for the people, for the
future.'Today is the last in a three
part series.
By Lindsay Young
Assignment Reporter
Tim Alvarez is using his past to
help students prepare for their
futures.
Growing up in Minitare, he
said, he had little direction in his
education. Though his parents
were supportive, his mother fin
ished only eighth grade, and his
father, seventh.
The Teachers College academ
ic adviser said that when parents
don’t go through the entire system,
they can’t help guide their children
through things such as financial
aid, housing and scheduling.
“Sometimes people of color
don’t have the advantage of having
parents that have gone through the
system,” he said.
Because of this, Alvarez has
focused his last three years on
advising students and creating
support programs for minority stu
dents in the Teachers College.
Before that, he worked with
prospective students in
Admissions at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln and was the
director of a grant program for
underrepresented students at
Eastern Wyoming Community
College.
Although his official title is
academic adviser and minority
student coordinator in Teachers
Please see ALVAREZ on 3
McFarland faces state in call-in show
By Sarah Baker
Senior Reporter
About 10 Nebraskans seized an opportu
nity Thursday to question a possible future
governor during a television call-in show.
Callers asked questions on taxes, educa
tion, the future of Nebraska and gun control
to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim
McFarland Thursday night during
“Nebraskans Ask,” a statewide weekly call
in show on NETV.
McFarland, the first of the gubernatorial
candidates to appear on the show, said one
thing he planned on doing if elected in
November would be to veto LB 1175, the
recent bill concerning state aid to Nebraska
schools.
“I would veto that right off the bat,”
McFarland told host Ed Howard. “It is nec
essary to have a fair system, not a blank
check. I see that amendment as a blank
check.”
McFarland said he would go as far as
calling the Legislature back into special ses
sion to fix the “mistake.”
“I think it could jeopardize the state eco
nomic picture,” he said. “Too often we pass
bills that contain both good and bad, and
then we are faced with the dilemma of going
back to fix the mistake later.”
r
Staying on the subject of education,
McFarland also discussed keeping recent
college graduates in the state after they
receive their degrees.
Omaha Sen. Jon Bruning's “brain gain”
bill died in the Legislature last week.
“This issue should be a big concern to
us,” McFarland said. “I would like to see
(graduates) stay and work in Nebraska.”
McFarland said he supported Gov. Ben
Nelson’s idea of “forgivable loans” - loans
the state would pay for if students agreed to
stay in the state.
“This positive approach is something I
would consider reintroducing,” he said.
He said he hopes students realize the
assets Nebraska has before they make the
choice to leave.
“We have a low crime rate, a good educa
tion system, and I can tell you I don’t want to
live anywhere else but here,” he said.
During the 20-minute telecast,
McFarland also discussed LB465, the leg
islative bill concerning concealed weapons.
He said he feels the bill and the idea of
gun control are good ideas if approached in
Please see McFARLAND on 2
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Republicans
talk tax relief
■ The three candidates
for governor contrast on
the issue of hiring gays.
By Brian Carlson
Senior Reporter
OMAHA - Republican candidates
for governor squabbled over how best
to control state spending and provide
tax relief to Nebraska citizens during a
televised forum Thursday night.
Most of the 60-minute forum cen
tered around the growth in state spend
ing, which Jon Christensen, John
Breslow and Mike Johanns agreed was
too high and had imposed a heavy bur
den on the state's taxpayers.
The forum also included a discus
sion of gay rights, with Breslow saying
he would not discriminate against gays
in filling state offices, Johanns saying
sexual lifestyle was a private matter
and a non-issue, and Christensen say
ing he would not appoint a gay person
to a state office.
All three candidates said they
would sign a petition, which began cir
culating this week, calling for a consti
tutional amendment to limit the growth
of state spending to slightly more than
2 percent annually.
Christensen, the 2nd District U S.
representative, said he had successfully
worked for tax relief in Congress and
would continue his efforts as governor.
“We need some way to tie the
hands of our elected officials so we
don’t continue to spend our children’s
inheritance,” he said.
Breslow, the state auditor, said he
supported the cap because it would
control spending in the future. But “it
will not affect me one bit,” he said,
because his plan calls for a 5 percent -
or $100 million - annual reduction in
state spending.
Lincoln Mayor Johanns, who tout
ed his four consecutive years of
reduced property taxes in the Capital
City, said spending lids could be man
aged much as he had managed his bud
get - by prioritizing and improving
government efficiency.
“Government is about priorities,
and you have to decide what your pri
orities are,” he said. “Where govern
ment gets into trouble is when it tries to
be all things to all people.”
All three candidates agreed Gov.
Ben Nelson should veto LB1175,
which was passed by the Legislature
this week despite the attachment of a
controversial amendment requiring the
state to fill a S70 million gap in school
funding beginning in 2001.
Under 1996 s LB 1114, school levy
limits will drop from SI. 10 per SI00
evaluation to S1 in 2001.
If the state is expected to bear the
costs of lower levies, the goal of prop
erty-tax relief can’t be met,
Christensen said.
“If we take the teeth out of 1114,
what good is it?” Christensen said. “It’s
a tax shift.”
Breslow, whose plan calls for a 25
percent reduction in property taxes and
SI28 million to improve schools, said
property-tax relief is far from reaching
fruition.
“There are more loopholes in 1114
than you could believe,” he said.
Johanns emphasized local control
of schools. The people of individual
school districts can hold special elec
tions to override levy limits.
“Mandatory, forced consolidation
won’t work in Nebraska, and I won’t
support it,” he said. “Give local people
the opportunity to make this decision,
and good things will happen. I have no
doubt about it.”
Johanns added that he was the only
candidate whose ideas about tax relief
had been implemented.
“One candidate on either aisle in
this race has actually cut the property
Please see FORUM on 3
