ASUN touts committees’ roles
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
Although the amount of legislation
brought to the table in ASUN Senate
meetings this year has been slim, that
doesn’t mean senators aren’t doing
anything.
The Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska meets every
Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., but ASUN
President Andy Schuerman said the
work senators do is not reflected in the
meetings.
“(It looks like) you should be able
to track the work we do through the
Senate meetings, but that’s not the
case,” Schuerman said.
The overall goal of ASUN is to
help University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students, and Schuerman said the com
mittees all have student-oriented pro^
jects in the works that don’t need an
ASUN bill passed to help students.
“I’m satisfied that the committees
are out there working,” he said.
“Legislation doesn’t touch people.”
Schuerman said he hopes more
students will come to the meetings and
see what’s going on because every
thing ASUN does has to do with stu
dents.
, l his is evident in the work the
ASUN committees are doing this
semester, he said.
Academic Committee
Chairwoman Beth Lee said her group
doesn’t usually lend itself to writing
legislation that needs to be passed, but
they a lot can be done without passing
bills.
Right now, Academic Committee
members are attending up to eight fac
ulty meetings a week to make sure
teachers understand the Dead Week
policy.
Lee* said she might writeup a bill
that would alter the Dead Week policy"
but said it depends on feedback.
Campus Life - Committee
Chairman Ryan Comes said his com
mittee also does work without writing
or passing bills.
Campus Life Committee members
are now co-sponsoring America
Recycles Day on Monday and are
working to publicize the event. They
are also giving surveys to faculty mem
bers about faculty morale, Comes said.
“There’s only so many things we
can do,” he said. “A lot of us don’t have
time to do (more).”
Comes said it is difficult to adjust
to everyone’s time commitments but
that he’s gained the most from the peo
ple he has worked with.
“I don’t know if we’ve necessarily
done a lot,” Comes said. “But, you
improve yourself by working with
other people.”
The Committee for Fees Allocation
has been busy with work that will
directly affect students, CFA Chairman
Jason Mashek said.
CFA is in charge of doling out stu
dent fees to student fee users. To make
that decision, the committee is now
receiving presentations from the differ
ent fee users.
CFA meets every Tuesday for at
least two or three hours to hear the dif
ferent presentations, Mashek said.
Next semester, it will decide how
much money to give each student fee
user and Will meet twice per week.
“We’re probably the committee
that meets the most and the longest,”
Mashek said. “ASUN has to approve
all the bills we bring up, so that will
happen next semester toward the end
of everyone’s term.”
Urrvano Gamez, Special Topics
Committee chairman, said his commit
tee’s job is to review and approve the
constitutions of new student oiganiza
tions - a task that lends itself to legisla
tion.
When the Special Topics
Committee approves a new organiza
tion, a bill must then be written.
Marlene Beyke, ASUN director of
development, said eight bills have been
brought to the Senate by the Special
Topics Committee this semester.
Human Rights Chairwoman Jill
u
Our goal is to have
students know
that we are here to
serve them ”
Jill Braband
Human Rights Committee chairwoman
Braband said her committee is work
ing on several projects that affect UNL
students.
The group is planning events for
Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January
and is also distributing copies of the
ASUN reference guide transcribed in
Braille.
Braband said she is satisfied with
the work her committee has done but
would like to see more student interac
tion with ASUN.
“Our goal is to have students know
that we are here to serve them,”
Braband said.
communications Committee
Chairman Heath Mello agreed that
ASUN is here for the students, but that
it doesn’t need legislation to do its
work.
His committee is creating a
newsletter for new students and putting
on a leadership workshop to get stu
dents involved in student government.
“My committee’s job is to promote
and establish communication links
between ASUN and the student body,”
Mello said. “We’re doing a lot of
research now to see how we can help.”
Both Braband and Mello said leg
islation does play a role in the work
their committees do, and they expect
some to come up soon.
Schuerman said the work the com
mittees are doing now will lead to leg
islation in the future.
“Wd*re an internally motivated
group,” he said. “We hold each other
accountable. I think it’s great.”
Youth conference examines violence
By Brittanie Jackman
Staff writer
The 18th Annual Bereuter Youth
Institute on Governmental Affairs was
held at Nebraska Wesleyan University
on Tuesday.
High school juniors and seniors
from Lincoln’s district - the first con
gressional district - listened to guest
speakers cover topics including the
farm price crisis, harassment, cliques
and peer pressure.
Jeanie Watson, Wesleyan president,
kicked off the event at 9 a.m._
" Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter
was not able to attend, but staff mem
bers helped direct some of the activities.
“The congressman feels that the
purpose is to expose students to differ
ent relevant topics. The program has
successfully been run for 18 years,”
said staff member Marsha Glover.
Some of the more popular topics
discussed included whether television
news coverage reinforced violent acts
and if harassment, cliques and peer
pressure in school lead to violence.
During the media violence discus
sion, professors from surrounding uni
versities led discussion and answered
students’ questions.
Nancy Finken, from the department
of news at Nebraska Public Radio, cov
ered die topic relating to media and vio
lence. She talked about how people
blame die news covering violent events
such as the Columbine High School
killings for violently influencing peo
ple.
“We are not creating a message, we
are just the messengers,” Finken said.
Renea Gemant, from the depart
ment of communication studies at
Concordia University, discussed the
academic research of violence.
Gemant pointed out that violence
and the media have been around for a
long time and said television has been
die biggest influence in creating “copy
cat” crimes where people commit a
similar crime to what they’ve seen on
news reports.
Larry Walklin, a broadcasting pro
fessor at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, discussed changes in media
and technology. He said some changes
included television shows and cable
channels becoming available in a cafe
teria-style, where people can pick and
choose what they want
For one of the other more popular
sessions about harassment, cliques and
peer pressure in schools, students broke
into small groups where they interacted
with congressional staff members and
Wesleyan graduate students.
In the small groups, students dis
cussed “outcasts” in their own schools
and their treatment. Outcasts are con
sidered people who are harassed or
made fun of because they may not fit in
with mainstream high school society.
The graduate students helped stu
dents do worksheets with questions
about the characteristics of the people
considered outcasts.
The high school students were then
asked how they could individually and
as a group help that person fit in.
Matt Lorenz, a junior at Beemer
High School, said; “By working in the
smaller groups with students from
other schools, you can understand situ
ations within different schools,” he
said. - ^
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