SPORTS
Taking on Troy
The Nebraska women’s basketball team looks to
move its record to 7-1 this season with a game
against Troy State tonight. PAGE 9
A&E
Literary movement
With the addition of a second Barnes & Noble
Bookstore to the local literary scene, local sellers are
worried this might be their final chapter. PAGE 7
TUES: >AY
December 8, 1998
Crisp and Clear
Mostly sunny, high 44. Clear tonight, low 17.
Sandy Summers/DN
SARAH DAVID, of the Lincoln City Church, gives Michael Lott, 4, a hug during the MAD
DADS safe night Saturday at the Air Park Recreation Center. MAD DADS’ Saturday
activities attract about 80-125 children, teen-agers and adults.
Safe
Home
MAD DADS
rebel against
youth violence
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
This is not an easy time to be
young.
Violence spills out of the televi
sion and onto city streets.
Fourteen-year-old girls are
becoming mothers.
Gangs are dominating the
neighborhoods.
Drugs are all too available.
And the community pleads
ignorance to the problem.
But nine years ago this fall, a
group of Omaha men got mad
enough to do something it. From a
nucleus of 18 men, MAD DADS
has grown into a 55,000-member
organization with 56 chapters in 15
states with its national headquarters
in Omaha.
In Lincoln, MAD DADS
works to teach children responsi
bility and instill basic values while
protecting them from the threats of
society.
It all started from one man's
quest for revenge.
In May 1989, John Foster's son,
Sean, was brutally beaten by
Omaha gang members on his way
home for spring break because his
Suzuki Samurai was the wrong
color.
Please see DADS on 6
UNL to examine
harassment,
race policies
By Lindsay Young
Senior staff writer
The university is taking a magnifying glass to its discrimina
tion and harassment policies to ensure that it fairly serves all stu
dents, faculty members and staff.
Under an agreement between the U.S. Department of
Education Office for Civil Rights and the University of Nebraska
Lincoln. university officials have formed two committees to
examine ami-discrimination
policies.
The agreement stemmed
from an all-university audit
last spring of the UNL's racial
discrimination and harass
ment policies.
Though Herb Howe, asso
ciate to the chancellor, said
Monday the university was
chosen randomly for the audit,
civil nghts officials last spring
said otherwise.
Rodger Murphey,
spokesman for the
Department of Education, told
the Daily Nebraskan last
spring that unofficial com
plaints filed with his office
and highly publicized incidents that some people interpreted as
racist caused the civil rights office to review UNL’s racial climate.
Events that have been called racist in the past include Sigma
Chi's cross-burning during a fraternity ritual in 1997 and former
English professor David Hibler's e-mail that included the word
“nigga” last spring.The audit concluded that the university had
already implemented policies to remedy and prevent racial
harassment, according to the partnership resolution.
However, based on a joint assessment and recommendations
provided by students, faculty members and staff last spring, the
university decided to improve its policies.
A copy of the agreement can be found on the Web at
Please see AUDIT on 2
«—
We might as well
look at the entire
policy. That kind
of made sense
to us.”
Sally Wise
Academic Rights and
Responsibilities Committee
chairwoman
Fuel efficiency is drive of national challenge
By Todd Anderson
Senior staff writer
With a shiny new truck engine and
some cash from the state, a group of
University of Nebraska-Lincoln engi
neering students will end up with more
than just greasy hands.
Thanks to a national competition
encouraging ethanol gasoline use, they
have the chance to put improving the
environment and boosting the state
economy on their resumes.
During a press conference
Monday, Gov. Ben Nelson recognized
the UNL team that will convert the
engine of a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado
pickup truck to run on 85 percent
ethanol fuel as part of the 1999
National Ethanol Vehicle Challenge.
Nelson said the program, which is
supported by state and private funding,
was important for growing Nebraska's
ethanol industry, which converts corn
into fuel for automobile engines that in
turn emit fewer toxins into the atmos
phere.
The team, led by Bill Weins. UNL
associate professor of mechanical
engineering, will show off its convert
ed ethanol engine at the second-ever
competition sponsored nationally by
General Motors Corp. and the U.S.
Department of Energy.
Weins said the student volunteers
can receive credit for working on the
engine, but the biggest advantages are
the professional experience and job
connections.
He said General Motors uses the
competition for recruiting engineering
students, and some past UNL team
members have already begun working
for the automotive giant.
Last year, the students converted
the engine of a 1998 Chevrolet Malibu
and competed with 13 other teams at
the manufacturer's testing grounds in
Detroit.
Scott Peterson, 1998 team captain
and a graduate student in mechanical
engineering, said last year's team made
some mistakes because it was the first
year of the competition.
Though the team did not win,
Peterson said, it won an award for best
teamwork after its car engine failed
and had to be replaced overnight.
The teams this year, including
UNL's 30-member group, will focus on
making pickup engines more fuel effi
cient without sacrificing performance
or consumer appeal.
Nelson said the increased popular
ity of pickup trucks and sport utility
vehicles, which are not typically fuel
efficient, enhances the need for better,
more efficient engines.
He said the ethanol industry has
been important to the growth of nation
al and international trade in Nebraska.
Weins and Peterson both said this
year's team is excited and prepared to
win by building on the knowledge it
acquired last year.
“We're coming to play hard,”
Peterson said.
Dawn Dietrich/DN
GOV. BEN NELSON takes National Ethanol Challenge team members, who
are UNL engineering students, for a ride in the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado. Its
engine will be converted to burn 85 percent ethanol fuel.
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb