SPORTS
Korving out a name
NU middle blocker Megan Korver survived a
little-known NCAA rule and mononucleosis to
lead the Huskers this season. PAGE 7
A & E
Rockin’ Runza
Big Band Monday Night invites musicians every
week to sif in with the band on the top floor of
Rock 'n Roll Runza. PAGE 9
WEDNESDAY
September 30, 1998
Rainy Days And Wednesdays Always Get Me Down
Breezy, showers, high 70. Clearer tonight, low 45.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 ~ NO. 28
I I
Matt Miller/DN
WARD CONNERLY waits behind the curtains during his introduction before his speech Tuesday evening in the
Nebraska Union. Connerly spoke about ending racial preferences in the college admission processes.
Speaker says race preferences harm
By Brian Carlson
Staff writer
To progress beyond its history of racial prejudice and
discrimination, the United States must end racial prefer
ences that are morally wrong and self-defeating. Ward
Connerly told a UNL audience of more than 400 Tuesday.
Connerly, who led the 1996 effort to pass California’s
Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action programs
in state government and universities, spoke briefly and then
engaged in an hourlong question-and-answer session that
was at times contentions.
Connerly, who is black, said during his speech in the
Nebraska Union ballroom that racial preferences violate
the constitutional principle of equality under the law while
fueling, rather than extinguishing, racial tensions.
"I believe the ‘race matters' philosophy is wrong,” he
said. ‘ It is morally wrong, and it runs against the core of the
American culture of equality we hav e embraced.”
Connerly acknowledged that race is still important in
society and that prejudice still exists. But government pro
grams granting preferences on the basis of race rather than
academic achievement, leadership and character are against
the best interests of blacks and other minorities, he said.
Racial pieferences stigmatize successful minorities,
leading to the presumption that, “if you're a woman or a
black, you can't do it on your own," he said. And they
engender racial bitterness because of resentment at the
advantages provided by affirmative action, he said.
As a regent at the University of California, Connerly
said he saw that racial preferences allowed minorities to be
admitted ahead of whites with better academic records.
Race was not. as affirmative action supporters claimed,
one of many factors considered he said.
“It was not a little itty-bitty factor." he said. “It is the
factor.
“Diversity should not be an excuse for discrimination,"
he said. “That's what's happening in many of our institu
tions, but we don't have the stomach to face it.”
Several students challenged Connerly. saying affirma
Please see CONNERLY on 6
Retention rate
of freshmen up
By Lindsay Young
Senior staff writer
Top administrators are pleased
that more than four out of five fresh
men who arrived on campus last
year decided to return for their
sophomore year.
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln increased its freshman
retention rate by about two percent
age points from 78.7 percent in the
fall of 1996 to 80.6 percent in 1997.
officials have announced.
The retention rate reflects the
numoer o i
f i r s t -11 m e,
full-time
freshmen
who stav at
UNL and
enroll as
sophomores.
The rates
include only
those stu
dents who
take classes
in Lincoln.
Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs James Griesen attributed the
new rate to increased admissions
standards.
The standards, which began in
the 1997-98 academic year, require
freshman applicants who graduate
from high school in 1997 or after to
have a composite ACT of 20 or
higher or a combined SAT of 950 or
higher, or to rank in the upper half
of their graduating class to be guar
anteed admission.
After the standards were put in
place, the number of freshmen
decreased. But those numbers are
being made up with an increasing
number of students returning for
their sophomore year. Griesen said.
In fall 1995. 3.984 first-time
freshmen set foot on campus. That
number decreased in fall 1996 and
fell to 3,256 in fall 1997. when the
new standards were implemented.
The number of first-time stu
dents increased this fall to 3.416.
In Chancellor James Moeser's
State of the University address in
August, Moeser set a goal of having
more than 80 percent of freshmen
return for their sophomore year.
"It just so happens 1 didn't set
the goal high enough." Moeser said.
One of the factors in the univer
sity's drop in the U.S. News and
World Report rankings was its
retention
rate, he said.
The rate
reported for
the ranking
was around
75 percent.
That number
reflects
freshmen
taking UNL
classes any
where. such
as online, not just in Lincoln.
According to statistics used by
the U.S. News rankings, peer insti
tutions' retention rates were near
UNL's recent rate of 80.6 percent.
In his August address, Moeser
said an increase in freshman reten
tion would be a result of an all-uni
versity push to increase academic
rigor.
He said Tuesday the newest
retention figures will improve the
university's reputation, and proves
UNL. which recently dropped to the
third tier in the U.S. News rankings,
is comparable to more prestigious
second-tier schools.
The rates in the report are an
Please see RETAIN on 6
Staying put
UNL's freshman retention rates for students
on the Lincoln campuses have risen nearly
three percentage points since 1995.
Year Total freshmen # returning % returning
as sophs.
95- 96 3,984 3,099 77.8
96- 97 3,715 2,923 78.7
97- 98 3,256 2,624 80.6
Source: Institutional Research and Planning UNL Online Factbook
Jon Frank/DN
Groups promote breast cancer awareness
By Todd Anderson
Senior staff writer
Teaching women not to fear the results of
breast cancer examinations is the goal of activi
ties scheduled throughout the state in October.
Starting today, the American Cancer Society
and university organizations are kicking off
Breast Cancer Awareness month with speakers
and informational sessions on breast cancer
detection and treatment.
Pat Tetreault, sexuality education coordinator
at the University Health Center, said detection
and early treatment are essential to saving the
lives of one in eight women who develop the
deadly disease.
Mammograms work for early detection, she
said, but for college-age women, self-examina
tion is sufficient for detecting a lump on the
breast.
Tetreault said only a small number of young
women who have a history of breast cancer in
their families receive mammogram testing.
According to the American Cancer Society,
women between the ages 20 and 40 have only a
0.49 percent chance of developing breast cancer,
compared with 4.67 percent of women over 50.
Tetreault said she encourages young women
to develop a habit of conducting self-examina
tions so they know how to recognize changes in
their bodies that might indicate future problems.
She said the health aides in University of
Nebraska-Uincoln residence halls post and dis
tribute information instructing women how to
look for lumps in their breasts.
Dayna Kamnawitter, cancer control general
ist for the American Cancer Society, said the
society is sponsoring a statewide campaign to
encourage women over 40 to receive regular
mammogram examinations.
About 250 business-sponsored volunteers
will each call five women who are friends to rec
ommend examination on Oct. 6, she said.
Kamnawitter said studies show more women
receive mammograms if the tests are recom
mended by a friend yet only one-third of women
who should have a mammogram do.
Women's Center director Jan Deeds said
many women are reluctant to test themselves reg
ularly for fear of finding results that indicate the
existence of a tumor.
But even if lumps are found she said women
have a greater rate of success in treating the dis
ease.
Deeds said her office has materials and hand
outs providing information about self-examina
tion and cancer prevention.
Tolandra Coleman, program coordinator for
the Women's Center's October health series, said
a speaker will give a presentation Oct. 26 at 1:30
p.m. in the Nebraska Union.
Kamnawitter said the cancer society plans to
sponsor speakers throughout the community,
while distributing pamphlets and shower cards
with facts about breast cancer.
For more information, contact the American
Cancer Association at (402) 489-0339, or the
Women's Center at (402)472-2597.
■ One woman in eight will develop breast cancer in
her lifetime.
■ Older women and women whose families have a
history of breast cancer are more likely to develop
the disease.
■ Breast cancer is the most common cancer among
women, and a small number of men are diagnosed
with the disease.
■ Early detection is the key to treatment of the dis
ease - the five-year survival rate for women who
receive timely treatment is 97 percent.
■ More white women are diagnosed with breast
cancer than black women, but more black women
die of the disease than white women.
■ The American Cancer Society recommends
females between ages of 20 and 30 conduct routine
self-examinations to detect breast cancer early.
Women over the age of 40 should receive mammo
grams annually.
Source: American Cancer Society
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