Office helps
organizations
plan events
By Sarah Fox
Staff writer
Thomas Dake is a modem fairy godmother.
Dake doesn’t have a wand or a magic phrase.
Instead, Dake, assistant director of Student
Involvement, helps student organizations plan
events in the Nebraska Union.
Without this consultation, groups would have to
plan events by themselves.
“They tell us their dreams, and we tell them what
they need to do to make that happen,” Dake said.
To plan an event in the Nebraska Union, a stu
dent organization representative goes to the Student
Involvement consultation desk and fills out an event
planning and registration form.
When the form and a meeting are finished, the
group reserves a room in the reservation office, 220
Nebraska Union.
The student then goes back to Student
Involvement, 200 Nebraska Union, to receive final
approval.
Students sometimes think filling out a form is
all they riSSd to do, Dake said.
“They say, ‘Just give me the form,’ and we can’t
do that,” Dake said.
Dake helps students avoid breaking obscure reg
ulations when they are planning events.
For example, a group that plans a fund-raiser on
a football Saturday must get permission from the
Office of Business and Finance in the Canfield
Administration Building.
The office must balance the fund-raiser with the
usual vendors at the football games.
If students are planning an event on the green
space north of the union that makes “more noise
than normal,” the group has to sign a city noise vari
ance.
spencer Stock, vice president ot Phi Eta Sigma,
helped set up four events this year.
Stock, a sophomore electrical engineering
major, said Student Involvement’s consultation
helped him plan last week’s induction of about 245
UNL freshmen for Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha
Lambda Delta honor societies.
“Having them tell you whom you have to talk to
will cover all the bases,” Stock said. “It will save you
tons of time.”
Although Student Involvement’s process saves
time for students, it keeps the Student Involvement
office busy with 50 to 60 registration forms on a
busy day, Dake said.
Individual students cannot reserve rooms unless
they are reserving for a student group recognized by
ASUN.
Union operations manager Bill Behmer works
with the union’s reservation office, which directly
reserves the rooms and booths, for groups.
He said the union renovations didn’t add many
rooms but changed existing rooms. Before the reno
vations, there were “good rooms” and “bad rooms,”
Behmer said.
“We got rid of a couple of really horrible rooms
on the fourth floor and a really wretched room in the
basement,” he said. “Every meeting room in the
union is now a nice room.”
The union now has a maximum of 23 rooms that
can be reserved.
An organization is more likely to receive a room
if they don’t wait too long, Dake said.
The busiest seasons are the beginnings and ends
of semesters.
However, Behmer said he doesn’t turn away
many groups, especially if they are flexible.
“We’re definitely here to serve students,”
Behmer said. “We’re always willing to try to accom
modate those different requests.”
Lori Simpson/DN
THE NEW NU MARKET is located down the stairs from the new Nebraska Union entrance. The convenience store sells food, drinks, snacks,
gifts and school supplies.
NU Market adds convenience
By Eric Rineer
Staff writer
With the recent addition of the NU Market
to the University Bookstore, extended hours
and shorter lines are enabling students a better
chance to do some faster and easier shopping.
“This is a lot classier ... as opposed to the
bookstore,” said Shannon Robson, a junior
elementary education major, who is now able
to purchase her beauty supplies without stand
ing in the sometimes agonizing lines in the
bookstore.
The NU Market, Robson said, was more
appetizing to shop at than a Walgreen’s or
Super KMart because of its convenient loca
tion.
The market is located downstairs, inside
the Nebraska Union’s north entrance.
Viann Schroeder, acting manager of the
University Bookstore, agreed with Robson’s
assessment of the convenience of the market’s
location.
“We’re very excited about that,” said
Schroeder, who added a number of other rea
sons why the market served as an advantage to
students and visitors to campus.
For example, she said, the market is open
beyond the usual hours of the bookstore.
This, she said, allowed students taking
night courses, or who study late in the union or
library, to purchase supplies past the normal 6
p.m. closing time of the bookstore.
Market hours are from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday, and noon to 11 p.m. Sunday.
With these extended hours, students also
can purchase items in the bookstore after the
bookstore closes.
“If the NU Market is open, (employees)
will go in the bookstore and get students any
66
We just don’t sell
gasoline, alcohol and
tobacco
Viann Schroeder
University Bookstore acting manager
thing in the store they want,” Schroeder said.
But, she said, mostly anything in the book
store can already be found in the market.
Market supplies are diverse as T-shirts and
sweatshirts and small gift items, frozen foods,
soft drinks, and health and beauty aids.
“We just don’t sell gasoline, alcohol and
tobacco,” Schroeder said.
A contract between the university and
Runza restaurants also is in the making, she
said. This would bring frozen Runzas into the
store’s refrigerator.
“The market is really geared for students
in terms of hours and supplies,” Schroeder
said.
“As we looked at how to best serve stu
dents, we felt they would be best served by
having a convenience store attached to a book
store.”
So far, the price has paid off fof a number
of students.
Rob Petzold, a junior news-editorial
major, said the installation of a cash machine
inside the market was one of the best advan
tages the store had to offer.
“It’s a lot easier to just go in the store and
get cash out,” Petzold said.
His frustration with having no place to buy
a decent snack during his Monday evening
reporting class was now over, he said.
“Students who have class at night now
have the opportunity to go there at night and
buy some things when everything else is shut
down,” he said.
While things are going well with the mar
ket, Schroeder said, students also would take
pride in their new bookstore, to be completed
by next fall.
The biggest feature of the new bookstore,
she said, will be a general book section filled
with couches and chairs for students to lounge
and read in.
The NU Market will sell coffee as well, so
students can drink while they read.
Internet stations also will be set up in that
section of the store, which is currently the
textbook section. The textbook section will be
moved to the northeast comer of the store.
Another change, Schroeder said, will be
the addition of 4,000 square feet of space to
the already 26,000 square footage of area.
While supplies will mainly stay the same
in the bookstore, she said, they will be much
easier 10 iina.
The renovations include knocking down
the walls inside the bookstore. Signs will be
placed above the various sections to identify
what items are in a particular section,
Schroeder said.
Schroeder said there would be a minor
change in the amount of supplies.
“We’re going to bring in this fall more
items and supplies for a residence hall room or
apartment,” she said.
This, she said, included wastebaskets,
hangers for pictures, laundry baskets and plas
tic dishes.
Schroeder said she was confident renova
tions on the bookstore would be completed by
summer’s end.
j “Then, we’ll have an entirely different
store.”