Senate race crowded with seven candidates
CANDIDATE from page 1
quality of the other candidates because of their
traditional political backgrounds.
Grogan, who was in the life insurance busi
ness before he quit to run his campaign, said he is
concerned about the future of his children.
“I want to make sure my children have the
same chance at the American dream as I had,”
Grogan said. “I’m a businessman, and I take
those skills with me.” t
Grogan and Hergert said they were con
cerned about education.
The federal government has too much con
trol, Grogan said.
“We need to increase teacher salaries with
money from the federal government,” he said.
“No federal strings attached.”
Hergert agreed that teachers’ pay needed to
increase.
Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg
has the support of 13 state senators in his run for
Senate.
Stenberg, a Republican, said he is committed
to serving the state and will focus on represent
ing Nebraska values.
Their support will be an important step to
victory in November, Stenberg said, especially
becauseformer Gov. Ben Nelson announced his
candidacy last month.
Nelson said the race is about people, not
Democrats or Republicans.
“This election is not about Ben Nelson or a
political party,” he said last month. “It’s about
shaping the future we want for our children.”
Nebraska Secretary of State Scott Moore
said his run for the Senate is serious, and he said
he believes he can compete with the likes of
Nelson and Stenberg.
Moore is ready to take his experience in pol
itics to the next level, he said.
“In Nebraska, our two U.S. Senate seats are
our most important resources, next to the water,
people and land,” Moore said.
With each state’s getting equal representation
in the Senate, Moore said, Nebraska’s senators
are the state’s opportunity to be heard.
“(In the Senate, we are) equal to California,
Texas and New York,” he said.
With a variety of candidates running in the
election, state Republican leaders are optimistic
about their party’s chances.
Chuck Sigerson, Nebraska Republican Party
chairman, said having five Republican candi
dates in the race is good for Nebraska.
“When you have multiple candidates, it gives
U In Nebraska, our two
U.S. Senate seats are
our most important
resources, next to the
water, people and land.’’
Scott Moore
Senate candidate
Anne Boyle, chairwoman of-the Nebraska
Democratic Party, said she is confident in the
Democratic candidates.
“Nebraskans know and feel good about Ben
Nelson,” Boyle said.
Beyle said it didn’t matter that there were
more Republican candidates than there were
Democrats.
“Nebraskans are fiercely independent and
have proven that by electing Democratic gover
nors and senators,” Boyle said. t
The chairwoman said she is confident in
Nelson.
“If we were going to lose Bob Kerrey to
retirement, we couldn’t have come up with a bet
ter scenario than Ben Nelson running,” Boyle
said.
In fact, Kerrey has been instrumental in
Nelson’s run.
Kerrey’s campaign manager for the last two
years, Paul Johnson, has taken over Nelson’s
campaign.
“Bob Kerrey is helping us do all we can to
ensure Ben Nelson is Nebraska’s next senator,”
Boyle said.
Boyle said Democrat A1 Hamburg of Gering
has also announced his candidacy but has not yet
paid his filing fee.
the chosen nominee sharper skills to take on the
Democrat,” Sigerson said.
Multiple candidates also give voters more a
choice and more of a reason to go to the poll,
Sigerson said.
But this year’s race is unusual because there
is no incumbent running for the seat, Sigerson
said.
“Anytime there’s an open seat, it’s a good
time for the voters,” Sigerson said. “But only the
best-financed and well-known candidates have a
chance.”
State Democratic leaders said they are look
ing forward to the election as well.
Class examines homework, jamilies
HOMEWORK from page 1
Most of the students in his class
will become teachers, he said, and
teachers should be experienced with
research.
“I think it’s very important to teach
teachers how to be investigators, how
to be researchers,” he said.
Marissa Stephen, a sophomore
pre-architecture major, said though the
class sometimes focused too much on
specific areas of interest, she liked the
idea of doing research.
“That’s really why I like it,”
Stephen said. “We get to actually expe
rience it instead of just hearing about
how this is a research university. We
get to get our hands on it.”
The five-students in the class had
varied experiences with homework
when they were in seventh grade, but
they all said they thought they’d benefit
from going through the research
process.
Gwen Sterup, a sophomore speech
pathology major, said doing a research
project of this magnitude has made
research less intimidating.
“It’s a lot of work, and you realize
that, but it’s not scary,” Sterup said.
“It’s not threatening.”
Katie Hart, a sophomore Spanish
education major, said it made her
appreciate how much work goes into
research that appears in journals.
“This class has a lot of outside
work,” she said.
Kiewra said the project has given
students a chance to see what is
involved in real research.
“Anytime you do research, there’s
usually a lot of work, a lot of things
behind the scenes that you don’t see,”
he said.
The class participants hope to send
out questionnaires within the next few
weeks, but that won’t be the end of
their work. They will still have to ana
lyze the results and get started on
research planned for later in the semes
ter, Kiewra said.
The class will be looking at three
other areas of education.
Kiewra said the class will look at
whether classrooms divided by open
partitions distract students.
Also, the class plans to examine
whether professors at UNL are teach
ing how to learn better - how to take
notes and become better readers, for
example.
Finally, the class will look at
whether gifted programs take into
account the idea of multiple intelli
gences, which deals with intelligence
in different areas, such as verbal, math
or bodily kinetic intelligence.
Kiewra said he and the class are
making sure they’re prepared for each
topic they’re studying.
“In all those cases, we’re reading,”
he said. “We’re reading about the areas
of homework and intelligence and
attention.”
He’s also had experts in the fields
of multiple intelligence, attention and
research methods speak to the stu
dents.
Kiewra said he thought homework
could benefit middle-school students
under the right circumstances.
“I look at homework as a great
opportunity to teach students how to
learn,” he said.
On the other hand, he wants to find
out if too much homework could be
harming students’ development over
all.
The class also hopes to discover
whether parents communicate with
teachers about homework.
“If parents and schools are not talk
ing about homework, which really is a
clear link between school and home,
that would really be interesting,”
Kiewra said.
Through it all, maintaining objec
tivity is extremely important when
doing research, he said. For that rea
son, he was reluctant to give any pre
dictions.
“We’re going to wait and see what
the data say,” Kiewra said.
“Research is always a matter of
raising a question and finding a scien
tific way to answer it,” he said.
“We want to discover some new
information about homework, but ulti
mately we want to do things that can
enact some change.”
Police nationwide take offensive on profiling
NEW YORK (AP) - As Congress
and the states debate how to root out
racial profiling, many of the nation’s
police departments are moving ahead
on their own, requiring officers to
record the race of all drivers they stop.
From Washington state to Oregon to
Missouri to Texas, small departments
and state agencies are scrutinizing their
officers’ actions in a first step toward
gauging how widespread racial bias
among police might be.
While many police see little evi
dence of racism, they acknowledge the
fears.
“We have to deal with perception as
much as reality,” said Michigan State
Police Col. Michael Robinson on
Wednesday. “If data helps us assure
some that we are not engaged in inap
propriate behavior - and it gives us
information to discuss openly what is
occurring out there in the community -
then it’s appropriate.”
Two years ago, many police offi
cials dismissed the worries. Then there
were prominent allegations of profiling
among the New Jersey State Police and
in Florida. A Gallup poll last year found
majorities of both whites and blacks
convinced it exists.
President Clinton required federal
law-enforcement agencies to record
race and gender in all stops. Now, police
officials are moving faster than law
makers.
A year ago, no agencies were volun
tarily monitoring the skin color of those
they stopped, said John Crew, who
heads the American Civil Liberties
Union’s racial profiling project. Now,
there are well more than 100. “We can’t
keep up.”
North Carolina and Connecticut are
the only states that require police in their
states to keep track of race in their traf
fic stops. At least 18 other states are
considering similar legislation.
State police are already monitoring
stops or are taking steps to do so in
California, Washington, Ohio,
Michigan and Florida. Houston, St.
Louis, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San
Diego and several other California cities
all announced similar plans.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary
Committee sent to a floor vote a bill for
a federal study of police statistics to
investigate racial profiling.
Around the country, police are
using different methods to determine
the race of the people they stop and
question. In some cases, they guess; in
other cases, they ask. Some police want
the information to be put on driver’s
licenses so they don’t have to ask.
Some officials argue that requinng
police to check on race can create more
tension in police stops. Arlington, Va.,
Police Chief Ed Flynn said gathering
numbers won’t solve the problem.
“If the data somehow statistically
proves this is not an issue, this won’t
stop how people feel,” Flynn said. “I
think it distracts us. All it does is give us
ammunition to throw at each other and
doesn’t solve the problem.”
Instead, he said, police need to focus
on better relations with the communi
ties they protect.
On the other hand, simply banning
racial profiling doesn’t reassure long
time critics of police misbehavior.
“If it’s just an issue of perception,
let’s gather the information to see,” said
Hilary Shelton, director of the
Washington bureau of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People.
He recalled his years as a teen-ager
in SL Louis, where he said he was pulled
over every time he drove to the suburbs
to visit a girlfriend. Two decades later,
nothing has changed, he said.
“If you slow down, you’re a sus
pect,” he said. “If you speed up, you’re a
suspect. If you look at them, you’re a
suspect. If you don’t look at them,
you’re a suspect.”
"The Century's most significant musical!"
- Peter Jennings, ABC
NATIONAL TOUR
Friday & Saturday, March 17 & 18, 8pm
Saturday & Sunday, March 18 & 19, 2pm
Sunday, March 19, 7pm
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s milestone work
in musical theater has an illustrious 12-year history.
Its contemporary themes and familiar songs make this a
work of lasting presence on the American stage.
Generous support provided by Ameritas Life Insurance Corp.
Lied Center for Performing Arts
Lincoln, NE
Tickets: 472-4747 or
1-800-432 3231
Box Office: 11:00am-5:30pm M-F
TEN YEARS Website: www.unl.edu/lied/
-IT 1 "I Lied Center programming is supported by the Friends of lied andtyanls from the National Endowment far 8» Arts,
lNeOraSKa Md-AmencaAitsAlhanceandtheNebraskaArtsCoureiL All events are made possible by the Lied Performance
univmrrT e, ami - uncooi Fund which has been established in memory of Ernst F. Lied and his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied.
n University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution.
Find out wbat’s going down in your crib:
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