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Friday, March 31,2000 dailyneb.com Vol 99, Issue 130
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ASUN PRESIDENT Joel Schafer hugs his girlfriend Christina Rlesselman, right, and his sister Sarah Morgan, while ASUN flrst vice presi
dent Riley Peterson hugs his sister, Sunny Peterson, at Crane River after they won the run-off March 8.
A-Team didn’t expect victory
Editor's note: This is the final story in a
weeklong series taking a closer look at the
2000ASUN Elections.
By Kimberly Sweet
Staffwriter
Some might say Joel Schafer is no politi
cian.
For many students who went to the polls on
run-off election day, dial was A-Team’s draw.
With no senatorial candidates or ASUN
experience, Schafer seemed like the candidate
for the disenchanted.
He didn’t hail from a greek house.
He was unfamiliar with the ASUN and the
administrative power structure.
He didn’t have an action plan.
He and running mates Riley Peterson and
Joel Webber entered the student government
election along with other third-party candidates
who were expected to disappear a few weeks
into the campaign.
But A-Team didn’t disappear. Its popularity
soared during the last week of the campaign
and the week before the run-off, thanks to two
key ingredients: money and media.
For not being the conventional ASUN
politicians, the A-Team found success in get
ting its message out in a politically convention
al way.
Schafer admitted that even he and his run
ning mates didn’t think they’d be viable in the
election until Super Bowl Sunday, when cam
paign manager Hal Hansen came on the scene.
It was Hansen, a UNL student who took a
year off to work on 1998 Democratic Nebraska
gubernatorial candidate Bill Hoppner’s cam
paign, who came up with a strategy that would
give the A-Team a chance.
“A lot of what our campaign did was intro
duce principles commonly accepted in politics
and brought them on campus,” Hansen said on
victory night, when asked how the campaign
had realized last-minute success.
“We put a lot of emphasis on raising money
Please see A-TEAM on 7
Johanns
concerned
by state
spending
Governor vetoes many
university proposals
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
Gov. Mike Johanns on Thursday approved a bill
that would give an extra $ 1 million to a state minority
scholarship program.
But that’s about all the help the university will see.
Johanns issued the first round of his budget vetoes
Thursday.
A bill introduced by Sen. La Von Crosby of Lincoln
would have given Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery $3.6
million over the next three years for renovations.
Johanns vetoed the bill saying it didn’t fit into the
state’s budget this year.
“The issue doesn’t go away; I understand that,”
Johanns said. “But I’m emphasizing the need to bring
about fiscal stability.”
In an attempt to balance the budget, Johanns
vetoed $8.8 million from the current two-year budget.
Projected state spending is now down $18.7 mil
lion over the next four years.
This action reduced a projected budget deficit
from $50 million at the end of the next biennium to $32
million.
Johanns said he was concerned the state was
spending too much.
“It’s time to stop,” he said. “I strongly believe that
the state should not have to start building its next budg
et digging out of a $50 million hole or even a $32 mil
lion hole.”
Crosby said she was “disturbed” with the gover
nor’s veto of her bill that would have given money to
the Sheldon.
The senator said she will make a motion for an
override Monday.
Crosby’s bill will need 30 votes from the floor to
override Johanns’ veto.
“We’ll have to start over again next year,” Crosby
said, if Johanns’ veto stands. “I’m hoping we get the
Please see VETOES on 6
Passion, skills lead to professor’s award
Editor’s Note: This is the second
in a weekly series of question-and
answer sessions with the recipients of
the university wide awards for teach
ing, research and creative activity.
Today, we visit with Ross Thompson,
winner of the Outstanding Research
and Creativity Award.
ByJohnHejkal
Staff writer
Ross Thompson, professor of
psychology at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, takes an unusual
approach to his research.
He tries to look through the eyes
of those he studies - and he’s excited
about what he sees.
His enthusiasm for research and
teaching has made him winner of the
Outstanding Research and Creativity
Award for the University of Nebraska
system.
QWhat are your main
■ research interests?
A I’m a developmental psy
chologist. Developmental
■ psychologists study devel
opment throughout life.
I’m particularly interested in how
children form close relationships with
^^^^^^^^_adults and the
■influence of those
■relationships on
(children's person
ality and how they
■learn to think
(about themselves.
I try to take the
(research that I and
, | | ■others do on close
■relationships of
Thompson children and try to
communicate to
policy makers what this means.
The policy makers I try to com
municate with are ones who are con
cerned about divorce and child cus
tody, what happens when parents
divorce and policy makers who are
concerned about abuse and neglect,
and even things like grandparent visi
tation rights.
Each of these are areas that are
relevant to the relationships that chil
dren are forming with the people that
are close to them.
Q this is a research and
creative activity award.
H How do you incorporate
creativity into your
research?
Alt has to do with the topics
that I study. I try to imagine
• what it’s like to be a 3-year
old, a 3-year-old trying to
understand who they are and begin
ning to understand what other people
are like, and really, really wanting to
understand the world.
That’s a typical 3-year-old, and,
boy, that’s hard, because you and I and
other adults are so accustomed to our
ways of thinking.
But that’s where a lot of the cre
ativity comes from because that’s
what I’m trying to understand.
QHow do you implement
your research into your
teaching?
Ain at least two ways. I talk
about the research I do in
■ class, and that’s kind of the
specific way. Students
often hear about this work in the
course of a lecture on child develop
ment.
I think that the other way I try to
include it in my teaching is that I hope
Please see RESEARCH on 6
Sex offender
list released
by Patrol
By Michelle Starr
Staffwriter
Simply type m a zip code and up pops
a list of sex offenders in that area.
1 The Nebraska State Patrol released a
list available on the World Wide Web on
Thursday of what they have determined
are the most dangerous sex offenders in
die state.
Sex offenders are split into three cate
gories, Level HI being die most dangerous
and possible re-offenders.
Of the 900 registered sex offenders in
the state, 125 have been classified, and 10
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Please see OFFENDER on 6
