i But, Is It Art?
Unique performance artist shows
work tonight at the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery. A&E, PAGE 9
Lights! Camera!
Columnist Samuel McKewon talks
about rare movie moments.
Thursday, January 27,2000 dailyneb.com - Vol 99, Issue 89 opinion,page 5
UNL research
marks century
By John Hejkal
Staffwriter
Take 100 years of research and cre
ativity, add one year of planning, and
celebration is created.
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln is celebrating 100 years of
graduate education, research and cre
ativity this semester, beginning with an
inaugural symposium, “Reflecting on
the Contributions of Graduate
Education, Research and Creative
Activity,” from 2 to 5 p.m. today in
Kimball Hall.
Martin Massengale, co-chairman
of the planning committee for the event
and director of the Center for
Grasslands Research, said the event is a
fitting tribute.
“The celebration enhances the visi
bility of research, graduate education
and creativity both on and off campus,”
he said.
The symposium features five
speakers, all with connections to the
university. It is free and open to the
public.
“It’s a rare opportunity for students
to hear some distinguished people talk
about what research, graduate educa
tion and creativity mean, not only to
this institution, but to the state and to
society overall,” he said.
The speakers are Robert Knoll,
U The celebration
enhances the
visibility of
research,
graduate
education and
creativity both on
and off campus.
Martin Massengale
planning committee co-chairman
professor emeritus of English; Karen
Kune, professor of art; James Olson,
historian and president emeritus of the
University of Missouri; Kennedy Reed,
UNL graduate and atomic physicist at
the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory; and Clayton Yeutter, for
mer president of the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and former U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture.
Kune said creativity and research
are of equal importance to the academ
Please see RESEARCH on 3
Inmate denied
stay of execution
■ Attorney general’s
office expects the execution
will be eventually stayed.
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
Death-row inmate Charles Jess
Palmer’s execution is scheduled to take
place Feb. 15, but the attorney general’s
office is not holding its breath.
Though the state Supreme Court
denied Palmer’s request for a stay of
execution Wednesday, Assistant
Attorney General Kirk Brown said the
request was a long shot anyway.
Despite the request’s denial,
Palmer’s case has more opportunities to
be reviewed during federal appeals; the
execution will probably be stayed,
Brown said.
Palmer’s attorney agreed.
Within a week, Palmer will file a
request to the US. District Court to hear
his case, said Lincoln County Public
Defender Robert Lindemeier said.
Lindemeier, along with Hall
County Public Defender Gerard
Please see EXECUTION on 7
—ASUN—
Fifth party joins election
By Sara Salkeld
Staff writer
ASUN approved a fifth and final
party for the coming student elections at
Wednesday’s ASUN meeting.
So far, two people are running with
the newly approved Duff party: junior
Kevin Sypal and freshman Matt Rezac.
The party’s objective is to involve
students without a voice in ASUN.
“We want die university to stop try
ing to be parents for fee students,” Sypal
said.
The Duff party admits some of its
ideas may seem controversial. These
include changes in the university’s poli
cy on alcohol and organizing on-cam
pus parties to avoid drinking and dri
ving.
Sypal said the party is about what
students are interested in and is expect
ing a large interest from the students.
“I believe it is like the
Revolutionary War,” Sypal said. “The
Americans were outnumbered by die
British, but they were determined.”
The party’s request came in just
before the deadline. Sypal said it was a
last-minute thing he and Rezac worked
on until 4:30 Wednesday morning.
The deadline for student election
groups was Wednesday at noon.
“Ift definitely going to be a record
Please see ASUN on 6
Family ties
Mike Warren/DN
SEASON TICKET-HOLDERS Cami Lynn Kopetka, 5, and her father Jim Kopetka from Lincoln, cheer the women’s
basketball team in the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Wednesday night. Cami’s father said they never miss a
game. “Cami won’t let me,” he said.
Learning-disabled standards fluctuating
By Brian Carlson
Staff writer
In the past 15 years, as the
NCAA has sought to create fair aca
demic eligibility standards for colle
giate athletics, the accommodation
of student-athletes with learning dis
abilities has been a challenge.
The NCAA’s first academic eli
gibility standards came in 1986 with
the passage of Proposition 48:
That measure, and subsequent
refinements, sought to prevent the
exploitation of athletes who came to
college ill-equipped for academics,
played collegiate sports, then left
without a degree or future prospects.
But in the process of developing
academic standards, the NCAA also
made eligibility more difficult for a
group of student-athletes who strug
gled to meet the requirements, not
because of intellectual deficiencies,
but because of learning disabilities
that impaired their ability to process
information as most people can.
Since 1998, the NCAA has made
several changes to accommodate
athletes with learning disabilities.
Although those changes seem to
have satisfied most people interested
in the issue, some restrictions at the
conference level - including eligibil
ity restrictions in the Big 12 - remain
controversial and may change.
Disability Defined
By definition, a person with a
learning disability is of at least aver
age intelligence, said Christy Horn,
interim director of Services for
Students with Disabilities at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Learning disabilities take a vari
ety of forms, she said.
Visual or perceptual impair
ments, such as dyslexia, prevent a
person from perceiving the written
word properly. Auditory processing
problems may require students to
expend so much cognitive effort lis
tening to a professor that they can’t
also take notes, or vice versa.
The common thread among
learning disabilities is those who
suffer from them, given proper
accommodations, can achieve acad
emic success in college, she said.
“It’s not that the student can’t
process information, but it may take
more time,” she said.
In many cases, however, stu
dents’ learning disabilities showed
up on paper as poor academic per
formance.
Some students with learning dis
abilities - far fewer than a majority -
struggled to meet NCAA standards.
Some discussion of the compli
cated initial eligibility requirements
for NCAA Division I is necessary to
understand recent changes for stu
dents with learning disabilities.
Initial eligibility standards
include two requirements: a qualify
ing score on a standardized test and a
minimum GPA in at least 13 core
high school courses.
Students who meet only one of
the criteria are called “partial quali
fiers.”
Although they may practice with
the team their freshman year, partial
qualifiers are ineligible to compete
until their second year. They then
have three years of eligibility
remaining, but can ordinarily gain a
fourth year by completing their
degree at the end of four years.
Students who meet neither
requirement are “non-qualifiers.”
They are ineligible their fresh
man year and may not practice with
the team. They also have three years
of eligibility remaining, but can^ain
a fourth year if, after four years of
college, they have completed their
Please see LEARNING on 8