Friday
September 29,2000
Volume 100
Issue 30
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
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Abel residents answer the Daily
Nebraskan editorial regarding
the hall’s Allies safe space label
In Opinion/4
A dance ensemble bares
its Ukrainian soul tonight
at the Lied Center
In Arts/5
Four Nebraska plays not
involving Matt Davison
that changed the course
of Husker history
In Sports/10
Freshman music
major Thomas
Pullen drinks
the free soda
police gave to
him during the
Mall Stop 2000.
During the
event Lincoln
police officers
gave away buf
falo wings and
soda to promote
safe drinking
habits.
David Gasen/DN
Stop fills bargoers'stomachs
■ Police, bars and NU Directions warm up
to students with free soda, buffalo wings
and tips on responsible drinking.
BY JOSH FUNK
Lincoln Police and the downtown bars
chipped in Thursday to buy the first 1,000
people they saw a round of drinks - soda that
is.
In an effort to improve student-police
relations and teach students how to drink
responsibly, police, the bars and NU
Directions gave out buffalo wings, informa
tion and cups good for free soda at any partic
ipating bar.
Although some of the students who hap
pened by Centennial Mall and R Street when
the program started at 9:30 p.m. may have
been warded off by the bright television lights
from local news outlets, most found their way
to the free food.
"As long as it reaches enough people, it’s
an outstanding, innovative program," said
Sean Sutherland, a junior forestry, fisheries
and wildlife and agronomy major. “It would
be better if it was more downtown.”
NU Directions was founded in 1998 with a
$700,000 grant from the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation to reduce high-risk
drinking on campus.
That does not mean the group is against
drinking, NU Directions Communications
Director Tom Workman said. It just wants stu
dents to drink responsibly.
That message was clear in some of the tips
NU Directions pasted on the side of the free
cups. Organizers tried to change UNL stu
dents’ attitudes toward drinking by introduc
ing some issues with tips on the cup.
One such tip advised students to “drink
better brands and slow down to enjoy them.
There’s no rush to finish quickly.”
The free cups were designed to introduce
the idea of spacing to help students slow their
drinking with soda between drinks.
“We thought the best way to do that was to
use the magic word in college: free,”
Workman said.
By the time the television lights were shut
off at 10:30 p.m., students were seen joking
7 think it’s a cool idea. It lets us
see police and see their good
side. ”
Justin Wilberding
junior biology major
with the Lincoln Police officers handing out
wings, which was one of the night’s main
goals.
“It’s a chance for the average student to
visit with an officer at a time when they are
not being contacted” by an officer for violat
ing the law, Lincoln Police Capt. Joy Citta said.
Students said they liked meeting the offi
cers when they weren’t being suspected of or
cited for anything.
“I think it’s a cool idea,” said junior biolo
gy major Justin Wilberding. “It lets us see
police and see their good side.”
Some students said they just stumbled on
Please see BEER on 7
Spade to
bring act
to campus
BY JILLZEMAN
During this year’s
Homecoming week, students can
expect to hear more than the
rousing phrase, “There is no place
like Nebraska,” repeated over and
over again.
Rather, they will be able to
hear comedian David Spade
make jokes about pretty much
anything - maybe even Nebraska
football.
Spade is scheduled to appear
Nov. 2 at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center for the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln’s homecoming
festivities.
Hie Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska, the
University Program Council and
the Athletic Department are
bringing the comedian to cam
pus, said Jill Braband, ASUN
Homecoming Committee co
chairwoman.
Spade's appearance is made
possible through fund-raisers,
grants and corporate sponsor
ships, she said.
Braband said she thought
Spade’s performance would be
popular with students.
“He's a popular figure and
appeals to a variety of people,”
she said.
Homecoming organizers
wanted to bring a major enter
tainer to continue the week’s
Thursday night tailgate tradition,
said Joel Schafer, ASUN president.
“We wanted to make
Thursday night a big event,” he
said.
The night also will incorpo
rate the football team, with
coaches and players scheduled to
speak, he said.
Schafer said he thought the
event would be popular with stu
dents.
“Students want more enter
tainment brought to campus,” he
said.
Because Sp^de, who
Please see SPADE on 7
JoshWolfe/DN
Jesse James, 6, cools off at the drinking fountain next to Park Middle School Tuesday night. Jesse and a few neighborhood friends
had been playing basketball most of the evening.
Teacher-salary plan
laid out by group
BY GEORGE GREEN
A teacher-salary task force
selected to investigate teacher
pay presented its proposals to a
Legislative committee
Thursday, but it didn’t propose
specific ways to pay for them.
Members of the Education
Committee said they were com
mitted to raising teacher pay
despite a $32 million state
budget shortfall and Gov. Mike
Johanns’ pledge to not increase
taxes.
Sen. Ardyce Bohlke, chair
woman of the Education
Committee and a task-force
member, presented the group’s
findings and highlighted the
report’s nine major proposals.
The Teacher Salary Task
Force was created by the
Legislature in 1999 to study
teacher-pay problems in
Nebraska.
A $180 million price tag for
the plan overshadowed the
committee’s presentation.
"The proposals can not be
funded without additional rev
enues,” said Harrison Sen. Bob
Wickersham, a task-force mem
ber.
Johanns is not enthusiastic
about the proposals, said Sen.
Deborah Suttle of Omaha.
The governor, though, is not
the final word, Wickersham
said. If the governor disagrees
with the proposals, members of
the Legislature will have to find
the 30 votes necessary to over
ride a veto.
Chris Peterson, a
spokesman for the governor,
said the budget process is just
beginning, and the governor
would not comment on the pro
posals.
The report’s proposals
include:
■ Rewarding teachers
through pay bonuses based on
the number of years they’ve
taught and the amount of edu
cation completed, Bohlke said.
■ Evaluating teacher per
formance and paying bonuses
to teachers who excel in the
classroom, she said.
Before statewide implemen
tation of the bonus program, the
group wants to create pilot pro
grams in five school districts to
establish specific teacher-eval
uation criteria and an unbiased
assessment committee, she
said.
■ Providing teachers five
additional contract work days
each year, Bohlke said.
■ Expanding mentoring
programs for new teachers to
include all first-, second- and
third- year teachers, she said.
Despite the high price tag
for implementing the propos
als, Wickersham said a variety of
options are available to fund
them.
When the committee inter
viewed people in Nebraska
communities about financing
the programs, they suggested
raising sales and income taxes
but opposed raising property
taxes, Bohlke said.
Last year, the Legislature
lowered the property-tax levy
from $1.10 to $1 in response to
public pressure.
The 20-member task force,
which is composed of govern
ment officials, businesspeople
and school teachers and admin
istrators, will sponsor town-hall
meetings in each congressional
district to gauge public reaction
to the proposals, Bohlke said.
Problems with teacher pay
prompted the Legislature to
form the task force, Bohlke said.
According to the report,
from 1998 to 1999, Nebraska
paid teachers an average salary
of $32,880, ranking it 43rd in the
nation.
Nebraska also will replace
half of its teaching staff in the
next 10 years, which means it
needs to attract new, competent
teachers, said Jim Griess, a task
force member from the
Nebraska State Education
Association.
“This is our opportunity to
grow quality teachers,” he said.
High school students break out of traditional mode at Zoo School
BY VERONICA DAEHN
It was the middle of a student gov
ernment meeting at this focus school,
and ideas were flying.
The voices of nearly 20 high school
students mixed and played over each
other, fighting to be heard.
They talked about respecting the
animals and the computer labs. Some
mentioned the idea of a school ski trip.
The enthusiasm was overflowing.
The room was a bit like a zoo.
But perhaps that should be expect
ed.
More than 70 Lincoln Public
School high school students this year
attend classes at Zoo School, a science
focus program at Folsom Children’s
Zoo, 1222 S. 27th St.
And the cacophony of this day was
not unusual.
Michelle Guittar, a senior from
Lincoln Northeast, said at Zoo School,
everyone knows each other. It’s her
second year at the school.
They talk so much because every
one gets along.
Kristen Pudenz said there weren’t
any cliques like there were in Lincoln’s
public high school buildings.
"People here don’t seem to form
those boundaries,” said Pudenz, a
Lincoln High sophomore in her first
year at Zoo School.
But those were just a few of the rea
sons students at Zoo School said they
liked their out-of-the-ordinary learn
ing atmosphere.
It’s more relaxed and more fun at
Zoo School, students said. Teachers go
by their first names. It’s more like a
family.
Pudenz said she had been bored at
Lincoln High.
Guittar said she had wanted a new
challenge, a new atmosphere.
“I was too comfortable at the high
school,” she said. "I wanted to make a
change and see if I could do some
thing else.”
Students have to apply to attend
Please see ZOO on 7
Mackenzie
Mueller, a senior
at the Zoo
School, stuffs
vitamins into
fish that would
be fed to seals.
Mueller works
with the
zookeepers as
part of an
internship
between class
es.
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