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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1998)
Greeks, RHA combine efforts for week ByIevaAugstums Assignment Reporter UNL’s greek system and Residence Hall Association will join forces for the first time Tuesday, pro moting philanthropic activities cam puswide. This year’s “Greek Week ’98 - Leadership, Excellence, Academics, Dedication” and “Res. Hall Party Week” occur simultaneously. Members of both organizations said they are collectively raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Lincoln City Mission. Director of Greek Affairs Linda Schwartzkopf said this week isn’t an all-greek or all-residence hall effort. “It’s an all-campus effort,” she said. RHA President Ben Wallace said combining the activities is a “great cornerstone for building relations among residence hall students and the greeks.” “Greeks, are not freaks,” he said. “Residence hall students aren’t freaks either.” Jed Christensen, Greek Week co chairman, said having joint activities “is a way to break down the stereotypes between RHA and the greek system. “We both are fighting the same battle,” Christensen said. “It’s now a joint combat for the same cause - improving relations and helping out the community.” Christensen and Wallace said the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Panhellenic Association, Interfratemity Council and RHA had identical ideas and goals with their respective weeks. “Co-sponsoring the philanthropy projects seemed natural,” Christensen said. On Tuesday, an ice cream social to benefit Make-A-Wish will take place on the greenspace east of Memorial Stadium. From 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., participants can enjoy ice cream, root beer floats and soda, and can listen to live music from The Mediums, Magic Bus Ride and Izzy Wiz. Christensen said there will be a contest between greek houses and residence halls to see who can raise the most money through ticket sales. “The philanthropic activities are meant to be a friendly competition,” he said. Christensen said tickets are $2, or $3 at the door, and can be purchased at booths set up in the Nebraska T T •____! J__ 11 urnuud ui at catu uau. All money raised from the ice cream social and other Greek Week activities will go to the Make-A-Wish foundation to sponsor a terminally ill child’s last wish. Sarah Kelling, RHA social committee member and fresh man international business major, said both organizations also will par ticipate in a food and clothing drive for the Lincoln City Mission. “Instead of go-greek or go-resi dence hall, it is go-UNL,” she said. Panhellenic President Sherri Neal agreed. “Amazing things can be done if you combine every resource on this campus - greeks and residence halls, included,” Neal said. “The results are bound to be tremendous.” Education bill vetoed VETO from page 1 tion funding. Bohlke said the veto could wreak havoc on school districts as they attempt to formulate their budgets and allocate special education fund ing. “I had anticipated the governor vetoing the bill,” she said. “I had not anticipated him not calling a special session. I think that’s irresponsible.” The bill also included funding for schools facing emergency bud getary situations. Nelson said he supported the bill’s original intent, but with the late inclusion of the amendment, spon sored by Sen. Bob Wickersham of Harrison, the bad parts outweighed the good, Nelson said. “I am always concerned with ‘Christmas tree’ bills, and in this case, unfortunately, the last orna ment collapsed the whole tree,” Nelson wrote in his veto letter to the Legislature. • Bohlke said the governor could still be lobbied to call a special ses sion. Otherwise, she said, the gover nor’s veto could be allowed to stand, causing Nelson to take the heat from affected school districts. Because the state’s special edu cation funding does not end until Aug. 31, 1999, the Legislature has time to pass a new formula, and law makers say a special session this spring may not be needed. But Bohlke said schools need to know in advance how much funding they will receive so they can plan their budgets. With Nelson’s veto, it may take until next April to pass a new special education funding for mula, she said. Nelson said the state shouldn’t automatically replace lost revenue from property tax cuts with addition al state aid. Tax relief can’t be achieved that wray, he said. “If we don’t let the process work we are not being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money and we are fail ing in our duty.” The Associated Press con tributed to this report. __ _ . . Questions? comments? Ask for me Editor: Paula Lavigne Managing Editor: Chad Lorenz appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588 Associate News Editor: Erin Schulte „ -j., Associate News Editor: Ted Taylor orwnalldn@unlinfo.unl.edu. Assignment Editor: Erin Gibson Asst Online Editor: Amy Pemberton Opinion Editor: Kasey Kerber General Manager: Dan Shattil Sports Editor: David Wilson Publications Board Melissa Myles, A&E Editor: Jeff Randall Chairwoman: (402)476-2446 Copy Desk Chiefs: Bryce Glenn Professional Adviser: Don Walton, FT»oto Director: Ryan Soderlin (402) 473-7301 Design Co-Chiefs: Jamie Ziegler Advertising Manager: Nick Putsch, Tony Toth (402)472-2589 Art Director: Matt Haney Online Editor: Gregg Steams Classifleld Ad Manager: Mami Speck Fax number (402) 472-1761 % World Wide Web: www.uni.edu/DailvNeb The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by theUNL^ub^tions Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday durning the academic year; weekly during the summer sess»ns.The public has access to the Publications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling (402)472-2588. Subscriptions are $55 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Dafly Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R Si, Lincoln NE 68588-0448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1998 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN _I-1_, [ ^ I GREEK WEEK Continuing the scholarship, leadership and service in UNL’s greek system, all chapters are invited to par ticipate in “Greek Week ’98 - Leadership, Excellence, Academics, Dedication,” today through Friday. ■ Greek members are invited to attend the Spring Program in the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7 p.m. Speaker and comedian T. Marti Voss will give a presentation, “Celebration of Laughter.” Each person is encouraged to bring a $ 1 donation for the Make-A Wish Foundation. ■ In collaboration with UNL’s RHA, an ice cream social Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation. Ice cream, root beer floats, soda and live bands will be under a tent on the greenspace east of Memorial Stadium. Tickets are $2, or $3 at the door. ■ Thp Grw»lf Olvmnirs will takft nlape WftHnpsriav ^ A A * on the greenspace north of the Nebraska Union. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. greeks are invited to participate in Field-day events and relay activities. From 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., triads participating in the Greek Week skit contest will perform in the UNL Culture Center, 333 N. 14th Street. ■ Beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Greek Week banquet will be at Top of the Rock, 14th and P streets. Omaha Sen. Jon Bruning will speak, and an awards presentation will acknowledge individual chapters and greek system members. ■ A greekwide Friday afternoon club will be at P.O. Pears, 322 S. Ninth Street, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Triad skit finals and a sand volleyball contest will take place. RHAWEEK Creating a larger UNL residence hall community within existing halls is the goal of this years “Res. Hall Party Week.” UNL residence hall students are invited to partici pate in activities today through Friday. ■ After Tuesday’s ice cream social in collaboration with the greek system, the movie “Son-in-Law” will be shown in Burr Residence Hall’s TV Lounge at 8 p.m. Participants will receive Dorito giveaways. ■ “South Park,” potpies and cheesy puffs will take center stage weanesaay in me iNeinarai resilience Hall’s Blue TV Lounge. Beginning at 9 p.m., partici pants will watch “South Park” and eat cheese puffs. After the show, a potpie-eating and Cartman-imper sonation contest will be held. ■ Ice skating at the Ice Box, 1800 State Fair Park Drive, Thursday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. The first 50 students skate for free; otherwise, $ 1 is needed for skate rental. ■ Students are encouraged to attend University Programming Council’s “Live before Dead Week” Friday. UPC activities begin at 11 a.m. on the green space east of Memorial Stadium. Activities include sand volleyball, Twister and live music. Senators talk Social Security By Brian Carlson Senior Reporter Although U.S. Sens. Bob Kerrey and Chuck Hagel sit on different sides of the aisle in the Senate, they agreed Friday that Social Security reform should include partial privati zation of retirement accounts. Speaking in Kimball Recital Hall at an E.J. Faulkner Lecture on entitle ment reform, the senators said Social Security was intended to provide a retirement supplement to lifetime savings, not serve as the sole source of retirees’ incomes. But according to Kerrey’s statis tics, Social Security now provides 100 percent of income for 16 percent of beneficiaries and 90 to 99 percent of income for another 14 percent. With an explosion in the number of retirees in the first third of the next century, the current program is pro jected to be insolvent by 2029. Hagel, the Republican junior sen ator, said Social Security reform should recognize that individuals and the private sector are better able to create personal wealth than the gov cnimcm. “It was, and still is, the personal responsibility of Americans to save for their own retirement,” he said. “However we choose to restructure Social Security, we need to get back to the idea of personal responsibility. “We need to create a system that encourages and incentivizes people to save and to build their own person al wealth for their retirement” Hagel stopped short of endorsing any of the reform plans currently on the table. He encouraged Americans to provide input and help drive the debate in Washington. One of the reform plans put forth in Washington was sponsored by Kerrey, Nebraska’s Democratic senior senator. Friday morning, he touted his plan to enhance Americans’ wealth-building capacity as a visionary idea for transforming the way Americans think about aging and investing. Kerrey’s plan would cut by 2 per centage points the 12.4 percent pay roll tax, which is shared by employee and employer and funds Social Security. This tax break, totaling $800 bil lion over 10 years, could be invested in private retirement accounts, allow ing Americans to build personal wealth, Kerrey said. “The bull’s eye is wealth across all incomes,” he said. “We want to take Karl Marx and turn him on his head.” Kerrey said the payroll tax is regressive, falling disproportionately on working families. It poses a barri er to savings and investing, he said. Under Kerrey’s plan, a $1,000 retirement account would be estab lished by the government at the time of one’s birth, with $500 added each of the first five years. Critics have said subjecting indi viduals’ retirements to the whims of the market is too risky. A stock mar ket crash, a la 1929, or even a smaller market correction could threaten retirement security, it has been argued. But Kerrey said individuals would be free to choose less risky investments. For example, CD invest ments are insured. And, he said, “If the stock market crashes and we have 25 percent unemployment, Social Security is going to be in trouble anyway.” Hagel agreed. “When most people talk about miritm +V»a AnnArhmihr Ia invest their own money, they’re not talking about wild-eyed schemes or risky fly-by-night investments,” he said. “They’re talking about conserv ative, solid investments.” Critics of Kerrey’s plan also have said many citizens either will invest unwisely or spend the money rather than investing. “Why shouldn’t we let them be wealthy?” Kerrey countered. “Why should we presume they don’t have the skills to invest?” In an interview after the lecture, Kerrey said he would prefer manda tory investment plans to ensure tax savings are invested. The senators agreed that Social Security, despite its future financial uncertainty, is unlikely to be elimi nated. “Social Security is a program that has a moral foundation,” Kerrey said. “We want to live in a country where people over 65 don’t have to worry about their next meal.” The rising costs of Social Security highlight a larger problem, « The bull’s eye is wealth across all f T 'I * ^ ^ incomes. We want to take Karl Marx and put him on his head ” Bob Kerrey Democratic senior senator Kerrey said: the movement in govern ment spending from mostly discre tionary to mostly mandatory. Discretionary spending, for things like government agencies and the military, can be negotiated annu ally by Congress. Mandatory spend ing for programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is less flexi ble because it must be paid to all eli gible beneficiaries. In 1963, government spending was 30 percent mandatory and 70 percent discretionary, Kerrey said. In 1998, mandatory spending accounts for 68 percent of government expen ditures and discretionary spending tor 32 percent. The tendency toward greater enti tlement and transfer costs can’t be sustained, Kerrey said. “We will have converted, quite lit erally, the government into an ATM machine,” he said. Kerrey said the political mood surrounding Social Security has changed. No longer is the issue considered too politically risky for discussion, he said. Privatization proposals, consid ered radical not long ago, have come to the forefront. If today’s policy makers pursue bold reform, Kerrey said, they can be “remembered 50 years from now for doing the difficult, the heroic.” " Kerrey commended President Clinton for encouraging a national dialogue on Social Security. He encouraged Clinton to continue his policy of gathering citizen input before endorsing a reform proposal, “unless he endorses my plan,” he said with a laugh.
