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From plus to minus
Resolution may change current grading system
I Sharon Kolbet/DN
Members of the American Legion Post #3 Firing Squad watch balloons fill the sky over Wyuka Cemetery, 3600 0 St. The balloon
release was part of the Veteran's Day program held Saturday afternoon. Nebraska Lt Gov. David Maurstad and WWII veteran Vem
O'Neal spoke at the annual veterans recognition ceremony.
“Once I start shooting, the people get a kick out of it. That’s
enough of a buzz. Their excitement’s kind of infectious.”
Conrad Good, Memorial Stadium hot dog man
Hot dog top dog stadium star
BY VERONICA DAEHN
Shouts wafted through
Memorial Stadium a week ago
Saturday as Conrad Good aimed
his gun at the thousands of
Husker fans hungrily waiting in
the stands.
“Hey, hot dog man - shoot
me the meat!”
Pop - and the hot dog went
flying.
There was a small scuffle for
the catch and then cheers and
high-five’s for the victor.
Minutes later, Good loaded
up again, ready to feed the next
fan.
For the past four years, this
has been Good’s Husker game
day routine, flinging Memorial
Stadium’s Big Red Fairbury
Brand hot dogs through the air
again and again.
For most, he’s sideline enter
tainment.
Good, 6-foot-6-inches tall,
wears a white laboratory coat as
he paces the sidelines. His gun,
Der Viener Schlinger, has been
redesigned since its initial pur
chase four years ago and can
now shoot high enough to soar
over the stadium’s sky boxes.
"It’s fun," said Good, who
admits he doesn't prepare much
for the routine anymore.
It isn’t needed, he said.
“Once I start shooting, the
people get a kick out of it,” Good
said. “That’s enough of a buzz.
Their excitement’s kind of infec
tious."
There are always fans yelling
to be hit with the meat. But aim
ing the gun isn’t the easiest thing
to do. It’s hard to pinpoint an
exact target, Good said.
The Husker football pro
grams used to have bull’s-eye
targets printed in them for fans
to hold up to the hot-dog shoot
er.
Those were fairly easy to hit,
Good said.
Now, a child sitting atop a
parent’s shoulders or various
homemade targets are easy to
aim at. But Good said he doesn't
pick specific targets - he just lets
the dogs go.
“It’s non-stop yelling at me,”
he said. “There’s usually enough
excitement (to not have to
aim).”
Please see HOTDOG on 3
BY MARGARET BEHM
A resolution will hit the stu
dent senate floor Wednesday
that will recommend a change
to the university’s grading sys
tem.
Currently, the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln has a plus
only grading system. This
means professors may give stu
dents either just a letter grade or
a letter grade with a plus sign
attached.
The resolution recommends
a system that would allow a let
ter grade, a letter grade with a
plus or a letter grade with a
minus to be assigned. This new
scale would not affect past or
present grades.
The recommendation
would go to the Academic
Senate.
Miles Bryant, president
elect of the Academic Senate,
said he would be in favor of the
change to the grading system.
“I would prefer to have a
minus,” said Bryant, an associ
ate professor of educational
administration. “I would prefer
greater flexibility when evaluat
ing a student’s work. I have
never understood why we have
the current system.”
Wayne Mortensen, Honors
Advisory Board secretary, said
he is against the proposed grade
change because students could
have an A- grade, which would
result in a grade point average
below a 4.0.
“I think it's misleading,” said
Mortensen a sophomore archi
tecture major. “Usually a num
ber correlates with a letter.
People can say they have an A
GPA, but actually it's a B+ GPA.”
If the proposed system went
into effect, professors would
have more freedom when deter
mining a student's grade, said
Graduate Sen. Vicki Geiser.
“It gives them a broader
variety of choices for the distri
bution of grades,” said Geiser,
Communications Chairwoman
forASUN.
Engineering and Technology
Sen. Kourtney Mueller, who
proposed the resolution, said
the grading scale change is nec
essary to keep the university
inline with other universities.
“To be honest, I have yet to
find a school with a plus-only
system,” said Mueller, academic
committee chairwoman.
“Hopefully this will streamline
us with our peer institutions.”
The only peer institution of
the university that does not
have the proposed grading scale
is Purdue, which doesn’t use
pluses or minuses.
Mortensen said that just
because other colleges have
implemented the plus and
_-A new scale
ASUN is proposing a new
grading scale which would
add pluses and minuses and
change the corresponding
point values.
proposed
Plus/
Current minus
grading grading
scale scale
A+ 4.00 A+ 4.00
A 4.00 A 4.00
A- 3.67
B+ 3.50 B+ 3.33
B 3.00 B 3.00
B- 2.67
C+ 2.50 C+ 2.33
C 2.00 C 2.00
C- 1.67
F 0.00 J F 0.00
Melanie Falk/DN
minus grade system doesn't
mean UNL should.
“It took me a while to get
used to the grading system at
this university,” he said. “Now
that I am used to it, I see the
Please see GRADES on 3
Barry acquitted in killing
■The suspect in the 1999 stabbing of Janies
Allen was released Friday after the jury came
back with a verdict of not guilty.
BY JOSH FUNK
After a year and a half languishing in county jail
accused of murder, Larry Barry was acquitted by a
jury Friday.
The jury took about three hours to return its ver
dict in the March 1999 murder of James Allen on a
day when the rest of the court building was quiet in
observance ofVeteran’s Day.
Just before the jury was released from the court
room, Barry leapt to His feet and thanked the jurors.
“Thankyou very much. I did not kill James Allen,
and I appreciate the decision you made here,” Barry
said. Lancaster County District Judge Karen Flowers
had made arrangements for Barry to be released
Friday even though it was a court holiday.
Two other people, Larry Welch, 46, and Jennifer
Irwin, 21, who are charged as accessories to the
murder, are slated for trial late this month or next.
In his closing argument, Barry’s attorney, Jeff
Pickens, questioned whether Barry should have
ever been charged for the killing because police
failed to link Barry directly to the crime.
"It scares the hell out of me that a jury might
convict someone on this evidence,” Pickens said.
Special Prosecutor Sean Brennan’s case relied
on the testimony of inmate inibrmants, transients
and an alcoholic, who was recovering from a drink
ing binge at the time of the murder and police inter
rogation.
Although Brennan could place Barry at the
scene of the murder, he did not have any forensic
evidence linking Barry to the crime.
“It was not a slam dunk for sure. It was a case
tha£ needed to go to trial and it did,” said Brennan,
who was appointed prosecutor because the County
Attorney’s office had a conflict of interest
Allen, 38, was found dead in his 1635 F St apart
ment March 21,1999 lying face down with two
knives sticking out of his back. Allen had been
stabbed a total of seven times.
Barry, 40, had been at Allen’s apartment drink
ing on the day of the murder along with Irwin,
Welch and several other people.
At the time, Barry and Irwin were living in
Barry's van. The other people at Allen’s apartment
that day were also transients, according to court
documents.
Police had alleged that Barry returned to Allen's
apartment the night of the murder to steal $500, and
a fight erupted that escalated to the stabbing.
At trial, Pickens argued that if someone had
gone to Allen's apartment to steal, they would have
taken one of the computers or the television in the
living room.
Before he was stabbed, Allen was beaten over
the head with a wooden guitar and a small vacuum
Please see BARRY on 3
unjiioy rnuw
Conrad Good uses the famous Der Viener Sdilinger to shoot a
hot dog in front of the Nebraska Union before a home game. It
was invented in 1996 by Marc Roode, director of marketing for
Roode Packing Company, which makes Fairbury hot dogs.
Flu season
calls for shots
BY MARGARET BEHM
Ahhh-chew! Cough! Sniffle-sniffle.
Flu season has arrived, and it’s time for that year
tyflushoL But the vaccine is currently unavailable to
most of us.
The University Health Center is experiencing
what medical centers around the country are - a
shortage of the flu vaccine.
Because one of the nation’s top producers of the
vaccine, Wyeth-Ayers Laboratories, is behind in the
manufacturing of the vaccine, the Health Center has
a limited supply, said Dr. Joseph Hermsen, a physi
cian at the University Health Center.
The Food and Drug Administration made the
company change the way it manufactured the vac
cine, which caused the company to get behind,
Hermsen said.
The Health Center is still awaiting the arrival of
more flu vaccinations, said Jennifer Snyder, the
Health Center’s marketing coordinator.
Please see FLU on 5
•z- V