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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1998)
SPORTS Here’s the beef The Nebraska offensive line is developing into another solid unit after three games in the 1998 season. PAGE 9 A&E Horror at the Joyo Lincoln’s only family owned theater, the Joyo, shows a mix of old, new and horror. The “Rocky Horror Picture Show” runs weekly. PAGE 7 TUBS IAY September 15, 1998 The Sun Will Come Out? Partly sunny, high 78. Partly cloudy tonight, low 57. ■L -fitlillfc,.... w3:«SSSSI»g .v-S&s WiilflSIlli. • - . - . - • • 1 _ > VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 17 Math faculty nets presidential honor By Kim Sweet Staff writer Amid the disconcerting news that flowed from the White House last week, the UNL math department was respon sible for some good publicity from Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Judy Walker, an assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, accepted the 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring on behalf of the math department. The department was among 18 insti tutions and individuals that received the award. The department was recognized for their efforts in mentoring female graduate students since 1990, said Jim Lewis, professor and chairman of the mathematics and statistics department. The award, which recognizes the department’s efforts m creating a more friendly environment for female gradu ate students, was presented in the Oval Office of the White House Thursday. After shaking the president’s hand and posing in two pictures with him, Walker and the other recipients moved into the Roosevelt Room. Walker said Clinton reaffirmed the importance of science and technology during the presentation and told the audience about his commitment to increase mentoring in related subjects for women and minorities, she said. Walker accepted the award on behalf of the math department 10 years after Lewis said he realized how underrepre sented female graduate students were. During the 1980s, men earned 23 doctoral degrees, while not one went to a woman. “It struck me that ‘Wow, we're doing really badly,”’ Lewis said. “We’re going to finish the decade with no Ph.D.s going to women.” In 1989, a commitment was made to recruit female graduate students as well as retain them, Lewis said. The department set a goal in 1989 that women would eventually make up 30 percent of its graduate program. Since 1992, 42 to 52 percent of the department’s graduate students have been women, Walker said. Fourteen women have obtained « By focusing how to be successful with women, we have been successful with everyone” Jim Lewis math department chairman their doctoral degrees since 1990, which beats the national average. The success by female math gradu ate students has not come by giving them special treatment, Lewis said, but by making them feel they aren’t the minority in the classroom. That attitude is what has made women successful, Walker said. She pointed to a nomination letter written by graduate student Theresa Strei. “I have felt at home ever since I came to UNL,” Strei wrote in the letter. “To a great extent, it is because being a female student in this department is nothing unusual. “I don’t feel the pressure of havmg to represent my entire gender as an iso lated female in a sea of male mathe maticians,” she wrote. While the department strives to make the atmosphere for woman gradu ate students more pleasant, Lewis said, male graduate students also benefit. The number of both men and women seeking their doctoral degrees has increased in the math department over the past 10 years, Lewis said. “By focusmg how to be successful with women, we have been successful with everyone,” he said. A $10,000 grant accompanies the award. Walker said the department hopes UNL will match the grant. If it does, the department will sponsor a research conference for undergraduate women in mathematics, she said. The award also will increase the department’s ability to recruit students, Walker said. “We have to try to look at this as not just a pat on the back but something to use.” Dawn Dietrich/DN CITY COUNCIL MEMBER Cindy Johnson explains why the picketing ordinance should be tabled Monday after noon. The ordinance passed 4-3 after the council discussed issues such as abortion arguments and constitu tional rights. Picketing restrictions OK’d by City Council By Adam Klinker Staff writer The Lincoln City Council voted Monday afternoon to restrict “disturbing” picketing at religious sites, though Mayor Mike Johanns has pledged to veto the decision. The ordinance was in response to an anti-abortion group's picketing of a Lincoln church, a senior member of which performs abortions. The 4-3 vote to amend Chapter 9.20 of the Lincoln Municipal Code came after 20 months of Rescue the Heartland’s protesting of the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The new ordinance will make it unlawful for protesters to organize disruptive demonstrations at certain times, in certain places, in a certain manner. Carl Horton, an associate pastor at Westminster, 210 Sheridan Blvd., said the anti-abortion group has been protesting against Dr. Winston Crabb, a church elder who performs abortions. Larry Donlan, director of Rescue the Heartland, said regardless ot the vote, his group will continue to picket at Westminster. “We want to be there as often as we can,” DonJan said. “We’re there basically to be educational. We are an infor mational organization.” Much of the controversy over the protesting relates to the graphic content of signs displayed by Rescue the Heartland members and the effect they may have on chil dren, said Alan Peterson, a Lincoln lawyer representing the church. Some of the signs held by the anti-abortion supporters depict aborted human fetuses. Donlan said he was not surprised by the Council deci sion. “Emotion trumps reason,” he said. City Councihvoman Cindy Johnson offered a motion to postpone the vote and reword the bill to avoid any possi ble legal challenges, but the Council went ahead with the vote. Lincoln city attorney Bill Austin said restrictions could Please see COUNCIL on 6 Bereuter calls for Clinton’s resignation from office By Todd Anderson Senior staff writer Rep. Doug Bereuter called for President Bill Clinton to resign Monday, saying the Kenneth Starr report presented to the House of Representatives Judiciary committee shows the president committed per jury. While Bereuter said other charges made against Clinton are less certain, he concluded that Clinton had responded to the counsels questioning “in a fashion that’s simply not truthful.” “I have read the Starr referral to the House and believe that nearly all judges and fair-minded persons would conclude that President Clinton has committed peijury to conceal his adul terous affair with Monica Lewinsky,” Bereuter said. He said bipartisan cooperation would be important while further investigating the allegations of obstruction of justice, abuse of execu tive power and negligible conduct. Because he does not expect Clinton to resign, Bereuter said he believes the House Judiciary Committee will rec ommend a full impeachment investiga tion based on the evidence in the Starr report. He said Congress would stay in session long enough to approve the rec ommendation and that such an investi gation probably would begin in October. Members of the Judiciary Committee currently are reviewing the Starr report, along with 36 boxes of additional materials that have not been released because of concern for pro tecting related witnesses and testifiers. Bereuter said the challenge of reviewing the report has not over whelmed Congress, but he was con cerned Clinton has become ineffective as president following the allegations and reaction. “I do see it as affecting the presi dent’s power and his ability to use it wisely,” he said. Bereuter joins Omaha Rep. Jon Christensen in calling for Clinton’s res ignation. Sens. Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerrey and Rep. Bill Barrett could not be reached for comment Monday. Hagel said in a press conference Friday that Congress should act care fully when considering censure, a demand for resignation or impeach ment. “It’s not in the interest of this nation or the future of our country to have some of us arbitrarily decide that the president must go by dictating his res ignation or by any other form,” Hagel said. Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http:/ /www.unl.edu/DailyNeb