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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1999)
-> Choice wins 3 of 4 seats on RHA executive hoard ■ The Zealous party’s Aja Bowling is voted in as secretary. By Bernard Vogelsang Staff writer The party that wants to involve more students living in residence halls the choice to get involved in their government won three of the four executive board positions Wednesday in the Residence Hall Association election. Choice candidate Jadd Stevens, current RHA Student Action Team chairman and a junior English and biology major, won the race for RHA president for the 1999-2000 academ ic year. Stevens said his party’s campaign priority, getting students involved, also will be his goal as president. Stevens succeeds Shane Perkins, who has been RHA president since December. Choice took 55 percent of the votes, leaving opposition party Zealous 44 percent of the vote. The final 1 percent went to write-ins. Running alongside Stevens on the Choice ticket was vice president elect Liz Ormsby, a freshman piano performance major. Choice candidate Jason Ball, cur rent Pound Hall treasurer and a junior management information systems, received 50 percent of the vote, win \ rung the RHA treasurer position over Zealous candidate Andrew Bayer, a junior chemical engineering major, who got 48 percent. As expected, Aja Bowling, a freshman biochemistry major, and Zealous candidate, is the new RHA secretary. The Choice party didn’t have a secretary candidate. Bowling got 96 percent of the votes. Dave Bums, Zealous presidential candidate and current speaker of the RHA Senate, said he won’t return to RHA after his loss. Bums, a sophomore environmen tal science and communications major, said he is going to focus on his positions in NU Directions and the Campus Recreation Advisory Council. Losing the Zealous vice presiden tial candidacy, Mike Buckneberg, a junior finance and management major, said he doesn’t know at this moment if he wants to become an RHA senator. “I need time to think about it,” he said. It was the second time this year that both Burns and Buckneberg unsuccessfully ran in an election. They also tried without success to become Association of Students of the University of Nebraska senators on March 3. A total of 633 residence hall stu dents, or 13 percent of the possible total voters, cast their ballots. This was a lower turnout than last year’s election, in which 1,051 students voted. RHA Election Commissioner Kristy Jacobberger said a reason for the lower turnout could be that in each individual residence complex, often only one candidate ran for a spot. “When only one student is run ning, less students are likely to vote,” she said. Jacobberger said the election was held without any problems. ^ “I haven’t heard any complaints from the local election commission ers,” she said. Last year, a runoff was necessary because Abel and Sandoz Halls ran out of ballots. Ormsby said as vice president she is going to lead the RHA Senate meetings in a smooth, enthusiastic and positive manner. Along with getting more students involved in government, Choice party goals also include addressing prob lems that face students who live in residence halls such as special-inter est floors, honors halls and parking. Ball said he also is going to update the RHA Web site so the RHA officers could better communicate with local governments, officers and students. “I will try to get RHA into the digital age.” Jacobberger could not provide a list late Wednesday night of winning candidates in individual residence halls. Man critically injured while crossing street From staff reports A pedestrian was critically injured while crossing 10th Street on Wednesday afternoon after a pickup truck hit him. David Green, 32, was in the crosswalk on the south side of the P Street intersection at 2:37 p.m. when the pickup truck hit, propelling Green into P Street traffic, Lincoln Police Capt. A1 Soukup said. Green and two eastbound cars were crossing 10th Street with the light when the accident happened. Witnesses told police the truck’s driver, 16-year-old Jeremy Andersen of Bellevue, ran the red light on 10th Street. After Green was hit, he was pro pelled in front of a car in the south ernmost lane, driven by Mary Baker, 57, of Lincoln. Baker then swerved to her left, hitting the car in the next lane, which was driven by Larry Robinson, 47. After the accident, Green was taken to BryanLGH Medical Center West, where he remained in critical condition Wednesday night. There were no other injuries, though all three cars were damaged: the truck sustained $750 damage, Baker’s car $2,000 damage and Robinson’s car $800 damage. No citations were issued at the scene of the accident, though police will continue to investigate. Man lays penis on counter while cashing check A Lincoln man was arrested for indecent exposure Monday after he laid his penis on the counter at an Express Money outlet during the transaction. The 21-year-old man came into the Express Money store, 105 S. 9th St., around 6 p.m. and gave the teller "a check to cash, Lincoln Police Officer Kathy Finnell said. The 20-year-old female teller noticed the man was rubbing his crotch through his clothing. While she was processing his check, the 6-foot-tall man stood on his tip-toes and placed his semi-erect penis on the counter. The teller ignored the penis, gave the man his money and he left the store. She told police he stood outside the window rubbing his crotch and watching her. Police jailed the man for indecent exposure. Lincoln police find drugs, guns at residence The Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics task force netted an assort ment of drugs, cash and a gun with a search warrant Tuesday. Officers served the warrant at an apartment on the 2400 block of Vine Street at 8:15 p.m., Finnell said. A 21-year-old man was arrested after police found $ 1,588, .5 grams of crack-cocaine, 5.5 grams of marijua na, a scale and a Colt .45-caliber handgun, stolen in December. The man was charged with pos session of crack-cocaine and posses sion of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver. Additional charges could be filed by the county attorney when the suspect is arraigned. Compiled by senior staff writer Josh Funk I i 1 ASUN senate takes office ASUN from page 1 Admitting he initially had a hard time accepting that he would have to work with his former opponents, Brown said he had a lot of prejudices and stereotypes about working with the other party. But Brown said former president Sara Russell and former first vice pres ident Kelly Hoffschneider turned out to be what he called “two of the most extraordinary individuals.” He encouraged the new senate to look past preconceived ideas they may have about their co-senators and exec utives. Meuret said she was excited to exe cute the ideas Focus campaigned for earlier this year. She also said she was looking forward to working with the new senate. “More than anything I’m looking forward to working with the group of people I’ve worked for over the last couple of months.” Schuerman, who took the oath of student body president and student regent at the ceremony, stated one of his main goals for his term. Serving on student government since he was in junior high, Schuerman said he has often been accused of being a politician. Being described with a word that typically has negative connotations, Schuerman said he wanted to bring some positive connotations to the word by working hard, representing all of his constituents and taking into account a wide variety of opinions and ideas. Along with installing the new members of ASUN, two awards were given during Wednesday’s ceremony. The Laura Cockson Memorial Scholarship, which was given for the first time this year to honor a UNL stu dent killed last April by a drunken dri ver, was given to Chris Linder, a senior management major. The Cockson family was present to present Linder with the award, who was recognized for promoting alcohol awareness and responsible drinking on u-_ I hope we can have as productive year as we did the year.” James Griesen vice chancellor for student affairs UN Us campus. Eva Cockson, Lafura Cockson’s mother, said giving the first award to Linder was special because Linder and Cockson were friends and lived on the same floor their freshman year. Linder talked about her and Cockson’s friendship after she was presented the award. “Laura was a good friend of mine during our freshman year when we lived on the same floor,” Linder said. “We had a lot of the same values and stayed up for a lot of late nights.” The newly revised Outstanding Educator award was also presented during the inauguration. The winner, Sheila Kepler, profes sor and experiential leadership coordi nator was one of five nominees elected by the student body during the ASUN elections. Students were asked to identify an outstanding professor from a class containing more than 60 students and fewer than 60 students for the first time. The five finalists were then inter viewed by an ASUN committee. The other finalists were chemistry Professor Bill McLaughlin, astronomy and physics Professor Martin Gaskell, biology Professor Russ Benedict and agronomy Professor Robert Sorenson. Kepler, who will have a book donated in her name from the universi ty bookstore to Love Library, said she was honored by the distinction. “Part of my goal as a teacher is to touch students,” Kepler said. “Its obvi ously been a two-way process because I’ve been touched very deeply.”