SPORTS ’
Quiet moment
The Nebraska wrestling team got one individual
winner and finished fourth as a team at the Big
12 Championships. PAGE 12
A & E
Street fighter
J Robert Manthey spends his afternoons by the fed
I eral building wearing T-shirts bearing subliminal
I messages about the government. PAGE 8
MON »AY
March 8, 1999
Late Lion
Snow, high 30. Flurries tonight, low' 20.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 116
High school curriculum available online
■ Web courses make
classes more accessible for
rural and urban schools.
By Josh Knaub
Staff writer
Sen. Bob Kerrey on Saturday invit
ed Nebraska high school educators to
try out an Internet-based curriculum
that has already changed the way UNL
distance education courses are taught.
Communications Learning and
Assessment in a Student-centered
System curriculum for high school will
replace the University of Nebraska
Lincoln's paper-based correspondence
courses.
Twenty CLASS courses, enough to
complete a high-school diploma, are
available. Fifty-five courses will be
offered by October 2001.
James Sherwood, director of UNLs
Department of Distance Education,
gave a demonstration of course options
Saturday morning at the East Campus
Center for Continuing Education.
Representatives from school dis
tricts across Nebraska attended the
event, which was also broadcast to
remote locations in Scottsbluff, North
Platte and Norfolk. Sherwood said the
lessons learned in developing the high
school curriculum have been used to
improve Web offerings in UNL classes.
One of the most important lessons,
he said, was that the system used must
be consistent throughout the course.
“We call this the Nintendo effect,”
he said. “We want students to move
through the design of these courses as
instinctively as they move through a
video game.”
Another lesson, Sherwood said, was
a unique way to minimize download
times while keeping multimedia aspects
of courses. Pictures, videos and interac
tive graphics are gathered on a CD, min
imizing internet space used.
Kerrey said that CLASS courses,
which count for high school credit, are
meant to add learning options for high
school students.
“This is not something that will
replace traditional education,” Kerrey
said.
He said the courses are a good way
for schools to add curriculum for a few
students without the prohibitive cost of
hiring additional instructors.
Courses cover a variety of subjects,
including math and English as a second
language.
Certified teachers at the department
of distance education teach the courses.
“This is not a passive machine,”
Kerrey said. “This is a tool.”
Sherwood said students are able to
communicate with teachers and class
mates through e-mail and Internet
newsgroups.
Please see CLASS on 3
Sounds of silence
Matt Miller/DN
DOREA CLAASSEN, a sophomore math and music major, plays her trumpet Sunday afternoon in a practice room in the Westbrook Music Building.
Ciaassen was working on a small part of Halsey Stevens’ Sonata. She said she would be performing the piece in a recital this summer.
Programs bring taste of Asian culture to campus
By Bernard Vogelsang
Staff writer
Guests at Asian Night on Saturday experienced
the many features of Asia without having to spend
money on expensive airline tickets.
The Asian Student Alliance and the Malaysian
Student Association co-sponsored the event,
which consisted of two parts: Shangri La and
Malaysian Festival 1999 - A Journey to Malaysia.
About 200 people enjoyed Asian music, food
dance and martial arts demonstrations during
Shangri La in the Nebraska Union.
Guests dined on dishes from Japan, India,
Vietnam, Philippines and other Asian countries.
In the palm tree-decorated Centennial Room,
Malaysian students served refreshments, sold food
and Malaysian handicrafts and explained the histo
ry, geography and culture of the country.
Students also raised $63 for Cedars Youth
Services, a shelter for battered children in Lincoln,
by writing guests' names in Chinese calligraphy.
Kay Saythongphet, Asian Student Alliance
president, said her association organized Shangri
La to educate American students about Asian cul
ture.
“(Shangri La) can create more understanding
between American and Asian students,” she said.
Saythongphet said her organization wanted to
shape a Shangri La - a mythical city without hate
in which everybody is considered equal - on the
UNL campus.
Shangri La stems from a myth that a paradise
Please see ASIA on 7
Scams may
put damper
on spring
break plans
By Sarah Fox
Staff writer
For students, spring break is a time to party,
stay at home or work.
For Shelley Stall, spring break could be called
the calm before the storm.
Stall, director of the ASUN Student Legal
Services Center, often spends the week after vaca
tion answering frantic phone calls from students
angry after being ripped off by spring break travel
companies.
She added that most students come in too late
- after they have lost their money.
Spring break packages to Cancun and
Jamaica may seem
easy to purchase
from 800 numbers
or Web sites, but stu
dents should investi
gate travel compa
nies before they
spend their money.
Stall said.
Local travel
companies are safer,
she said, because
scams are more like
ly to be operated out
of other states.
Aaron Lee, a
junior biology
major, became a
ti
lts not always
a scam. Its just
that students ^
fail to read the
contract
carefully.
Marilyn Bath
consumer specialist
scam victim when he bought a travel package to
Cancun last year. He and about 12 other friends
paid $800 each to a UNL student representing an
Arizona travel company.
“They called me two weeks before the trip and
said my seat on the plane was lost,” Lee said.
Lee canceled his deposit because he didn’t
want to pay $300 more for a seat. The company
made his friends pay the $800 for Lee’s trip since
he had canceled late.
His friends had to pay $215 for a hotel room in
Kansas City, Mo., because their flight to Mexico
was delayed 1 Vi days.
The travel company also moved the group to a
different hotel when it reached Cancun.
Please see SCAMS on 7
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