UNL student earns experience
through gubernatorial campaign
By Jennifer Walker
Co-editor
Almost every day is a party for
Danielle Nantkes.
She attends parades, festivals and
rallies every week.
Nantkes, a senior political science
major and a member of the field staff for
the Hoppner gubernatorial campaign,
spends her days making sure Bill
Hoppner becomes a Nebraska house
hold name.
“Whatever there’s a festival, parade
or any kind of community event, I make
sure we have visibility,” Nantkes said ‘1
make sure we have a group of volun
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Hoppner campaign.”
Nantkes is in charge of an 11-coun
ty area in south central Nebraska, which
includes her home town of Seward.
In addition to supervising volun
teers, she provides staff support for
Hoppner if he attends die events.
She said her SO- to 60-hour work
weeks would pay offin the long run, and
there was nothing else she'd rather be
doing.
“I’ve been involved in the
Democratic Party since before I was
even old enough to vote,” she said. “I
haven't had a job outside politics since I
graduated from high school”
She hopes her experience in the
Hoppner campaign, as well as other
campaigns die’s worked on, will help
her in her future career.
“I’m trying to learn as much as I can
and meet as many people as I can,” she
said.
Nantkes’ campaign experience
includes working on Ben Nelson’s sena
torial campaign in 1996, two primary
legislative races, a city council race and
a school board race.
Jim Ritzman, treasurer for the
Lancaster County Democratic Party,
said Nantkes’ experience and hard work
were two points in her favor.
“She’s a very vivacious, extremely
talented young lady,” he said.
“Everything she does, she does full
steam ahead, and does a good job at it”
Juggling a full-time job and school
work has been a challenge for Nantkes,
although she doesn’t have any com
plaints.
“The onlv thine I could sav is that
it’s very demanding,” she said. “But I’m
used to that, and I’m better when I have
to balance an extensive work schedule
and school schedule.”
But working in politics is not just a
job for Nantkes, it’s something she
believes in. Hoppner’s ideals appealed
to her especially.
“(HoppnerV) campaign is about the
issues that are important to me asayoung
woman,” she said. “His emphasis on edu
cation is of vital importance to me.”
Nantke’s role as a student is as
important to Hoppner is campaign as his
stance (m education is to her
David LaPage, communications
director for the Hoppner campaign, said
he thought students working on the
campaign were a real asset
till with vs
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* July 8-18 \
jj Carson Theater
M West Entrance lied Center
£ Student Tickets Just $5
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'7m trying to
learn as much as I
can and meet as
many people as I
can”
Danielle Nantkes
Hoppner campaign field staff
“It’s really exciting for some of us
who haven’t been college students for a
long time to work with students who
have the skills and excitement that they
bring to the job.
“Danielle is working in the area
where she grew up, and that’s valuable
for the campaign because she’s working
with family and friends,” he said.
Nantkes said her political experi
ence helped in her school work as welL
“Especially in my political science
classes, someone will be going on and
on about an issue or a senator,” she said.
“And I just had lunch with him yester
day. Itls strange but kind of neat”
The most rewarding part of her job
is not the experience die gains or the
important people she meets, Nantkes
said.
“I get to be a part of helping Bill
Hoppner become the next governor.
Thath a rewarding ideal.”
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-- Thursday,July2,1998■ Daily Nebbaskan Summer Edtiton ■ Page3
Tear 2000’ bug threatens
student computer owners
■ Experts say the seventy
of the problem will vary
depending on computer
makes and models.
By Lindsey Wright
Staff reporter
Students with personal com
puters may begin to feel the bite of
the infamous Y2K bug as the year
2000 approaches.
Y2K is the buzzword for the
year 2000 computer problem.
Most computer systems are unable
to handle anything dated 2000 and
later because programs recognize
only the last two digits of the year.
Computers will read “00” and
1900 rather than 2000.
This could cause a variety of
problems with student computers.
It all depends on what kind of
computer you have according to
Gary Aerts, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln manager of
administrative systems and the
Y2K coordinator.
Apple Macintosh owners won’t
have much to worry about, Aerts
said, because they were designed
to properly handle dates past 1999.
“Macs tend to be immune to
the year 2000,” he said. “The only
glitches Mac users could find are
those in software applications,
which should be easy to fix.”
But for other personal comput
ers, the result will not be so user
friendly.
“The older the computer, the
bigger the problem,” Aerts said.
Replacing bugged software for
a newer and faster program may
require more memory for the com
puter, which in turn costs more
money.
Aerts recommended testing the
computer to see if it is year 2000
compliant. Most World Wide Web
sites have instructions on how to
test individual computers, he said.
“When it comes to PCs, no PCs
are created equal,” he said. “One
may test okay, the other one not.”
Some older computers may be
year 2000 noncompliant. Even if
software upgrades are available,
the computer may not be able to
uavc me necessary mcmuiy
upgrade.
If you can’t get enough memo
ry, you may need an entirely new
computer, Aerts said.
And that could easily become a
$2,000 bite from the Y2K comput
er bug.
For UNL students who use
only the computer labs on campus,
there should be few problems,
Aerts said. There may be minor
glitches in personal software,
since even with testing it is hard to
predict what might happen to com
puters when die year 1999 is histo
ry