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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2000)
DUFF SECOND VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Betsey Saunders and presidential candidate Jason Kidd field questions at the final student government election debate held Tuesday in the Nebraska Union. Election polling sites will be open today from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on City and East campuses, including the Nebraska Unions, the Campus Recreation Center and some residence halls. Parties mull campus unity ASUN from page 1 course in which students would com plete 10 hours of community ser vice. Schafer said A-Team’s freshman orientation program is criticized for being too idealistic. “Why shouldn’t we be idealis tic?” Schafer said. “Band-Aid pro grams” are not going to help the uni versity. “ASUN should be a group that thinks big,” Schafer said. The debate’s sponsors, Student Impact Team and University of Nebraska Environmental Resource Center, asked candidates what their strategies are for increasing environ mental sensitivity. Brad Bangs, Impact’s first vice presidential candidate, said the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska should make sure student organizations such as UNERC have resources for research. Then, ASUN needs to open dialogue between those organiza tions and the administration to help student organizations meet their goals. Cecily Rometo, first vice presi dential candidate for Empower, said the links between the student organi zations and the administration would be created through president’s coun cils. President’s roundtables would include faculty members, two ASUN senators and representatives from student organizations with sim ilar concerns. Through this, students interested in ecology issues could work to increase the environmental sensitivity of the university, Rometo said. Betsey Saunders, Duff’s second vice presidential candidate, said the fliers posted by health aides are effective. She proposed that student organizations post fliers on environ mental issues. Ecology is a platform issue for A-Team, Schafer said. If elected, A Team would consider the ecological effects of all their decisions. Utilities are funded by student fees, Schafer said. Through A Team’s energy conservation pro gram, students would learn specific actions that would benefit both the environment and their pocketbooks, he said. Schafer said the university needs to be forward-thinking and an exam ple for the broader community. “By thinking ecologically, you’re also benefiting yourself economical ly,” he said. ,UNL seeks approval for memorial design MEMORIAL from page 1 proposed design. She said the time it has taken to have a more finalized design was understandable because so many people’s opinions were consid ered. “Everybody has to try to agree on one memorial,” she said. Based on the input, Grew said, a tentative plan for the memorial was developed and sent to tribal representa tives in September 1999. More changes were then made to the memorial design, Grew said. Currently, plans call for construct ing a circular path of stones set off by a low seating area, Grew said. Thomas said the circle is signifi cant in many American-Indian cul tures. Many ceremonies are held in cir cles, she said. “Life itself is considered a circle,” Thomas said. Grass will fill the center of the cir cle. Shrubs selected by the American Indian groups helping the planning process will surround the memorial. The east entrance of the memorial would be open because in many cere monies, tribal members enter and exit the circles on the east side, Thomas said. Grew said the proposed memorial has a basic design so it will accommo date the ceremonial beliefs of many tribes. “We wanted to keep it simple,” she said. Details of the memorial design were mailed to tribal leaders Feb. 28, Grew said. She said she wanted to seek input from the groups one last time before construction begins. “We wanted to do it right,” she said. Thomas said she appreciated Grew’s efforts to seek input from stu dents on campus. “I’m just glad Priscilla continued to keep us involved,” she said. Grew said construction of the 1- • - ■ • memorial could begin soon if plans are met with approval. , “Depending on whether the feed back is favorable, we may be able to begin as soon as this summer,” Grew said. Senior editor Lindsay Young con tributed to this report. Speaker: Racism not a cause of inequality By Jackie Blair Staff writer Jesse Jackson may believe that America is a racist society, but a promi nent author and speaker said he dis agrees with the well-known activist. Dinesh D’Souza, an immigrant from India, addressed his opposition to Jackson’s views in the Nebraska Union on Tuesday night. D’Souza said he believes that racism is not the cause of inequality in America. “Is any (discrimination) potent enough to keep us from achieving the American dream?” he asked. D’Souza said America has better opportunities than any other country in the world. He believes people have the freedom to write the script of their own lives. tor example, it D Souza still lived in India, he said his destiny would have been given to him. In America he can choose his own profession, religion and wife. Jackson said America is a racist society because of its 400 years of slav ery. D'Souza's response? “Slavery existed in every known country, even before the United States was discov ered,” he said. D’Souza said the United States has actually made great progress against racism compared with other countries. “Abolition and emancipation devel oped only in the West and existed in no other culture,” he said. Jackson has said entrance exams are racially biased, and that’s why blacks don't score as high on them as whites. D’Souza said he wanted to know how algebra tests could be biased. “Ethnic groups are simply not doing as well as whites with merit-based entrance requirements,” D’Souza said. He said that any test given to whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians will pro duce the same outcome: whites and Asians at the top, Hispanics in the mid dle and blacks at the bottom. “No test has ever shown a counter result from these trends,’' he said. D’Souza said 78 percent of all pro fessional athletes are black. “Does this mean that sports are racially biased?” he asked. D’Souza had three possible expla nations for why these statistics occur. First, he said that in the early 1900s people believed there may be genetic traits that make one race better than the other. Second, he said that in the 1950s people began to think that society actu ally manufactured these differences, depending on where one lived and how much money one made. That possibility was shunned when a college board released statistics show ing that all blacks living with a family that makes more than $75,000 a year still do not do as well on exams as whites who live with families that make less than $ 15,000, he said. Third, he said behavioral differ ences could produce inequalities. For example, crime is higher and life often poorer for blacks, he said. “This could mean that develop mental skills are not matured," D’Souza said. D’Souza ended his speech by say ing that every man must write his Emancipation Proclamation. “That means the script we write with our own lives is up to us," he said. D’Souza’s lecture was sponsored by UNL College Republicans, the National Association of Scholars Nebraska chapter, Young American's Foundation, the Federalist Society and a grant from the Pepsi Student Events Fund. | Expires One Week From Purchase. 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