Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1998)
SPDBTS Kegler queen With a second-place individual finish, NU bowler Jennifer Daugherty helped the Huskers to a third place finish at the NCAAs last weekend. PAGE 7 JL&_i Getting the Shakes With William Shakespeare's birthday fast approaching, a party couldn't be too far behind. In fact, it's today. PAGE 9 TUES AY April 21, 1998 My Fair Lady Mostly sunny, high 63. Fair tonight, low 34. VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 144 Nelson to consider special session By Brian Carlson Senior Reporter Gov. Ben Nelson said Monday he will spend the next two weeks deciding if a legislative special session to recon sider a vetoed education funding bill is necessary, not merely desirable. Unless he becomes convinced fur ther legislative action this year is neces sary to deal with educational funding issues vetoed as part of LB 1175, Nelson said, he will not call a special session. “1 will not be stampeded into a spe cial session.” he said in a media confer ence call. On Sunday. Nelson vetoed LB 1175. which would have renewed the special education funding formula which expires Aug. 31, 1999, provided emer gency funding for some financially strapped rural districts and closed the Nebraska School for the Deaf. Although Nelson supported these measures, he vetoed the bill because of the attachment of an amendment spon sored by Sen. Bob Wickersham of Harrison that would have required the state to fill a $70 million gap in school funding caused by the next scheduled drop in property tax levies in 2001. Nelson said neither he nor the Legislature had agreed the state would replace all lost property tax revenue with state aid. Efforts at tax relief would be hindered if this were the case, he said. The Wickersham amendment was attached with little discussion, and the Legislature apparently did not recog nize its significance until the final day of the session. The body nevertheless passed LB 1175. Sunday, bill sponsor Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings called Nelson’s fail ure to call a special session “irresponsi ble.” saying schools needed to have a special education funding formula in place so they could plan their budgets. But Nelson said schools can plan their budgets with the expectation they will receive money LB 1175 would have provided, e said and there is no reason to believe the Legislature won’t pass the new formula next year. “For those who think this veto is irresponsible, let me redefine irrespon sible,” Nelson said. He then asked, rhetorically, whether it was irresponsible for the Legislature to include an amendment obligating the state to provide $70 million in future school funding “at the 11th hour and in the dark of night” to a bill full of impor tant educational provisions. “They bear the responsibility for creating this situation,” he said. Speaker Doug Kristensen of Minden brushed aside Nelson's criti cism of the Legislature, calling it an easy political tactic for a governor. Because Wickersham s amendment would not have gone into effect until 2001, some lawmakers have said LB 1175 could have been passed and the controversy surrounding the amend ment ironed out next year. Kristensen called Nelson’s veto unnecessary. The Legislature did not make a mistake in passing LB 1175, he said, despite the last-minute revelation of the amendment’s significance. “It’s easy to bash the Legislature,” he said. “It makes for good headlines. “But the bottom line is (Nelson) has people out watching the process, too.” In a special session. Nelson’s veto could be overridden. Or, the original provisions of the bill could be reintro duced as a new bill that would start from scratch. Blurred by the beauty Matt Miller/DN JUNIOR JIM WEBER, an agricultural business major, helps with Professor Jim Specht’s soybean research in a greenhouse on East Campus Monday afternoon. Specht said the soybeans were part of a national research project. They are look ing for genes that differ between native soybeans and Chinese soybeans - called soybean genomics. NAACP to open local branch By Lindsay Young Assignment Reporter A nonviolent national civil rights group born in response to U.S. racial violence in the first part of the 20th century is expanding once again. Students from colleges and univer sities in Lincoln are adding to the 2,200 branches and the more than 500,000 members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People by forming a Lincoln branch of the NAACP. The group hopes to be up and run rung by fall 1998. The objective of the NAACP is to ensure the political, social and eco nomic equality of minorities. Organizers of the Lincoln college branch want to give a stronger, collec tive voice to students in Lincoln. One of the adult advisers is excited because the students are becoming a larger part of a solution. “1 think it’s important for college students to understand they have a con tribution to make in identifying prob lems and being part of solving those problems in reference to race relations and discrimination,” said Jose J. Soto, a community adviser for the group. Soto is the vice president for affir mative action/equity/diversity at Southeast Community College. Rick Wallace, past president of the Lincoln branch, approached Adair Shanks, a UNL graduate student, and Janet Rathod, a Nebraska Wesleyan University student, last fall to organize the group. “It didn't come about from me so much as it came about as a cry from students to have some sort of forum to address issues that impacted their daily Please see NAACP on 2 All-school yearbook will return in 1999 By Jessica Fargen Assignment Reporter Members of UNL's greek system anxiously awaiting the greek year book's arrival today will have about 160 pages of philanthropies and date parties to thumb through. But next year's greek memories will be bound together with those from residence halls, athletes, student organizations and faculty members thanks to the rebirth of the Cornhusker yearbook, which ceased publication in 1972. Sherri Neall, editor of the Cornhusker, and Becky Simpson, the yearbook's business manager, were approached by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs James Griesen last year with the idea of bringing back the Cornhusker. Many students not in the greek system have no record of their time here at all,” Neall said. Neall, a junior news-editorial major, said a lot of students are senti mental about their college years but have nothing to show for it. But not all students want a University of Nebraska-Lincoln year book to show their grandchildren. Neall and Simpson said some stu dents have been negative about the change. “People say they don't think it will sell,” Neall said. “They ask. 'How is it going to be possible? Who are you going to market it to?’” Simpson, a junior diversified agriculture major, said some people have questioned whether students would actually want to pay $30 for the yearbook. Right now greeks pay for their yearbooks out of Panhellenic or Interfratemity Council dues. Reviving the Cornhusker is a good idea, Simpson said, because it will bring together greeks and non greeks. Neall said the Cornhusker has received support from leaders of organizations such as the Student Alumni Association, Residence Hall Association and Alumni Association. “It’s got its supporters and it’s got its objectors, and with any new pro ject that is going to happen,” Neall said. The estimated cost to produce the yearbook next year is $80,000, she said, with half of that money coming from photography contracts, adver tising, the greek system, the universi ty and organizations. Some of the costs include com puters, software, scanners, a copy machine and staff, Cranford said, which will be in the Nebraska Union. Andrea Cranford, Alumni Association communications direc tor, said the association has pledged to donate SI0,000 annually to the yearbook. For the past year, Simpson and Neall have been doing background work on the project. Simpson said almost every Big 12 school has an all school yearbook. This summer Simpson and Neall went to Northwest Missouri State in Marysville, Mo., Kansas State University in Manhattan. Kan., and the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan. They visited with advisers who told them what worked and what did not. Greeks are so involved at those three schools, Simpson said, that they were represented enough in the all campus yearbook. Simpson said the same would be true at UNL. “There has been some negativity from it,” Simpson said, “but I think that it’s something this university needs to have - more cohesiveness.” Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http:/!wivw.unl.edu/DailyNeb
