Couple donates
professorship
to UNL college
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
A donation by a New York couple
will make a top department at UNL
world-class, according to university
officials.
The University of Nebraska
Foundation announced this week that
the Department of Textiles, Clothing
and Design will receive the gift of a
professorship from Ardis and Robert
James of Chappaqua, N. Y.
Ardis James will speak tonight at
6 at an opening reception for an exhib
it of quilts opening at the International
Quilt Study Center and University of
Nebraska State Museum.
The Ardis James Professorship in
Textiles, Clothing and Design will be
funded by the same couple that donat
ed 950 quilts to the university in 1997,
making UNL home to the largest pub
licly held quilt collection in the world,
said Patricia Crews, chairwoman of
the department.
Crews said the college hopes to
recruit a scholar who is an expert in
textile design and quilt history to
build studies of the two at UNL.
Recruiting a scholar of national
prominence will help the department
build on its textile history and design
strengths.
“We’re thrilled at the prospect of
being able to advertise for someone
who is already known in their own
right to create for us a niche in this
area,” Crews said.
io UNL. Chancellor James Moeser
said in a statement that the professor
ship would help the program gain top
status.
“We are closer to completing our
vision of a world-class international
center for the study of quilts, textiles
and associated arts," he said.
James, a Nebraska native, and her
husband began collecting quilts in the
mid-1980s, pursuing a whim to col
lect something other people didn’t.
“When they bought their first
quilt, they had no idea it would lead
where it has today,” Crews said.
Ten years later, the Jameses
owned more than a thousand quilts.
Seeing quilts and textiles as a
“lens on society,” the couple donated
the quilts to the university to support
the study of them, Crews said.
The collection is worth an esti
mated $6 million. It has antique quilts
dating from 1790 to 1992. They are
from the United States, Europe and
Japan.
The addition of a professorship
comes at a time when die department
and the International Quilt Study cen
ter is flourishing, said Rita Kean,
interim dean for the college of human
resources and family sciences.
Since 1997, 10,000 visitors from
around the world have visited the quilt
studies center.
The department just recruited
world-renowned textile designer
Michael James to its faculty, Kean
said.
“This will bring further visibility
to the program,” she said.
In February, the department of
textiles received the universitywide
departmental teaching award.
A faculty search to fill the new
professorship won’t take place for
another three years to allow time for
the endowment to build.
But when the professorship is
filled, it will allow the department to
be more complete, Crews said.
“This will give us an opportunity
to fill a need,” she said.
Conference celebrates women
■ Two keynote speakers
star at annual No Limits
Conference this weekend.
By Margaret Behm
Staff writer
An annual conference will bring
two keynote speakers to campus this
weekend as part of the Women’s
Week celebration.
“I think it’s a really good confer
ence that’s growing every year, and I
wanted to be a part of it,” said Roxane
Gay, graduate student and conference
presenter.
The No Limits Conference,
“Feminist Visioning: Re-Imaging,
Re-creating, and Re-Telling,” will
take place today and Saturday. The
conference is free and will be on the
third floor of the Nebraska East
Union.
The conference is for everyone,
and it will address important
women’s issues, said Tagi Adams,
graduate research assistant for the
Women’s Studies Program.
M It offers a lot of diversity and a lot of
different viewpoints that you don’t
normally hear.”
Roxane Gay
conference presenter
The conference speakers will be
Larry Kirkwood and Nomy Lamm.
Larry Kirkwood will speak dur
ing a luncheon on Friday at 11:45
a.m. in the Nebraska East Union. His
speech is titled “Beauty is a Relative
Concept.”
People who want to eat during the
luncheon must pay $7.50.
Nomy Lamm will speak at 9 a.m.
on Saturday. Her speech “New
Directions for Feminist
Communities,” will address trans
gender issues.
Various speakers will be present
ing from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. today and
9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“It offers a lot of diversity and a
lot of different viewpoints that you
don’t normally hear,” Gay said.
People wanting to attend the con
ference must register first. Pre-regis
tration begins at 8:30 a.m. on both
days.
Gay said that she recommends
everyone attend the conference to get
some perspective on women in histo
ry and how that affects society today.
“I hope that people walk away
with a greater understanding of
women’s roles historically and the
context of those roles,” she said.
check out more news on:
AOL executive says industry
can ensure competition itself
WASHINGTON (AP) - A year
after urging government action to
ensure competition on high-speed
Internet lines, America Online execu
tive Steve Case told senators
Thursday he believed the industry,
including a combined AOL-Time
Warner, could do the job itself.
In the second Capitol Hill hearing
this week about the company’s $133
billion merger, Case said he remains
committed to giving consumers a
choice of providers for the next gen
eration of super-fast Web connec
tions.
He said that fact is unchanged by
his plan to acquire Time Warner,
which gives AOL a network of high
speed cable pipes to deliver Internet
service.
Last year, AOL pressed the same
committee to ensure other cable oper
ators offering Internet service would
open their lines to competing
providers. The Federal
Communications Commission and
lawmakers chose not to step in, and in
the meantime the market has started
to address those issues, Case said.
AOL and Time Warner promised
this week to open up cable television
lines to other Internet service
providers. Some senators questioned
Thursday whether that pledge would
hold without any binding agreement.
“You could make a determination
to change it,” said Sen. Richard
Bryan, D-Nev.
Giuliani says latest police controversy different
NEW YORK (AP) - The morning
after an undercover officer shot a man to
death in the Bronx neighborhood where
Amadou Diallo was killed, Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani on Thursday called it
a completely different situation, even
though both cases involved unarmed
victims.
Authorities described the man who
was shot Wednesday night, Malcolm
Ferguson, as a career criminal with
arrests for robbery, burglary, heroin traf
ficking, gun possession and resisting
arrest. Diallo had no record.
At the time of Ferguson’s death, he
was on parole for a heroin-selling con
viction.
“He’d been arrested several times
while on parole but somehow was never
put back in prison, which is where peo
ple who violate parole should go,”
Giuliani said.
Ferguson also fled after being
stopped by officers, police said.
“They had their shields out, and
they, in fact, said, ‘Police officers, don’t
move,”’ Police Commissioner Howard
Safir said.
At that point, Ferguson ran, and
Officer Louis Rivera, a four-year veter
an, gave chase.
“It appears that at some point a
struggle took place, and the police offi
cer’s gun went off,” Giuliani said. “We
don’t know if it was accidental or inten
tional - intentional meaning as part of
the struggle in protecting his life.”
Police said they found several
envelopes of heroin on Ferguson’s body.
Ferguson’s mother, Juanita Young,
said that her son had problems but was
moving forward with his life.
“We were straightening him out. He
was not a bad kid,” Young told WCBS
TV
“What they say about him is a lie.
It’s a stone, bare-faced lie. They abused
Chris Hondros/Newsmakers
NEW YORK CITY Police Commissioner Howard Safir listens Thursday as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks to 1,500
new NYPD recruits at Queens College in New York. Giuliani’s address comes amid brutality controversies involving
the police force.
him, and they killed him.”
The Ferguson shooting, which
brought about 100 angry protesters to
the neighborhood Wednesday night,
came at a particularly tense time in
police-community relations.
I^ast week, an Albany jury acquitted
four white undercover officers for firing
41 times at Diallo in the vestibule of his
Bronx apartment building, and a
Brooklyn jury is considering the fate of
three officers charged with concealing
the police torture of Abner Louima.
On Thursday, the Rev. A1 Sharpton
and Diallo’s parents met with Justice
Department officials in Washington to
try to persuade the federal government
to pursue civil rights chaises against the
four officers.
During the meeting, protesters
marched outside to demand federal
action.
And a nationwide Harris Poll
released Thursday found that 76 percent
of black Americans and 45 percent of
whites believe police brutality against
minorities is relatively common.
The Bronx district attorney’s office
is investigating the latest police shoot
ing.
Club
815 O Street
2 476-8802
Dance Floors with
The Music You Want to Hear.
Salsa Techno
Club Mix e Hip Hop
Merengue House
Cumbia High Energy
Ranchera Raggae
WED FRI SAT
-18 and Over
Must Have I.D.
Every Thursday, Friday and
Saturday night
11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.
Must present NU student ID
HOW TO USE
MU OM WHEELS:
1) Call 475-RIDE.
2) Give your name, pick-up
location and exact
home address.
3) Wait at pick-up location.
Be watching for yoUr taxi!
4) Show your NU student ID to
the taxi driver. Your NU
student ID is required!
5) Tips are appreciated!
- \ ' 1 * *
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
E-mail NU on Wheels at:
nuonwheels@unl.edu
or call 472-7440
J^iU A program of Project CARE »nd lh* Uniwreity H«Hh
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