Union entrance
opens after delay
UNION from page 1
up front when students are selling
books, she said.
“The store has not had a face lift
since 1985,” she said. “(Renovations)
will make a very big difference in the
way the store looks and the way the
I store shops.”
The copy center, now located in the
bookstore, will move up to first floor.
By Jan. 11, a new convenience store
with frozen food, a microwave, expand
ed snack choices and T-shirts will be
open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to
11 p.m., Schroeder said.
acnroeder said employees ol the
; convenience store will be able to get
I items from the bookstore for students
I after it has closed.
Swanson said that before Jan. 11,
the west half of the basement will have a
television lounge, billiard room and
arcade game room.
Before Christmas break, weather
permitting, the east half of Memorial
Plaza should be open, he said.
Students who use the west entrance,
covered by red awnings, to access the
s- uniontwill have to wait until early next
f semester to use a ne\y west entrance,
which will be about 25'feet south of the
existing entrance.
A new glass tower, similar to the
glass-enclosed stairway in the Stadium
Drive Parking Garage, will be con
structed about 25 feet from the existing
west entrance.
After a wheelchair ramp is built, the
existing west-entrances will be demol
ished and two laige windows placed in
their place, he said
Early second semester will bring the
opening of the new 24-hour computer
lab, with 28 computers. Swanson said
the opening of the second-floor area
with meeting rooms and a 250-seat
auditorium is contingent upon adequate
operation of the fire alarm system and
completion of the rotunda.
But the new second-floor Student
Involvement center, with its storefront
entrance, opened last week, Swanson
said. The office can be accessed through
the south stairs and elevator.
Swanson said the end of construc
tion is getting very close after numerous
scheduling delays, asbestos removal
and bad weather.
Although excited, Swanson said he
had one regret.
“I just regret that we don’t have it
open serving the community like we'*-,
planned.”
UCLA tries to avert strikes
■ Graduate teaching
assistants demand
recognition as employees
for collective bargaining.
Daily Bruin
University of California-Los
Angeles
Los Angeles (U-Wire) -
Upcoming student-employee strikes
throughout the University of California
system may affect undergraduate stud
ies, causing discussion sections, grades
and finals to be altered or canceled
because of lack of teaching assistants
and readers.
The unions have announced that
until the University of California rec
ognizes them and is willing to bargain
with them, they are prepared to strike.
“We are not trying to strike our
undergraduates’ education,” said
Connie Razza, an organizer for the
Student Association of Graduate
Employees/United Auto Workers, the
graduate student union at UCLA. “We
are striking only our labor.”
Sources at various campuses have
hinted that the strike could begin the
week following Thanksgiving.
The university has stated that it will
do everything within its power to
ensure that undergraduate studies do
not suffer.
“Every attempt will be made to
preserve the instructional goals and not
to have this impact on undergraduate
students,” said Jim Turner, assistant
vice-chancellor of the graduate divi
sion.
In order to deal with less help from
their teaching assistants, professors
may have to reconsider how they will
give exams.
“One possibility, for example,
would be instead of the essay-type
examinations ... to switch back to a
multiple-choice exam that can.be
machine-graded,” said Robin Fisher,
associate dean of the graduate divisioa
However, some professors have
said that in social sciences or humani
ties courses, multiple-choice examina
tions cannot replace essay examina
tions.
“The final exam is an important
component of the course grade, and I
couldn’t imagine doing multiple
choice,” said Professor Robert Gurval,
who teaches a class of more than 200
students. “The faculty member will
have to take over the responsibility of
grading the examinations.”
The university has also considered
the possibility of hiring replacement
workers.
“We still have to do our utmost to
meet what our commitments basically
are. If that involved replacement work
ers, that would be one possibility,”
Fisher said.
The unions are demanding that the
university recognize them as valid rep
resentatives of academic student
employees in collective bargaining.
“We’ve given the administration
five months to sit down and talk with us
about recognition... and the adminis
tration not only hasn’t recognized the
union but has refused to even talk to the
union,” Razza said. »
The university argues that the
union shouldn’t be recognized because
teaching assistants are primarily stu
dents, not employees.
“Teaching assistants occupy a
unique role and... collective bargaining
would be harmful to the quality of
graduate education,” Turner said
Others argue that regardless of
what the circumstances are, any group
of employees should have the right to
organize.
“I think that if theTAs want aunion
they should have it,” said Katherine
King, a professor of classics.
This strike will be different from
previous strikes - the most recent being
in fall 1996-because it will be funded
by the larger United Auto Workers
union, which is associated with the UC
student employee unions. Unlike prior
strikes, participants will now be com
pensated up to $ 150 a week from UAW
strike funds, Razza said.
“We’ve planned it to be more dis
ruptive because the less disruptive
strikes didn’t work,” Razza said. “The
duration of the strike will certainly be
longer than the strikes that we’ve tried
before.” \
^■NH|
| ALL Expenses Paid
INCLUDING
. ^ PERSONAL BII^L
! ^ I Must ptgssess Stmm *
;f ]l v $ensfe&f^um$ '^ :
Call toll free
1-888-874-6101
VPlease leave area code
and number. y
% " —
Senator to head marketing committee
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
An RHA senator was elected Sunday to head the
Advertising and Marketing Committee, though the
committee’s responsibilities have yet to be deter
and executive board members have yet to determine
the committee’s exact focus.
RHA executive board members said they think it
should coordinate public relations and advertising
among the halls.
“I’m really interested in doing this committee, and
I think it needs to start now,” Dorn said.
Senator Dave Bums said Dom did well during the
Review and Recommendations Committee interview.
“We drilled her” Bums said, “and I thinkshe’ll do
'a great job.” ...
In other RHA news:
■ The Social Committee was given permission to
spend more than 40 percent of its budget on Casino
Night, Dec. 3.
Senator Shauna Morris said Casino Night will be
open to all residence halls and will be the largest Social
Committee eveht of the semester.
The event will be held Dec. 3 from 8 p.m. to mid
night in the Abel Residence Hall-ballroom.
“Last year Casino Night went really well,” said
Josh Cowan, RHA senator. “It was probably one of the
best things RHA did, and there’s no reason they
shouldn’t be able to use their own money.”
The senate had to vote on whether die committee
<c$uki use mpre than 40 percent*^ its tnoney because
of bylaw restrictions that do n6f afttoitf^&mmittees to
use more than that percentage without a vote.
■ Senator Jennifer Conklin said several changes
are being made within the Campus Escort Committee.
“I’m rearranging schedules and redecorating the
office,” she said. Campus Escort also will have new
embroidered coats by next semester to wear while on
duty.
(7)rmames_
F •~cm change your life in an
S instant, Perhaps yen weald
ooo^idsF tlui
of creating an adoption plan
for year child. Oar com
worker* can answer your
questions confidentially, ff yon
would like to visit with 0%
please cell today.
Graduate Students]
♦* The Ottce (£6adMliektudiM in ntfemg tJWy*
semester. for one of tfie following courses \6 mBaniiw your (f *
educational experience.
•901. Professional Ethics (1 cr)
Dr. Helen Moore, instructor
Thursday, 4 p.m. - 4:50 p.m., CBA 20, Call Number 8629
•902. Grant Writing and Grant Managamant (X cr)
Dr. David Stanley, instructor
Wednesday, 6 p.m. - 6:50 p.m., 214 Plant Industry, Call Number 8630
•90S. Professional Development Seminar (1 cr)
Dr. Suzanne Ortega, instructor
Tuesday, 3:30 pjn. - 4:20 p.m., CBA 362, Call Number 8631
For nwre information, contact the Office of Graduate Studies at (402) 472-2875.
City envisions downtown
revival on one-way ^Street
DOWNTOWN from page 1
Development.
Eight of those strategies, adopted
by the City Council in 1996, dealt
with the creation of a marketplace
area on P Street.
The marketplace steering com
mittee identified three key compo
nents for success of the plan: two
way traffic, pedestrian improve
ments and private investment.
But the decision to reconfigure P
Street for two-way traffic has been
the most controversial element of the
plan, prompting protests and a peti
tion drive that garnered some 5,000
signatures.
I m ISO percent for the market
place, but two-way traffic just does
MMin' ““J Jon Camp,
r ^WfWHWgrwPwrmanaging partner
*and<e&&*e&tiie <Mginal developers of
the area.
The main objection to two-way
traffic centered on issues of traffic
flow.
On Nov. 16, the City Council
responded to that public pressure by
deciding to switch die street back to
one-way, just three weeks after the
conversion to two-way had been
completed.
Some officials felt that two-way
traffic did not have a chance to suc
ceed.
“Politically we gave up before it
was tested,” said Cecil Steward, mar
ketplace steering committee member
and dean of UNL’s College of
Architecture.
Those involved in the decision to
change P Street to two-way traffic
said they learned some valuable
lessons but remained committed to
the concept.
“We’re willing to admit there
probably wasn’t enough public infor
mation put out there when the deci
sion was made,’’ Steward said.
“But two-way is still important.”
Following P Street’s reversion to
one-way, expected to be completed
this week, there has been some back
lash from investors.
John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc.,
the Embassy Suites builder, told city
officials last week that it may have to
halt construction to reevaluate the
project, feUIlKril^ag tried to find a
solutionagreeable to bothsides.
Hammons designed his hotel to'
take advantage of the city’s plans for
two-way traffic.
The city (dans to have one block
of westbound traffic on P Street so
hotel customers can get from the
front entrance to the parking garage.
“A lot of people are disappointed
with one-way, both businesses on the
street and residents in the area,”
Steward said.
City planners now must incorpo
rate one-way traffic into the market
place plan.
“Two-way traffic is important to
the concept, but we’ll make it work
the best we can,” McGee said.
«
A lot of people
are disappointed
with one-way, both
businesses on the
street and residents
in the area.”
Cecil Steward
UNL architecture college dean
City planners want to complete a
comprehensive downtown traffic
J$tjidy,shcftviftgthe effects ofpll t^ie
developments planned for down
town, including the Antelope Valley
development project
The city did not perform a com
prehensive traffic study before
deciding to change to two-way.
Despite the traffic flow conflicts,
the city remains committed to devel
oping the marketplace on P Street.
“There is a whole series of inter
esting developments under way,”
McMullen said.
Over the next few years, planners
hope to change the face of down
town, Steward said.
“Our desire is to improve the
whole downtown area.”
f
